It is encouraging that my failure to post on a regular basis stimulated a request for output from a loyal reader, thanks B. In response I posted yesterday; “Managers are from Mars, Clinicians are from Venus. Discuss.” Sadly, no-one did!
The book, from which the title is culled, discusses the difficulties and differences between the sexes within relationships essentially surmising that they are as beings from separate planets. The complexities of professional relationships within hospitals, which may (or may not) be the basis of my Action Research thesis, I believe mirrors this disparity. Managers and clinicians are as different as beings from another planet; Managers are from Mars and Clinicians are from Venus.
The academic literature is not awash with discourses on this matter. As I work through this I am grateful to various colleagues for their support and notification of individual papers and particular to Ed for unearthing this article from Amer Kaissi: Manager-Physician Relationships- An Organizational Theory Perspective, The Health Care Manager Volume 24, Number 2, pp. 165-176
Although the paper is written from an American perspective it has a lot to say that is relevant to the almost diametrically opposite cultural stances of British clinicians and managers. The table below summarises some of those differences.
| Area | Managers | Physicians | ||
| Central logic | Rationalization, efficiency | Collegial control, expertise | ||
| View of work | Make a living | Work is living | ||
| Values | ||||
| Primary loyalty | To the organization | To the patient | ||
| Responsibility | Shared | Personal | ||
| Tolerance for ambiguity | High | Low | ||
| Patient focus | Broad | Narrow | ||
| Time frame of action | Middle-long | Short | ||
| View of resources | limited | Unlimited | ||
| Artefacts | ||||
| Basis of knowledge | Social and management sciences | Biomedical sciences | ||
| Exposure to others while in training | Little | Great | ||
| Relationships | Hierarchical | Collegial | ||
| Career development | Hierarchical advancement | Achievement | ||
| Vocabulary | Cost, benefit, revenue | Quality, patient outcomes |
Perhaps, like the book of the title, some of the findings and statements of this paper may appear somewhat obvious. These differences will clearly affect many clinician-manager interactions, even without ladders of inference. The ability to recognise and work effectively with (or despite) such differences requires insight, skill and patience. On both sides.
What do you think? Are managers from Mars and clinicians from Venus? Despite being so different can you see how the two can work effectively together?
