Sue Dopson
Biographic Data
| ID | 384948 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sue Dopson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sue |
| FAMILY NAME | Dopson |
| SIGNATURE | DOPSON S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3763-9751 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 182 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Talking about disappointments
Disappointment is common in many organizations. Yet little is known about how individuals’ talk about their workplace disappointment shapes their identification with organizations. We conducted an analysis of 104 academics in a prestigious British university to make two contributions to our understanding of the discursive constitution of organizational identification (OID). First, we show how individuals used different types of disappointment-tal…
Responsible impact and the reinforcement of responsible innovation in the public sector ecosystem
Responsible innovation is an important consideration for digital health innovation. This study explores the responsible innovation processes of digital health innovators, and the reinforcement of responsible innovation practices. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews followed by a thematic analysis and narrative enquiry, we understand the lived experiences of innovators in the UK and Norway. We suggest three contributions. (1) That Respons…
Getting lost to be found
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw on the direct experience of a practitioner undertaking real-time research in his organization to offer insights into the dual role of practical insider and theoretical outsider. The duality helps the researcher to live “in” and think “out” of the research context to develop a theory for practice and then transpose it to a practice for theory through the collaboration of an external theoretical insider.…
Knowledge leadership
This article explores contrasting forms of ‘knowledge leadership’ in mobilizing management research into organizational practice. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective on power–knowledge, we introduce three axes of power–knowledge relations, through which we analyse knowledge leadership practices. We present empirical case study data focused on ‘polar cases’ of managers engaged in mobilizing management research in six research-intensive organizati…
The Political Economy of Management Knowledge
Have generic management texts and associated knowledges now extensively diffused into public services organizations? If so, why? Our empirical study of English healthcare organizations detects an extensive presence of such texts. We argue that their ready diffusion relates to two macro‐level forces: (i) the influence of the underlying political economy of public services reform and (ii) a strongly developed business school/management consulting k…
Managing patient emotions as skilled work and being 'one of us
While the literature on emotional labour has concentrated on worker feelings, this article assesses the capacity of an occupational role to deal with the feelings of the service user and, in particular, whether this capacity constitutes a skill. It focuses on the healthcare assistant, an unregulated role increasingly important in the delivery of hospital care. The capacity of this role to manage the emotions of patients has been questioned. Howev…
Opening the window
This article draws upon the emotion at work literature to explore how workers manage their feelings in dealing with death as a routine part of their working lives. It focuses on a specific group of workers, healthcare assistants (HCAs) in a hospital setting, who in delivering direct patient care have a particularly intimate relationship with dying and death. Based upon interview data from HCAs in four English acute hospital trusts, the article ar…
Public Policy Networks and ‘Wicked Problems’
The last two decades have seen a shift in public services organizations from hierarchies to networks. Network forms are seen as particularly suited to handling ‘wicked problems'. We make an assessment of the nature and impact of this shift. Using recent evidence from the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS), we explore the nature and functioning of eight different public policy networks. We are also interested in whether there has be…
Renewing Policy to Support Evidence‐based Health Care
Health systems internationally have developed policies to support evidence‐based health care (EBHC) for over a decade. As this article shows, the time is ripe to review current policy frameworks in an evidence‐based manner. We summarize key themes deriving from qualitative research on the UK EBHC implementation and draw out implications for policy renewal. Our diagnosis is different from current UK NHS (National Health Service) policy since we st…
Effectiveness of saliva collection and enzyme‐immunoassay for the quantification of cortisol in socially housed baboons
Circulating cortisol levels are often used to assess the biological stress response in captive primates. Some methods commonly used to collect blood samples may alter the stress response. As such, noninvasive means to analyze cortisol levels are increasingly being developed. We adapted an existing collection method to simultaneously obtain saliva from multiple socially living hamadryas baboons ( Papio hamadryas hamadryas ) and validated an enzyme…
The Diffusion of Medical Innovations
This article seeks to present and explore the relevance of a figurational, or process sociological approach, as developed by Norbert Elias, to the investigation of innovation and change. It is argued that Elias’s work offers a theoretically robust framework for exploring such issues. Applications of the principles of his work, in particular the emphasis on an understanding of longer-term unplanned processes, are a potential help to those charged …
The potential of the case study method for organisational analysis
This article explores the case study method with a view to considering its potential contribution for organisational analysis. The promise of this method is seen to lie in allowing complex interdependencies between groups and complex social processes to be explored within a social context. This potential can only be realised if a number of important standards are met. Such standards include using organisational theory, seeking multiple data, comp…
