To Uncertainty and Beyond: Identifying the Capabilities Needed by Hospitals to Function in Dynamic Environments

Abstract

Hospitals operate in increasingly complex and dynamically uncertain environments. To understand how hospital organizations can cope with such profound uncertainty, this article presents a multiple case study of five hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis in a heavily hit region of the Netherlands. We find that hospitals make adaptations in five key categories, namely: reorganization, decision-making, human resources, material resources, and planning. These adaptations offer insights into the core capabilities needed by hospitals to cope with dynamic uncertainty. Our findings highlight the need for hospitals to become more flexible without sacrificing efficiency. Organizations can accomplish this by building in more sensing and seizing capabilities to be better prepared for and respond to environmental change. Furthermore, transforming capabilities allow organizations to be more resilient and responsive in the face of ongoing uncertainty. We make recommendations on how hospitals can build these capabilities and address the core challenges they face in this pursuit.

Through the looking glass

“…We focused on the management perspective, trying to understand how the context of the crisis had affected managers in their work, relationships with other stakeholders, approach to management, and what challenges they perceived both now and in the future. Interviews were part of a larger study on hospital adaptation to crisis ( Gifford et al, 2022 ). Ethical approval was granted for this study (FHML-REC/2020/110).…”

“…The hospitals in our study are all located in one of the most heavily hit regions by the pandemic. There are five hospitals in the region that vary in size (e.g., in terms of annual turnover, number of beds, and amount of staff) and of which one is an academic hospital, two are top clinical hospitals, and two are general hospitals (see also Gifford et al, 2022 ). The academic hospital, the two top clinical hospitals, and one general hospital have been included in this study.…”

Renew or die amidst COVID-19: investigating the effect of organizational learning culture on strategic renewal through strategic reconfiguration and digital transformation

“…Recently, the COVID-19 epidemic has changed normal life in such a way that the environment becomes dynamically uncertain. Therefore, health care organizations should vastly adapt and adopt learning mindsets in order to be able to respond effectively to the emerging situation and be ready to course-correct as required (Gifford et al, 2021). Moreover, Gifford et al (2021) asserted that in order to recover the pandemic, hospitals need to engage in higher-level learning, which works to shift norms, helps hospitals in developing new cognitive frameworks through which they can make decisions and discard old frames.…”

“…Recently, the COVID-19 epidemic has changed normal life in such a way that the environment becomes dynamically uncertain. Therefore, health care organizations should vastly adapt and adopt learning mindsets in order to be able to respond effectively to the emerging situation and be ready to course-correct as required (Gifford et al. , 2021).…”

“…, 2021). Moreover, Gifford et al. (2021) asserted that in order to recover the pandemic, hospitals need to engage in higher-level learning, which works to shift norms, helps hospitals in developing new cognitive frameworks through which they can make decisions and discard old frames.…”