The next great explorers: only the bravest, most skilled leaders will discover health care's new world.

As with health care, the CEO role is undergoing a transformation. New skill sets will be needed.

Turbulence ahead. How to navigate executive compensation in an economic downturn.

Rewarding high-performing executives is essential but politically dicey during a recession. Here's how boards can make sound decisions--and defend them.

Compensation teams and corporate health.

Finance: Executive leadership teams are an excellent way for the CEO, the board and other hospital leaders to coordinate their efforts.

What makes a great board chair?

The chair creates the climate of the board--and great ones can make virtually every aspect of their organization better.

Looking for answers. Boards struggle to find the proper way to compensate executives.

Boards are facing tough choices on executive compensation: Does their compensation package reward the right things? Is it too high or too low? The 2003 annual Hay Compensation Report gives boards the comparative data they need to help make the right choices.

Delicate balance: 2003 salary survey.

Hospital boards are exercising more scrutiny than ever on executive pay, at a time when the disparity between salaries in health care and general industry has finally disappeared.

2002 Executive Compensation Survey. Can money buy happiness?

Executive Compensation Survey shows that health care salaries are going up and job satisfaction is going down. What can boards do?

Big raises all around. Is everybody happy?

The latest numbers on salaries and bonuses are in from the Hay Group, and it's good news from a compensation standpoint: pay for everyone, from executives to nurses, is going up. But satisfaction on the job remains low and the workforce shortage is severe, leading to the question: does more pay make everybody happy? If not, why not?

Compare and contrast: 2001 executive salary survey.

According to the Hay Group, salary increases for non-CEO hospital execs have outpaced those for CEOs. The authors speculate that this trend represents a new respect for middle managers.

2001 salary survey.

Boards are coming to respect how challenging it is to run a hospital, and increasingly view it as too big a job for one person. In our annual compensation survey report, Hay Group analysts assert that lower-level executives, senior managers and even middle managers have seen their stock rise in health care organizations, and that's reflected in the pay structure. Even so, CEOs aren't exactly struggling--but their total compensation still lags behind that of their counterparts in other industries.

1999 salary survey. Is this the future of your bonus?

As pay trends go, one executive's bonus can be another's bane. Asked what they like about their compensation programs, health care execs and trustees say they're satisfied with the base salaries paid to their top people, but not with their bonus plans, especially for meeting long-term goals like stronger credit ratings and asset positions.

Banking on bonuses.

Performance incentives cover a wider--and deeper--swath of health care than ever, according to the latest Hay Group surveys. Yet it's clear that most organizations are homegrowing compensation strategies that blend base and incentive pay into a cohesive package.