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Article
Publication date: 22 May 2009

A.H.J. Klopper‐Kes, N. Meerdink, W.H. van Harten and C.P.M. Wilderom

The purpose of this paper is to apply the image theory to the hospital context in order to add a perspective into the known complex relationship between physicians and hospital…

952

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply the image theory to the hospital context in order to add a perspective into the known complex relationship between physicians and hospital managers. This insight can enrich current intervention schemes used in health care to facilitate organisational change.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the image theory of Alexander et al. on the known complex intergroup context of physicians and hospital managers is applied. The theory is operationalised in relative status, power, and goal incompatibility.

Findings

The data show the three variables are highly relevant and representative. Hospital managers see physicians as higher in professional status and power, and having different goals. Physicians see hospital managers to have higher power, lower status, and different goals. The study validates the applicability of the image theory in the Dutch hospital context. This results in a questionnaire suitable for performing a quick scan on the strength and direction of intergroup stereotyping within hospital organisations.

Originality/value

Data from the questionnaire give the opportunity to have insight in the way physicians and hospital managers perceive each other. This insight helps to focus attention on bottlenecks and possibilities in enhancing the co‐operation between physicians and hospital managers. Research on the relationship between physicians and hospital managers is scarce and mostly of a qualitative nature. This paper is executed in both qualitative and quantitative way, which enables us to empirically and statistically validate the data. The resulting questionnaire is applicable on an organisational intergroup level, while the focus in the extant literature is mostly on the interpersonal or intragroup level.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Pia Jansson von Vultée, Runo Axelsson and Bengt Arnetz

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to show that the Swedish health care system has undergone major changes during the last decades, which have exerted strong influence on…

1284

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to show that the Swedish health care system has undergone major changes during the last decades, which have exerted strong influence on the operational freedom of physicians. Design/methodology/approach – This study consisted of 169 physicians in management positions, who answered a questionnaire assessing the relationship between their organizational settings and their perceived wellbeing. The organizational setting was defined as contact with top management, decision‐making influence, well defined organization and whether the physician is acting as a leader. The perceived wellbeing was defined as social climate, work related exhaustion, work satisfaction, influence, development ability and supportive leadership. Findings – According to the results, organizational support improves work satisfaction and mental energy, and decreases work related exhaustion among physicians. This all leads to decreasing turnover rate among physicians. Originality/value – These results point to the importance of maintaining a positive and supportive atmosphere for physicians in their work environment in order to encourage physicians to remain and take on management positions in the health care system. Furthermore enhancing physician influence over decision making processes is important to counteract work‐related exhaustion and it might also contribute to a more efficient organization.

Details

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0952-6862

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 May 2015

Thomas Andersson

– The purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the identity challenges that physicians with medical leadership positions face.

3629

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the identity challenges that physicians with medical leadership positions face.

Design/methodology/approach

Four qualitative case studies were performed to address the fact that identity is processual, relational and situational. Physicians with managerial roles were interviewed, as well as their peers, supervisors and subordinates. Furthermore, observations were made to understand how different identities are displayed in action.

Findings

This study illustrates that medical leadership implies identity struggles when physicians have manager positions, because of the different characteristics of the social identities of managers and physicians. Major differences are related between physicians as autonomous individuals in a system and managers as subordinates to the organizational system. There are psychological mechanisms that evoke the physician identity more often than the managerial identity among physicians who are managers, which explains why physicians who are managers tend to remain foremost physicians.

Research limitations/implications

The implications of the findings, that there are major identity challenges by being both a physician and manager, suggest that managerial physicians might not be the best prerequisite for medical leadership, but instead, cooperative relationships between physicians and non-physician managers might be a less difficult way to support medical leadership.

Practical implications

Acknowledging and addressing identity challenges can be important both in creating structures in organizations and designing the training for managers in healthcare (both physicians and non-physicians) to support medical leadership.

Originality/value

Medical leadership is most often related to organizational structure and/or leadership skills, but this paper discusses identity requirements and challenges related to medical leadership.

Details

Leadership in Health Services, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1879

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 May 2016

Mia von Knorring, Kristina Alexanderson and Miriam A Eliasson

– The purpose of this paper is to explore how healthcare managers construct the manager role in relation to the medical profession in their organisations.

3285

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how healthcare managers construct the manager role in relation to the medical profession in their organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 18 of Sweden’s 20 healthcare chief executive officers (CEOs) and 20 clinical department managers (CDMs) were interviewed about their views on management of physicians. Interviews were performed in the context of one aspect of healthcare management; i.e., management of physicians’ sickness certification practice. A discourse analysis approach was used for data analysis.

