The Contestation of Archetypes: Negotiating<br /> Scripts in a UK Hospital Trust Board

Mueller, Frank, Harvey, Charles and Howorth, Chris

(2003)

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).

Our Full Text Deposits

Full text access: Open

Full Text - 143.6 KB

Links to Copies of this Item Held Elsewhere


Abstract

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.

Information about this Version

This is a Published version
This version's date is: 12/2003
This item is peer reviewed

Link to this Version

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

Notes

Link to the references http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/ref/10.1046/j.1467-6486.2003.00408.x

References

Ackroyd, S. (1996). ‘Organisation contra organisations: professions and organisational change in the
United Kingdom’. Organisation Studies, 17, 4, 599–621.
Ashburner, L., Ferlie, E. and FitzGerald, L. (1996). ‘Organisational transformation and top-down
change: the case of the NHS’. British Journal of Management, 7, 1–16.
Bacharach, S. B., Bamberger, P. and Sonnenstuhl, W. J. (1996). ‘The organizational transformation
process: the micropolitics of dissonance reduction and the alignment of logics of action’.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 477–506.
Barley, S. R. (1986). ‘Technology as an occasion for structuring: evidence from observations of CT
scanners and the social order of radiology departments’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31,
78–108.
Barley, S. R. and Tolbert, P. S. (1997). ‘Institutionalization and structuration: studying the links
between action and institution’. Organisation Studies, 18, 1, 93–117.
Bate, P. (2000). ‘Changing the culture of a hospital: from hierarchy to networked community.’ Public
Administration, 78, 3, 513–29.
Boeker, W. (1997). ‘Executive migration and strategic change: the effect of top manager movement
on product-market entry’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 213–36.
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003
Boyne, G., Kirkpatrick, I. and Kitchener, M. (2001). ‘Editorial: new labour and the “modernisation”
of public management’. Public Administration, 79, 1, 1–4.
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). ‘The Changing Professional Organization:
Towards New Archetypes and Typology’. Paper presented at APROS Conference, Sydney,
14–17 December.
Brown, A. D. (1995). ‘Managing understandings: politics, symbolism, niche marketing and the quest
for legitimacy in IT implementation’. Organization Studies, 16, 6, 951–69.
Christensen, T. and Laegreid, P. (1999). ‘New public management – design, resistance, or transformation?
A study of how modern reforms are received in a Civil Service System’. Public
Productivity & Management Review, 23, 2, December, 169–93.
Cooper, D. J., Hinings, B., Greenwood, R. and Brown, J. L. (1996). ‘Sedimentation and transformation
in organizational change: the case of Canadian law firms’. Organization Studies, 17, 4, 623–47.
Denis, J.-L., Langley, A. and Cazale, L. (1996). ‘Leadership and strategic change under ambiguity’.
Organisation Studies, 17, 4, 673–99.
Denis, J.-L., Lamothe, L. and Langley, A. (2001). ‘The dynamics of collective leadership and
strategic change in pluralistic organizations’. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 4, 809–37.
Dent, M. (1993). ‘Professionalism, educated labour and the state: hospital medicine and the new
managerialism’. Sociological Review, 41, 2, 244–73.
Dent, M. (1995). ‘The new National Health Service: a case of postmodernism?’. Organisation Studies,
16, 5, 875–99.
Dent, M. and Barry, J. (2000). ‘Managing Professionalism: New Public Management and Professions
in Health and Higher Education’. EGOS 16th Colloquium, Helsinki, 2–5 July 2000.
Edelman, M. (1971). Politics as Symbolic Action. Chicago: Markham.
Exworthy, M. and Halford, S. (1999). ‘Professionals and managers in a changing public sector:
conflict, compromise and collaboration?’. In Exworthy, M. and Halford, S. (Eds), Professionals
and the New Managerialism in the Public Sector. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1–17.
Ferlie, E., Ashburner, L., Fitzgerald, L. and Pettigrew, A. (1996). The New Public Management in Action,
Oxford: Macmillan.
Fitzgerald, L. and Ferlie, E. (2000). ‘Professionals: back to the future?’. Human Relations, 53, 5, 713–39.
Flynn, R. (1999). ‘Managerialism, professionalism and quasi-markets’. In Exworthy, M. and Halford,
S. (Eds), Professionals and the New Managerialism in the Public Sector. Buckingham: Open University
Press, 19–36.
Freidson, E. (1986). Professional Powers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Geletkanycz, M. A. and Hambrick, D. C. (1997). ‘The external ties of top executives: implications
for strategic choice and performance’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 654–81.
Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Greenwood, R. and Hinings, C. R. (1988). ‘Organizational design types, tracks and the dynamics
of strategic change’. Organization Studies, 9, 3, 293–316.
Greenwood, R. and Hinings, C. R. (1993). ‘Understanding strategic change: the contribution of
archetypes’. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 1052–81.
Greenwood, R., Hinings, C. R. and Brown, J. (1990). ‘The P2-form of strategic management: corporate
