La partecipazione ad un network inter-organizzativo : il caso del medico di medicina generale

The delivery of public services is progressively shifting toward collaborative inter-organizational forms, to reduce the fragmentation among the different providers involved and to increase the quality of the services delivered. Despite the diffusion of these inter-organizational networks, the factors which might foster or hinder the participation of the professionals in them, have not been widely studied. This research aims to address this gap within the healthcare context, by investigating the factors which lead a General Practitioner (GP) to join an inter-organizational network. The opportunity to observe and analyze this phenomenon in the practice, was provided by an experimentation carried out in the Lombardy Region (Northern Italy) since 2012: the Chronic Related Groups (CReG). First, the different theories of motivation have been analyzed to select the most suitable theory explaining the phenomenon, and the Motivation-Opportunity-Abilities Model (MOA) came out to be the most appropriate. Second, an explorative single case study was conducted: a sample of 14 GPs was interviewed and their answers were analyzed through the technique of coding. It came out that the main reasons leading the interviewees to take part in an inter-organizational network are: curiosity, the possibility of being able to better plan and organize activities, the opportunity to interact with other actors within the network-organization, the ability to change the way of relating to medicine, the more prestigious acquired by taking part in the project and influence suffered by colleagues. Last, we investigated the possible relationship between the motivation pushing the GPs to join the network and the degree of participation to the project. The results showed that those who adhere for internal motivations show a high involvement, despite we could not generalize that those who adhere for external motivations only are not fully involved. This work is expected to be relevant as it increases the knowledge about the professionals’ participation to inter organizational networks and it might therefore be useful to guide managers and policy makers in defining which factors should be stressed to foster the professionals’ motivation and participation.