Organizational design and quality management. Practical cases from the pharmaceutical industry

El presente trabajo trata de estudiar cómo se ve afectada la estructura de una organización tras la implantación de un sistema de gestión de la calidad. En un escueto marco teórico, se describen los cambios que se producen en las principales variables de diseño, concretamente, variables referentes al diseño de los puestos (grado de especialización, formalización, formas de control del rendimiento y los resultados, formación y socialización), y variables de diseño de la estructura (criterios de formación de unidades, tamaño de las unidades, dispositivos de enlace y diseño del sistema decisor), tras la implantación de un sistema de Aseguramiento de la Calidad (AC) y un sistema de Gestión de la Calidad Total (GCT). La investigación se completa con el estudio cualitativo de dos casos de empresa del sector farmacéutico: una empresa de gran tamaño correspondiente a un almacén mayorista, y una pequeña empresa correspondiente a las llamadas oficina de farmacia. Los resultados apuntan a que la empresa de mayor tamaño presenta características de diseño organizativo correspondientes al aseguramiento de la calidad. La oficina de farmacia, por el contrario, presenta características correspondientes a gestión de la calidad total.This research attempts to study the effects of introducing a quality management system on the structure of an organization. In a brief theoretical framework, the ensuing changes are described in the main design variables, and in particular, variables that refer to job design (degree of specialization, formalization, forms of performance control and outcomes, training and socialization), and structural design variables (training criteria for units, size of unit, linking mechanisms and the design of the decision-making system), after introducing a Quality Assurance Scheme (QA) and a Total Quality Management Scheme (TQM). The study is completed by a qualitative study of two cases of firms from the pharmaceutical sector: one large firm in the form of a wholesaler and a small firm dealing with pharmacy telephone enquiries. Results indicate that the larger firm shows organizational design characteristics that correspond to quality assurance. The pharmacy office, on the other hand, has characteristics that correspond to total quality management

Diferenciación y creación de conocimiento

El presente trabajo se aventura en el análisis, poco explorado todavía, del cruce de variables de diseño organizativo y creación de conocimiento en la organización. Partiendo de la relación bien establecida y probada en la literatura específica del impacto de los facilitadores sobre la creación de conocimiento, este trabajo introduce y explora el papel que tiene la diferenciación en la creación de conocimiento utilizando los facilitadores como variables intermedias. Se establece así un modelo general de relaciones entre estas variables, que se contrastan en una investigación empírica de carácter cuantitativo y a partir de una muestra de 167 grandes empresas españolas.This study focuses on the analysis of the influence of organizational design variables on knowledge creation within the organization. The impact that enablers have on knowledge creation has been widely demonstrated and established by the relevant literature. Using this assumption as a starting point, this study will consider and explore the differentiation in the knowledge creation using the enablers like intermediate variables. In this way, we can create a model of the relationship between these variables and contrast them with an empirical investigation of a quantitative nature, using a sample of 167 large Spanish firms

Los equipos y el aprendizaje grupal en la organización. Un estudio cuantitativo en las grandes empresas españolas

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar las relaciones entre las variables que definen el contexto del equipo y el aprendizaje. Para dar cumplimiento a este objetivo analizamos el aprendizaje grupal e integramos a dicho análisis las relaciones positivas, identificadas por la literatura especializada, entre contexto y eficacia de equipo. Estas relaciones entre las variables de contexto y eficacia de equipo y el aprendizaje grupal, serán contrastadas en un estudio de naturaleza cuantitativa y en una muestra de 167 grandes empresas españolas. Los resultados obtenidos muestran las condiciones del contexto organizativo donde son aplicados los equipos, condicionan el aprendizaje grupal

Cultura organizativa y la ambidestreza

Este artículo recoge los principales fundamentos teóricos sobre la cultura de las organizaciones y la ambidestreza. Comenzaremos acotando el término cultura desarrollando también sus niveles y sus principales elementos, así como el concepto de ambidestreza, abordaremos una revisión de las aportaciones de diferentes autores para, posteriormente, estudiar las distintas perspectivas, sus formas, y la relación entre ambos conceptos

