Mueller, Frank, Harvey, Charles and Howorth, Chris (2003) The Contestation of Archetypes: Negotiating<br /> Scripts in a UK Hospital Trust Board. Journal of Management Studies, 40 (8).
Full text access: Open
This paper deals with the aftermath of the creation of a new governance structure in the UK National Health Service. We conceptualize this new governance structure as a ‘Trust Hospital Archetype’ in order to establish the promises and limitations of an archetype transition framework. We find that the ‘reality’ of the ‘Trust Hospital Archetype’ is one involving a high degree of contestation. This is confirmed by evidence drawn from interviews, documents, observation and participant observation. In order to analyse contestation, we distinguish between three interpretive schemes – Ideological–New Public Management, Executive Pragmatism and Medical Professionalism; and we outline five scripts – challenging, critiquing, mediating, cautioning and defending. This diversity casts doubt on the usefulness of simplistic managerialism–professionalism dichotomies prevalent in much of the literature. It also suggests modifications to archetype transition theory, which lends too much weight to the role of dominant interpretive schemes.
This is a Published version This version's date is: 12/2003 This item is peer reviewed
https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/d524ea42-1a0b-fa68-54ac-16572b5aa827/1/
Deposited by () on 23-Dec-2009 in Royal Holloway Research Online.Last modified on 23-Dec-2009
Link to the references http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/ref/10.1046/j.1467-6486.2003.00408.x
Ackroyd, S. (1996). âOrganisation contra organisations: professions and organisational change in the United Kingdomâ. Organisation Studies, 17, 4, 599â621. Ashburner, L., Ferlie, E. and FitzGerald, L. (1996). âOrganisational transformation and top-down change: the case of the NHSâ. British Journal of Management, 7, 1â16. Bacharach, S. B., Bamberger, P. and Sonnenstuhl, W. J. (1996). âThe organizational transformation process: the micropolitics of dissonance reduction and the alignment of logics of actionâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 477â506. Barley, S. R. (1986). âTechnology as an occasion for structuring: evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departmentsâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 78â108. Barley, S. R. and Tolbert, P. S. (1997). âInstitutionalization and structuration: studying the links between action and institutionâ. Organisation Studies, 18, 1, 93â117. Bate, P. (2000). âChanging the culture of a hospital: from hierarchy to networked community.â Public Administration, 78, 3, 513â29. Boeker, W. (1997). âExecutive migration and strategic change: the effect of top manager movement on product-market entryâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 213â36. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003 Boyne, G., Kirkpatrick, I. and Kitchener, M. (2001). âEditorial: new labour and the âmodernisationâ of public managementâ. Public Administration, 79, 1, 1â4. Brock, D. M., Powell, M. J. and Hinings, C. R. (Eds) (1999). Restructuring the Professional Organization: Accounting, Health Care and Law. London: Routledge. Brock, D. M., Powell, M. J. and Hinings, C. R. (2000). âThe Changing Professional Organization: Towards New Archetypes and Typologyâ. Paper presented at APROS Conference, Sydney, 14â17 December. Brown, A. D. (1995). âManaging understandings: politics, symbolism, niche marketing and the quest for legitimacy in IT implementationâ. Organization Studies, 16, 6, 951â69. Christensen, T. and Laegreid, P. (1999). âNew public management â design, resistance, or transformation? A study of how modern reforms are received in a Civil Service Systemâ. Public Productivity & Management Review, 23, 2, December, 169â93. Cooper, D. J., Hinings, B., Greenwood, R. and Brown, J. L. (1996). âSedimentation and transformation in organizational change: the case of Canadian law firmsâ. Organization Studies, 17, 4, 623â47. Denis, J.