The purpose of this paper is to draw parallels between universal basic income (UBI) and universal healthcare, highlighting their conceptual alignment and combined implications for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw parallels between universal basic income (UBI) and universal healthcare, highlighting their conceptual alignment and combined implications for health management and organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The idea that everyone should receive a set amount of money regardless of employment finds renewed momentum amid increasingly precarious work arrangements and an uncertain job market. Less explored, however, is the connection between this idea and the more established notion of universal healthcare. This paper brings these two ideas together by examining their shared underpinnings in capitalist work relations, and more broadly a global economic system organized by and for corporations at the expense of workers.
Findings
The argument is made that the underlying dynamics of contemporary capitalism cannot be relied upon to provide for basic health and wealth. These limitations must be offset with social assurances that not only mitigate capitalism’s liabilities, but also facilitate innovation and sustainable growth.
Originality/value
Rarely have UBI and universal healthcare been considered together. This paper examines their shared origins in a capitalist world system and demonstrates their shared justification in a future increasingly devoid of stable work.
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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalysis to an emerging sub-field known as “critical healthcare management studies” (CHMS).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalysis to an emerging sub-field known as “critical healthcare management studies” (CHMS).
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon a wave of critical scholarship in the broader field of management, scholars and practitioners of healthcare management have begun to forge a critical scholarly movement of their own. CHMS, short for “critical healthcare management studies,” formally denotes a new subfield of inquiry dedicated to challenging entrenched assumptions, exposing power relations, and cultivating critical praxis, all the while serving as a vital counterpoint to mainstream scholarship. This paper seeks to augment the CHMS movement with psychoanalysis, and particularly the critical vein of organizational psychoanalysis already well-established in critical management studies.
Findings
The argument is made that a greater engagement with psychoanalysis offers novel avenues for critical theorizing and practice in healthcare management. Specifically three areas are considered: 1) the exploitative role of guilt in the caring professions, 2) the resurgence of authoritarianism and its implications for unconscious organizational dynamics, and 3) the potential for a psychoanalytically informed critical healthcare praxis.
Originality/value
While there remain wide differences of opinion about the utility of psychoanalysis outside of the clinical arena, this paper reveals just how psychoanalysis can inform today's healthcare organizations, and more broadly the social and political organization of health in society.
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While considerable scholarly attention has been given to “millennials” (those born between 1981 and 1997), little is known of this generation’s ability to influence healthcare…
Abstract
Purpose
While considerable scholarly attention has been given to “millennials” (those born between 1981 and 1997), little is known of this generation’s ability to influence healthcare organizations and managerial roles in particular. This paper aims to clarify why millennials enter the healthcare management field and how their motivations correlate with preferences for working in various healthcare sectors and with various patient populations.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 107 millennials pursuing bachelor degrees in healthcare management by using a modified version of the multidimensional work motivation scale. Further data were collected on millennials’ preferences for working in various healthcare sectors and with various patient populations. Correlational analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between types of motivation and workplace preferences. Cross-cultural differences were also examined within this generational set.
Findings
Results indicate a significant positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and preferences for working on the payer side of the industry and within finance and IT functions. Findings also reveal a significant positive relationship between prosocial motivation and preferences for working with more vulnerable patient populations. Variance in work motivation among cultural sub-sets of millennials suggests different upbringings, or alternatively, cultural relativity of the motivational constructs themselves.
Research limitations/implications
Despite offering key insights into the next generation of healthcare managers, this study is limited by a sample of millennials from one large, metropolitan university in the USA and thus may not represent the views of all millennials.
Practical implications
To select, retain and develop the next generation of healthcare managers, it is incumbent upon organizations to better understanding millennials’ motivations and preferences.
Originality/value
This study is the first of its kind to illuminate the motivations and preferences that underpin a key and growing segment of the healthcare workforce. Millennials, now the largest and most diverse generation on the planet, are poised to change the landscape of health care.
