The Management of Wicked Problems in Health and Social Care

At a time of growing pressure on health and social care services, this book draws together contributions which highlight contemporary challenges for their management. Providing a range of contributions that draw on a Critical Management Studies perspective the book raises macro-level concerns with theory, demographics and economics on the one hand, as well as micro-level challenges of leadership, voice and engagement on the other. Rather than being an attempt to define the 'wickedness' of problems in this field, this book provides new insights designed to be of interest and value to researchers, students and managers.
Contributions from international researchers explore four main topics:
identifying contemporary challenges in health and social care;
managing, leading and following;
listening to silent voices in delivering change; and
new methodologies for understanding care challenges.
The concerns discussed in this volume are 'wicked' in so far as they are persistent, pernicious and beyond the curative abilities of any single organisation or profession. Such problems require collaboration but also new approaches to listening to those who suffer their effects. This book demonstrates such listening through its engagement with policy makers, leaders, followers, professions, patients, forgotten groups and silenced voices. Moreover, it considers how future research might be transformed so as to shine a more inclusive light on 'wicked' problems and their amelioration. This is a timely and engaging book that challenges you - the reader - to think again about how we should look at, engage with and support all those involved in health and social care.

Will Thomas is an Associate Professor in the University of Suffolk Business School, UK Anneli Hujala is a Senior Reseacher in the Department of Health and Social Management at the University of Eastern Finland Sanna Laulainen is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Health and Social Management at the University of Eastern Finland Robert McMurray is Professor of Work and Organisation at The York Management School, UK

List of Contributors Acknowledgments Editors' Introduction SECTION 1 Contemporary Wicked Challenges to Health and Social Care 1 The Concept of Wicked Problems : Improving the Understanding of Managing Problem Wickedness in Health and Social Care HARRI RAISIO , ALISA PUUSTINEN AND PIRKKO VARTIAINEN 2 The Politics of Care : Wicked Concerns Constituent in Care Reforms WILL THOMAS AND SUSAN HOLLINRAKE 3 Personalization of Care : A Wicked Problem or a Wicked Solution? JANET CARTER ANAND , GAVIN DAVIDSON , BERNI KELLY AND GERALDINE MACDONALD SECTION 2 Managing, Leading and Following 4 The Wicked Problem of Leadership in the NHS GAURISH CHAWLA AND MARK LEARMONTH 5 Lofty Ideals and Lowly Troubles Among Nursing Home Managers MONICA ANDERSSON BÄCK AND CHARLOTTA LEVAY 6 The Unnoticed Role of Employees in Ethical Leadership MERJA SINKKONEN AND SANNA LAULAINEN 7 Destructive Leadership as a Wicked Problem in Health Care-Can We Blame the Leader Only? MINNA HOFFRÉN AND SANNA LAULAINEN 8 Health Care Communication Technology and Its Promise of Patient Empowerment : Unpacking Patient Empowerment Through Patients' Identity Constructions LAURA VISSER , INGE BLEIJENBERGH , YVONNE BENSCHOP AND ALLARD VAN RIEL SECTION 3 Silent Voice s: Making the Invisible Visible 9 Blame Culture in the National Health Service (NHS), UK RUTH STRUDWICK 10 A Darker Side to Interorganizational Relations KRISTINA BROWN 11 Defi cit Discourses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Disadvantage : A Wicked Problem in Australian Indigenous Policy? ELIZABETH PYLE , DEANNA GRANT-SMITH AND ROBYN MAYES 12 Unpacking Dependency; Managing 'Becoming'-Supporting the Experiences of Patients Living With Chronic Disease WILL THOMAS SECTION 4 Beyond Conventional Methodologies for Understanding Wicked Challenges 13 Improving Young People's Mental Health? Understanding Ambivalence to Seeking Support Among Young Adults With Asperger Syndrome EDMUND COLEMAN-FOUNTAIN AND BRYONY BERESFORD 14 Action Research in the Health and Social Care Settings. A Tool for Solving Wicked Problems? MARTA STRUMI N SKA-KUTRA 15 Four Different Ways to View Wicked Problems ANNELI HUJALA , SANNA LAULAINEN , ANDY BROOKES , MAARIT LAMMASSAARI AND TAMARA MULHERIN 16 The Promise of Visual Approaches in Organizational and Management Research JARI MARTIKAINEN Index