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1 – 3 of 3Soki Choi, Ingalill Holmberg, Jan Löwstedt and Mats Brommels
This paper seeks to explore critical factors that may obstruct or advance integration efforts initiated by the clinical management following a hospital merger. The aim is to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore critical factors that may obstruct or advance integration efforts initiated by the clinical management following a hospital merger. The aim is to increase the understanding of why clinical integration succeeds or fails.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors compare two cases of clinical integration efforts following the Karolinska University Hospital merger in Sweden. Each case represents two merged clinical departments of the same specialty from each hospital site. In total, 53 interviews were conducted with individuals representing various staff categories and documents were collected to check data consistency.
Findings
The study identifies three critical factors that seem to be instrumental for the process and outcome of integration efforts and these are clinical management's interpretation of the mandate; design of the management constellation; and approach to integration. Obstructive factors are: a sole focus on the formal assignment from the top; individual leadership; and the use of a classic, planned, top‐down management approach. Supportive factors are: paying attention to multiple stakeholders; shared leadership; and the use of an emergent, bottom‐up management approach within planned boundaries. These findings are basically consistent with the literature's prescriptions for managing professional organisations.
Practical implications
Managers need to understand that public healthcare organisations are based on competing institutional logics that need to be handled in a balanced way if clinical integration is to be achieved – especially the tension between managerialism and professionalism.
Originality/value
By focusing on the merger consequences for clinical units, this paper addresses an important gap in the healthcare merger literature.
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Diane Rose Keeble-Ramsay and Andrew Armitage
The paper aims to report initial empirical research that examines UK employees’ perceptions of the changing nature of work since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to consider how…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to report initial empirical research that examines UK employees’ perceptions of the changing nature of work since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to consider how the financial context may have constrained HRD practice and more sustainable approaches.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus group research was facilitated through collective group discussion. Through template analysis of the findings, thematic analysis was undertaken to extend prior research. Themes used by Hassard et al. (2009) in terms of the changing nature of the workplace between 2000 and 2008, were used to provide new data on HRD realities.
Findings
Participants reported diminishing personal control over changes within the workplace and a cultural shift towards a harsher work climate. HRD was considered as silenced or absent and associated solely with low cost-based e-learning rather than acting in strategic role supporting sustainable business objectives.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst providing only indications from employee perceptions, the research identifies a weakened HRD function. The key contribution of this paper lies with empirical evidence of post-GFC constraints placed upon HRD strategies. It further identifies whether alternative development approaches, mediated by organisational learning capabilities, might emancipate UK HRD.
Social implications
This paper engenders a debate around the status of HRD within the UK organisations, further to the global financial crisis (GFC), where HRD might be viewed as at a juncture to argue a need for a shift from a financialised mode for people management towards one of greater people focus.
Originality/value
This research provides initial findings of the impact of the economic climate. It considers new approaches which might resolve expiring HRD through more sustainable practices.
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Diane Keeble-Ramsay and Andrew Armitage
This paper seeks to consider employees' perceptions of engagement from their lived experiences of UK employees following the global credit crisis, post 2008. It draws from the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to consider employees' perceptions of engagement from their lived experiences of UK employees following the global credit crisis, post 2008. It draws from the prior studies of Hassard et al. (2009), which researched work practices in the period preceding the study.
Design/methodology/approach
The research utilised focus group discussion, which was analysed by template analysis from an interpretive perspective and adopts narratives to facilitate a critical interpretive paradigm.
Findings
There is clear evidence of theories surrounding the positive value of employee engagement, however the findings do not demonstrate that it is necessarily valued by UK management by their responses towards the work environment given post 2008 trading conditions.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of the study lies with the size of the sample participating. While this reflects the need for further future research to be undertaken, the study also recognises that the findings are determined by the perceptions of employees which may not reflect the intentions of the management within the organisations which they work.
Originality/value
There is a dearth of empirical study into the post 2008 period. This research attempts to ground theories of engagement within the post global credit crunch timeframe.
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