Going public

References to the news media in NHS contract negotiations

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2248697
AutoresDavid Hughes (0000-0002-7631-7763, Swansea University, autor correspondente), Lesley Griffiths (Swansea University)
Ano2003
Volume25
Fascículo6
Páginas571-588
Data de publicação2003-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.00359
PMID12919446
OpenAlexW2004724564
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas14

This paper considers how middle-level managers in British Health Authorities and hospital Trusts orient to media reportage in the process of negotiating and monitoring contracts for clinical services. Although they sometimes produce media representations aimed at influencing the general public, local policy actors on both sides of the purchaser/provider split also use media messages as part of their negotiations with each other. We examine how they seek to manage negative publicity, and what happens when one side threatens to 'go public'. Managers must strike a balance between negotiating advantage and maintaining organisational relationships. Thus the powerful, but potentially double-edged, weapon of public disclosure was usually broached in indirect terms, and approached with some ambivalence. In rare cases, parties resorted to hostile press releases as relationships deteriorated. Arguably, these interactions reflect more general tensions that arise when managerial discourses, emphasising concepts such as adversarial contracting, markets and competition, are imported into professional organisations with a public service mission

Adversarial system · Ambivalence · Balance (ability) · Business · Competition (biology) · Media relations · Negotiation · Political science · Public relations · Public service · Publicity · Service (business) · Service provider · Law · Marketing · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Policy and Administration Research · Social Psychology