“What’s in a Name?”

This query from Shakespeare raises an important question for hospitals as they recruit leaders for transplant.

Accuracy is often lacking in the hospital’s taxonomy of management titles.  Titles often reflect an excessive preoccupation with “internal equity” in titling jobs, so that positions may “match” for internal purposes but fall short on many other criteria.

Hospitals hobble their own search efforts by scrimping on titles.  A position may be entitled as a manager when it is truly a director or higher-level designation.  This limitation becomes obvious  as job seekers scan the field for opportunities and pass over these “under titled” positions.  The hiring organization then wonders why they receive a tepid response from the field.

So, substandard titles harm the recruiting hospital from the start.  An inaccurate representation can hamper the progress of any search.  Many positions are dismissed after one glance at the title.

Even if a title does not cripple a search, its importance is clearly recognized when a person assumes a role that has more responsibility, requires more experience but discounts the decision-making authority of the successful job candidate.

Hospitals are hierarchical organizations.  Hospitals expect transplant administrators to function at a high level and to represent the critical interests of the hospital to the professional community, to the general public and internally with a variety of high-level entities.  Rank matters and, done right, can greatly enhance the effectiveness of a transplant administrator.