 Mentality Differences in the Field of Medicine: Challenges in Cross-Cultural Collaborations in Austrian and German Hospitals between Native Physicians and Immigrated Colleagues from Poland and HungaryMario Rubenzer
International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, 2019, vol. 5, issue 5, 37-47 Abstract: Within the last decades, studies about characteristics of national culture have mostly been focused on the business sector. In other industries, like the field of medicine, research about mentality differences is still in its infancy. Due to increased international job mobility of physicians around the globe, especially within the European Union, it is considered necessary to draw more attention at this topic. For this purpose, some studies are presented initially that have already addressed the issue of cultural differences in the field of medicine. By extracting their most crucial findings, an overview regarding the state-of-the- art is provided. Based on these findings, a design for qualitative research is modelled that is aimed at closing these knowledge gaps. As a first step in this context, it is explained which perspective is considered to be the most promising in terms of generating in-depth insights. Moreover, a possible approach towards constructing mentalities beyond a national level is introduced. This part goes hand in hand with suggesting two mentalities whose comparison is regarded to make sense. These mentalities are going to be an Austro-Germanic Mentality (physicians from Austria and Germany) and a Magyar- Slavic Mentality (physicians from Hungary and Poland). Subsequently, the author is going to recommend some dimensions of established cultural models that should be taken into account when designing an interview outline. Beyond that, some preliminary findings of an ongoing study with Eastern European doctors who are working in Austrian and German hospitals are presented. So far, it has become obvious that there is a remarkable different approach towards hierarchy and leadership, personal relationships with colleagues as well as task-fulfillment and personal responsibility. In the last part of this paper, the author emphasizes the positive effects that are expected to occur when awareness in terms of mentality differences is raised and how they could be achieved. Keywords: Mentality Differences; Medicine; Challenges; Cross-Cultural Collaboration; Immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mgs:ijoied:v:5:y:2019:i:5:p:37-47 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development from Inovatus Services Ltd. |
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