Working Papers,
Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies

Abstract: This biographical study of a department of anaesthesiology at a university hospital focuses on the strong, charismatic leadership exerted by the first leader of the department, on how he made it a very prominent research institution, on how the strong and distinctive research-oriented professional identity and culture of the department persist, and on some present conflicts regarding the organizational unity of anaesthesiology at the hospital. Much attention is given to the “organizational saga”, i.e. the collective narrative developed within the department about its past and its identity. In the context of the saga, different aspects of leadership are explained. The first leader created and communicated the saga, and a main task of today’s leaders is to defend the values and identity expressed in the saga. It is argued that a charismatic leadership can be routinized in a narrative, in this case the saga. As much as this possibility is not contradicted by Webers definition of charisma and its routinization, it is not actually developed in his writings. The study also discusses if the saga has been fulfilled at the department and to what extent the identity is institutionalized. Furthermore, the study indicates that changes in stategies of control at the department have accompanied changes in the principles that legitimate leadership in society in general. Above all, it shows that a biographical perspective on organizations can be fruitful, and that the concepts of identity and organizational saga have a high explanatory value. Future biographical studies of hospital departments and their identity and narratives are recommended, and some theoretical points of departure are suggested.

Keywords: Företagsledning Arbetsledning; Sjukvårdsadministration Sjukvårdsorganisation Sverige

43 pages, 1995

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