Dynamieken binnen het topmanagementteam van een grote zorgorganisatie: Een cultuurpsychologisch perspectief

In light of recent scandals and the public demand for more transparency in governance this study aims to contribute to opening the black box of actual board behavior. Psychological studies of boardroom dynamics using participant observation as a method are relatively rare. This study used a combination of qualitative research methods to describe the sets of agreements, conventions and arrangements, that make up for the behavioral patterns within the executive board of a large healthcare organization. There was access to documents concerning the governance structure. To decipher the unwritten rules (conventions) of the board interviews were analyzed using the unwritten rules approach (Scott-Morgan, 1994). Arrangements were uncovered using Foucauldian discourse analysis (Willig, 2008). The results were compared with the data extracted from the documents and the observations of actual behavior during board meetings. The board members in this case study worked to improve client care motivated by a taken for granted feeling of social engagement. There is agreement over the organizational goals (strategy), but how to best achieve these goals from a leadership perspective (controls) is still open for discussion.