1,721,180 research outputs found
Challenging Servant Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector. The Side Effects of Servant Leadership
No full textLeadership is a critical success factor for nonprofit organizations. However, both scholars and practitioners are consistent in claiming that the nonprofit sector is confronting a situation of leadership deficit. This study is aimed at providing some exploratory insights about a style of leadership which seems to be especially fitting to the nonprofit sector, but which is still poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literature: servant leadership. The servant leader is inspired by the intention of serving other members of the organization, with the eventual purpose of making them wiser, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants. Drawing from the findings of a participant observation the Author performed within a charitable organization operating in Tanzania (East Africa), this study discusses counterintuitive findings about the impacts of servant leadership on the behaviors of the followers. In several circumstances, servant leadership is likely to constrain rather than to empower followers, discouraging their organizational commitment. In fact, followers could become reliant on the figure of the servant leader, thus being unwilling to adopt a proactive behavior to meet the organizational instances. According to these findings, an agenda for further researches is suggested. As well, conceptual and empirical insights are pointed out
Contextualizing co-production of health care: a systematic literature review
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to contextualize the concepts of “service co-production” and “value co-creation” to health care services, challenging the traditional bio-medical model which focusses on illness treatment and neglects the role played by patients in the provision of care. Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, the author conducted a systematic review, which paved the way for the identification of the concept of “health care co-production” and allowed to discuss its effects and implications. Starting from a database of 254 records, 65 papers have been included in systematic review and informed the development of this paper. Findings – Co-production of health care services implies the establishment of co-creating partnerships between health care professionals and patients, which are aimed at mobilizing the dormant resources of the latter. However, several barriers prevent the full implementation of health care co-production, nurturing the application of the traditional bio-medical model. Practical implications – Co-production of health care is difficult to realize, due to both health care professionals’ hostility and patients unwillingness to be involved in the provision of care. Nonetheless, the scientific literature is consistent in claiming that co-production of care paves the way for increased health outcomes, enhanced patient satisfaction, better service innovation, and cost savings. The establishment of multi-disciplinary health care teams, the improvement of patient-provider communication, and the enhancement of the use of ICTs for the purpose of value co-creation are crucial ingredients in the recipe for increased patient engagement. Originality/value – To the knowledge of the author, this is the first paper aimed at systematizing the scientific literature in the field of health care co-production. The originality of this paper stems from its twofold relevance: on the one hand, it emphasizes the pros and the cons of health care co-production and, on the other hand, it provides with insightful directions to deal with the engagement of patients in value co-creatio
Sustainability of well-being through literacy. The effects of food literacy on sustainability of well-being
Full text linkHealth literacy is a “magic word” among both scholars and practitioners. In general terms, it indicates the ability to collect, process, and understand basic health information to properly navigate the health system and enhance well-being. Food literacy is conceived as a set of skills which is strongly related to health literacy, concerning the convenient use of food. Notwithstanding, to the knowledge of the Author, until now food literacy has been poorly discussed by the scientific and professional literatures as a key determinant of sustainability of well-being. This paper is aimed at providing several insights about the role played by food literacy in the protection and promotion of well-being, paving the way for both conceptual and empirical developments. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been conducted, which, on the one hand, confirmed that food literacy is a blooming field in the scientific literature and, on the other hand, supported the limited understanding about its effects on well-being
L'integrazione socio-sanitaria nella prospettiva delle relazioni inter-organizzative: Il ruolo cruciale della collaborazione
No full textIl volume si propone di indagare il complesso processo di implementazione e gestione delle relazioni inter-organizzative in ambito socio-sanitario, trattando in profondità una tematica di attualità e interesse per il Settore Scientifico Disciplinare di Organizzazione Aziendale (Secs/P-10), quale l’integrazione socio-sanitaria. Quantunque oggetto prioritario della ricerca siano fenomeni di stampo organizzativo, il lavoro si caratterizza per una duplice anima: inizialmente, esso fornisce un inquadramento di respiro economico dell’integrazione socio-sanitaria, che è successivamente coniugato in una prospettiva manageriale. In tale ottica, si propone un rinnovato modello di governo del sistema socio-sanitario, definito New Health Governance, che mira alla valorizzazione delle sinergie tra le diverse entità che operano all’interno del sistema di assistenza alla persona e concepisce l’integrazione socio-sanitaria quale strategia fondamentale per avviare un percorso di rinvigorimento della sostenibilità del sistema sanitario
Reforming penitentiary health. The transition from ‘cure’ to ‘care’ in Italian prisons
No full textBackground: Until today, inadequate attention has been paid to the distinguishing attributes of healthcare provision in prisons. It has been conceived either as ancillary or as a core component of imprisonment. While the former idea prevailed in the past, leading to a bio-medical approach to care in prisons, the latter is currently arising. Method: This paper discusses the change in the approach to care in Italian penal institutions, examining their inertia. The design of the research consisted of a mixed approach: at the beginning, a desk study of law documents was realized; then, a semi-structured 48-item questionnaire was addressed to the health managers operating in the penal institutions of a southern Italian region. Results: The study suggests that penitentiary health areas are prone to change and they are willing to establish inter-organizational relationships with healthcare organizations operating within the National Health Service. Notwithstanding, they have to cope with the institutional inertia of penal institutions, that favour organizational monism. The legislative efforts are not sufficient to foster a process of change in prisons; healthcare professionals usually act as catalysts of change, championing it and encouraging the reorganization of penitentiary healthcare. Conclusions: This study paves the way to both further theoretical developments and to practical implications. On the one hand, it suggests a reconceptualization of healthcare provision within penal institutions, claiming the belonging of penitentiary health to public health. On the other hand, penal institutions are unwilling to change, due to their nature of total institutions: the involvement of healthcare professional in fostering the reorganization of healthcare provision is thus crucial to legitimate the process of change
