The contested terrain of hospital management: Professional projects and healthcare reforms in denmark

TY - JOUR

T1 - The contested terrain of hospital management

T2 - Professional projects and healthcare reforms in denmark

AU - Kirkpatrick, Ian

AU - Dent, Mike

AU - Jespersen, Peter Kragh

PY - 2011/7/1

Y1 - 2011/7/1

N2 - Although much has been written on the changing management of professional services organizations, only limited attention has been given to the way in which management itself might represent a contested terrain. Drawing on concepts from the sociology of professions, this article develops this idea in relation to the Danish hospital sector. The analysis of secondary sources reveals how, from the mid-1980s, both the nursing and medical professions in Denmark actively sought to lay claim to the jurisdiction of hospital management. The result of this struggle was to further reinforce the dominant position of doctors in the clinical division of labour although the position of nurses has also been enhanced. Such findings point to the need to give more attention to the way broader changes in hospital governance are mediated by interprofessional struggles and rivalries. Such struggles, in turn, have implications not only for the division of labour and status order between professions but also for the way management work itself is enacted.

AB - Although much has been written on the changing management of professional services organizations, only limited attention has been given to the way in which management itself might represent a contested terrain. Drawing on concepts from the sociology of professions, this article develops this idea in relation to the Danish hospital sector. The analysis of secondary sources reveals how, from the mid-1980s, both the nursing and medical professions in Denmark actively sought to lay claim to the jurisdiction of hospital management. The result of this struggle was to further reinforce the dominant position of doctors in the clinical division of labour although the position of nurses has also been enhanced. Such findings point to the need to give more attention to the way broader changes in hospital governance are mediated by interprofessional struggles and rivalries. Such struggles, in turn, have implications not only for the division of labour and status order between professions but also for the way management work itself is enacted.

KW - clinical professions

KW - governance

KW - hospitals

KW - management

KW - medicine

KW - nursing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79959755308&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0011392111402718

DO - 10.1177/0011392111402718

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:79959755308

SN - 0011-3921

VL - 59

SP - 489

EP - 506

JO - Current Sociology

JF - Current Sociology

IS - 4

ER -