THOMPSON'S RATIONALITY IN ORGANIZATIONS: STAFF BEHAVIOR IN A HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT (PHYSICIANS, TECHNICAL CORE, NURSES, UNCERTAINTY).
Contributors: University of Rochester.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 106
Subjects: Sociology, Theory and Methods.
Description: In Organizations in Action (1967), Thompson offered a series of propositions concerning organizational rationality amid uncertainties originating from the environment. He argued that organizations, in order to achieve their goals, will surround their technical core activities with input and output components to buffer the core from environmental influence. Although widely cited, few attempts have been made to examine his reasoning empirically.

This study sought evidence of buffering in an organization that has identifiable input, technical, and output components, utilizes an intensive technology, and frequently confronts environmental uncertainty. It was hypothesized the fluctuations in the environment of the organization would cause greater variation in both input and output activities than in technical core activities. That is, if the buffering function of the input and output components was to be realized, technical core activity would be less influenced by environmental fluctuations than would input and output activities.

Staff behavior was observed in a hospital emergency department (ED). Input, technical core, and output activities were identified. The ED faces uncertainty in that, at any given time, the number of patients who might seek care and the nature of the patients' problems are unpredictable. Data documenting direct observations (N = 1453) of activities of ED staff (physicians and nurses) were available from Liptak et al. (1985). Through a secondary analysis, the effects of patient volume (workload) and patient acuity (average severity, average complexity) upon staff activities (input, technical core, and output) were examined.

Logistic regressions were executed from which indices of environmental influence upon staff activity were obtained. By comparing these indices the combined effect of workload, average severity, and average complexity upon input, technical core, and output activity could be ascertained. The hypothesis was supported. In a hospital ED, fluctuations in workload and the average severity and average complexity of the patients presenting for treatment revealed greater variation in the frequencies of staff activity in both input and output components than in technical core components. The technical core was buffered from environmental influence. The hypothesis was also consistently supported when physicians' and nurses' behavior was analyzed separately.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-04, Section: A, page: 1507.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, 1986.

School code: 0188.