A Critical Analysis of Change & Resistance Within the Nhs
“A Critical Analysis of Change & Resistance within the NHS.”
Introduction
The rate of economic and political change in recent decades has been dramatic. The Anglo-Saxon emphasis on neo-liberal economic ideology has drifted East, with the (Brown, 2000) ‘rise of China’ and other emerging economies. The trend in recent decades has focussed on the need to privatise great swathes of the economy and to reduce trade barriers, leading to less protectionism. This emphasis on private sector control became apparent in the 1980’s with (Hutchinson, 2008) ‘Thatcherism’ and ‘Reaganism’ seeking to reform the post-War consensus. The dramatic changes in America and the United Kingdom were not restricted to those economies however. The European Union (Salmon et al, 1997) progressively looked to integrate politically and economically placing more emphasis on ‘free trade’ and market based solutions. The power of the Soviet Union was beginning to diminish, with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and in China (Ruan et al, 1995) Deng Xiaoping was moving the communist party of China towards considering economic reforms that would lead to a drift towards market based solutions away from the Centrally-planned ideology.
All of these enormous changes resulted in significant conflict within respective Countries, societies and organisations. The results of these changes have seen debates rage about the positives and negatives of globalisation in the 21st Century. There is an argument that Western society has sought to (Learmonth, 1999) ‘exclude and marginalise others’ in the pursuit of hierarchical pre-eminence to traditional Western thought, in the process organisations and Government have ‘neo-colonial logical and ontological assumptions’ Banerjee et al (2004, pp. 226-227) of different viewpoints, however there are those that believe there are moves to respect the pragmatic plurality of opinion and formulate organisational strategy that focuses on understanding local conditions.
Introduction
The rate of economic and political change in recent decades has been dramatic. The Anglo-Saxon emphasis on neo-liberal economic ideology has drifted East, with the (Brown, 2000) ‘rise of China’ and other emerging economies. The trend in recent decades has focussed on the need to privatise great swathes of the economy and to reduce trade barriers, leading to less protectionism. This emphasis on private sector control became apparent in the 1980’s with (Hutchinson, 2008) ‘Thatcherism’ and ‘Reaganism’ seeking to reform the post-War consensus. The dramatic changes in America and the United Kingdom were not restricted to those economies however. The European Union (Salmon et al, 1997) progressively looked to integrate politically and economically placing more emphasis on ‘free trade’ and market based solutions. The power of the Soviet Union was beginning to diminish, with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and in China (Ruan et al, 1995) Deng Xiaoping was moving the communist party of China towards considering economic reforms that would lead to a drift towards market based solutions away from the Centrally-planned ideology.
All of these enormous changes resulted in significant conflict within respective Countries, societies and organisations. The results of these changes have seen debates rage about the positives and negatives of globalisation in the 21st Century. There is an argument that Western society has sought to (Learmonth, 1999) ‘exclude and marginalise others’ in the pursuit of hierarchical pre-eminence to traditional Western thought, in the process organisations and Government have ‘neo-colonial logical and ontological assumptions’ Banerjee et al (2004, pp. 226-227) of different viewpoints, however there are those that believe there are moves to respect the pragmatic plurality of opinion and formulate organisational strategy that focuses on understanding local conditions.
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