practices in the professional partnership’. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 725–55.
Harrison, J. J. H. (1998). ‘Corporate governance in the NHS – an assessment of boardroom
practice’. Corporate Governance, 6, 3, 140–50.
Harrison, S. (1999). ‘Clinical autonomy and health policy: past and futures’. In Exworthy, M. and
Halford, S. (Eds), Professionals and the New Managerialism in the Public Sector. Buckingham: Open
University Press, 50–64.
Harrison, S. and Pollitt, C. J. (1994). Controlling Health Professionals. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Haunschild, P. R. (1993). ‘Interorganisational imitation: the impact of interlocks on corporate acquisition
activity’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 564–627.
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). ‘Values and organisational structure’.
Human Relations, 49, 7, 885–916.
Hood, C. (1991). ‘A public management for all seasons?’. Public Administration, 69, Spring, 3–19.
Hood, C. (1995). ‘The “new public management” in the 1980s: variations on a theme’. Accounting
Organisation and Society, 20, 2/3, 93–109.
1994 F. Mueller et al.
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003
Kirkpatrick, I. and Ackroyd, S. (2000). ‘The Continued Professional Domination of an Organisational
Field: Social Services and the Managerial State in Britain’. Paper presented at 16th EGOS
Colloquium, 2–4 July, Helsinki.
Kitchener, M. (1998). ‘Institutional change in U.K. hospitals’. Public Administration, 76, 1, 73–95.
Kitchener,M. (1999). ‘ “All fur coat and no knickers”: contemporary organisational change in United
Kingdom hospitals’. In Brock, D., Powell, M., and Hinings, C. R. (Eds), Restructuring the
Professional Organisation: Accounting, Health Care and Law. London: Routledge, 183–99.
Kitchener, M. (2000). ‘The “Bureaucratization” of professional roles: the case of clinical directors
in UK hospitals’. Organization, 7, 1, 129–54.
Kitchener, M. and Whipp, R. (1997). ‘Tracks of change in hospitals: a study of quasi-market transformation’.
International Journal of Public Sector Management, 10, 1, 47–62.
Laughlin, R. C. (1991). ‘Environmental disturbances and organisational transitions and transformations:
some alternative models’. Organization Studies, 12, 2, 209–32.
Llewellyn, S. (2001). ‘ “Two-way windows”: clinicians as medical-managers’. Organization Studies, 22,
4, 593–624.
Lorbieki, A. (1995). ‘Clinicians as managers: convergence or collusion’. In Soothill, K. et al. (Eds),
Interprofessional Relations in Health Care. London: Edward Arnold.
McAuley, J., Duberley, J. and Cohen, L. (2000). ‘The meaning professionals give to management
. . . and strategy’. Human Relations, 53, 1, 87–116.
McNulty, T. and Ferlie, E. (2001). ‘Public Sector Transformation: A Case of Process Organisation
in UK Healthcare’. Paper presented at 17th EGOS Colloquium, 5–7 July, Lyon.
McNulty, T. and Pettigrew, A. (1999). ‘Strategists on the board’. Organization Studies, 20, 1, 47–74.
Mintzberg, H. (1979). The Structuring of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Ng, W. and De Cock, C. (2002). ‘Battle in the boardroom: a discursive perspective’. Journal of
Management Studies, 39, 1, 23–49.
Oliver, C. (1991). ‘Strategic responses to institutional processes’. Academy of Management Review, 16,
1, 145–79.
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). ‘Power and influence in and around the boardroom’. Human
Relations, 48, 8, 845–73.
Pettigrew, A. and McNulty, T. (1998). ‘Sources and uses of power in the boardroom’. European Journal
of Work and Organizational Psychology, 7, 2, 197–214.
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). ‘The structuring of organizational structures’.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 25, March, 2–17.
Reed, M. I. (1996). ‘Expert power and control in late modernity: an empirical review and theoretical
synthesis’. Organisation Studies, 17, 4, 573–97.
Reed, M. I. and Anthony, P. D. (1993). ‘Between an ideological rock and an organisational
hardplace: NHS management in the 1980’s and 1990’s’. In Clarke, T. and Pitelis, N. (Eds), The
Political Economy of Privatization. London: Routledge, 185–204.
Richter, I. (1998). ‘Individual and organisational learning at the executive level’. Management
Learning, 29, 3, 299–316.
Samra-Fredericks, D. (2000a). ‘Doing “boards-in-action” research – an ethnographic approach for
the capture and analysis of directors’ and senior managers’ interactive routines’. Corporate
Governance, 8, 3, 244–57.
Samra-Fredericks, D. (2000b). ‘An analysis of the behavioural dynamics of corporate governance –
a talk-based ethnography of a UK manufacturing “board-in-action” ’. Corporate Governance, 8, 4,
311–26.
Stewart, R. (1991). ‘Chairmen and chief executives: an exploration of their relationship’. Journal of
Management Studies, 28, 511–27.
Thorne, M. (2000). ‘Cultural chameleons’. British Journal of Management, 11, 4, 325–39.
Weick, K. (1976). ‘Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems’. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 21, 1–19.
Zajac, E. J. and Westphal, J. D. (1996). ‘Director reputation, CEO-board power, and the dynamics
of board interlocks’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 507–29.
The Contestation of Archetypes 1995


Details