-L., Langley, A. and Cazale, L. (1996). âLeadership and strategic change under ambiguityâ. Organisation Studies, 17, 4, 673â99. Denis, J.-L., Lamothe, L. and Langley, A. (2001). âThe dynamics of collective leadership and strategic change in pluralistic organizationsâ. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 4, 809â37. Dent, M. (1993). âProfessionalism, educated labour and the state: hospital medicine and the new managerialismâ. Sociological Review, 41, 2, 244â73. Dent, M. (1995). âThe new National Health Service: a case of postmodernism?â. Organisation Studies, 16, 5, 875â99. Dent, M. and Barry, J. (2000). âManaging Professionalism: New Public Management and Professions in Health and Higher Educationâ. EGOS 16th Colloquium, Helsinki, 2â5 July 2000. Edelman, M. (1971). Politics as Symbolic Action. Chicago: Markham. Exworthy, M. and Halford, S. (1999). âProfessionals and managers in a changing public sector: conflict, compromise and collaboration?â. In Exworthy, M. and Halford, S. (Eds), Professionals and the New Managerialism in the Public Sector. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1â17. Ferlie, E., Ashburner, L., Fitzgerald, L. and Pettigrew, A. (1996). The New Public Management in Action, Oxford: Macmillan. Fitzgerald, L. and Ferlie, E. (2000). âProfessionals: back to the future?â. Human Relations, 53, 5, 713â39. Flynn, R. (1999). âManagerialism, professionalism and quasi-marketsâ. In Exworthy, M. and Halford, S. (Eds), Professionals and the New Managerialism in the Public Sector. Buckingham: Open University Press, 19â36. Freidson, E. (1986). Professional Powers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Geletkanycz, M. A. and Hambrick, D. C. (1997). âThe external ties of top executives: implications for strategic choice and performanceâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 654â81. Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Greenwood, R. and Hinings, C. R. (1988). âOrganizational design types, tracks and the dynamics of strategic changeâ. Organization Studies, 9, 3, 293â316. Greenwood, R. and Hinings, C. R. (1993). âUnderstanding strategic change: the contribution of archetypesâ. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 1052â81. Greenwood, R., Hinings, C. R. and Brown, J. (1990). âThe P2-form of strategic management: corporate practices in the professional partnershipâ. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 725â55. Harrison, J. J. H. (1998). âCorporate governance in the NHS â an assessment of boardroom practiceâ. Corporate Governance, 6, 3, 140â50. Harrison, S. (1999). âClinical autonomy and health policy: past and futuresâ. In Exworthy, M. and Halford, S. (Eds), Professionals and the New Managerialism in the Public Sector. Buckingham: Open University Press, 50â64. Harrison, S. and Pollitt, C. J. (1994). Controlling Health Professionals. Buckingham: Open University Press. Haunschild, P. R. (1993). âInterorganisational imitation: the impact of interlocks on corporate acquisition activityâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 564â627. Hinings, C. R. and Greenwood, R. (1988). The Dynamics of Strategic Change. Oxford: Blackwell. Hinings, C. R., Thibault, L., Slack, T. and Kikulis, L. M. (1996). âValues and organisational structureâ. Human Relations, 49, 7, 885â916. Hood, C. (1991). âA public management for all seasons?â. Public Administration, 69, Spring, 3â19. Hood, C. (1995). âThe ânew public managementâ in the 1980s: variations on a themeâ. Accounting Organisation and Society, 20, 2/3, 93â109. 1994 F. Mueller et al. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003 Kirkpatrick, I. and Ackroyd, S. (2000). âThe Continued Professional Domination of an Organisational Field: Social Services and the Managerial State in Britainâ. Paper presented at 16th EGOS Colloquium, 2â4 July, Helsinki. Kitchener, M. (1998). âInstitutional change in U.K. hospitalsâ. Public Administration, 76, 1, 73â95. Kitchener,M. (1999). â âAll fur coat and no knickersâ: contemporary organisational change in United Kingdom hospitalsâ. In Brock, D., Powell, M., and Hinings, C. R. (Eds), Restructuring the Professional Organisation: Accounting, Health Care and Law. London: Routledge, 183â99. Kitchener, M. (2000). âThe âBureaucratizationâ of professional roles: the case of clinical directors in UK hospitalsâ. Organization, 7, 1, 129â54. Kitchener, M. and Whipp, R. (1997). âTracks of change in hospitals: a study of quasi-market transformationâ. