From words to action: Visibility of management in supporting interdisciplinary team working in an acute rehabilitative geriatric hospital
Journal of Health Organization and Management
ISSN: 1477-7266
Article publication date: 2 September 2013
Abstract
Purpose
The following case study aims to explore management's, health professionals' and patients' experiences on the extent to which there is visibility of management support in achieving effective interdisciplinary team working, which is explicitly declared in the mission statement of a 60-bed acute rehabilitative geriatric hospital in Malta.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the above-mentioned key stakeholders.
Findings
Three main distinct yet interdependent themes emerged as a result of thematic analysis: “managing a team-friendly hospital”, “interdisciplinary team components”, and “interdisciplinary team processes”. The findings show that visibility of management support and its alignment with the process and content levels of interdisciplinary teamwork are key to integrated care for acute rehabilitative geriatric patients.
Research limitations/implications
The emerging phenomena may not be reproducible in a different context; although many of the emerging themes could be comfortably matched with the existing literature.
Practical implications
The implications are geared towards raising the consciousness and conscientiousness of good practice in interdisciplinary teamwork in hospitals, as well as in emphasizing organizational and management support as crucial factors for team-based organizations.
Social implications
Interdisciplinary teamwork in acute rehabilitative geriatrics provides optimal quality and integrated health care delivery with the aim that the older persons are successfully discharged back to the community.
Originality/value
The authors draw on solid theoretical frameworks – the complexity theory, team effectiveness model and the social identity theory – to support their major finding, namely the alignment of organizational and management support with intra-team factors at the process and content level.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr Gillian Symon, from the Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London for her valuable comments on an earlier version of this article. They would also like to thank the reviewers of this journal for their useful suggestions.
Citation
C. Buttigieg, S., Cassar, V. and W. Scully, J. (2013), "From words to action: Visibility of management in supporting interdisciplinary team working in an acute rehabilitative geriatric hospital", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 618-645. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-06-2012-0101
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited