Michael Powell

Restructuring the Professional Organization : Accounting, Health Care and Law

In recent years the professions have undergone radical transformation. With the advent of rapidly changing markets, more sophisticated and demanding clients, deregulation and increased competition, the generalist professional partnerships have given way to larger, more corporate forms of organization, comprising increasingly autonomous specialist business units. This volume critically examines these changes through an examination of the archetypes which characterize accounting, health care and law practitioners. With examples drawn from Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA, Restructuring the Professional Organization will be of interest to all students of organization studies seeking to understand the issues and problems confronting the professions as they move to the new millennium. Topics covered include: * a review of the models of professional organization *drivers of change in professional organizations * internal dynamics of changes in these organizations * new organizational forms and archetypes.

Archetypal Change and the Professional Service Firm

This chapter explores archetypal change in the context of professional service firms. To understand recent and ongoing changes in professional service firms, we briefly show how the professional archetype has evolved since the 1960s. We then present four theoretical models to describe processes by which institutionalized archetypes can change, and possibly coexist in the same field. Three professional archetypes are described, each in the context of historical development and the change model described earlier. At the one extreme is the traditional professional partnership; at the other the larger, multidisciplinary, corporate, global professional network, or GPN; in between is the “Star” form – relatively specialized, flatter structure, resisting significant growth, with fixations on excellence, and being the leader in a professional niche.

The development of leaders able to respond to climate change and sustainability challenges: The role of business schools

Purpose – This paper seeks to discuss the role of business academics and business schools in the development of leaders able to respond to climate change and sustainability challenges.Design/methodology/approach – The paper captures contributions made during a panel discussion at the First Academic Symposium on Leadership for Climate Change and Sustainability held at La Trobe University, Melbourne in February 2011. The Symposium preceded the 10th General Assembly of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) held in Melbourne and the authors are from GRLI partner organisations.Findings – There is a pressing need for business schools to focus on the development of personal and leadership skills, to draw staff from outside the traditional business disciplines and to reflect the gender and race diversity of the population in which they are located. The change required in business education to develop leaders who can respond to climate change and sustainability challenges is as significant as the c...

Designing research organizations for science innovation

Abstract In these times of rapid environmental and organizational change, there is increasing demand for sustainable, continuous innovation. Science research organizations, which operate at the cutting edge of creative innovation, require organizational designs capable of supporting this growing trend. This article identifies four distinct design archetypes, which are then integrated into a comprehensive typology for the analysis of science organizations. Case studies of a set of eight comparable research institutes in New Zealand highlight the various design options available to science organizations as well as the performance implications of these options.

Achieving organizational change: findings from a case study of health promoting hospitals in Taiwan

The Taiwanese Network of Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH) has been in place since 2006 and developing rapidly. The criticism of inadequate evaluation of the HPH approach taken elsewhere also holds true for the Taiwan HPH Network. Organizational change is a key to sustainable and effective health promotion, and it is also an important aspect in the European HPH movement. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate changes in organizational capacity for the implementation of HPH in Taiwan. All 55 HPH coordinators were invited to participate in the study, and 52 of them completed the questionnaires. The survey covered seven dimensions of HPH organizational capacity, and a total score of each dimension was calculated and converted to a figure on a scale of 10. This study has shown that HPH made a positive impact on HP hospitals in Taiwan regarding organizational change in capacity building for HPH. Leadership, organization culture and mission and strategy received the top three highest mean scores (8.19 ± 1.25, 8.08 ± 1.39, 7.99 ± 1.42), while staff participation received the lowest score (7.62 ± 1.26). The high level of organizational change was associated with the high satisfaction levels of organizational support from the viewpoint of the HPH coordinators. Based on a cluster analysis, a majority of the HP hospitals in Taiwan seemed to have adopted the addition model in putting the HPH initiative into practice; a few hospitals appeared to have accepted HPH initiative well through the integration model. These results presented evidence that HPH contributed to organizational capacity building of hospitals for health promotion.

Organisational Change to Health Promoting Hospitals: A Review of the Literature

The Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH) initiative, as a setting approach, was launched by the World Health Organisation in 1988, and widespread expansion and development throughout the world ensued. This paper elaborates on and clarifies the concept of HPH and highlights the development of health-promoting settings in hospitals. This review also examines the enabling and hindering roles of organisational factors in reorienting hospitals towards health-promoting settings. This paper reaffirms the significance of organisational change in building capacity for health promotion during the development of HPH and notes that hospitals require systematic organisational support to fulfil their roles in promoting population health. Nevertheless, this review suggests that many of the identified barriers are related to insufficient organisational support. In particular, the low prioritisation of health promotion in hospital missions, shortages of resources, ineffective project management, lack of communication, poor coordination and integration and inappropriate job–person matches were six major reported barriers. Organisational capacity building for health promotion must be considered if hospitals are to adopt the HPH initiative.

The Transformation of Employment Relations in New Zealand State-Owned Enterprises: The Assertion of Management Control

This paper examines the changes in employment relations which occurred in a number of government departments, government trading enterprises and statutory corporations as they were transformed into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under New Zealand State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986. Under this important piece of legislation every SOE is expected to operate as a successful business which is as profitable and efficient as comparable businesses not owned by the state. Resulting changes in employment relations included the removal of centralized and bureaucratic public-sector controls, the assertion of management control in employment relations, the devolution of manage ment control, the reform of the workplace, the design of new performance appraisal and incentive mechanisms, and a focus on devices to change organ izational culture and employee commitment. As they emerge from their tran sitions, SOEs are beginning to develop a strategic human resource manage ment perspective.

Self-reported changes in the implementation of hospital-based health promotion in Taiwan.

Purpose. To evaluate the pattern of perceived changes in the implementation of the Health Promoting Hospital (HPH) Initiative. Design. This was a cross-sectional study with a self-administered questionnaire, asking the correspondents what changes they perceived before and after adopting the HPH initiative. Setting. This study was conducted with 55 hospitals committed to the HPH in Taiwan, and 52 completed the questionnaire. Subjects. One coordinator in each of the 55 hospitals served as subject. Intervention. HPH seeks to improve health gains for its stakeholders by developing structure, cultures, decisions, and process conducive to health promotion. Measures. Perceived changes were measured in the areas of more resource inputs, changing work models, realigned implementation strategies, more programs, higher service volume, and improved quality control. Regarding realigned strategies, emphasizing the impact of healthy public policies, supportive environments, staff participation, individual knowledge and skills, and reorienting health services were measured. Analysis. Descriptive analysis was used to examine the pattern of “prevalence of changes.” Results. Changes were more prevalent in the domains of patients and community (both with averaged ranks = 1.8); “realigning strategies” was the area in which more changes were perceived (average rank = 1). Emphases on healthy public policies and reorienting health services were the leading changes (both averaged ranks = 2.4) regarding realigning strategies. Conclusion. The HPH initiative appeared to be an effective approach to build organizational capacity for health promotion.