Methodology
According to the Lebanese Hospital Syndicate web site, the total number of hospital in Lebanon is 161. They are categorized according to their profit orientation: for-profit, non-profit and governmental hospitals. The methodology adopted is interpretive primary research (Gephart, 2004), involving in-depth interviews with key healthcare officials, to unearth collective frames of reference, or construed realities that guide the attribution of meaning, and help account for their understanding and applications of various CG and CSR principles.
The use of a common set of questions makes it easier to compare the viewpoints of different interviewees on relevant issues pertaining to CG and CSR practices. Different hospitals were contacted to cover all of the Lebanese territory. Some interview questions gathered factual data while others allowed room for personal reflection and interpretation. In-depth interviews were based on a semi-structured questionnaire that involved both scaled, closed questions that were pre-coded, and some open-ended questions, to gauge interview opinions and perspectives on relevant matters. A total of 35 hospitals, covering the whole of Lebanon, were contacted for appointments. Appointments were made with key executives of the 21 hospitals agreeing to take part. Of these, nine interviews performed were with the general director of the hospital or the CEO, the rest being with senior executives who had a thorough knowledge of the hospital and the intricacies of its governance and operations.
Questions were grouped into five sections:
1. general information about the hospital;
2. business structure of the hospital;
3. structure of the board of directors and governance dynamics;
4. accountability to customers, shareholders and stakeholders; and
5. corporate social responsibility.
The hospitals sampled represent those coming under the two identified profit orientations, and are dispersed over all Lebanon. Due to the limited number of hospitals willing to respond, and the nature of the study, the size of a hospital and its operations were not considered as determining factors in the simple selection. It is worth noting that a potential problem of selection bias may arise here, since firms with better governance practices might be more willing than other to respond to the survey and agree to be interviewed (Nam and Nam, 2004)