Findings

Few managers used a management-based discourse to construct the manager role. Instead, a profession-based discourse dominated and managers frequently used the attributes “physician” or “non-physician” to categorise themselves or other managers in their managerial roles. Some managers, both CEOs and CDMs, shifted between the management- and profession-based discourses, resulting in a kind of “yes, but […]” approach to management in the organisations. The dominating profession-based discourse served to reproduce the power and status of physicians within the organisation, thereby rendering the manager role weaker than the medical profession for both physician and non-physician managers.

Research limitations/implications

Further studies are needed to explore the impact of gender, managerial level, and basic profession on how managers construct the manager role in relation to physicians.

Practical implications

The results suggest that there is a need to address the organisational conditions for managers’ role taking in healthcare organisations.

Originality/value

Despite the general strengthening of the manager position in healthcare through political reforms during the last decades, this study shows that a profession-based discourse clearly dominated in how the managers constructed the manager role in relation to the medical profession on the workplace level in their organisations.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 October 2015

Anna Cregård and Nomie Eriksson

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dual role of physician-managers through an examination of perceptions of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The healthcare…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dual role of physician-managers through an examination of perceptions of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The healthcare sector needs physicians to lead. Physicians in part-time managerial positions who continue their medical practice are called part-time physician-managers. This paper explores this dual role through an examination of perceptions of trust and distrust in physician-managers.

Design/methodology/approach

The study takes a qualitative research approach in which interviews and focus group discussions with physician-managers and nurse-managers provide the empirical data. An analytical model, with the three elements of ability, benevolence and integrity, was used in the analysis of trust and distrust in physician-managers.

Findings

The respondents (physician-managers and nurse-managers) perceived both an increase and a decrease in physicians’ trust in the physician-managers. Because elements of distrust were more numerous and more severe than elements of trust, the physician-managers received negative perceptions of their role.

Research limitations/implications

This paper’s findings are based on perceptions of perceptions. The physicians were not interviewed on their trust and distrust of physician-managers.

Practical implications

The healthcare sector must pay attention to the diverse expectations of the physician-manager role that is based on both managerial and medical logics. Hospital management should provide proper support to physician-managers in their dual role to ensure their willingness to continue to assume managerial responsibilities.

Originality/value

The paper takes an original approach in its research into the dual role of physician-managers who work under two conflicting logics: the medical logic and the managerial logic. The focus on perceived trust and distrust in physician-managers is a new perspective on this complicated role.

Details

Leadership in Health Services, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1879

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2004

Jennifer K. Hartwell, Rosalind C. Barnett and Stephen Borgatti

This paper examines medical managers' beliefs about the impact reduced‐hour career paths for physicians has on organizational effectiveness. The findings of this exploratory…

Abstract

This paper examines medical managers' beliefs about the impact reduced‐hour career paths for physicians has on organizational effectiveness. The findings of this exploratory inductive study of 17 medical managers at nine medical organizations in the Boston area suggest that managers believe the benefits of reduced‐hour physicians (RHPs) far outweigh the disadvantages. However, many of their reasons appear to be exploitative of RHPs. In particular, managers believe that employing RHPs results in increased managerial control and that RHPs should: work more than they are compensated for; do a disproportionate share of the undesirable work; and remain extra flexible and available to the organization. An interpretation of the findings based on psychological contract theory is offered, and may help to illuminate other results reported in the literature, including some controversial findings that reduced‐hour workers tend to have poor health outcomes.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 August 2013

Fredrik Bååthe and Lars Erik Norbäck

To improve health‐care delivery from within, managers need to engage physicians in organisational development work. Physicians and managers have different mindsets/professional…

1288

Abstract

Purpose

To improve health‐care delivery from within, managers need to engage physicians in organisational development work. Physicians and managers have different mindsets/professional identities which hinder effective communication. The aim of this paper is to explore how managers can transform this situation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors' interview study reveals physicians' own perspective on engagement for organisational improvement. They discuss identities from three theoretical perspectives and explore the mindsets of physicians and managers. They also explore the need to modify professional identities and how this can be achieved.

Findings

If managers want physicians to engage in improvements, they must learn to understand and appreciate physician identity. This might challenge managers' identity. The paper shows how managers – primarily in a Swedish context – could act to facilitate physician engagement. This in turn might challenge physician identity.

Research limitations/implications

Studies from the western world show a coherent picture of professional identities, despite structural differences in national health‐care systems. The paper argues, therefore, that the results can be relevant to many other health‐care systems and settings.

