We will investigate the argument that: Healthcare managers' motivation and ability to access and use management research may (under some circumstances) be increasing from historically low levels, due to the professionalisation of management and a developing high-quality knowledge-base.
We can operationalise our broad idea into the following research question: Under what circumstances and how do managers (both general managers and hybrid clinical-managers) access and use management research-based knowledge in their decision-making?
Our design uses mixed methods, having a linked, three staged design, which deliberately explores the boundary between management research and practice. Core to the design, is exploring the acquisition and utilization of knowledge from the field of management/ organisation studies in a wide diversity of healthcare-related settings. These settings are purposefully selected to explore the links between individual motivation, learning, action and group and organisational incentives/disincentives to acquire new managerial knowledge.
Our organisational settings include: (i) NHS acute trust (public acute provider); (ii) NHS PCT (public, primary care); (iii) Private organisation/hospital (where corporate knowledge management systems may be used more); (iv) Management consultancy specialising in healthcare (an expanding knowledge-based industry); (v) A translational research centre, linking bio-medical knowledge with organisational knowledge on research diffusion; (vi) A policy organisation.
Phase 1
Part 1's design envisages a cohort group of 20-30 managers from case study organisations (i.e. 4 - 6 in each site); this sample is deliberately large to allow for cohort attrition. The sample will be split into two parts; 50% of the managers will be general managers who have always followed a management career and 50% will be clinical managers who either remain as practicing clinicians but hold a part-time management role or have moved recently from clinical to a management role.
This phase will focus primarily on exploring the individual's perspective and enable detailed investigation of how and why an individual: (a) is motivated to seek new knowledge; (b) decides on the logic of their search processes and the sources used; (c) utilises this knowledge within their work- this will include investigating the organizational facilitators and inhibitors to knowledge utilisation; (d) how knowledge use is affected by a 'knowledge career' and effects on underlying knowledge identity, at work.
In particular we will look at the impact of early experiences or management and managerial role models, on the way managers enact management roles later in their careers (see McGivern et al 2008a).
Phase 2
Phase 2 will look at a tracer issue of the application of management knowledge in each site.
Action Learning Sets
The design also incorporates the formation of three action learning sets in order to test and evaluate this form of intervention as a method of sharing research-based learning and of encouraging and facilitating the uptake and utilisation of research-based evidence. This third action learning phase of the Project will itself be an experiment in how managers use management/organisation, knowledge/research in healthcare related settings, and processes of inter-organisational learning.