Inter-occupational cooperation and boundary work in the hospital setting
Journal of Health Organization and Management
ISSN: 1477-7266
Article publication date: 26 July 2018
Issue publication date: 3 September 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to add a little piece to the research on boundary work and inter-occupational cooperation by addressing two questions: how do actors perform boundary work in an inter-occupational cooperation project that seeks to improve the personnel health work in a hospital setting? What impact does the boundary work have on such cooperation in the personnel health project?
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on individual, in-depth interviews and participative observations of focus group discussions conducted at a regional municipal organization in Sweden. Respondents are hospital line managers, experts and strategists in the HR departments, and experts from the internal occupational health service.
Findings
The concepts on boundary work, which include closing/opening boundary strategies, provide the framework for the empirical illustrations. The cooperation runs smoothly in the rehabilitation work because of an agreed upon process in which the professionals’ jurisdictions are preserved through closing strategies. Illness prevention and health promotion are not areas of inter-occupational cooperation because the stronger actors use closing strategies. While the weaker actors, who try to cooperate, use opening boundary strategies in these areas, they are excluded or marginalized.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical investigation concerns one cooperation project and was completed at one data collection point.
Originality/value
No similar study of boundary work and inter-occupational cooperation in a hospital setting is available despite the frequency of this professional group configuration in practice. A more inclusive concept of professionalism may facilitate the study of boundary work and inter-occupational cooperation among actors with different professional authority.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the colleagues of Institute of Stress Medicine, Region Västra Götaland for critical feedback on earlier versions of the paper. The research was funded by AFA Insurance, Sweden. The author declares no conflict of interest.
Citation
Cregård, A. (2018), "Inter-occupational cooperation and boundary work in the hospital setting", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 32 No. 5, pp. 658-673. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-10-2016-0188
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited