The introduction of New Public Management inspired reforms in healthcare has encountered the resistance of many healthcare professionals who perceived the managerial approach to healthcare as a challenge to their professional culture, legitimacy, autonomy, and power (see, for example, 1, 2). The emergence of professional hybrids, such as medical managers in healthcare, i.e. individuals with a professional education and background who enter managerial roles was expected to avoid clashes between managerial and professional demands and reduce resistance to a more “managerial thinking” by healthcare professionals (e.g.: 4,5,6). Despite their potentially pivotal role in addressing professional resistance to managerialism, medical doctors entering hybrid roles might experience organizational-professional conflicts, i.e. an inconsistency experienced by employed professionals between the requirements of their employer and those of their vocation (7). Such an inconsistency experienced by professionals in the requirements of their employer and those of their vocation might have significant effects on hospital performance, in which quality-oriented objectives and economic-oriented objectives should be balanced in order to satisfy stakeholders. Although hybrid roles in healthcare have increasingly attracted a great deal of political and research interest (4, 3) and a body of research has already focused on professional identity and role conflict experienced by clinicians entering managerial positions how conflicts associated with hybrid roles could be overcome still remains unclear. […]
Key-Words: Aziende sanitarie
