Search results
1 – 3 of 3Bettina Ravnborg Thude, Egon Stenager, Christian von Plessen and Erik Hollnagel
The purpose of the study is to determine whether one leader set-up is better than the others according to interdisciplinary cooperation and leader legitimacy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to determine whether one leader set-up is better than the others according to interdisciplinary cooperation and leader legitimacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews at three Danish hospitals.
Findings
The study found that the leadership set-up did not have any clear influence on interdisciplinary cooperation, as all wards had a high degree of interdisciplinary cooperation independent of which leadership set-up they had. Instead, the authors found a relation between leadership set-up and leader legitimacy. In cases where staff only referred to a leader from their own profession, that leader had legitimacy within the staff group. When there were two leaders from different professions, they only had legitimacy within the staff group from their own profession. Furthermore, clinical specialty also could influence legitimacy.
Originality/value
The study shows that leadership set-up is not the predominant factor that creates interdisciplinary cooperation; but rather, leader legitimacy also should be considered. Additionally, the study shows that leader legitimacy can be difficult to establish and that it cannot be taken for granted. This is something chief executive officers should bear in mind when they plan and implement new leadership structures. Therefore, it would also be useful to look more closely at how to achieve legitimacy in cases where the leader is from a different profession to the staff.
Details
Keywords
Bettina Ravnborg Thude, Andreas Granhof Juhl, Egon Stenager, Christian von Plessen and Erik Hollnagel
The purpose of this paper is to understand how the hospital staff (nurses and physicians) at two hospital wards have coped with everyday work having leaders in conflict or longer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how the hospital staff (nurses and physicians) at two hospital wards have coped with everyday work having leaders in conflict or longer periods without one or the other leader and whether the way the staff handled the challenges was resilient.
Design/methodology/approach
Through semi-structured interviews with the staff at the two wards, the authors analysed how the staff were working, if they had cooperation and interdisciplinary cooperation, how they would handle uncertainties and how they coped with the absence of their leaders.
Findings
The staff at both wards were handling the everyday work in a resilient way. The authors argue that to increase the resilience in an organisation, leaders should acknowledge the need to establish strong emotional ties among staff and at the same time ensure role structures that make sense in the everyday work.
Originality/value
This study reports on original work and shows what decision makers could do to increase resilience in an organisation. This paper shows that the organisational context is important for the staff to act resiliently. As leaders come and go, it can be important for the stability of the organisation to promote the staff in acting resiliently independent of the leader situation.
Details
Keywords
Bettina Ravnborg Thude, Svend Erik Thomsen, Egon Stenager and Erik Hollnagel
Despite the practice of dual leadership in many organizations, there is relatively little research on the topic. Dual leadership means two leaders share the leadership task and…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the practice of dual leadership in many organizations, there is relatively little research on the topic. Dual leadership means two leaders share the leadership task and are held jointly accountable for the results of the unit. To better understand how dual leadership works, this study aims to analyse three different dual leadership pairs at a Danish hospital. Furthermore, this study develops a tool to characterize dual leadership teams from each other.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Six leaders were interviewed to clarify how dual leadership works in a hospital context. All interviews were transcribed and coded. During coding, focus was on the nine principles found in the literature and another principle was found by looking at the themes that were generic for all six interviews.
Findings
Results indicate that power balance, personal relations and decision processes are important factors for creating efficient dual leaderships. The study develops a categorizing tool to use for further research or for organizations, to describe and analyse dual leaderships.
Originality/value
The study describes dual leadership in the hospital context and develops a categorizing tool for being able to distinguish dual leadership teams from each other. It is important to reveal if there are any indicators that can be used for optimising dual leadership teams in the health-care sector and in other organisations.
Details