Government Health Information Research Articles

The impact of formalization, role conflict, role ambiguity, and communication quality on perceived organizational innovativeness in the Cancer Information Service.

Organizational members' levels of perceived innovativeness represent an insider's viewpoint of the organization's overall approach to innovation. This study tested a model of the impact of formalization, role ambiguity, role conflict, and communication quality on perceived organizational innovativeness in the Cancer Information Service. Data were gathered from self-report questionnaires completed by organizational members (n = 86) within the Cancer Information Service, a geographically dispersed federal government health information program that was implementing innovative intervention strategies related to disseminating health information to the public. Results indicated that although the predicted model provided a good overall fit to the data, there were some problematic paths. A revised model is offered to reconceptualize the relationships among role conflict, role ambiguity, and communication quality. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for managers and scholars who hope to understand the factors that contribute to perceptions of innovativeness in the new organizational forms emerging in the health service arena. These data suggest that formalization makes an important contribution to innovation in the highly uncertain world of new organizational forms.

Testing Two Contrasting Structural Models of Innovativeness in a Contractual Network

This study examined contrasting models of the impact of formal and informal structural factors and the communication environment on organizational innovativeness. Specifically, three formal structural variables (decentralization, formalization, and slack resources), two informal structural variables (range and prominence), and two communication environment variables (communication quality and acceptance) are posited to be antecedents of organizational innovativeness. In the traditional model, formal structural impacts are posited to be shaped by informal structure. Conversely, the coexisting model argues that both formal and informal structural variables directly affect the communication environment, which, in turn, shapes perceptions of innovativeness. Data were gathered from self-report questionnaires and network analysis communication logs completed by organizational members (N = 79) of a geographically dispersed government health information agency, the Cancer Information Service (CIS). Tests of the models demonstrate that the coexisting model is clearly superior. These results suggest that the dual role of formal and informal structures needs to be more systematically specified as we focus on innovation in new organizational forms, such as the CIS.

Contrasting Attributes of Preventive Health Innovations

This research employed diffusion of innovations theory to contrast three different preventive health interventions by their innovation attributes. The authors gathered self-report data from organizational members within a new organizational form, the contractual network of the Cancer Information Service, a geographically dispersed federal government health information program. Innovation attributes were rated differentially, depending on the nature of the specific intervention, suggesting important theoretical and policy implications.