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Andersson, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
Assessing outcome in collaboration : the impact of assessment on collaboration practice
2013
Ingår i: Critical Management Studies Conference 2013.
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Today the concept of efficiency is a guiding light in public management. Increased efficiency is thought to control spending and provide better services. Two approaches to achieve this are through assessments such as evaluation and audits; and collaboration between different actors. Collaboration can imply e.g. networks or partnerships and vary in intensity and formality. Regardless of form, collaborative efforts are generally thought to achieve services better adapted to address complex social problems, and diminishing overlaps and unclear responsibilities caused by fragmentation. Assessments are used to determine whether or not a program or a service is efficient, but the act of assessment itself is also intended to increase efficiency. Thus, the act of assessment influences the practice it is assessing. Furthermore, in order to be assessed, a program or a service has to be “evaluable”, which may also influence practice. Collaboration is often a solution to previous sector failure, and at the same time it is perceived as difficult to both achieve and sustain. Assessments are used as a tool to determine whether or not collaborative advantage is achieved and if the investments in collaboration should be pursued.Assessments of collaboration are a challenge since it confronts the regular vertical forms of organizing and thereby the focus of assessment. The challenge can be boiled down to the question of what collaborative arrangements can, and should, be held accountable for.Based on an ethnographic study and two years of field work, this question is critically analyzed with an example from Sweden. The financial coordination of rehabilitation measures act came into effect in 2004, and regulates the construction of coordination associations. The foundation of an association is a pooled budget to which all members, four different public authorities in the field of vocational rehabilitation, contribute. An important condition behind the law was the notion that public services were not adapted to, and therefore had trouble handling, some groups with complex problems needing support from two or more organizations at the same time. The overall, and ultimate, aim with financial coordination is to improve the working ability in the target population. Though the objective of the associations is, according to the law, to support collaboration, finance efforts within the collected area of responsibility and evaluate these efforts. The financed efforts may be both operative and strategic, and should in some way complement the operations of the member organizations or aim at development of new knowledge or methods. The associations have no power to make decisions of authority in relation to the target population, which remains with the professionals in the member organizations. Following this, it may be argued that the first target group of the associations is the regular organizations and next, as a secondary target group; the individuals in the target population. This means also that the target population is not the associations’ own but the regular organizations’ target groups. The aim with the associations is thus to contribute to the regular organizations working better in relation to this group. The associations have no tools at their disposal to contribute to the overall goal but the pooled budget. Their responsibility is to construct the budget, distribute the resources and follow up.However, as the findings presented and discussed in this paper show, the associations are generally held accountable to more than that in the frequent assessments being performed on both the associations and the efforts they finance. First, the associations are generally seen by others as being the efforts they finance. This makes the view of them almost like a new organization or authority, even though the efforts actually are organizationally owned and performed by regular organizations. Second, they are held accountable to the aim of improved working ability of the target group, i.e. the overall policy goal. Their objective to support collaboration and the notion that the law was introduced in order to ensure that, through collaboration, those individuals in the intersection of different organizations get the needed help is thus overlooked and focus is turned to effects on individuals.This paper argues that the assessments have highly influenced practice in the associations, and has shifted focus from organizational outcomes such as increased equity and quality of services due to decreased fragmentation, to individual outcomes such as employment and dependency of benefits. These latter outcomes are easier to account for and are also in line with conventional more hierarchical assessments. Since many associations perceive themselves to be questioned due to lacking efficiency, they may start seek legitimacy and thereby behave in line with the focus of assessments and start to “produce” improved working ability instead of supporting collaboration. Furthermore, the assessments and their focus on individuals tend to treat the associations not as a collaborative structure between four actors with a supportive aim, but as a regular organization with authoritative power. When the associations are held accountable for a group’s outcome, this group has been “passed on” from ordinary organizations on to the associations. Organizational outcome related to collaboration is greatly overlooked, in line with the “common wisdom” that collaboration is not an end in itself, and an end in public management collaboration must thus be measured as individual benefit. Increased quality and equity in services are thus outcomes that are not only not being assessed but might also be at risk of being lost with the current assessment focus. Last, there is an evident risk that the narrow and vertical assessment focus increases, instead of decreases, horizontal fragmentation within the welfare system due to its impact on coordination association practice.
2.
Andersson, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
Integration in Vocational Rehabilitation : a Literature Review
2011
Ingår i: Integration inHealth and Healthcare.
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Context: With the increasing specialisation of services, integration has become important for health and other welfare organisations in order to address the complex problems of their patients or clients. This is particularly in care of the elderly, psychiatric care and vocational rehabilitation. The following presentation reports a review of literature on integration in vocational rehabilitation, focusing on models of integration as well as barriers and facilitators.Methods: The review was based on a search in scientific journals from 1995 to 2010. It generated 13132 articles, which were reduced to 1005 after an initial overview. The abstracts were read by members of the research group. Each abstract was read by two members independently. If they agreed the article was included or excluded, but if not the whole group discussed the abstract. This procedure reduced the number of articles to 205, which were read in full text. Finally, 62 articles were included for thematic content analysis.Results: Most of the studies came from Sweden, while others came from Canada, Australia, UK, Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. In these studies different models of integration were identified. They were classified as structural or process oriented. The structural models included case management, partnerships, co-location and financial coordination, while the process oriented models included informal contacts, interorganisational meetings and multidisciplinary teams. There were also a number of barriers as well as facilitators of integration. The barriers included structural and cultural differences, while communication, trust and continuity were important facilitators.Discussion: There are different models of integration, but also many combinations. Case management is often combined with interorganisational meetings or multidisciplinary teams. There are also informal contacts in all models. There is a clear mirror effect between the different barriers and facilitators. Leadership may be either a barrier or a facilitator. In the same way, differences between organisations may be both barriers and facilitators. These results seem to be valid also for other fields of integration, for example care of the elderly, psychiatric care, and other forms of community care.
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Nordgren, Lars, et al.
(författare)
The value creation-concept in hospitals : Health values from the patients’ perspective
2013
Ingår i: Nordisk sygeplejeforskning. - 1892-2678 .- 1892-2686. ; 3:2, s. 105-116
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Aim: Based on the concept of value creation the aim was to analyse a sample of patients’ unstructured responses, and to show what the patients perceived to be healthcare values.Method: Using content analysis the patients’ responses to three questions underwent a categorization involving the identification, coding, and emerging of themes.Results: This is good: fellow feeling, receptivity, proficiency, efforts matched to requirements, popular food, informed patients. The theme was professional care. This I would like to change: offer more conventional forms of accommodation, better quality food, better cleaning, more time to their patients, better information, and improved accessibility. The theme was patients want good service when in hospital. Other complaints were linked to care, resulting in; improve personal integrity, friendlier demeanour, more focusing on the individual. The theme was patients expect to be acknowledged and respected by nursing staff. However, the answers did not convey anything essentially new.Conclusion: The patients expressed different values. It is debatable to use service management concepts in healthcare in a simplistic way. Practice implications: Patients’ unstructured answers are of interest in improving the attitudes of the co-workers.
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