Evidence-Based Medicine and the Implementation Gap
Evidence-based medicine was one of the earliest manifestations of evidence-based policy and practice, and has exercised substantial influence on other policy areas. Based on data from seven empirical studies carried out between 1993 and 1999, this article examines the origins and impact of EBM, and the complexities of implementation which have emerged. Policy makers and EBM enthusiasts alike have frequently taken a somewhat simplistic view of the…
Applying an Eliasian Approach to Organizational Analysis
The central focus of the article is managing change in the National Health Service (NHS). In particular, it uses the implementation of general management (see the Griffiths Report, 1983) to explore the value of the process-sociological approach for understanding a number of unintended outcomes associated with this change. Elias is not a sociologist associated with the study of the NHS, or indeed the management of change, yet it is argued his appr…
Understanding the role of opinion leaders in improving clinical effectiveness
Regional Offices in the New NHS
This article reports on a two‐year, multi‐method, qualitative study in two regional offices in the UK National Health Service of the changing role of the regional tier from the autumn of 1994. The nature of the changes from fourteen semiautonomous regional health authorities to eight regional offices of the NHS Executive, whose staff became civil servants, are described together with the way this reorganization changed the role and relationships …
Managing ambiguity and change
Introduction - Reorganizations of the NHS: Theory and Practice - Eliasian Sociology - The Introduction of General Management in the NHS: An Example of Managed Social Change - DGM's Priorities: An Eliasian Analysis - Case Study: The Development of a Mental Health Policy - Conclusion
Managing social change
Using the implementation of the Griffiths Report as an example, this paper examines the way in which sociologists and others have examined the process of managing change within the NHS. Several studies of Griffiths have documented a number of unintended consequences of its implementation but it is argued that none of these have adequately theorised these unintended outcomes of the policy implementation process. It is suggested that the process-so…
Information technology, organizational restructuring and the future of middle management
This article examines the impact of information technology as one of the factors affecting the numbers and roles of middle managers. The authors highlight the need to empirically examine middle management work in the context of the complexity of changes affecting the job of middle managers and the complexity of reactions to these changes, if further assertions about the future of middle management are to be avoided
Public Policy Networks and ‘Wicked Problems’
The last two decades have seen a shift in public services organizations from hierarchies to networks. Network forms are seen as particularly suited to handling ‘wicked problems'. We make an assessment of the nature and impact of this shift. Using recent evidence from the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS), we explore the nature and functioning of eight different public policy networks. We are also interested in whether there has be…
Understanding the role of opinion leaders in improving clinical effectiveness
The Diffusion of Medical Innovations
This article seeks to present and explore the relevance of a figurational, or process sociological approach, as developed by Norbert Elias, to the investigation of innovation and change. It is argued that Elias’s work offers a theoretically robust framework for exploring such issues. Applications of the principles of his work, in particular the emphasis on an understanding of longer-term unplanned processes, are a potential help to those charged …
Evidence-Based Medicine and the Implementation Gap
Evidence-based medicine was one of the earliest manifestations of evidence-based policy and practice, and has exercised substantial influence on other policy areas. Based on data from seven empirical studies carried out between 1993 and 1999, this article examines the origins and impact of EBM, and the complexities of implementation which have emerged. Policy makers and EBM enthusiasts alike have frequently taken a somewhat simplistic view of the…
Managing social change
Using the implementation of the Griffiths Report as an example, this paper examines the way in which sociologists and others have examined the process of managing change within the NHS. Several studies of Griffiths have documented a number of unintended consequences of its implementation but it is argued that none of these have adequately theorised these unintended outcomes of the policy implementation process. It is suggested that the process-so…
Information technology, organizational restructuring and the future of middle management
This article examines the impact of information technology as one of the factors affecting the numbers and roles of middle managers. The authors highlight the need to empirically examine middle management work in the context of the complexity of changes affecting the job of middle managers and the complexity of reactions to these changes, if further assertions about the future of middle management are to be avoided
Managing patient emotions as skilled work and being 'one of us
While the literature on emotional labour has concentrated on worker feelings, this article assesses the capacity of an occupational role to deal with the feelings of the service user and, in particular, whether this capacity constitutes a skill. It focuses on the healthcare assistant, an unregulated role increasingly important in the delivery of hospital care. The capacity of this role to manage the emotions of patients has been questioned. Howev…
Opening the window
This article draws upon the emotion at work literature to explore how workers manage their feelings in dealing with death as a routine part of their working lives. It focuses on a specific group of workers, healthcare assistants (HCAs) in a hospital setting, who in delivering direct patient care have a particularly intimate relationship with dying and death. Based upon interview data from HCAs in four English acute hospital trusts, the article ar…
