Embracing tensions throughout crises: The case of an Italian university hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Journal

Health care management review
ISSN: 1550-5030
Titre abrégé: Health Care Manage Rev
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 7611530

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
17 May 2024
Historique:
medline: 17 5 2024
pubmed: 17 5 2024
entrez: 17 5 2024
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

Previous research has identified some tensions that public organizations may encounter during crises. However, there remains a scarcity of research examining how public health care organizations effectively navigate these tensions to reconcile the diverse interests, needs, and demands from various stakeholders. The study seeks to shed light on the dynamics underlying the tensions experienced by public hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. It illustrates how different hospitals' actors have navigated these tensions, identifying solutions and approaches that fostered collaborative endeavors among internal and external stakeholders. The study draws on qualitative analyses of 49 semistructured interviews and the notes from two focus groups involving key informants at one of the largest university hospitals in Italy. We also rely on the verbatim transcripts from meetings involving the members of the temporary emergency team constituting the taskforce. The results highlight the tensions that emerged throughout the different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and how various actors have managed them in a way to reconcile opposing forces while unleashing adaptability and creativity. Hospital managers would benefit from developing a paradoxical mindset for crisis preparedness, allowing them to embrace existing tensions and devise creative solutions to favor resilience and change.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Previous research has identified some tensions that public organizations may encounter during crises. However, there remains a scarcity of research examining how public health care organizations effectively navigate these tensions to reconcile the diverse interests, needs, and demands from various stakeholders.
PURPOSES OBJECTIVE
The study seeks to shed light on the dynamics underlying the tensions experienced by public hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. It illustrates how different hospitals' actors have navigated these tensions, identifying solutions and approaches that fostered collaborative endeavors among internal and external stakeholders.
METHODOLOGY METHODS
The study draws on qualitative analyses of 49 semistructured interviews and the notes from two focus groups involving key informants at one of the largest university hospitals in Italy. We also rely on the verbatim transcripts from meetings involving the members of the temporary emergency team constituting the taskforce.
FINDINGS RESULTS
The results highlight the tensions that emerged throughout the different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and how various actors have managed them in a way to reconcile opposing forces while unleashing adaptability and creativity.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS CONCLUSIONS
Hospital managers would benefit from developing a paradoxical mindset for crisis preparedness, allowing them to embrace existing tensions and devise creative solutions to favor resilience and change.

Identifiants

pubmed: 38757912
doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000404
pii: 00004010-990000000-00058
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Références

