Ambiguity in the identity transformation of public health organizations

2016. RAE-Revista de Administração de Empresas. Vol. 56, N°3. Pp. 330 - 341

Matias Sanfuentes A, Eduardo Acuña A

Abstract:

This study explores the transformations carried out by health authorities in a hospital during forty years, with the purpose of institutionalizing the geriatric practice in the Chilean public system. The transformations have been implemented through a process of identity conversion, which has implied high levels of ambiguity due to the contradictory coexistence of the old hospital’s identity with the new geriatric practices. Ambiguities are associated with an erratic and precarious support given by state authorities to the development of the geriatric public framework. Through the handling of images, authorities have paradoxically amplified the achievements of transformations, thus promoting apparent complacency in internal and external audiences.

Palabras claves: Ambiguity, Identity, Change, History, Organizations

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