IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v60y2006i1p88-104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Temporal Flexibility and Careers: The Role of Large-Scale Organizations for Physicians

Author

Listed:
  • Forrest Briscoe

Abstract

This study investigates how employment in large-scale organizations affects the work lives of practicing physicians. Well-established theory associates larger organizations with bureaucratic constraint, loss of workplace control, and dissatisfaction, but this author finds that large scale is also associated with greater schedule and career flexibility. Ironically, the bureaucratic processes that accompany large-scale organization also allow for a reduction of patient demands on individual physicians, freeing those physicians to pursue other career activities or to fulfill family responsibilities. Large-scale organizations thus appear to represent a trade-off between workplace control and temporal flexibility, and many physicians appear to embrace this trade-off. The data come from surveys and interviews conducted in 2002. Implications extend to other professional and managerial labor markets in which client demands constrain schedules and careers.

Suggested Citation

  • Forrest Briscoe, 2006. "Temporal Flexibility and Careers: The Role of Large-Scale Organizations for Physicians," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(1), pages 88-104, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:60:y:2006:i:1:p:88-104
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390606000105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390606000105
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390606000105?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Crowston, 1997. "A Coordination Theory Approach to Organizational Process Design," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(2), pages 157-175, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yu Chen & Matthew Doyle & Francisco Gonzalez, 2019. "Bad Jobs," Working Papers 1902, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2019.
    2. Paul S. Adler, 2012. "PERSPECTIVE—The Sociological Ambivalence of Bureaucracy: From Weber via Gouldner to Marx," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 244-266, February.
    3. Ranganathan, Aruna, 2015. "Lost in Translation: Organizational Practices and Formal Employment of Women in India," Research Papers 3363, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beth A. Bechky, 2006. "Gaffers, Gofers, and Grips: Role-Based Coordination in Temporary Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 3-21, February.
    2. Daniel D. Zeng & J. Leon Zhao, 2005. "Effective Role Resolution in Workflow Management," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 374-387, August.
    3. Biggiero, Lucio & Angelini, Pier Paolo, 2015. "Hunting scale-free properties in R&D collaboration networks: Self-organization, power-law and policy issues in the European aerospace research area," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 21-43.
    4. Margherita, Alessandro & Elia, Gianluca & Klein, Mark, 2021. "Managing the COVID-19 emergency: A coordination framework to enhance response practices and actions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    5. Bello, Daniel C. & Chelariu, Cristian & Zhang, Li, 2003. "The antecedents and performance consequences of relationalism in export distribution channels," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 1-16, January.
    6. Albino, Vito & Pontrandolfo, Pierpaolo & Scozzi, Barbara, 2002. "Analysis of information flows to enhance the coordination of production processes," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1-2), pages 7-19, January.
    7. Matthew J. Robson & Constantine S. Katsikeas & Daniel C. Bello, 2008. "Drivers and Performance Outcomes of Trust in International Strategic Alliances: The Role of Organizational Complexity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 647-665, August.
    8. Tenanoia Simona & Tauisi Taupo & Pedro Antunes, 2023. "A Scoping Review on Agency Collaboration in Emergency Management Based on the 3C Model," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 291-302, February.
    9. Brown, Carol V., 2003. "Linking intra-organizational stakeholders ; CIO perspectives on the use of coordination mechanisms," Working papers no. 304, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    10. Aros, Susan K. & Gibbons, Deborah E., 2018. "Exploring communication media options in an inter-organizational disaster response coordination network using agent-based simulation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(2), pages 451-465.
    11. Marco Furlotti & Giuseppe Soda, 2018. "Fit for the Task: Complementarity, Asymmetry, and Partner Selection in Alliances," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 837-854, October.
    12. Atkinson, Mariam K. & Saghafian, Soroush, 2019. "Who Should See the Patient? On Discretionary Patient-Provider Assignments in Hospitals," Working Paper Series rwp19-037, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    13. A. Arrighetti & S. Curatolo, 2010. "Costi di coordinamento e vantaggi di aggregazione: esiti, morfologia e processi di interazione in un mondo artificiale multi-agente," Economics Department Working Papers 2010-EP01, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    14. Thomas W. Malone & Kevin Crowston & Jintae Lee & Brian Pentland & Chrysanthos Dellarocas & George Wyner & John Quimby & Charles S. Osborn & Abraham Bernstein & George Herman & Mark Klein & Elissa O'Do, 1999. "Tools for Inventing Organizations: Toward a Handbook of Organizational Processes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(3), pages 425-443, March.
    15. Forrest Briscoe, 2007. "From Iron Cage to Iron Shield? How Bureaucracy Enables Temporal Flexibility for Professional Service Workers," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 297-314, April.
    16. Tawse, Alex & Tabesh, Pooya, 2021. "Strategy implementation: A review and an introductory framework," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 22-33.
    17. Raouf BOUCEKKINE & Patricia, CRIFO & Claudio, MATTALIA, 2007. "Technological Progress, Organizational Change and the Size of the Human Resources Departement," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2007047, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    18. Paula A. Jarzabkowski & Jane K. Lê & Martha S. Feldman, 2012. "Toward a Theory of Coordinating: Creating Coordinating Mechanisms in Practice," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 907-927, August.
    19. Fabio Fonti & Massimo Maoret, 2016. "The direct and indirect effects of core and peripheral social capital on organizational performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1765-1786, August.
    20. Linus Dahlander & Siobhan O'Mahony, 2011. "Progressing to the Center: Coordinating Project Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 961-979, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:60:y:2006:i:1:p:88-104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.