The Political Economy of Management Knowledge
Have generic management texts and associated knowledges now extensively diffused into public services organizations? If so, why? Our empirical study of English healthcare organizations detects an extensive presence of such texts. We argue that their ready diffusion relates to two macro‐level forces: (i) the influence of the underlying political economy of public services reform and (ii) a strongly developed business school/management consulting k…
Renewing Policy to Support Evidence‐based Health Care
Health systems internationally have developed policies to support evidence‐based health care (EBHC) for over a decade. As this article shows, the time is ripe to review current policy frameworks in an evidence‐based manner. We summarize key themes deriving from qualitative research on the UK EBHC implementation and draw out implications for policy renewal. Our diagnosis is different from current UK NHS (National Health Service) policy since we st…
The potential of the case study method for organisational analysis
This article explores the case study method with a view to considering its potential contribution for organisational analysis. The promise of this method is seen to lie in allowing complex interdependencies between groups and complex social processes to be explored within a social context. This potential can only be realised if a number of important standards are met. Such standards include using organisational theory, seeking multiple data, comp…
Applying an Eliasian Approach to Organizational Analysis
The central focus of the article is managing change in the National Health Service (NHS). In particular, it uses the implementation of general management (see the Griffiths Report, 1983) to explore the value of the process-sociological approach for understanding a number of unintended outcomes associated with this change. Elias is not a sociologist associated with the study of the NHS, or indeed the management of change, yet it is argued his appr…
Knowledge leadership
This article explores contrasting forms of ‘knowledge leadership’ in mobilizing management research into organizational practice. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective on power–knowledge, we introduce three axes of power–knowledge relations, through which we analyse knowledge leadership practices. We present empirical case study data focused on ‘polar cases’ of managers engaged in mobilizing management research in six research-intensive organizati…
Regional Offices in the New NHS
This article reports on a two‐year, multi‐method, qualitative study in two regional offices in the UK National Health Service of the changing role of the regional tier from the autumn of 1994. The nature of the changes from fourteen semiautonomous regional health authorities to eight regional offices of the NHS Executive, whose staff became civil servants, are described together with the way this reorganization changed the role and relationships …
Talking about disappointments
Disappointment is common in many organizations. Yet little is known about how individuals’ talk about their workplace disappointment shapes their identification with organizations. We conducted an analysis of 104 academics in a prestigious British university to make two contributions to our understanding of the discursive constitution of organizational identification (OID). First, we show how individuals used different types of disappointment-tal…
Information technology, organizational restructuring and the future of middle management
This article examines the impact of information technology as one of the factors affecting the numbers and roles of middle managers. The authors highlight the need to empirically examine middle management work in the context of the complexity of changes affecting the job of middle managers and the complexity of reactions to these changes, if further assertions about the future of middle management are to be avoided
Managing social change
Using the implementation of the Griffiths Report as an example, this paper examines the way in which sociologists and others have examined the process of managing change within the NHS. Several studies of Griffiths have documented a number of unintended consequences of its implementation but it is argued that none of these have adequately theorised these unintended outcomes of the policy implementation process. It is suggested that the process-so…
Managing ambiguity and change
Introduction - Reorganizations of the NHS: Theory and Practice - Eliasian Sociology - The Introduction of General Management in the NHS: An Example of Managed Social Change - DGM's Priorities: An Eliasian Analysis - Case Study: The Development of a Mental Health Policy - Conclusion
Regional Offices in the New NHS
This article reports on a two‐year, multi‐method, qualitative study in two regional offices in the UK National Health Service of the changing role of the regional tier from the autumn of 1994. The nature of the changes from fourteen semiautonomous regional health authorities to eight regional offices of the NHS Executive, whose staff became civil servants, are described together with the way this reorganization changed the role and relationships …
Applying an Eliasian Approach to Organizational Analysis
The central focus of the article is managing change in the National Health Service (NHS). In particular, it uses the implementation of general management (see the Griffiths Report, 1983) to explore the value of the process-sociological approach for understanding a number of unintended outcomes associated with this change. Elias is not a sociologist associated with the study of the NHS, or indeed the management of change, yet it is argued his appr…
Understanding the role of opinion leaders in improving clinical effectiveness
The potential of the case study method for organisational analysis
This article explores the case study method with a view to considering its potential contribution for organisational analysis. The promise of this method is seen to lie in allowing complex interdependencies between groups and complex social processes to be explored within a social context. This potential can only be realised if a number of important standards are met. Such standards include using organisational theory, seeking multiple data, comp…
