THE SEMINAR HAS BEEN CANCELLED IN LINE WITH THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITECNICO DI MILANO

Giovanni Radaelli
University of Warwick

Abstract:

The sociology of professions has shown how professional experts play a central role in enabling organizational learning and innovation. Recent work is focusing on patterns of influence among professional peers as well as cross-professional politics of learning. Diffusion among peers is especially critical in innovations promoted by lower-status professionals and oriented towards service integration. These may be perceived as a challenge to established jurisdictions, and thus resisted by higher-status doctors. To avoid potential conflicts, lower-status professionals may even refuse to promote their ideas and accept the status quo. We thus ask: when and how do lower status professionals instead decide to promote innovation to higher-status professionals? We draw on research on issue selling, and on emotions in organizational change, to unpack the processes by which low-status professionals promote an innovation to their professional peers in the effort to better integrate care. Empirically, our research investigated the work of a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, designing and implementing a new service for patients with medically unexplained symptoms. We implemented a longitudinal case study, spanning three years of observation and interviews, including: 55 interviews with diverse people involved with the MUS program; (ii) 44 hours of non-participant observations of MUS meeting; and archival data.

Giovanni Radaelli is Associate Professor at Warwick Business School – University of Warwick.

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Venue
Politecnico di Milano
Building B20 – Room MEL2 – first floor
Via Lambruschini 15, Milano