Leading change in health care: the challenge of anxiety

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the centrality of anxiety in health care, especially in the context of leading change. It identifies the importance of emotional labour for clinical professionals and the resultant development of defensive routines. The idea of containment is central to addressing anxiety. Design/methodology/approach The approach involves identification of anxiety as a key factor in leading change in health care, but one which is often ignored. Findings Anxiety is the elephant in the room vis-a-vis leading change in health care. To address the use of defensive routines, a range of activities can act as “containers” for anxiety and help with leading change. Practical implications To lead change in health care implies addressing the existence and importance of anxiety and the emotional labour which health-care professionals undertake. Originality/value The existence of anxiety and the profound impact it has on leading change in health care has typically been under-estimated or avoided. The paper aims to remedy this.

Enhancing innovation speed through trust: a case study on reframing employee defensive routines

Trust in organizations plays an essential role for efficient innovation implementation. However, trust between managers and employees is under-communicated in relation to innovation speed. Innovation speed is related to innovation adoption, concerning new ways of performing laboratory services within the health sector. The purpose of this case study is to investigate how trust mechanisms may enhance innovation speed by reducing employee decisions to perform defensive routines. The focus is related to trust as a social condition for enhancing innovation acceptance in the context of management and organizing styles subject to the Norwegian Work Life Model.The study found that a lack of employee participation and involvement may result in emotional tension, a sense of uncertainty, disconnect, and various defensive mechanisms towards management and the innovation. Consequently, employees’ attention, loyalty, and responsibility might be redirected away from the innovation.

Enhancing innovation speed through trust: -A case study on reframing employee defensive routines

Trust in organizations plays an essential role for efficient innovation implementation. However, trust between managers and employees is under communicated in relation to innovation speed. Innovation speed is related to innovation adoption, concerning new ways of performing laboratory services within the health sector. The purpose of this case study is to investigate how trust mechanisms may enhance innovation speed by reducing employee decisions to perform defensive routines. The focus is related to trust as a social condition for enhancing innovation acceptance in the context of management and organizing styles subject to the Norwegian Work Life Model. The study found that a lack of employee participation and involvement, may result in emotional tension, a sense of uncertainty, disconnect, and various defensive mechanisms towards management and the innovation. Consequently, employees’ attention, loyalty and responsibility might be redirected away from the innovation.

Enhancing Innovation Speed through Trust: - A Case Study on Reframing Employee Defensive Routines

Trust in organizations plays an essential role for efficient innovation implementation. However, trust between managers and employees is under communicated in relation to innovation speed. Innovation speed is related to innovation adoption, concerning new ways of performing laboratory services within the health sector. The purpose of this case study is to investigate how trust mechanisms may enhance innovation speed by reducing employee decisions to perform defensive routines. The focus is related to trust as a social condition for enhancing innovation acceptance in the context of management and organizing styles subject to the Norwegian working life model. The study found that a lack of employee participation and involvement, may result in emotional tension, a sense of uncertainty, disconnect, and various defensive mechanisms towards management and the innovation. Consequently, employees’ attention, loyalty and responsibility might be redirected away from the innovation.

Improving managers’ intelligence through Systems Thinking

Purpose Accepting the assumption that our intelligence depends on the ability to construct models which may allow us to acquire, update and transmit our knowledge, this paper aims to highlight the role of Systems Thinking in developing the “intelligence” of managers for all types and sizes of organization. Design/methodology/approach Four relevant contributions for improving the “intelligence” of managers will be examined: the ability to understand and model dynamic systems, the structure of Control Systems, the rules of the decision-making process and the identification of systems archetypes. Findings The paper will show that Systems Thinking, through the logic of Control Systems, offers managers a comprehensive representation of the problem-solving and decision-making processes, teaching them how to distinguish problems from symptoms and to acquire a leverage effect. Additionally, Senge’s system archetypes will be presented and new archetypes will be added to Senge’s list. Practical implications The viability of every organization and its effective resilience and survival make it more than ever necessary for managers to adopt Systems Thinking, not only as a technique but also primarily as a discipline for efficient and effective thinking, learning, communication and explanation with regard to the dynamics of the world. Originality/value The message of the paper is that by continually applying the rules and language of Systems Thinking, managers develop the capability to continually adapt their models to the dynamics of the world, increase their learning capacity and better gauge their consequent judgments, decisions and behavior, thereby removing the mental impediments to intelligence (inappropriate mental models, defensive routines, judgmental biases, rules, etc.).

The “Intensification-Quality Paradox” in ICT Organizations

Paradoxes and system contradictions in organizations may expose employees to tensions and contradictions, which they can only partially resolve, and from which they may only partially escape. Exposure to double-bind situations leads to stress, anxiety, and other symptoms of behavioral, affective, and cognitive disturbances. When employees are caught between paradoxical injunctions and organizational defensive routines hinder metacommunication, some employees develop dysfunctional coping strategies and end up being burned out. During a phenomenological PhD research on the burnout experience of 14 ICT employees in France and Norway, a stress-inducing pathological communication pattern was discovered and named the “intensification-quality paradox.” The research participants had experienced two conflicting demands as a double bind: “do more with less” and “be excellent.” The employees with high standards and ideals spent excessive personal energy to do more with less while keeping the quality constant. They got increasingly exhausted, ineffective, and finally burnt out.