Teamwork Bricolage and HRM in a Time of Crisis: Workplace Strategies of Frontline Healthcare Professionals

Abstract

This paper investigates how healthcare professionals navigate relational dynamics within a frontline healthcare team in a time of crisis and with limited HRM support. Drawing on scholarship about work teams, HRM and bricolage, the paper analyzes research data from interviews with kinesiologists at an Accidents & Emergency (A&E) hospital in Chile to advance understanding of teamwork dynamics in times of crisis. The paper theorizes teamwork bricolage as a worker framework that enables action and agency in relation to the management and coordination of work in the absence of formalized HRM systems, enriching the HRM literature by adding further insight into a new way of teamwork that re-thinks integration, adaptability and multifunctionality to build trust and a sense of belonging. It also shows how workers claim spaces of performance outside of what is regulated by HRM systems to gain professional status and legitimacy. Finally, the paper also brings evidence of the working practices of healthcare professionals in a developing country, adding to discussions that remain largely under-studied and under-theorized in HRM scholarship. The paper outlines directions for a research agenda to advance knowledge about work teams and HRM.