Shared governance: a literature review
Citation
O''May, F. & Buchan, J. (1999) Shared governance: a literature review, International Journal of Nursing Studies, vol. 36, , pp. 281-300,
Abstract
This paper sets out to establish what is meant by shared governance, analyses the literature on shared governance
implementation, and discusses emergent issues. The paper is based on research funded by the Department of Health
(England) and by North Sta_ordshire NHS Trust. A literature search was undertaken using the terms `shared
governance' and `empowerment', restricted to English language. The databases used were CINAHL, British Nursing
Index, Medline, Social Sciences Citation Index and FirstSearch, and the search period was January 1988May 1998.
Initially, nearly 500 articles were identified. This search also highlighted articles describing participative
management, professional practice models, and self-managed work teams. For the purposes of this review, only
published articles which either described and/or evaluated the implementation of shared governance were analysed.
According to these criteria, 48 studies, which were obtained by the cut-off date, were included for detailed
assessment. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.