The topic:  focuses on a highly publicized case in which the Founder and CEO of the HealthSouth Corporation, Richard Scrushy, and other senior executives were indicted and or found guilty of fraudulent and systematically inflating the company’s earnings and assets by approximately $4 billion during the 1990s. The concerns associated with HealthSouth illustrate the impact that poor decision-making can have on organizational behavior and dynamics. Strong conformity pressures reflect members’ attempts to maintain harmony within the group. However, conformity may hamper a group’s performance by decreasing innovation and increasing faulty decision-making. Janis (1982) referred to this phenomenon as “groupthink”. There have been a number of editorials written on the rise and scandals associated with the HealthSouth Corporation, a Birmingham, Alabama based company that provides outpatient rehabilitation services. When publicly traded companies become embroiled in scandal and subsequently see a significant drop in the intrinsic value of its’ stock, it can literally take several years to rebuild stakeholder and shareholder confidence in the organization and its’ leadership.

Question:

The proposal should reflect higher level cognitive processing (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation), which is essential for someone being prepared to serve in an operational capacity within the healthcare and related industry. Issues related to organizational behavior and leadership, and more specifically on group dynamics.