Perceptions of organisational subculture and their significance for organisational commitment

This paper investigates the relationship between perceptions of organisational culture, organisational subculture, leadership style, and commitment. The impact of culture and leadership style on commitment has been previously noted, but there is a lack of detail regarding how different types of culture and leadership styles relate to commitment. The paper particularly addresses the notion of organisational subcultures and how the perception of those cultures relates to commitment, subculture being a neglected variable in the commitment literature. These issues were addressed in a survey of 258 nurses drawn from a range of hospital settings and wards within the Sydney metropolitan region. Results indicate that perceived organisational subculture has a strong relationship with commitment. Furthermore, the results identify the relative strength of specific types of leadership style and specific types of subculture with commitment. Both innovative and supportive subcultures have a clear positive relationship, while bureaucratic subcultures have a negative relationship. In terms of leadership style, a consideration style had a stronger relationship with commitment than a structuring style. Regression analysis was used to investigate the possible role of subculture as a mediator for the influence of leadership on commitment. Both direct and indirect effects of leadership on commitment were found. Implications for practice and for further research are discussed.

Who owns the child in hospital? A preliminary discussion

Aim. To 'own' a person is considered an infringement of human rights, but we suggest that concepts of ownership influence interactions between parents and staff when a child is admitted to hospital. This paper aims to stimulate debate and contains an explanation of the exploration of the literature for research and discussion of ownership of the child. Method. A wide variety of library indexes, databases and populist media were examined although it was impossible to examine all literature which may have contained references to this topic, and, apart from databases which contained abstracts in English, we could not include literature written in any language other than English, Swedish, and Icelandic. Findings. We found no research that examines how concepts of ownership of a child affects communication between health professionals and parents and, ultimately, the delivery of health care. This paper begins discussion on the issues. Discussion. Historical literature shows that ownership of humans has been a part of many cultures, and parents were once considered to own their children. Ownership of another has legal connotations, for instance in guardianship struggles of children during marriage breakup and in ethical debates over surrogacy and products of assisted conception. Within health care, it becomes a contentious issue in transplantation of body parts, in discourse on autonomy and informed consent, and for religious groups who refuse blood transfusions. In health care, models such as family centred care and partnership in care depend on positive communication between parents and staff. If a hospital staff member feels that he/she owns a child for whom he/she is caring, then conflict between the staff member and the parents over who has the 'best interests of the child' at heart is possible. Conclusion. We encourage debate about concepts of who owns the hospitalized child - the parents or the staff? Should it be argued at all? Is the whole concept of ownership of another, be it adult or child, the ethical antithesis to modern beliefs about human rights? Comment on this issue is invited.

A comparative analysis of entrepreneurial approaches within public healthcare organisations

This article examines the development of two distinct models of organising allied health professionals within two public sector health service organisations in Australia. The first case illustrated a mode of organising that facilitated a culture that focused on asset protection and whose external orientation was threat oriented because its disparate multiple identities operated as a fractured, fragmented and competitive set of profession disciplines. In this milieu, there was no evidence of entrepreneurial approaches being used. In contrast, the second case study illustrated a mode of organising that facilitated an entrepreneurial culture that focused on asset growth and an external orientation that was opportunity oriented because of the evolution of a strong superordinate allied health identity that operated as a single united health services stakeholder. This evolution was coupled with the emergence of a corporate boardroom model of management that is consonant with Savage et al. (1997) IDS/N model of management. Once this structure and strategy were in place, corporate entrepreneur ship became the modus operandi. Consequently, because the case study was a situation where corporate entrepreneurship existed in the public sector, it was possible to compare the factors that stimulate corporate entrepreneurship in Sadler's (2000) study with factors that were observed in our study.

Job uncertainty and personal control during downsizing: A comparison of survivors and victims

This study developed and tested a model of job uncertainty for survivors and victims of downsizing. Data were collected from three samples of employees in a public hospital, each representing three phases of the downsizing process: immediately before the announcement of the redeployment of staff, during the implementation of the downsizing, and towards the end of the official change programme. As predicted, levels of job uncertainty and personal control had a direct relationship with emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, In addition, there was evidence to suggest that personal control mediated the relationship between job uncertainty and employee adjustment, a pattern of results that varied across each of the three phases of the change event. From the perspective of the organization's overall climate, it was found that levels of job uncertainty, personal control and job satisfaction improved and/or stabilized over the downsizing process. During the implementation phase, survivors experienced higher levels of personal control than victims, but both groups of employees reported similar levels of job uncertainty. We discuss the implications of our results for strategically managing uncertainty during and after organizational change.

The role of psychological climate in facilitating employee adjustment during organizational change

The current research tested a theoretical model of employee adjustment during organizational change based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) cognitive-phenomenological framework. The model hypothesized that psychological climate variables would act as coping resources and predict improved adjustment during change. Two variations of this model were tested using survey data from two different organizational samples: 779 public hospital employees and 877 public sector employees. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation analyses were conducted in order to evaluate the models. Results showed that employees whose perceptions of the organization and environment in which they were working (that is, psychological climate) were more positive, were more likely to appraise change favourably and report better adjustment in terms of higher job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and organizational commitment, and lower absenteeism and turnover intentions.

"We do it, but they don't": Multiple categorizations and work team communication

The present study adopted an intergroup approach to information sharing and ratings of work team communication in a public hospital (N = 142) undergoing large-scale restructuring. Consistent with predictions, ratings of communication followed a double ingroup serving bias: while team members reported sending about the same levels of information to double ingroup members (same work team/same occupational group) as they did to partial ingroup members (same work team/different occupational group), they reported receiving less information from partial ingroup members than from double ingroup members and rated the communication that they received from partial ingroup members as less effective. We discuss the implication of these results for the management of information sharing and organizational communication.

Extending a model of shift-work tolerance

The present study contributes to theory and practice through the development of a model of shift-work tolerance with the potential to indicate interventions that reduce nurses' intention toward turnover and increase job satisfaction in hospital-based settings. Survey data from 1257 nurses were used to conduct structural equation modeling that examine the direct and indirect effects of supervisor and colleague support, team identity, team climate, and control over working environment on time-based work/life conflict, psychological well-being, physical symptoms, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. The analysis of the proposed model revealed a good fit The chi-square difference test was non-significant (χ2(26)=338.56), the fit indices were high (CFI=.923, NFI=.918, and NNFI=.868), the distribution of residuals was symmetric and approached zero, the average standardized residual was low (AASR=.04), and the standardized RMR was .072. In terms of the predictor variable, the final model explained 48% of the variance in turnover intention. The data revealed considerable evidence of both direct effects on adjustment and complex indirect links between levels of adjustment and work-related social support, team identity, team climate, and control. Nurses with high supervisor and coworker support experienced more positive team climates, identified more strongly with their team, and increased their perceptions of control over their work environment. This in turn lowered their appraisals of their time-based work/life conflict, which consequently increased their psychological well-being and job satisfaction and reduced their physical health symptoms and turnover intention. The type of shift schedule worked by the nurses influenced levels of turnover intention, control over work environment, time-based work/life conflict, and physical symptoms.