Beyond Occupational Differences: The Importance of Cross-cutting Demographics and Dyadic Toolkits for Collaboration in a U.S. Hospital
Author(s)
DiBenigno, Julia Marie; Kellogg, Katherine C
DownloadDiBenigno-2014-Beyond Occupational.pdf (262.4Kb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY
Publisher Policy
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We use data from a 12-month ethnographic study of two medical-surgical units in a U.S. hospital to examine how members from different occupations can collaborate with one another in their daily work despite differences in status, shared meanings, and expertise across occupational groups, which previous work has shown to create difficulties. In our study, nurses and patient care technicians (PCTs) on both hospital units faced these same occupational differences, served the same patient population, worked under the same management and organizational structure, and had the same pressures, goals, and organizational collaboration tools available to them. But nurses and PCTs on one unit successfully collaborated while those on the other did not. We demonstrate that a social structure characterized by cross-cutting demographics between occupational groups—in which occupational membership is uncorrelated with demographic group membership—can loosen attachment to the occupational identity and status order. This allows members of cross-occupational dyads, in our case nurses and PCTs, to draw on other shared social identities, such as shared race, age, or immigration status, in their interactions. Drawing on a shared social identity at the dyad level provided members with a “dyadic toolkit” of alternative, non-occupational expertise, shared meanings, status rules, and emotional scripts that facilitated collaboration across occupational differences and improved patient care.
Date issued
2014-05Department
Sloan School of ManagementJournal
Administrative Science Quarterly
Publisher
Sage Publications
Citation
DiBenigno, J., and K. C. Kellogg. “Beyond Occupational Differences: The Importance of Cross-Cutting Demographics and Dyadic Toolkits for Collaboration in a U.S. Hospital.” Administrative Science Quarterly 59, no. 3 (May 30, 2014): 375–408.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0001-8392
1930-3815