Call for Papers: Management of Culture and Cultural Change in Healthcare Organisations

A special issue of European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management

Organisational culture plays a vital role in influencing the performance of healthcare organisations. Various actions and symbols define and reinforce the cultural beliefs and values that are associated with organisational performance.

The cultures of highly effective organisations tend to promote employee emotional well-being, morale, productivity and commitment. Conversely, the cultures in other, less-effective organisations often engender just the opposite. Conceptual and empirical work is needed to understand how cultural phenomena influence quality and effectiveness in healthcare organisations, broadly defined.

Examples of questions that could be addressed include, but are not limited to:

• What changes have occurred in the values and assumptions of healthcare providers and organisations in Eastern Europe as their economic systems have evolved towards market-driven economies?
• How do healthcare organisations adapt to the cultural changes brought about by the enforcement of EU human resource management rules that contradict traditional organisational practices within their countries?
• To what extent can management develop interventions to reinforce a “safety culture” when that culture may clash with the current culture in today’s complex healthcare delivery systems?
• Can healthcare organisations develop a safety culture which has an atmosphere of mutual trust, in which members talk freely about safety problems without fear of blame or punishment, while operating under Red Rules, i.e. rules that cannot be broken without serious disciplinary action?
• Can healthcare organisations develop cultures within the overall context of the communities in which they are embedded while also reinforcing universal values such as patient safety, quality of care, efficient service delivery and equitable access to care?
• What effect does significant organisational change such as downsizing, institutional mergers or consolidations have on the culture and performance of healthcare organisations?

These questions are critical as European and other countries wrestle with budget shortfalls to fund essential public services yet hope to maintain adequate levels of care for their populations. This special issue welcomes papers which address these and other topics related to cross-cultural issues within healthcare organisations.

Important Date
Submission deadline: 31 March 2012 (revised date)