Physicians as process innovators in healthcare organizations: Exploring the determinants of change from within

This article provides evidence-based recommendations for how healthcare organizations can encourage their medical physicians to engage in process improvements and change from within. It tests the salience of three key organizational level factors that have the potential to influence professionals’ process innovativeness: (1) the organization having a cost strategy that is visible to the physician, (2) the extent of human intellectual capital in the organization surrounding the physician, and (3) the sharing of common values across the healthcare organization. We draw on an online questionnaire survey among physicians in the Netherlands and use business consultants as a contrast group to understand whether physicians are different from managerially oriented professionals. We find that shared values matter for process innovativeness amongst physicians but not business consultants, while a cost strategy and abundant human intellectual capital are important for process innovativeness amongst business consultants but not physicians. We translate these findings into recommendations for physician engagement in organizational improvement and change programs in healthcare.