Diagnosing culture in health‐care organizations using critical incidents
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance
ISSN: 0952-6862
Article publication date: 1 July 2003
Abstract
The critical incident technique (CIT) provides a means to produce rich cultural information from organizational members in an effort to describe the organization’s culture. Very few published studies have used CIT to diagnose culture. In combination with other methods, CIT can be an integral element of a larger study of an organization’s culture. In this study, CIT was used in a US acute care hospital that had recently occupied a new $181 million replacement hospital having an emphasis on patient‐centered care and a healing environment. Individual CIT “stories” supplied rich detail about the hospital’s culture, providing opportunities to communicate how people behave with respect to the culture. Consequently, CIT results provide specific information on what people do that supports the culture and what they do that works against the culture.
Keywords
Citation
Mallak, L.A., Lyth, D.M., Olson, S.D., Ulshafer, S.M. and Sardone, F.J. (2003), "Diagnosing culture in health‐care organizations using critical incidents", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 180-190. https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860310479668
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited