Physician agonistes: The dialectical synthesis of physicians' work and the healthcare organization

Daniel Stuart Wilbur, Purdue University

Abstract

This dissertation examines the role of the healthcare organization in shaping how physicians do their work. The fundamental premise of this research study asserts that the ways in which physicians construct and accomplish their work roles is greatly influenced by tensions resulting from the dual nature of various expectations of physicians within the healthcare organization. Those tensions, this study argues, are best explored by expanding the research scope to include the context in which physicians care for patients. The primary tension studied is of physician resistance to the organization’s bureaucratic control. Through analysis of in-depth interviews with practicing physicians within one healthcare organization, this study uncovers ways in which physicians struggle and cope with organizational tensions, and how that ongoing struggle both effects and affects physician identity through organizational identification. This dissertation addresses a need for more research into the role of the healthcare organization in shaping how physicians do their work so we can better understand the physician/healthcare-organization relationship.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Morgan, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Communication|Medicine|Organizational behavior|Health care management

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