Expansive or limitative strategy? A case study of organisational responses to new public health
Journal of Health Organization and Management
ISSN: 1477-7266
Article publication date: 8 August 2008
Abstract
Purpose
Since the emergence of new public health in the 1970s, health has not merely been considered the absence of disease, but physical, mental and social wellbeing. This article seeks to analyzes the implications of this broad concept of health at an organizational level.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a qualitative case study of boundary drawing in a Danish municipal agency in charge of planning and conducting health promoting and disease preventing activities from 1989 to 2005. The theoretical framework draws on Niklas Luhmann's organization theory.
Findings
Two different organizational answers were found to the challenges inherent in the broad concept of new public health. First, the organization tried to increase its size and incorporate as many aspects of the environment as possible. This expansive strategy jeopardised the identity of the organization. Second, the organization tried to keep clear and tight boundaries and from this position irritate entities in the environment. This limitative strategy made the organization spend relatively more energy on organizing and controlling itself than on public health work.
Practical implications
The case study shows how a broad concept of health makes boundary management topical in organizations dealing with health promotion and disease prevention. Organizations in charge of public health activities need to reflect on how they can create intelligent compensations for the disadvantages involved in an expansive or a limitative strategy.
Originality/value
The broad concept of health inherent in new public health has been widely accepted and yet its challenges to organizational boundary drawing have attracted little attention. This paper provides an analysis of these challenges.
Keywords
Citation
Juul Nielsen, A., Knudsen, M. and Finke, K. (2008), "Expansive or limitative strategy? A case study of organisational responses to new public health", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 384-399. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777260810893971
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited