ISBN : 9780198805304
Context is a central concept in organization and management studies, yet it is often used in a generalized, unspecific manner. This book offers an interactionist view on context as a dynamic, relational, and socially enacted phenomenon. It explores context in action and the theoretical, methodological, and analytical consequences of this approach through a collection of reflections and research experiences from the dynamic field of health care.
In the opening chapters, the editors present their framework for studying context in action and outline three main approaches, centered on the following questions: What constitutes context for a phenomenon or an event? How do actors understand, experience, and engage with context? How do contexts change and what is the role of actors in such processes? Context and action are then explored through a range of topics such as enactment and organizational change, policy implementation, executive work, strategic change, materiality, technology, patients and relatives' perspectives, integrated care, quality improvement, and health care support work.
Relevant to both management researchers and practitioners, this volume provides a definition of context as theoretical construct based on interactionist and process based perspectives, and a practical framework for studying context in action which the reader can use in their own work.
1 Ninna Meier and Sue Dopson: Foregrounding Context in Action
2 Ninna Meier and Sue Dopson: Theoretical Lenses on Context
3 Ninna Meier and Sue Dopson: Methodological Challenges in Studying Context in Action
CONTEXT: What Constitutes the Context of a Situation/Event or Phenomenon?
4 Louise Fitzgerald: Enacted Context
5 David Chambers: Context of Health Policies and the Impact on Implementation of Health Care and Health Interventions
6 Kjell Tryggestad, Chris Harty, and Peter Holm Jacobsen: Bringing the Building Back In: Implications for Studying Organizations
ACTORS: How Do Actors Understand, Experience, and Engage With Context?
7 Maja Korica and Davide Nicolini: Tracing Context as Relational, Discursive Accomplishment: Analytical Lessons from a Shadowing-Based Study of Health Care Chief Executives
8 Helle Sofie Wentzer: Technology in Context - Exploring Vulnerability in Surgery
9 Louise Locock, Glenn Robert, and Ninna Meier: Patients, Families, and Care Settings
10 Ninna Meier: Place Matters in Context Analysis: Understanding Patients' Experiences of Context
11 Eleanor Murray: How Researchers Understand, Construct and Bound Context: Liminality and the Integration Space
CHANGE: How Do Contexts Change and What Is the Role of Actors in Such Processes?
12 Ewan Ferlie: Analysing Context in Health Care Organizations: Some Reflections on Past Work and Contemporary Research Challenges
13 Ian Kessler: Context and Work Organization in an Acute Health Care Setting
14 Carole A. Estabrooks and Stephanie Chamberlain: How Context Shapes the Experience of Staff and Residents in Residential Long-Term Care Settings
15 Ninna Meier and Sue Dopson: Context in Action: A Research Agenda