Search results

This paper aims to describe the cultural and communicational traits of Finnish oral health care. First, employees' views and experiences regarding their organization and their position within it are investigated and, second, relations between different individual and organizational factors are analyzed. Finally, a conceptual framework of organizational coherence is constructed.

The paper shows that data collection (n=58, 84 percent response rate) was carried out in 2002 at a Finnish dental clinic by using a semi‐structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed statistically by using, among other things, non‐parametric tests and a structural equation model (LISREL) and qualitatively by using content analysis.

The paper finds that the organization was described as role‐dependent and task‐centered. Unidirectional chain of communication and responsibility for interaction were observed as the descriptive traits of communication, regardless of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the communication. Developmental challenges involved opportunities to exert influence in the organization as well as giving and receiving feedback in leadership relations. It was found that a good sense of one's position in the organization was positively associated with several essential experiences (e.g. confidence, openness and equality), regarding organizational factors.

It appears in this paper likely that, by adopting the perspective of organizational coherence, it will be possible to approach the reality of an oral health care organization. As such a new and informative perspective is added.

At the moment, Finnish oral health care is undergoing many changes. Little attention has been paid to issues of organisational culture and communication in Finnish oral health care. Yet the question of culture is of primary importance for changes in an organisation and for planning and reconstructing the rational functioning of an organisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine Finnish public oral health care within a theoretical framework of organisational culture and to identify the various cultural traits that appear to characterise Finnish oral health care. Using a cultural point of view, we develop an orientation for understanding more profoundly and specifically the processes concerning the functioning and change of oral health care.