Constructing responsibility in social interaction: an analysis of responsibility talk in hospital administrative groups

Abstract

The role of responsibility in hospitals is undeniable. Although administrative groups are essential to organizational performance, previous group and team studies of responsibility in hospital organizations have concentrated mainly on healthcare teams. This study aims to describe and understand responsibility construction in the social interaction in hospital administrative group meetings, based on observation and analysis of seven administrative group meetings in a Finnish hospital. Categories generated by thematic content analysis were compared with responsibility types. The findings show that responsibility is constructed by creating co-responsibility, taking individual responsibility, and constructing non-responsibility. Action and role and task responsibilities emerged as types from the interaction. To support employee involvement in responsibility processes, they must also be provided with sufficient resources to deal with that responsibility and to manage its different dimensions. These insights can be utilized to improve administrative groups.

Meetings in the Workplace

“…Additionally, responsibility -the relational and attributional construct in which one party is accountable to another -is communicatively created in meetings (Lenk 2003). For instance, co-responsibility or individual responsibility concerning tasks and duties (e.g., who takes care of what on a certain project) or non-responsibility (e.g., shifting responsibility by representing oneself only as a messenger and not a decision-maker) is created in the communicative processes of meetings (Pennanen & Mikkola 2018). Furthermore, in meetings, the participants position themselves as part of the surrounding organization, construct the feeling of belongingness, and make sense of the organization as a whole (Laapotti & Mikkola 2016).…”