Aprendizaje organizativo de la exploración y la explotación

Este artículo aborda los aspectos inherentes a las características del aprendizaje organizativo y explotación y la exploración, a saber, sus antecedentes del aprendizaje organizativo, fases tipos aprendizaje. Así mismo relacionaremos de acuerdo con los estudios de la literatura como las organizaciones tienen la capacidad de desarrollar al mismo tiempo innovaciones que exploten sus aprendizajes actuales y al mismo tiempo que exploran nuevas oportunidades que van más allá del aprendizaje presente, donde lo determínanos como ambidestreza organizativa. De manera que se concluye como el aprendizaje organizativo relaciona el aprendizaje de explotación y exploración

Effect of exploitation and exploration on the innovative as outcomes in entrepreneurial firms

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Situational awareness, relational coordination and integrated care delivery to hospitalized elderly in the Netherlands: A comparison between hospitals

__Abstract__ Background: It is known that interprofessional collaboration is crucial for integrated care delivery, yet we are still unclear about the underlying mechanisms explaining effectiveness of integrated care delivery to older patients. In addition, we lack research comparing integrated care delivery between hospitals. Therefore, this study aims to (i) provide insight into the underlying components 'relational coordination' and 'situational awareness' of integrated care delivery and the role of team and organizational context in integrated care delivery; and (ii) compare situational awareness, relational coordination, and integrated care delivery of different hospitals in the Netherlands. Methods. This cross-sectional study took place in 2012 among professionals from three different hospitals involved in the delivery of care to older patients. A total of 215 professionals filled in the questionnaire (42% response rate).Descriptive statistics and paired-sample t-tests were used to investigate the level of situational awareness, relational coordination, and integrated care delivery in the three different hospitals. Correlation and multilevel analyses were used to investigate the relationship between background characteristics, team context, organizational context, situational awareness, relational coordination and integrated care delivery. Results: No differences in background characteristics, team context, organizational context, situational awareness, relational coordination and integrated care delivery were found among the three hospitals. Correlational analysis revealed that situational awareness (r = 0.30; p < 0.01), relational coordination (r = 0.17; p < 0.05), team climate (r = 0.29; p < 0.01), formal internal communication (r = 0.46; p < 0.01), and informal internal communication (r = 0.36; p < 0.01) were positively associated with integrated care delivery. Stepwise multilevel analyses showed that formal internal communication (p < 0.001) and situational awareness (p < 0.01) were associated with integrated care delivery. Team climate was not significantly associated with integrated care delivery when situational awareness and relational coordination were included in the equation. Thus situational awareness acted as mediator between team climate and integrated care delivery among professionals delivering care to older hospitalized patients. Conclusions: The results of this study show the importance of formal internal communication and situational awareness for quality of care delivery to hospitalized older patients

Epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection and sepsis in critically ill patients: “AbSeS”, a multinational observational cohort study and ESICM Trials Group Project

Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection in an international cohort of ICU patients according to a new system that classifies cases according to setting of infection acquisition (community-acquired, early onset hospital-acquired, and late-onset hospital-acquired), anatomical disruption (absent or present with localized or diffuse peritonitis), and severity of disease expression (infection, sepsis, and septic shock). Methods: We performed a multicenter (n = 309), observational, epidemiological study including adult ICU patients diagnosed with intra-abdominal infection. Risk factors for mortality were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Results: The cohort included 2621 patients. Setting of infection acquisition was community-acquired in 31.6%, early onset hospital-acquired in 25%, and late-onset hospital-acquired in 43.4% of patients. Overall prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was 26.3% and difficult-to-treat resistant Gram-negative bacteria 4.3%, with great variation according to geographic region. No difference in prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was observed according to setting of infection acquisition. Overall mortality was 29.1%. Independent risk factors for mortality included late-onset hospital-acquired infection, diffuse peritonitis, sepsis, septic shock, older age, malnutrition, liver failure, congestive heart failure, antimicrobial resistance (either methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria, or carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria) and source control failure evidenced by either the need for surgical revision or persistent inflammation. Conclusion: This multinational, heterogeneous cohort of ICU patients with intra-abdominal infection revealed that setting of infection acquisition, anatomical disruption, and severity of disease expression are disease-specific phenotypic characteristics associated with outcome, irrespective of the type of infection. Antimicrobial resistance is equally common in community-acquired as in hospital-acquired infection