Title: Enterprise-wide systems enabling physicians to manage care

Authors: Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Roberta Lamb

Addresses: Computer & Information Sciences, James J. Nance College of Business Administration, Cleveland State University, 1860 East 18th Street, Cleveland, OH 44114-3610, USA. Information Technology Management, College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii, Manoa, 2404 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

Abstract: In their conceptualisation of the principal/agent relationship, Jensen and Meckling [1] were not referring to a Knowledge Worker agent. Given the prevalence of knowledge workers in today|s workforce, we extend agency theory to the context of a Knowledge Worker (KW) agent. In doing so, we argue that a key role for enterprise-wide systems, in such a context, is in facilitating the monitoring function. To test this, we investigate the dynamics of a critical principal - KW agent relationship in the healthcare industry; namely that between the managed care organisation and primary care physician. Our case study data reveals that enterprise-wide systems adopted went beyond just alleviating the agency problem, as we predicted, to enabling the KW agent to perform a new function - ||self-monitoring||. Our results are significant to agency relationships and the use of enterprise-wide systems with knowledge workers.

Keywords: knowledge worker; enterprise-wide systems; goal alignment; healthcare; managed care; primary care physician.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHTM.2002.001144

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 2002 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.288-302

Published online: 01 Jul 2003 *

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