Being a manager, becoming a professional? A case study and interview-based exploration of the use of management knowledge across communities of practice in health-care organisations.
Health Services Delivery Research 2014;2(14)
Health Services Delivery Research 2014;2(14)
- A purposive, non-random sample of managers (n=68) was generated for interview, drawn from across three trusts - Acute, care and FT. The analysis was structured around four thematic areas: context (institutional and trust), management (including leadership), knowledge and networks.
- Conclusion "The main findings of the research stress the heterogeneity of management and the highly diverse sources of knowledge, learning, experience and networks drawn upon by distinct management groups (clinical, general and functional); the particular challenges facing general managers in establishing a distinct professional identity based around a coherent managerial knowledge base; the strong tendency for managerial knowledge to be more ‘home grown’ (localised) and experiential (as opposed to abstract and codified); and the tendency for this to be reinforced through the difficulties facing general managers in accessing and being actively engaged in wider networks of professionals for knowledge sharing, learning and support."
The role of informal networks in creating knowledge among health-care managers: a prospective case study. Health Services Delivery Research 2014;2(12)
- This study of health and well-being services in three sites in northern England, concluded that middle managers were knowledge synthesisers, in three different senses.
- First, they draw on different types of information, from a range of sources – quantitative routine data about populations and services, reports on progress against contractual targets, research evidence, and intelligence from colleagues in other localities.
- Second, they are able to link national policies and local priorities, and reconcile them with local operational realities. They are not always successful, but can integrate the different approaches and working practices of NHS, local authority, private and voluntary organisations.
- Third, they are able to link ideas, negotiation and action.
- Their collective efforts are typically manifested either in projects requiring multiorganisational inputs or in taking ideas from genesis to the delivery of a new service. The cluster modelling suggests that networks of managers are able to maintain relationships, and hence conserve technical and prudential knowledge, over months and years.
