Editorial summary. This is our text summary of an article published by frontiers-orgpsych. Charts, figures, and the author’s full voice are at the original — read it there .
Editorial verdict
Methodologically sound qualitative study with a small sample, but the core finding — that OS performance conflicts stem from organizational dysfunction rather than professional identity antagonism — is credible and well-supported by triangulated data across four facilities.
Executive summary
This article investigates how professional identity (PI) differences between surgeons and anesthesiologists influence perceived performance in hospital operating suites (OS) in France. The authors argue that while PI differences do exist and correlate with conflict, the root causes of poor OS performance are primarily organizational — specifically inadequate scheduling regulation, resource shortfalls, and managerial deficiencies — rather than deep-seated identity antagonism. A qualitative comparative case study was conducted across four French hospitals (two teaching, one public non-teaching, one private) between 2019 and 2022, involving semi-structured interviews and direct observations with 26 physicians (13 surgeons, 13 anesthesiologists). Findings indicate that surgeons prioritize patient access and operating slot availability, while anesthesiologists prioritize shift end-time adherence and quality of work life. The private (for-profit) facility demonstrated higher perceived performance, attributed to a shared productivity goal. The study concludes that improving management and leadership to enhance communication and scheduling regulation is more effective for OS performance than attempting to reshape or unify professional identities.
Key insights
- 1Conflicts between surgeons and anesthesiologists over operating suite scheduling are predominantly driven by organizational failures — such as dysfunctional regulatory councils and resource shortages — rather than by fundamental professional identity antagonism.
- 2For-profit institutional identity (private hospital) was associated with higher perceived OS performance, largely because shared financial goals aligned surgeons and anesthesiologists around a common productivity objective.
- 3Anesthesiologists' stronger union culture in French public hospitals shapes a distinct identity trait prioritizing shift end-time adherence, while surgeons' personalized patient relationships drive a competing identity trait favoring extended operating availability — a structural divergence that organizations can modulate but rarely eliminate.
Practical takeaways
- Organizations experiencing OS performance conflicts may find greater impact from improving scheduling regulation and managerial communication structures than from identity-integration interventions such as team-building or shared identity programs.
- Performance measurement in operating suites involves multidimensional and profession-specific perceptions — objective time metrics alone fail to capture quality-of-work-life dimensions valued by anesthesiologists, or patient-access dimensions valued by surgeons.
Frameworks mentioned
Multi-Team Systems
A framework describing networks of two or more interdependent teams pursuing common objectives, applied here to characterize the operating suite as a complex system of surgical and anesthesiology teams.
References
- Anesthesia & Analgesia (2024).Contribution of coordination theories to the determination of human factors associated with operating room perceived performance.
- Anesthesia & Analgesia (2021).Determinants of work-related quality of life in French anesthesiologists.
- Anesthesiology (2006).Survey of anesthesia-related mortality in France.
- Academy of Management Journal (2018).Social identification in multiteam systems: the role of depletion and task complexity.
- BMJ Open (2019).How effective is teamwork really? The relationship between teamwork and performance in healthcare teams: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
- Journal of Public Affairs (2013).New public management and the reform of French public hospitals.
- Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior (2020).Multiteam systems: an integrated review and comparison of different forms.
- Academy of Management Journal (2015).Managing coordination in multiteam systems: integrating micro and macro perspectives.
- Journal of Applied Psychology (2005).Teamwork in multiteam systems.
- Public Performance & Management Review (2020).How organisational identity affects hospital performance: comparing predictive power of mission statements and sector affiliation.
Source & Provenance
frontiers-orgpsych
Odessa Dariel
April 24, 2026
Research Study
Europe
Original source metadata is preserved. AI analysis is generated separately.
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