Bio: Martin J. Kitchener, a 1999-2000 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is a lecturer in organizational behavior in the School of Business at Cardiff University. He is also principal researcher on a Welsh Office-funded study investigating the dynamics of inter-professionals working in mental health care. Before joining the Business School as an Economic and Social Research Council management teaching fellow, Kitchener worked for the U.K. National Health Service. His research has focused on the organization and management of professional service organizations in health, social care and local government. Kitchener has published his work in national and international journals including Organization, Public Administration, British Journal of Management and the International Journal of Public Sector Management. He co-authored A Managed Service: The External Management of Children's Homes, and has contributed chapters to edited volumes on research methods, institutional theory and the management of change in health care.
Placement: University of California
Mentors: Charlene Harrington, Ph.D., RN, FAAN,; Stephen Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
Project: Academic Health Center Mergers: Understanding Institutional Processes in U.S. Health Care
Description: Kitchener examined the merger between the academic health centers of Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco - with a particular focus on the organizational and cultural roadblocks that led to the merger's failure. He conducted a literature review, analyzed internal documents, and interviewed key players in the merger process.