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Some unintended effects of teamwork in healthcare

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  • Finn, Rachael
  • Learmonth, Mark
  • Reedy, Patrick

Abstract

Teamwork has been emphasised as a key feature of health service reform, essential for safe, efficient and patient-centred care. Bringing together literatures from the sociology of healthcare and organizational theory, we examine how the teamwork phenomenon plays out in practice. Drawing upon material from two ethnographic studies, conducted in an operating theatre and a medical-records department in separate UK NHS hospitals, we explore some of the discursive teamwork practices of healthcare staff. Our analysis presents a very different picture from the normative, evangelistic promotion of teamwork within much management and health policy writing. We reveal how the ambiguity of teamwork opens up opportunities for a complex, diverse range of responses to the managerial discourse among diverse occupational groups, mobilizing the discourse to enact identity in different ways. We highlight how teamwork discourse can be instrumentally co-opted in the reproduction of the very occupational divisions it is designed to ameliorate, or simply ignored as irrelevant when compared to more attractive forms of collective identity. These responses challenge both those who believe that teamwork is a solution to problems in healthcare, as well as those concerned about the oppressive effects of pervasive managerialism.

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  • Finn, Rachael & Learmonth, Mark & Reedy, Patrick, 2010. "Some unintended effects of teamwork in healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1148-1154, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:70:y:2010:i:8:p:1148-1154
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mackintosh, Nicola & Humphrey, Charlotte & Sandall, Jane, 2014. "The habitus of ‘rescue’ and its significance for implementation of rapid response systems in acute health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 233-242.
    2. Martin, Graham P. & Learmonth, Mark, 2012. "A critical account of the rise and spread of ‘leadership’: The case of UK healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 281-288.
    3. Croft, Charlotte & Currie, Graeme, 2020. "Realizing policy aspirations of voluntary sector involvement in integrated care provision: Insights from the English National Health Service," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(5), pages 549-555.
    4. Rodriquez, Jason, 2015. "Who is on the medical team?: Shifting the boundaries of belonging on the ICU," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 112-118.
    5. Skyberg, Henriette Lund & Innvaer, Simon, 2020. "Dynamics of interprofessional teamwork: Why three logics are better than one," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    6. Glimmerveen, Ludo & Ybema, Sierk & Nies, Henk, 2018. "Empowering citizens or mining resources? The contested domain of citizen engagement in professional care services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 1-8.
    7. Sumati Ahuja, 2023. "Professional Identity Threats in Interprofessional Collaborations: A Case of Architects in Professional Service Firms," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 428-453, March.
    8. Xyrichis, Andreas & Lowton, Karen & Rafferty, Anne Marie, 2017. "Accomplishing professional jurisdiction in intensive care: An ethnographic study of three units," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 102-111.
    9. McDougall, A. & Goldszmidt, M. & Kinsella, E.A. & Smith, S. & Lingard, L., 2016. "Collaboration and entanglement: An actor-network theory analysis of team-based intraprofessional care for patients with advanced heart failure," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 108-117.
    10. Liberati, Elisa Giulia & Gorli, Mara & Scaratti, Giuseppe, 2016. "Invisible walls within multidisciplinary teams: Disciplinary boundaries and their effects on integrated care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 31-39.

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