A major conference focusing on organisational issues within the health care sector will be held in Scotland for the first time next week when the University of Aberdeen plays host to more than 80 guests from all over the UK and beyond.
The 5th International Conference on Organisational Behaviour in Health Care has attracted a wide range of academics and professionals from the healthcare sector, with some travelling from as far afield as the US, Canada, and Australia.
Next week’s event is being jointly led by the University of Aberdeen’s Business School, within the College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the University’s Health Services Research Unit (HSRU), within the College of Life Sciences and Medicine
Conference convener, Lorna McKee, Professor in Management Studies at Aberdeen, said the event demonstrated the strength of collaboration within the University and with the NHS. She said: “The conference is a leading research event for people interested in organisational behaviour in health care and I am delighted that the University’s College of Arts and Social Sciences and College of Life Sciences and Medicine have worked in partnership together, and with the NHS, to develop a diverse and innovative programme.
“Both the Business School and the Health Services Research Unit have been very supportive of this event which is an excellent example of how we can combine both College’s mutual expertise.” Other collaborators include NHS Grampian, The Manchester Business School and The Centre for Public Policy and Management at St Andrews University.
The three-day conference opens on Monday (April 10) with a welcome address from Richard Carey, Chief Executive of NHS Grampian. The main speaker will be Professor Louise Fitzgerald, Professor of Organisation Development, at De Montfort University, in Leicester, UK.
Various sessions will be on-going throughout the day on topics such as: Involving the public in NHS service planning; Engaging the public voice in health care decision making; and Safety climate in healthcare settings: understanding barriers to safe behaviour.
The highlight on the second day of the conference (Tuesday, April 10) will be a speech by Professor David Hunter, Professor of Health Policy and Management, at Durham University. The morning and afternoon sessions will focus on trust and service users, and power and gender. Dr Jane Farmer, Senior Lecturer in both Aberdeen’s Business School and its Centre for Rural Health, will deliver a talk on: Staff and public distrust of ‘distant’ management in rural maternity service redesign. The working world of nurse managers, including issues of gender, power, and voice, will also form part of the line-up for the sessions.
The final day of the conference (Wednesday, April 12) will focus on communication, and developing the links between academia and healthcare. Highlights include a talk on: Enabling academic faculty as key players in community research capacity building: a policy framework for collaborative ventures; communication in the intensive care unit; and the effects on health care of changing organisational structure.
The conference theme, Speaking Truth to Power: Who Speaks to Whom? will focus on the challenges of communication within health care organisations.
“The conference will be an exciting opportunity to explore new avenues in organisational behaviour in health care and it comes at a time where the effectiveness of communication is vital. We hope by combining the University’s expertise in this way that we will bring in some new ideas and approaches. The partnership will also allow us to expand on our existing research,” said Professor McKee.
“The challenge today is not so much being able to speak the truth to those in power; rather, the problem is finding ways to be heard. There is a real and recognised challenge facing researchers, practitioners and policy-makers especially given the variety of available truths.
“The challenge to academic researchers, policy-makers and practitioners today is being able to make themselves heard or listen, and to offer the means of managing an array of truths. This involves not just the content of any communication but also processes of communication and awareness of context.”
The conference will be held from Monday – Wednesday, April 10 –12, in the King’s College Centre. Further information, including the full programme, is available by visiting: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/obhc/