Suchergebnisse

Multi-professional teams are now common when organising healthcare. Such teams are considered to resolve fragmentation issues amongst units and their functions, facilitate efficient and high quality care and are also deemed to enable different professions to meet and exchange experience and knowledge. The expected consequence is superior decisions and improved care. However, research suggests that the deployment of multi-professional teams within healthcare organisations is problematic with regard to knowledge sharing and integration between different professional groups. While often recognised, the reason for this shortcoming has rarely been explored in depth. This study consequently elaborates on the factors hindering knowledge sharing through illustrating and discussing the logics of different professional groups and the ensuing consequences when multi-professional teams interact. The finding is that the teams are being utilised by the medical professions in accordance with their professional logic. This results in the coordination of activities, incorporating the patient flow logistics amongst the different professions; making the impact of multi-professional teams concrete in practice and illustrating their potential positive outcomes for professionals and patients, even though they are not operating as forums for overt knowledge integration for the different professions.

The aim of this article is to describe and analyse observed managerial communication. The research questions concerned: What characterizes managerial communication practices and the organizational consequences? We make use of structuration theory and view communication as a social interaction process in which temporary structures are negotiated. Ten first- and second-line managers were shadowed. The managers used a combi- nation of structuration of caring, interdependency and accountability typical of health care organizations. The communication practices were related to how new norms of reputation management were institutionalized through structuration. The types of structuration were sometimes contradictory and productive communication was rare or non-existent. The managerial communication practices had consequences for the power and domination and for which issues were signified as part of the agenda. The conclusions can be generalizable to other professional organizations.

The articles in this e-book represent various although complementary theoretical and methodological perspectives. Together, they give an overall picture of health care policy work and describe what happens when new governance models meet reality. Some articles describe the situation in a single country while others make cross-country comparisons