Managers' role in supporting resilience in healthcare: a proposed model of how managers contribute to a healthcare system's overall resilience

Abstract

Purpose: To discuss how managers contribute in promoting resilience in healthcare, and to suggest a model of managers' role in supporting resilience and elaborate on how future research and implementation studies can use this to further operationalize the concept and promote healthcare resilience. Design/methodology/approach: The authors first provide an overview of and discuss the main approaches to healthcare resilience and research on management and resilience. Second, the authors provide examples on how managers work to promote healthcare resilience during a one-year Norwegian longitudinal intervention study following managers in nursing homes and homecare services in their daily quality and safety work. They use this material to propose a model of management and resilience. Findings: The authors consider managerial strategies to support healthcare resilience as the strategies managers use to engage people in collaborative and coordinated processes that adapt, enhance or reorganize system functioning, promoting possibilities of learning, growth, development and recovery of the healthcare system to maintain high quality care. The authors’ model illustrates how managers influence the healthcare systems ability to adapt, enhance and reorganize, with high quality care as the key outcome. Originality/value: In this study, the authors argue that managerial strategies should be considered and operationalized as part of a healthcare system's overall resilience. They propose a new model of managers' role in supporting resilience to be used in practice, interventions and future research projects.