Managerial communication through legitimation practices

• Purpose – This article examines managerial communication in health care organizations based on in-depth empirical observations of leaders’ everyday activities. Design/methodology/approach – A semi-structured observation study in combination with a qualitative interview study is used to investigate what leaders do and what is characterizing managerial communication. Data was collected shadowing ten leaders for approximately four days each at different hospitals in Sweden. Findings – This study concludes that managerial communication was characterized by three different types of legitimacy practices: a) professional legitimacy building processes, b) administrative legitimacy building processes, and c) organizational legitimacy building processes. Managerial communication through professional legitimacy, administrative legitimacy and organizational legitimacy ordered signification of issues and constructed domination systems in the organizations. Research limitations – This research was designed to describe the local leaders’ activities and experiences in the studied setting. Therefore the data provides access to ten leaders’ everyday activities at different hospitals but not to statistical data based on a larger group of leaders. Practical implications – The research contributes to the knowledge of the relevance of practitioners involved in leadership and managerial communication aimed at improving health care practices. Originality/value – The research focuses on managerial communication in health care organizations based on in-depth empirical observations of leaders’ everyday activities and thus up-dates the knowledge and concepts about what leaders do. Article Type: Research paper. Keywords: leadership, managerial communication, legitimacy practices, health care organization.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

leadership

managerial communication

legitimacy practices

health care organization

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)