title: The effect of professional identity on comprehensiveness in strategic decision making: physician executives in the Canadian health care context.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper explores differences in decision-making approaches between physician executives and nonphysician executives in a managerial setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fredrickson and Mitchell's (1984) conceptualization of the construct of comprehensiveness in strategic decision making is the central construct of this paper. Theories of professional identity, socialization, and institutional/dominant logics are applied to illustrate their impact on strategic decision-making approaches of physician and nonphysician executives.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This paper proposes that high-status professionals, specifically physicians, occupying senior management roles are likely to approach decision making in a way that is consistent with their professional identity, and by extension, that departments led by physician executives are less likely to exhibit comprehensiveness in strategic decision-making processes than departments led by nonphysician executives.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper provides conceptual evidence that physicians and nonphysicians approach management differently, and introduces the utility of comprehensiveness as a construct for strategic decision making in the context of health care management.
authors.affiliation: Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Shazia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karmali
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002170:Canada; D003657:Decision Making; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008486:Physician Executives / Q000523:psychology*; D024382:Professional Role; D012933:Social Identification; D012951:Socialization