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The purpose of this paper is to argue for a revision of the concept of compassion fatigue in light of both its history and psychodynamics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue for a revision of the concept of compassion fatigue in light of both its history and psychodynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper calls into question conventional interpretations of compassion fatigue and the assumptions underlying them. As an alternative, a psychoanalytic interpretation is offered that sheds light on the phenomenon’s unconscious and organizational dynamics. This interpretation also aligns with the concept’s historical use in media and politics.
Findings
In contrast to the assumption that compassion fatigue arises from too much compassion, historical use of the term suggests just the opposite: compassion fatigue is the result of too little compassion. Healthcare literature on compassion fatigue has not only failed to account for this opposing view, but also the underlying psychodynamics at play. By attending to these neglected dimensions, healthcare scholars and practitioners can gain new insights into compassion fatigue and devise more sustainable interventions.
Originality/value
This paper reveals hidden dimensions to compassion fatigue that call into question conventional interpretations and offer novel perspectives on a core concern of healthcare work.
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Nathan Gerard and Seth Allcorn
This paper aims to demonstrate the value of combining the strategic planning process with psychoanalytically informed interpretation through an exploratory case study.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to demonstrate the value of combining the strategic planning process with psychoanalytically informed interpretation through an exploratory case study.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present their experiences and findings from a consulting engagement that began as a strategic planning assignment and soon evolved into an opportunity to explore unconscious forces inhibiting organizational change. The authors, trained in both areas, chose to infuse the two into a combined process that ultimately benefited the organization and suggested novel ways to think about the common process of strategic planning going forward.
Findings
The organization's strategic planning process was considerably enhanced, and its outcomes sustained, by illuminating the unconscious forces at work, particularly as they pertain to issues of power and authority in a male organizational culture found to have a profound negative influence upon the quality of the work environment and employee morale. Findings suggest that without a psychoanalytically informed approach, strategic planning would have failed to produce sustainable change.
Research limitations/implications
While the findings reported are from a single case study, the themes explored are likely shared across multiple organizations. There is, therefore, significant potential in combining strategic planning with a psychoanalytic approach to improve organizational effectiveness and employee morale.
Originality/value
Although common in organizations, strategic planning is rarely augmented with psychoanalytic insights. This case study is the first of its kind to show how the two interventions may complement each other.
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In their recent book, Dead Man Working, Carl Cederström and Peter Fleming paint a haunting picture of the contemporary employee: sleep deprived and overworked, exhausted and…
Abstract
In their recent book, Dead Man Working, Carl Cederström and Peter Fleming paint a haunting picture of the contemporary employee: sleep deprived and overworked, exhausted and strung out, unable to tell where work ends and where life begins, hardly alive and yet unable to die. In this paper, the author widens the picture by examining the systemic effects of contemporary work on the family. Drawing upon ideas from psychoanalysis and critical theory, the author reveals how the extraction of life by work reverberates across generations and seeps into the home environment. The author also reveals how new constellations of family reinforce deadening work. What emerges is a family portrait known as the “dead family working.”
Cristina Neesham and Susan Freeman
In this paper we propose a typology of firm-stakeholder relationships based on four different states of consumption, leading to a new model of business commitment to responsible…
Abstract
In this paper we propose a typology of firm-stakeholder relationships based on four different states of consumption, leading to a new model of business commitment to responsible consumption. In developing this typology, we apply a physiological theory of consumption to define business as a nexus of activities capable of producing four different types of value: subsistence, growth, indifference and excess. The model represents a more coherent conceptualization of business management, drawing upon long-term multi-dimensional value management in firm-stakeholder relations. Thus, in our model, we establish normative connections between value creation and responsible consumption, and indicate more specific measures of value creation for stakeholders, by promoting subsistence and growth, and discouraging indifference and excess. We are thus taking value creation stakeholder theory one step further, by exploring how different levels of value or utility could inform integrative, convergent value creation processes within the firm as a network of stakeholders.