IRB SUBMISSION

IRB Submission



IRB Submission

Researcher's name___________________________________

Phone_____________________________________________

Email _____________________________________________

Committee chair_____________________________________

Phone _____________________________________________

Email______________________________________________

Title of master's thesis or of project

"QUANTUM LEADERSHIP" (A RESOURCE FOR HEALTH CARE INNOVATION)"

Introduction

The beginning of the twenty-first century encompasses an era that technologically could be called The Quantum Age. Computers, the Internet, bar code readers and laser surgery represent only a few of the new and innovative outcomes of a twentieth-century theory of physics called quantum mechanics. This term was introduced in the 1920s to describe the new physics, the physics of the subatomic realm. The subatomic realm refers to everything in the physical world that is smaller than an atom. The word quantum literally means “a quantity of something”; mechanics refers to “the study of motion.” Quantum mechanics is, therefore, the study of subatomic particles in motion (Shelton, 2009: 1-2). However, subatomic particles are not material things; rather, they are probability tendencies - energy with potentiality.

Hypothesis of problem to be explored will be clearly identified/refined

Human perception is highly subjective (quantum seeing).

Creative thinking requires the development of the right hemisphere of the brain (quantum thinking).

Human feelings are not the result of external events but of internal self-talk (quantum feeling).

Participants

The individuals who have been interviewed are first- and second-line managers (i.e. department managers and organizational managers) from large university hospitals, middle-sized hospitals, and smaller local healthcare centers. In total, the study consists of 59 interviews with 31 first-line and 45 second-line managers. Among the interviewed leaders, 52 were interviewed individually and 24 were interviewed in six focus groups.

Procedures

The present study is a qualitative study based on data collected through individual in-depth, observations and focus-group interviews. Constructivist grounded theory was used as the qualitative approach, taking the perspective that people create social realities through their interpretation, as well as through individual and collective actions (Charmaz, 2006). The human service organizations studied were hospitals and healthcare centers in the Western region of Sweden.

Recruitment of subjects or co-researchers

In order to capture various experiences of healthcare leaders' dilemmas and support, we strategically selected first- and second-line leaders, female and male leaders, and leaders with long- and short-term experience, for individual interviews. Leaders in the whole region were then invited to a seminar followed by a focus-group discussion about modern healthcare leadership dilemmas and the support that was needed. Simultaneously, we conducted theoretical sampling of subjects for individual interviews, with theoretically refined interview questions, in general by asking earlier respondents and the human resource departments. None of the leaders objected to participating in the study.

Collection of data

Data collection was carried out during the period 2001-2006 and comprised individual interviews, focus-group interviews, and observations. The interviews covered questions of complex conditions in leadership practice, focusing on main challenges and dilemmas related to leadership tasks, strategies used to meet the experienced dilemmas and how support might be provided in relation to these issues.

Qualitative focus-group interviews were used to gain insight into shared experiences of contextual strengths and obstacles, as well as conditions that have meaning and utility. The role of the moderator was to open the meeting, to ...