IK'IRODUCTION TRADITIONALLY, hospital-based physicians group themselves into services (or divisions) and services into departments. Following recent advances in medical technologies these physicians now interact across departmental boundaries for sharing knowledge, information, resources and clientele. Two questions are thus examined here (1) what is the nature of those interdependencies (2) which of those activities are so critical that a new basis for grouping -namely workflow -should be considered.This study was conducted in a 600 bed teaching hospital. It focused on interactions among specialists involved in diagnosing and treating heart diseases. Three indicators are used to assess the nature, frequency and direction of communications. Findings reveal the existence of three groupings of services belonging to distinct departments, with some services belonging to more than one grouping. A more in-depth analysis of the critical aspects of those relationships suggest that in these organizations process interdependency is valued as a pervasive source of professionals' knowledge renewal and career advancement, hence predominates over workflow interdependency as the basic criterion for grouping physicians.Since the important book by Chaple and Sayles (1961), followed a few years later by that of Thompson (1967), few studies have been published which further examine the nature and impact of task interdependencies on the grouping of positions or of work units. Yet interdependence is constantly referred to as one of the most pervasive characteristics of organizations, and unit grouping as one of the most powerful of the design parameters (Mintzberg, 1979). In an attempt to stimulate such research, this article reports on the results of a study of task interdependencies among hospitalbased medical specialists.
Cet article tente de dresser un inventaire des positions prises par de nombreux auteurs sur la nature des buts poursuivis par les organisations et sur le processus suivi dans la formulation de ces buts.At first, this appears to be a trivial question. Organizations ought to exist for somebody or something. Organizations, as well as individuals ought to have goals so that they can generate alternatives, test them and measure performance. Theoretical discussions and empirical researches do not arrive at such a simple acknowledgement. For example, in 1961, Perrow wrote : « Social scientists have produced a rich body of knowledge about many aspects of large-scale organizations, yet there are comparatively few studies of the goals of these organizations ».A decade later, Georgiou (1973) concluded his study of the literature on goals by stating : « Evidence for a goal paradigm is readily available. Even a cursory examination of the literature on organizations illustrates, irrespective of the theory or model utilized, the primary of organizational goals, but at the same time the extremely restricted scope of the study of goals. Rarely are analysts concerned with the question of whether organizations can be said to have goals ; their existence is an unquestioned and unquestionable assumption ».The difficulty seems to arise from the fact that our way of looking at organizational goals, and theorizing about organizational behavior consistent with them, diverges in three basic ways. Borrowing concepts and findings from economies, psychology, social psychology, political sciences and sociology, we can perceive the organization either as aninstrument aimed at achieving one or a few goals, or a set of goals, or anincentive system, or anarbitrarily defined focus of interests.THE ORGANIZATION AS AN INSTRUMENTAny instrument designer always considers at least the following three aspects : (1) its purpose, mission, finality or goal, (2) the user and his relevant characteristics, (3) the composite parts.Similarly an overview of the litterature allows us to distinguish along these aspects, three models of goals as related to the user's characteristics and composite parts. Goal User (s) Composite partsA- profit maximization - the entrepreneur - one single entityB- profit and other goal - the entrepreneur - one single entity(following a preferen- - several decision-makers - several decision-makersce function) within the organization uniformly directed by formal guides.C- Society needs - the entrepreneur - several decision-makers - multiplicity of decision- uniformly directed by an makers within and outside identical value system. organizations.Model A is the...
La Compagnie de Transport Provincial (Montréal) à cause d'une expansion rapide, a revisé certaines de ses procédures administratives. L'auteur donne le résultat de cette expérience dans le département du trésor qui comprend plus de cent employés cléricaux.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.