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Controlling healthcare professionals: how human resource management influences job attitudes and operational efficiency

Overview of attention for article published in Human Resources for Health, September 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (80th percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

Mentioned by

policy
1 policy source
twitter
6 X users
googleplus
1 Google+ user

Citations

dimensions_citation
36 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
263 Mendeley
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Title
Controlling healthcare professionals: how human resource management influences job attitudes and operational efficiency
Published in
Human Resources for Health, September 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12960-016-0149-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

Julie Ann Cogin, Ju Li Ng, Ilro Lee

Abstract

We assess how human resource management (HRM) is implemented in Australian hospitals. Drawing on role theory, we consider the influence HRM has on job attitudes of healthcare staff and hospital operational efficiency. We adopt a qualitative research design across professional groups (physicians, nurses, and allied health staff) at multiple levels (executive, healthcare managers, and employee). A total of 34 interviews were carried out and analyzed using NVivo. Findings revealed a predominance of a control-based approach to people management. Using Snell's control framework (AMJ 35:292-327, 1992), we found that behavioral control was the principal form of control used to manage nurses, allied health workers, and junior doctors. We found a mix between behavior, output, and input controls as well as elements of commitment-based HRM to manage senior physicians. We observed low levels of investment in people and a concentration on transactional human resource (HR) activities which led to negative job attitudes such as low morale and frustration among healthcare professionals. While hospitals used rules to promote conformity with established procedures, the overuse and at times inappropriate use of behavior controls restricted healthcare managers' ability to motivate and engage their staff. Excessive use of behavior control helped to realize short-term cost-cutting goals; however, this often led to operational inefficiencies. We suggest that hospitals reduce the profusion of behavior control and increase levels of input and output controls in the management of people. Poor perceptions of HR specialists and HR activities have resulted in HR being overlooked as a vehicle to address the strategic challenges required of health reform and to build an engaged workforce.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 6 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 263 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Italy 1 <1%
Unknown 262 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 58 22%
Student > Ph. D. Student 32 12%
Student > Bachelor 19 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 15 6%
Lecturer 11 4%
Other 47 18%
Unknown 81 31%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Business, Management and Accounting 46 17%
Nursing and Health Professions 37 14%
Medicine and Dentistry 23 9%
Social Sciences 13 5%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 8 3%
Other 46 17%
Unknown 90 34%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 July 2023.
All research outputs
#4,228,996
of 25,374,917 outputs
Outputs from Human Resources for Health
#491
of 1,261 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#65,049
of 327,911 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Human Resources for Health
#10
of 19 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,917 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,261 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 60% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 327,911 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 19 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 47th percentile – i.e., 47% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.