Personnel management in Finnish social and health care

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine components of good personnel management and how they come true in accounts of social and health care managers.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were obtained by means of a postal survey sent to middle‐line managers in positions above the first‐line management level in the responsibility area of Tampere University Hospital. The questionnaire was sent to 703 managers; 433 sent in responses indicating a response rate of 62 percent.

Findings

Middle‐line managers considered themselves as interactive, responsibility‐sharing and understanding leaders, but found shortcomings in the leadership style of their superiors. Only 18 percent of the middle‐line managers received feedback and only 42 percent received support from their superiors when needed. There were significant differences between genders, activity sectors and professional backgrounds in the responders' accounts concerning personnel management practices.

Research implications/limitations

The results of this study reliably describe how middle‐line managers consider things to be, not necessarily how things are in reality.

Practical implications

The findings confirm the assumption that the importance of personnel management is still not perfectly understood in the upper management levels of the social and health care sector. At the same time the self‐evaluations of middle‐line managers implied an ambition towards better personnel management.

Originality/value

This study identifies components of good personnel management from literature and uses them as the basis for analysing the data.

Citation

Kokkinen, L., Konu, A. and Viitanen, E. (2007), "Personnel management in Finnish social and health care", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 184-194. https://doi.org/10.1108/17511870710764032