Boin A., Hart P. (2010). Organising for effective emergency: Management: Lessons from research. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 69(4), 357–371.
Buckley W. (2017). Society as a complex adaptive system. In Buckley, W. (Ed.), Systems research for behavioral science (pp. 490–513). Routledge.
Bundy J., Pfarrer M. D., Short C. E., Coombs W. T. (2017). Crises and crisis management: Integration, interpretation, and research development. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1161–1692.
Comfort L. K. (2007). Crisis management in hindsight: Cognition, communication, coordination, and control. Public Administration Review, 67, 189–197.
Deverell E. (2010). Flexibility and rigidity in crisis management and learning at Swedish public organizations. Public Management Review, 12(5), 679–700.
Deverell E. (2012). Is best practice always the best? Learning to become better crisis managers. Journal of Critical Incident Analysis, 3(1), 26–40.
Duit A. (2016). Resilience thinking: Lessons for public administration. Public Administration, 94(2), 364–380.
Fairhurst G. T., Putnam L. L. (2018). An integrative methodology for organizational oppositions: Aligning grounded theory and discourse analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 22(4), 917–940.
George A. L., Bennett A. (2004). Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. MIT Press.
Glaser B. G., Strauss A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine.
Hahn T., Knight E. (2021). The ontology of organizational paradox: A quantum approach. Academy of Management Review, 46(2), 362–384.
Haldane V., De Foo C., Abdalla S. M., Jung A. S., Tan M., Wu S., Chua A., Verma M., Shrestha P., Singh S., Perez T., Tan S. M., Bartos M., Mabuchi S., Bonk M., McNab C., Werner G. K., Panjabi R., Nordström A., Legido-Quigley H. (2021). Health systems resilience in managing the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons from 28 countries. Nature Medicine, 27(6), 964–980.
Head B. W., Alford J. (2015). Wicked problems: Implications for public policy and management. Administration & Society, 47(6), 711–739.
Kooli C. (2021). COVID-19: Public health issues and ethical dilemmas. Ethics, Medicine, and Public Health, 17, 100635.
Kornberger M., Leixnering S., Meyer R. E. (2019). The logic of tact: How decisions happen in situations of crisis. Organization Studies, 40(2), 239–266.
Lee G. K., Lampel J., Shapira Z. (2020). After the storm has passed: Translating crisis experience into useful knowledge. Organization Science, 31(4), 1037–1051.
Lewis M. W. (2000). Exploring paradox: Toward a more comprehensive guide. The Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 760–776.
Lüscher L. S., Lewis M. W. (2008). Organizational change and managerial sensemaking: Working through paradox. Academy of Management Journal, 51(2), 221–240.
Mascio F., Natalini A., Cacciatore F. (2020). Public administration and creeping crises: Insights from COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 621–627.
Miron-Spektor E., Ingram A., Keller J., Smith W. K., Lewis M. W. (2018). Microfoundations of organizational paradox: The problem is how we think about the problem. Academy of Management Journal, 61, 26–45.
Pearson C. M., Clair J. A. (1998). Reframing crisis management. The Academy of Management Review, 23(1), 59–76.
Pedersen K. Z., du Gay P. (2021). COVID-19 and the flexibility of the bureaucratic ethos. In J. Waring, J.-L. Denis, A.-R. Pedersen, T. Tenbensel (Eds.), Organising care in a time of COVID-19: Implications for leadership, governance and policy ( ed., pp. 99–120).  Palgrave Macmillan.
Poole M. S., Van de Ven A. H. (1989). Using paradox to build management and organization theories. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 562–578.
Putnam L. L. (2015). Unpacking the dialectic: Alternative views on the discourse—Materiality relationship. Journal of Management Studies, 52(5), 706–716.
Putnam L. L., Fairhurst G. T., Banghart S., Fairhurst G. T., Banghart S. G. (2016). Contradictions, dialectics, and paradoxes in organizations: A constitutive approach. Academy of Management Annals, 10(1), 65–171.
Putnam L. L., Myers K. K., Gailliard B. M., Myers K. K., Gailliard B. M. (2014). Examining the tensions in workplace flexibility and exploring options for new directions. Human Relations, 67(4), 413–440.
Quinn R., Cameron K. (1988). Paradox and transformation: Toward a theory of change in organization and management. Ballinger.
Rauhaus B. M., Sibila D. A., Mahan M. (2022). Collaboration in crisis: Utilizing the SOS program, an at-home COVID-19 vaccine administration initiative, to demonstrate best practices in emergency management collaboration. Public Administration Review, 83(5), 1404–1408.
Shand R., Parker S., Liddle J., Spolander G., Warwick L., Ainsworth S. (2023). After the applause: Understanding public management and public service ethos in the fight against Covid-19. Public Management Review, 25(8), 1475–1497.
Smith W. K., Lewis M. W. (2011). Toward a theory of paradox: A dynamic equilibrium model of organizing. Academy of Management Review, 36(2), 381–403.
Smith W. K., Tushman M. L. (2005). Managing strategic contradictions: A top management model for managing innovation streams. Organization Science, 16, 522–536.
Tabesh P., Vera D. M. (2020). Top managers' improvisational decision-making in crisis: A paradox perspective. Management Decision, 58(10), 2235–2256.

Auteurs

Classifications MeSH