Lecture 1 Organizations in health care, structure and design trade-offs Flashcards
What is an organization
- People working collectively for a common purpose
- An organized group of people with a particular purpose
Mechanic organizational structure
- Task-oriented
- Efficient and productive
- Formalized, central and complex
- Stable and simple environment
Organic organizational structure
- Task, authority & routines constantly redefined
- ‘Flat’ organization
- Informal, decentralized, simple
- Complex & dynamic environment
Bureaucracy definition
Bureaucracy is an organizational structure characterized by regulatory procedures, division of responsibility, hierarchy, and impersonal relationships.
Operating principles of bureaucracy
- Rationalisation (rules/procedures)
- Formality
- Specialization
- Hierarchy (top-down)
- Universal access, but no individual control
Critiques bureaucracy
- Dehumanizing effect
- Little room for ‘human beings’
- Inflexible/rigid
- Inefficient and viscous
- Differentiation & Disintegration
- Limited rationality
- Limited morality
Why is a hospital bureaucratic
- Standardization of processess
- Highly specialized
- Hierarchy
- Universal access, but no individual control
New Public Management
From supply-driven to demand-driven
- Strengthening position of healthcare consumers
- Achievements made ‘tangible’
- Accountability not solely horizontal anymore
- Improvement of performance
Creates a tension between the relation of professionalism and management
Professionalism
Protected professionals treat cases
- Skills
- Norms
- Expertise
- Service ethic
- Quality
- Humanity
Managerialism
Well-run organizations deliver products for customers
- Hierarchy
- Markets
- Results
- Accountability
- Efficiency
- Profitability
Dutch regulated market ‘competition’ by New Public Management
- Regulated health care market
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Demand & supply driven
- Tension between management & professionalism
Market failure in health care
- Health care is not a business
- Insufficient ‘competition’ to offer high quality care at best price
- No direct interaction between supply and demand, but mediated by third party
- Increased accountability –> bureaucracy revisited
Formalization
The extent to which rules, procedures, and other guides to action are written and enforced
Centralization
The extent to which authority to make decisions is retained in top management
Complexity
The number of different jobs and/or units within an organization