Making decisions about people

the long version

Employing stroke rehabilitation in hospitals as a case study, this book clarifies a range of practical organisational concerns and conceptual issues related to decision making in complex organisations. The author identifies the strengths of 'classical' ethnomethodology, considered separate to its contemporary interpretations in both social studies of science and conversation analysis. The book's analytical framework is cognate with both management science and interactionist sociology, and is specifically tailored to the study of how decisions actually get made by professionals in bureaucratic institutions. Data are examined to address two key questions: how are different professional and individual perspectives reconciled in meeting and how are formal management tools (policies, protocols, practice standards) used in situ? As well as offering a research framework that avoids both relativism and 'objectification', this book considers the substantive issues confronting health professionals, who are not only working with an ageing population, but also facing resource shortages and new management techniques and organisational frameworks. -- from back cover.