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).
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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, ExecutivePragmatism and Medical Professionalism; and we outline five scripts – challenging, critiquing, mediating, cautioning and defending. This diversity casts doubt on theusefulness 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This is a Submitted version This version's date is: 12/2003 This item is not peer reviewed
https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/d524ea42-1a0b-fa68-54ac-16572b5aa827/2/
Deposited by Research Information System (atira) on 24-May-2012 in Royal Holloway Research Online.Last modified on 24-May-2012
Link to the references http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/ref/10.1046/j.1467-6486.2003.00408.x