A Task Contingent Model of Medical Practice Organization

The treatment of acute episodes of morbidities in hospitalized patients is a complex and uncertain task. To accomplish this task, physicians organize themselves into teams in an effort to overcome two constraints: the necessity to offer both complete care and continuous care. This study examines the extent to which the nature and size of medical teams is explained by task difficulty and task variability, which are two dimensions of task uncertainty. The results support globally the hypothesis that the organization of medical practice is contingent upon the nature of the task defined in terms of uncertainty. However, the results also suggest that the task contingent model should be adjusted to take into account the fact that formal organizational characteristics may have an a priori influence on team structure.