Conclusion: Collaboration and Governance: It’s Very Much About ‘Process’ and ‘People’!

A tale of two trusts: case study analysis of bullying and negative behaviours in the UK ambulance service

“…Such views were reported in both interviews and focus groups where cliques and favouritism were perceived to exist, extending to social settings where groups of male managers, whose careers had progressed together, upheld a culture that was stubbornly resistant to change (see also Wankhade & Patnaik, 2019). This not only undermined employee resilience and wellbeing but was accepted as a fait accompli, a persistent issue which 'cannot be broken internally'.…”

“…Wankhade (2018) and Wankhade et al (2018) warned against oversimplified conceptualizations of culture, and distinguished two broad categories: culture being something an organization has, versus it being a metaphor of what the organization is (Wankhade, 2018). The need for a nuanced investigation which takes into account the wider, socio-economic environment (Wankhade, 2018;Wankhade & Patnaik, 2019) was our reason for our indepth investigation into Blue Light and Green Cross. Table 1 provides an overview of historic levels of bullying in both organizations, using the NHS staff survey conducted at each location.…”

“…Several staff talked about behaviours being 'normalized' such that people forgot that in a 'normal workplace, these things would not be accepted, but here you keep your head down and get on with it'. Several toxic components of the trust's occupational culture (Wankhade & Patnaik, 2019) were identified, and staff frequently raised 'nit-picking' by managers which others simply described as 'organization culture' or 'the corporate bully'. Sadly, some staff talked about suicide ideation and even having made suicide attempts.…”

The effects of empowerment at multiple leadership levels in the fire service: a moderated mediation model

“…For example, in response organizations, senior leaders are often criticized for being overly bureaucratic, risk-averse, and resistant to change (non-empowering behaviors), and that this is a major reason for their lack of success during complex events (Wankhade and Patnaik, 2020). Providing evidence for mechanisms that can achieve the strongest effect on adaptive performance by understanding whether senior leaders and immediate supervisors must both be empowering (additive effects), or if immediate supervisors can compensate for senior leadership's inadequacies (compensatory effects), highlights necessary conditions of empowerment and operational success during high complexity.…”

“…Findings -The findings support compensatory effects and show how immediate supervisors are key to overcoming senior leader deficiencies and producing adaptive performance during conditions of high uncertainty and complexity. Originality/value -The lack of response organizations' success during complex incidents is often attributed to senior leaders who are risk averse, overly bureaucratic, and resistant to change (Wankhade and Patnaik, 2020). This study is the first to show how empowering leadership can help overcome these constraints to enhance adaptive performance under complex conditions in the fire service.…”