Originality/value

The paper provides an alternative to the prevailing managerial control perspective. The alternative is simple, yet complex and challenging, and as the authors understand it, necessary for health care to evolve, from within.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 August 2008

Tone Opdahl Mo

The paper seeks to explore whether the development in department management in Norwegian hospitals after the unitary management reform in 2001 constitutes a development in the…

1486

Abstract

Purpose

The paper seeks to explore whether the development in department management in Norwegian hospitals after the unitary management reform in 2001 constitutes a development in the direction of general management

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were conducted with ten managers from different levels in a large Norwegian university hospital in 2001‐2002, as a unitary management model was implemented.

Findings

There is an emerging change of practice among the physician managers according to this study. The manager function is more explicit and takes a more general responsibility for the department and the professions. However, the managerial function is substantiated by conditions related to the professional field of knowledge, which gives legitimacy within a medical logic. Contact with the clinic is stressed as important, but it is possible to adjust both amount and content of a clinical engagement to the demands of the new manager position. This has both a symbolic and a practical significance, as it involves both legitimacy and identity issues.

Practical implications

The paper shows that the institutionalised medical understanding of management has a bearing on managerial reforms. Managerial changes need to relate to this if they are to have consequences for the managerial roles and structures on department level in hospitals.

Originality/value

The paper suggests that the future development of this role will depend on the way the collectivist and individualist aspects of responsibility are handled, as well as on the further development of managerial knowledge of physicians.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 February 2020

Ken K.W. FUNG

Examining the self-identification of physician managers with their manager and clinician roles, and its impact on the state and professional powers in healthcare governance.

Abstract

Purpose

Examining the self-identification of physician managers with their manager and clinician roles, and its impact on the state and professional powers in healthcare governance.

Design/methodology/approach

With purposive sampling, a total of 15 frontline clinical department managers (mainly principal consultants) and directorial managers (mainly Hospital Chief Executives) were recruited to elite interviews. The themes for data collection and analysis were based on a systematic scoping review of previous empirical studies.

Findings

Physician managers maintained respective jurisdictions in policymaking and clinical governance, as well as their primary self-identification as rationalizers or protectors of medicine, according to their managerial roles at a directorial or departmental level. However, a two-way hybridization of physician managers allowed the exchange of clinical and managerial authority, resulting in cooperation alongside struggles among medical elites; while some frontline managers were exposed to managerial values with the awareness of budget and organizational administration, some directorial managers remained aligned to a traditional mode of professional communication, such as persuasion through informal personal networks and by using clinician language and maintaining symbolic contact with the clinical field.

Originality/value

This study identifies the inconsistency in physician managers’ identity work, as well as its patterns. It goes beyond a dichotomized framework of professionalism versus managerialism or an arbitrarily blurred identity.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 March 2014

Sara A. Kreindler, Bridget K. Larson, Frances M. Wu, Josette N. Gbemudu, Kathleen L. Carluzzo, Ashley Struthers, Aricca D. Van Citters, Stephen M. Shortell, Eugene C. Nelson and Elliott S. Fisher

Recognition of the importance and difficulty of engaging physicians in organisational change has sparked an explosion of literature. The social identity approach, by considering…

1571

Abstract

Purpose

Recognition of the importance and difficulty of engaging physicians in organisational change has sparked an explosion of literature. The social identity approach, by considering engagement in terms of underlying group identifications and intergroup dynamics, may provide a framework for choosing among the plethora of proposed engagement techniques. This paper seeks to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examined how four disparate organisations engaged physicians in change. Qualitative methods included interviews (109 managers and physicians), observation, and document review.

Findings

Beyond a universal focus on relationship-building, sites differed radically in their preferred strategies. Each emphasised or downplayed professional and/or organisational identity as befit the existing level of inter-group closeness between physicians and managers: an independent practice association sought to enhance members' identity as independent physicians; a hospital, engaging community physicians suspicious of integration, stressed collaboration among separate, equal partners; a developing integrated-delivery system promoted alignment among diverse groups by balancing “systemness” with subgroup uniqueness; a medical group established a strong common identity among employed physicians, but practised pragmatic co-operation with its affiliates.

Research limitations/implications

The authors cannot confirm the accuracy of managers' perceptions of the inter-group context or the efficacy of particular strategies. Nonetheless, the findings suggested the fruitfulness of social identity thinking in approaching physician engagement.

Practical implications

Attention to inter-group dynamics may help organisations engage physicians more effectively.

Originality/value

This study illuminates and explains variation in the way different organisations engage physicians, and offers a theoretical basis for selecting engagement strategies.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

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