Medicine and Efficiency
TUC graduate Jennifer Hohmann investigated the tension between medical profession and management tasks and was subsequently awarded the Marie-Pleißner-Prize
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Jennifer Hohmann works as a consultant at the management board at the municipal utility in Geesthacht near Hamburg. Photo: private
There are around 470.000 doctors in Germany, and there is clearly higher number of executive staff and managers. Every profession requires a special expert knowledge. But what actually happens, when doctors must increasingly take on management roles? Jennifer Hohmann studied the Master program in Management & Organisation Studies at Technische Universität Chemnitz and asked herself this question within her final thesis. “I find very exciting the environment of the hospital, because of my family’s professions I have some connection to the health care system. In the course of my work I was wondering, if there are role conflicts coming due to increasing importance from key figures to the roles conflicts and whether the interaction of physicians among one another changes“, says the graduate. For her research paper, she led qualitative interviews with several doctors in the hospitals of Hamburg and found out that the time dedicated for the benefit of patient is getting low, because of increasing management tasks for physicians. In addition to the grade “very good“, Hohmann also received the Marie-Pleißner-Prize for her paper entitled “Medicine and Efficiency – An exploratory empirical analysis of the effects of the increasing commodification in the health care system on the role of the hospital physician“. The Marie-Pleißner-Prize was awarded for the first time in 2013 to committed students with excellent grades and is a great honor for the young scientist: ”I am very proud and happy that I have been awarded with the prize – although I have not expected it. I am very grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Rainhart Lang, because he has surprised me with the application for the award. Thus, he showed me that he believes in me and my research work“, says Hohmann.
In May 2014, the 28-year-old completed her Master’s degree and has worked since then as a consultant in the management board at the municipal utility in Geest¬hacht near Hamburg. There she performs tasks in the field of change management, company development and project management. Hohmann describes her work as challenging: “In the meantime, I have an adequate degree of responsibility that I did not know up to now. But that is exactly what makes the job. I learn something new every day.“ But even though Hohmann succeeds now in her current position, this success was not attained easily.
After graduation in 2005, Hohmann was initially uncertain about the arrangement of her future career and opted for a practical insight in training as an industrial management assistant. Then she deepened her theoretical knowledge in the Bachelor ¬study in Business Psychology in Lüneburg. Already at that time she was interested in the economic and organizational company aspects and finished the minor field of study in Personnel Management and Industrial Law. Hohmann worked as a student assistant and conducted experiments at the Professorship of Psychology, being able to combine theoretical knowledge with practical tasks. After the conclusion of the successful Bachelor’s degree, she moved to Chemnitz in 2011, where she studied Master in Management & Organisation Studies. During the preparation of the Master’s thesis, the former student was trying to get a job in the area of HR management and wrote numerous applications. After all, she was offered a job through the temporary employment agency that led her to her current position at the municipal utility.
Hohmann has no specific future plans yet. “I try to live one day at a time and wait. One has good and bad times, but I’m therefore pleased to have done everything exactly in such way. I have been able to gain many experiences“, says Hohmann. She does not exclude a doctoral promotion either.
Under the following link you may find the scientific poster of the prize-winning thesis of Jennifer Hohmann: https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/gleichstellung/Wissenschaftliches_Poster_Jennifer_Hohmann.pdf
(Author: Katharina Preuß, Translation: Nataliia Boiko)
Katharina Thehos
16.02.2015
