The bargaining style of doctors-managers: Exploratory analysis of the Italian healthcare context

The aim of the present study is to provide a picture of the Italian doctors- managers bargaining style. Starting from the '90s due to the New Public management principles physicians have been enrolled into managerial positions and have been involved into negotiating tasks such as budgetary discussions and similar. We decided to investigate physicians' bargaining styles through the adaptation of the Thomas-Kilmann model (1974). We administered a semi-structured questionnaire to doctors-managers and asked them to answer by using a 5-point Likert scale in order to express their level of agreement/disagreement with the sentences provided. Our sample is composed of 12 physicians differently specialized, enrolled into managerial positions. The majority of them are women. Our results show that interviewed physicians possess more than one bargaining style at the same time. These styles emerge with similar degrees, and this is a peculiarity of our sample. As we have observed in other categories of individuals, is more frequent that just one specific style emerges from one subject. However our sample confirms previous evidence about the effect of gender and bargaining experiences on the adopted style. In particular women-physicians present a lower level of Arrogance style, while experiences tend to increase the consciousness. Our research provides interesting point of reflection about the need to improve negotiating style consciousness, also by offering training programs on this theme.