Professions and the Pursuit of Transparency in Healthcare: Two Cases of Soft Autonomy

Summary, in English

Contemporary professions are increasingly challenged to open up to scrutiny from the outside. Earlier research is focused on two main types of responses and consequences: colonization by a managerial logic of self-monitoring and decoupling of auditing and professional practice. his paper describes a different type of response which implies that professionals get actively involved in monitoring their own activities, without losing their professional autonomy. Two cases from Swedish healthcare were investigated: accreditation at a hospital laboratory and the national quality registries. In both cases, professional involvement took the form of translation and negotiation in expert networks, restrained by a certain resistance towards external monitoring, but driven by an interest in legitimizing and developing professional work. he resulting situation is characterized as a 'soft autonomy' which combines professional internalization of originally non-professional auditing ideas with maintained professional control over evaluation criteria.

• Author: Charlotta Levay; Caroline Waks
• Department/s: Department of Health Sciences; Department of Business Administration
• Publishing year: 2009
• Language: English
• Pages: 509-527
• Publication/Series: Organization Studies
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 5
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0170840609104396
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Topic: Business Administration
• Keywords: audit society; professions; soft autonomy; soft; bureaucracy; transparency; healthcare services; soft regulation
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1741-3044