Designing the role of middle managers: An empirical perspective in the hospital sector

ABSTRACT

Background:

Professional roles are facing deep transformations in the healthcare sector. Hospitals face role conflict and ambiguity, especially for middle managers who hold both managerial and clinical responsibilities.

Objectives:

This work aims at providing the competency profiles of two key managerial roles in hospitals (Clinical Directors and Head of Nurses), so to provide evidence on the characteristics they should have to carry out their role effectively.

Methods and sources:

Through a guided negotiation among members of Italian category associations of middle managers, updated job descriptions were designed for the two key figures. Then, competency profiles were elaborated by applying a competency dictionary specifically designed for managers in the healthcare sector.

Findings:

Only some desirable competencies are common to the two professional figures. This is because their responsibilities overlap only in part, while the distinct features of their specific roles translate directly into distinct key competencies.

Implications:

Training managers in the healthcare sector is challenging due to the hybrid and evolving roles they cover. Nevertheless, it is fundamental to design training pathways which match specific desirable competencies. It is misleading to think that managers need common competencies only, and training pathways should be diversified based on the specific contribution professionals can provide to an organization. This has implications both at the organizational level and at the policy making one, given that managerial training is frequently a joint responsibility of hospitals and universities.

KEYWORDS:

• Middle management
• healthcare
• competency modeling
• professional roles
• training

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Prof. Americo Cicchetti, Director of the Graduate School of Health Economics and Management (ALTEMS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) for his guidance, leadership, and active participation in this work. She also thanks Dr Nicola Pinelli and the Italian Federation of Healthcare Organizations and Hospitals (FIASO) for commissioning and supporting it. Moreover, prof. Federico Lega (as well as the CRC HEAD team, Università degli Studi di Milano Statale) and prof. Marco Meneguzzo (as well as the CEIS team, Università Tor Vergata di Roma) are truly thanked for cooperating in carrying out the subsequent phases of this study. All the associations and professionals who took part in the study are thanked with gratitude.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Italian Federation of Healthcare Organizations and Hospitals (FIASO).

Notes on contributors

Irene Gabutti

Irene Gabutti is a postdoctoral researcher and adjunct professor in Organizational Theory at the Catholic University in Rome. Her research interests include organizational models and compentecy modeling in healthcare.