The Creation and Survival of an Academic Health Science Organization: Counter-Colonization Through a New Organizational Form?

University of Oxford - Said Business School Working Paper No. 2013-26

35 Pages Posted: 5 Oct 2013 Last revised: 2 Jul 2014

See all articles by Michael Fischer

Michael Fischer

University of Oxford - Said Business School; University of Oxford - Said Business School

Ewan Ferlie

King’s College London

Catherine French

University College London

Naomi Fulop

Department of Applied Health Research, UCL

Charles Wolfe

King’s College London

Date Written: September 25, 2013

Abstract

This paper describes and analyses the creation and development of an Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) as a major organizational innovation diffusing in the health knowledge economy, internationally. Drawing on an institutionalist model utilized in an earlier study of a failed merger in the USA (Kitchener, 2002), we explore empirically why the creation of this new AHSC in the UK produced very different organizational outcomes. Whereas institutionalist framing predicts 'sedimented' instability and repeated contest between managerialist and embedded (and ultimately, dominant) professional logics, the higher levels of clinical-academic engagement in our case exerted 'upwards' institutional pressure, creating a more stable, collaborative form. Our paper challenges and develops the institutionalist model, and explores the possibility of 'counter-colonization' through a new organizational form invented in the academic-clinical domain.

Keywords: institutional theory, interorganizational networks, knowledge work, organizational change, organizational forms, professionals, academic health science

Suggested Citation

Fischer, Michael and Ferlie, Ewan and French, Catherine and Fulop, Naomi and Wolfe, Charles, The Creation and Survival of an Academic Health Science Organization: Counter-Colonization Through a New Organizational Form? (September 25, 2013). University of Oxford - Said Business School Working Paper No. 2013-26, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2331463 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2331463

Michael Fischer (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Said Business School ( email )

Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HP
Great Britain

University of Oxford - Said Business School ( email )

Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HP
Great Britain

Ewan Ferlie

King’s College London ( email )

Strand
London, England WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

Catherine French

University College London ( email )

Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

Naomi Fulop

Department of Applied Health Research, UCL ( email )

1-19 Torrington Place
London, WC1E 7HB
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 3108 3267 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=NJFUL94

Charles Wolfe

King’s College London ( email )

Strand
London, England WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

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