Una contestualizzazione del concetto di co-produzione al caso dei servizi pubblici: una rassegna critica della letteratura internazionale
No full textThis paper is aimed at discussing the concept of public service co-production, adopting a critical perspective. Even though the involvement of users in planning, designing, and delivering public services dates back to more than 30 years ago, the literature on public service co-production is still not consistent. From this point of view, a literature review was performed, with the eventual purpose of contextualizing the findings suggested by the literature about the attributes and the effects of public service co-production. To collect the relevant scientific literature, two citation databases were queried. The joint use of symmetric research criteria paved the way for the collection of 165 records. All of them were screened in their titles and abstracts to remove redundancies and non-relevant items. 61 records were included in the systematic review and informed the findings of this study. Public service co-production is understood as a critical approach to achieve enhanced sustainability in the public sector; however, co-production could produce several side effects, including equity issues and discrimination in the access to public services
Oltre l'etica clinica: il ruolo dell'etica organizzativa in ambito sanitario. Una review della letteratura
No full textHealth ethics plays a crucial role in the activities performed by health care systems. Both the scientific and the professional literatures have usually stuck to a reductionist interpretation of health ethics, which paved the way for a focus only on clinical ethics. On the other hand, organizational ethics has been widely neglected among both scholars and practitioners. However, the recent institutional changes aimed at applying the New Public Management principles to health care, which have characterized most of health care systems in Western Countries, incite to pay an increasing attention to the organizational determinants of health ethics. From this point of view, the manuscript is intended to systematize the scientific contributions of the international scholarship in the field of organizational ethics of health care organizations, discussing the main issues which concern this topic. For this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed, involving a total number of 206 articles collected through the citation databases “Scopus-Elsevier”, “Web of ScienceTM” and “Pubmed”. Organizational ethics is understood as crucial to the enhancement of the social and institutional sustainability of health care organizations. Nonetheless, organizational ethics is still overlooked dealing with both the policy making and the decision making activities of health care organizations
Designing health-literate health care organization: A literature review
No full textHealth literacy is usually described as a silent epidemic, which is challenging the sustainability of health care systems all over the world. The scientific literature has discussed the drawbacks of marginal health literacy on the functioning of the health care organizations. In particular, limited health literacy has been associated with: poorer ability of patients to comprehend health information, deficient medication adherence, insufficient use of prevention services, higher hospitalization rates, and greater health service utilization. In most of the cases, health literacy has been understood as an individual trait, which ultimately concerns the patients’ ability to obtain, process, and understand health information to navigate the health system. Alternatively, poor attention has been paid to the health literacy of the organizations operating within the health system, that is to say “organizational health literacy”. Indeed, neither the scholars nor the practitioners have adequately addressed the role played by the health care organizations to meet the needs of patients who live with limited health literacy. To contribute in filling such a gap, this study discusses the design and the structure of health-literate health care organizations. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was performed, involving 69 articles indexed in Scopus-Elsevier, Pub-Med, and Google Scholar to point out how the health care organizations face health literacy issues and to discuss what tools are used by the health care organizations to meet the information needs of people living with limited health literacy. Health-literate health care organizations turn out to be crucial to enhance patient engagement and improve health outcomes
Comprensione vs ipertensione: gli impatti dell'alfabetizzazione sanitaria sulla gestione dell'ipertensione arteriosa
No full textInadequate health literacy is generally described as a silent epidemic, which is challenging the functioning of health care systems all over the world. Health literacy is understood as the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information in order to effectively navigate the health system. Low health literate patients perceive poor self-efficacy, are not willing to be involved in the provision of care, show larger risks of hospitalization and mortality, and are not aware about the determinants of wellbeing. Moreover, limited health literacy has been associated with inadequate management of long-term conditions. This study is aimed at examining the association between health literacy and the appropriate management of hypertension. For this purpose, a narrative literature review has been performed, concerning 38 articles retrieved from the databases PubMed, Scopus-Elsevier, EBSCOhost and Web of Science. Even though the literature is not consistent dealing with this issue, inadequate health literacy is mainly conceived as a significant determinant of poor health outcomes among hypertensive patients
Keeping Candles Lit. The Role of Concierge Medicine in the Future of Primary Care
No full textUniversal coverage and financial sustainability are two competing aims in primary care. Patient empowerment and patient engagement have been suggested as essential ingredients in the recipe for innovative primary care models aimed at sustaining universal coverage. Concierge medicine is achieving a growing popularity among both scholars and practitioners as a direct primary care practice which allows to bridge the gap between patient empowerment and patient engagement. However, ethical and legal concerns hinder the diffusion of concierge models in the current primary care practices. This manuscript is aimed at providing an evidence synthesis of extant contributions in the field of concierge medicine in order to discuss the attributes of this direct primary care practice and to examine its expected effects on universal coverage and sustainability. For this purpose, a systematic literature review involving 29 manuscripts was performed. The findings of this study pointed out that concierge models could play a significant role in enhancing the access to primary care and in improving the sustainability of the healthcare service system. However, the existing institutional arrangements which regulate the access to primary care should be revised to allow more spaces for the implementation of concierge practices
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