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Advances in Health Care Organization Theory, edited by Stephen S. Mick and Mindy E. Wyttenbach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003. 408 pp. $48.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-7879-5764-X.
This edited text was designed to improve organization theory by challenging existing theoretical and empirical perspectives in the field. Editors Mick and Wyttenbach begin Advances in Health Care Organization Theory by emphasizing that a vast amount of change has occurred across organizations in the last several decades. They maintain that the rapid and immense character of this change hinders organizational analysts from isolating specific, understandable patterns. They suggest the only way adequately to understand organizational change is to adopt new analytical approaches and infuse them with current approaches.
In an effort to practice what they preach, the editors have organized a volume dedicated to advancing organizational theory in the context of health care. The focus on the realm of health care not only makes manageable their task of developing innovative ways for studying organizations, but also is appropriate in light of the increased attention given to public health in recent years. This volume specifically examines the health care sector of the 1990s. Perspectives from the disciplines of health and health care, management and administration, economics, political science, sociology, and engineering are used for this end. The result...