Abstract
This chapter deals with collaborative work development targeted to improve innovativeness and quality in health care. The study unravels contradictions and their solutions within a work development intervention held by medical practitioners, their management and researchers. The framework of the study is activity theory, which views contradictions as drivers for learning and change. During the intervention, the participants co-created and implemented a new activity and management model in a surgical unit. This required breaking organizational boundaries and collectively analyzing historically accumulated contradictions. As a consequence, the unit overcame a near crisis and both significantly increased its efficiency and quality of care and strengthened its community. The study increases our knowledge on innovation creation and the successful management of contradictions to improve quality in health care.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
The research group consisted of Yrjö Engeström (PI), Hannele Kerosuo, and the author (Anu Kajamaa). The contribution of other two researchers to this project is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Currie V, Harvey G (2000) The use of care pathways as tools to support the implementation of evidence-based practice. J Interprof Care 14(4):311–333
Engeström Y (1987) Learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit, Helsinki
Engeström Y (2005) Developmental work research: expanding activity theory in practice, Rückriem G (ed), vol 12. Lehmanns Media, Berlin
Engeström Y, Sannino A (2011) Discursive manifestations of contradictions in organizational change efforts: a methodological framework. J Organ Change Manage 24(3):368–387
Engeström Y, Kerosuo H, Kajamaa A (2007) Beyond discontinuity: expansive organizational learning remembered. Manage Learn J 38(3):319–336
Harders M, Malangoni M, Weight S, Sidhu T (2006) Improving operating room efficiency through process redesign. Surgery 140(4):509–516
Kajamaa A (2010) Expanding care pathways –towards interplay of multiple care objects. Int J Publ Sector Manage 23(4):392–402
Kajamaa A (2011) Unraveling the helix of change: an activity-theoretical study of health care change efforts and their consequences. Dissertation, Unigrafia, Helsinki
Leont’ev AN (1978) Activity, consciousness and personality. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Maccoby M (2006) Health care organizations as collaborative learning communities. In: Heckscher C, Adler PS (eds) The firm as a collaborative community: reconstructing trust in the knowledge economy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 259–280
McNulty T, Ferlie E (2004) Process transformations: limitations to radical organizational change within public service organizations. Organ Stud 28(8):1389–1412
Sannino A, Daniels H, Gutierrez K (eds) (2009) Learning and expanding with activity theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Vartiainen P (2008) Health care management in Finland. An analysis of the wickedness of selected reforms. Rev Bus 28(2):41–55
Vygotsky LS (1978) Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kajamaa, A. (2015). Collaborative Work Development as a Resource for Innovation and Quality Improvement in Health Care: An Example from a Hospital Surgery. In: Gurtner, S., Soyez, K. (eds) Challenges and Opportunities in Health Care Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12178-9_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12178-9_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12177-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12178-9
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)