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 10, 1, 47â62. Laughlin, R. C. (1991). âEnvironmental disturbances and organisational transitions and transformations: some alternative modelsâ. Organization Studies, 12, 2, 209â32. Llewellyn, S. (2001). â âTwo-way windowsâ: clinicians as medical-managersâ. Organization Studies, 22, 4, 593â624. Lorbieki, A. (1995). âClinicians as managers: convergence or collusionâ. In Soothill, K. et al. (Eds), Interprofessional Relations in Health Care. London: Edward Arnold. McAuley, J., Duberley, J. and Cohen, L. (2000). âThe meaning professionals give to management . . . and strategyâ. Human Relations, 53, 1, 87â116. McNulty, T. and Ferlie, E. (2001). âPublic Sector Transformation: A Case of Process Organisation in UK Healthcareâ. Paper presented at 17th EGOS Colloquium, 5â7 July, Lyon. McNulty, T. and Pettigrew, A. (1999). âStrategists on the boardâ. Organization Studies, 20, 1, 47â74. Mintzberg, H. (1979). The Structuring of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Ng, W. and De Cock, C. (2002). âBattle in the boardroom: a discursive perspectiveâ. Journal of Management Studies, 39, 1, 23â49. Oliver, C. (1991). âStrategic responses to institutional processesâ. Academy of Management Review, 16, 1, 145â79. Parkin, F. (1972). Class, Inequality and Political Order. London: Tavistock. Parsons, T. (1951). The Social System. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press. Pettigrew, A. and McNulty, T. (1995). âPower and influence in and around the boardroomâ. Human Relations, 48, 8, 845â73. Pettigrew, A. and McNulty, T. (1998). âSources and uses of power in the boardroomâ. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 7, 2, 197â214. Pollitt, C. (1993). Managerialism and the Public Services: The Anglo-American Experience, 2nd ed. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Raelin, J. (1985). The Clash of Cultures: Managers and Professionals. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. Ranson, S., Hinings, B. and Greenwood, R. (1980). âThe structuring of organizational structuresâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25, March, 2â17. Reed, M. I. (1996). âExpert power and control in late modernity: an empirical review and theoretical synthesisâ. Organisation Studies, 17, 4, 573â97. Reed, M. I. and Anthony, P. D. (1993). âBetween an ideological rock and an organisational hardplace: NHS management in the 1980âs and 1990âsâ. In Clarke, T. and Pitelis, N. (Eds), The Political Economy of Privatization. London: Routledge, 185â204. Richter, I. (1998). âIndividual and organisational learning at the executive levelâ. Management Learning, 29, 3, 299â316. Samra-Fredericks, D. (2000a). âDoing âboards-in-actionâ research â an ethnographic approach for the capture and analysis of directorsâ and senior managersâ interactive routinesâ. Corporate Governance, 8, 3, 244â57. Samra-Fredericks, D. (2000b). âAn analysis of the behavioural dynamics of corporate governance â a talk-based ethnography of a UK manufacturing âboard-in-actionâ â. Corporate Governance, 8, 4, 311â26. Stewart, R. (1991). âChairmen and chief executives: an exploration of their relationshipâ. Journal of Management Studies, 28, 511â27. Thorne, M. (2000). âCultural chameleonsâ. British Journal of Management, 11, 4, 325â39. Weick, K. (1976). âEducational organizations as loosely coupled systemsâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 1â19. Zajac, E. J. and Westphal, J. D. (1996). âDirector reputation, CEO-board power, and the dynamics of board interlocksâ. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 507â29. The Contestation of Archetypes 1995