Evidence-Based Medicine and the Implementation Gap
Evidence-based medicine was one of the earliest manifestations of evidence-based policy and practice, and has exercised substantial influence on other policy areas. Based on data from seven empirical studies carried out between 1993 and 1999, this article examines the origins and impact of EBM, and the complexities of implementation which have emerged. Policy makers and EBM enthusiasts alike have frequently taken a somewhat simplistic view of the…
The Diffusion of Medical Innovations
This article seeks to present and explore the relevance of a figurational, or process sociological approach, as developed by Norbert Elias, to the investigation of innovation and change. It is argued that Elias’s work offers a theoretically robust framework for exploring such issues. Applications of the principles of his work, in particular the emphasis on an understanding of longer-term unplanned processes, are a potential help to those charged …
Effectiveness of saliva collection and enzyme‐immunoassay for the quantification of cortisol in socially housed baboons
Circulating cortisol levels are often used to assess the biological stress response in captive primates. Some methods commonly used to collect blood samples may alter the stress response. As such, noninvasive means to analyze cortisol levels are increasingly being developed. We adapted an existing collection method to simultaneously obtain saliva from multiple socially living hamadryas baboons ( Papio hamadryas hamadryas ) and validated an enzyme…
Renewing Policy to Support Evidence‐based Health Care
Health systems internationally have developed policies to support evidence‐based health care (EBHC) for over a decade. As this article shows, the time is ripe to review current policy frameworks in an evidence‐based manner. We summarize key themes deriving from qualitative research on the UK EBHC implementation and draw out implications for policy renewal. Our diagnosis is different from current UK NHS (National Health Service) policy since we st…
Public Policy Networks and ‘Wicked Problems’
The last two decades have seen a shift in public services organizations from hierarchies to networks. Network forms are seen as particularly suited to handling ‘wicked problems'. We make an assessment of the nature and impact of this shift. Using recent evidence from the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS), we explore the nature and functioning of eight different public policy networks. We are also interested in whether there has be…
Opening the window
This article draws upon the emotion at work literature to explore how workers manage their feelings in dealing with death as a routine part of their working lives. It focuses on a specific group of workers, healthcare assistants (HCAs) in a hospital setting, who in delivering direct patient care have a particularly intimate relationship with dying and death. Based upon interview data from HCAs in four English acute hospital trusts, the article ar…
The Political Economy of Management Knowledge
Have generic management texts and associated knowledges now extensively diffused into public services organizations? If so, why? Our empirical study of English healthcare organizations detects an extensive presence of such texts. We argue that their ready diffusion relates to two macro‐level forces: (i) the influence of the underlying political economy of public services reform and (ii) a strongly developed business school/management consulting k…
Managing patient emotions as skilled work and being 'one of us
While the literature on emotional labour has concentrated on worker feelings, this article assesses the capacity of an occupational role to deal with the feelings of the service user and, in particular, whether this capacity constitutes a skill. It focuses on the healthcare assistant, an unregulated role increasingly important in the delivery of hospital care. The capacity of this role to manage the emotions of patients has been questioned. Howev…
Knowledge leadership
This article explores contrasting forms of ‘knowledge leadership’ in mobilizing management research into organizational practice. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective on power–knowledge, we introduce three axes of power–knowledge relations, through which we analyse knowledge leadership practices. We present empirical case study data focused on ‘polar cases’ of managers engaged in mobilizing management research in six research-intensive organizati…
Getting lost to be found
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw on the direct experience of a practitioner undertaking real-time research in his organization to offer insights into the dual role of practical insider and theoretical outsider. The duality helps the researcher to live “in” and think “out” of the research context to develop a theory for practice and then transpose it to a practice for theory through the collaboration of an external theoretical insider.…
Responsible impact and the reinforcement of responsible innovation in the public sector ecosystem
Responsible innovation is an important consideration for digital health innovation. This study explores the responsible innovation processes of digital health innovators, and the reinforcement of responsible innovation practices. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews followed by a thematic analysis and narrative enquiry, we understand the lived experiences of innovators in the UK and Norway. We suggest three contributions. (1) That Respons…
Talking about disappointments
Disappointment is common in many organizations. Yet little is known about how individuals’ talk about their workplace disappointment shapes their identification with organizations. We conducted an analysis of 104 academics in a prestigious British university to make two contributions to our understanding of the discursive constitution of organizational identification (OID). First, we show how individuals used different types of disappointment-tal…
Political science (17 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Business (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Health care (7 works) · Management and Organizational Studies (7 works)