Reviving Research Excellence: Cultural Turnaround at Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children’s Hospital

In August 2023, Cao Hua stood at the back of the conference hall of Block 1 at the Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children’s Hospital (thereafter ‘the Hospital’) waiting to address the entire staff before departing for his next posting. Six years earlier, Cao had taken over as the party committee secretary and deputy director of this public teaching hospital in southeastern China. Then, only 10 of the almost 1,300 staff members held PhD degrees, and its research productivity remained stagnant.

Fast forward to August 2023; the Hospital had more than doubled its staff strength, and the number of postgraduate and doctoral supervisors had grown considerably. There was palpable energy, animated by the renewed hospital culture toward research excellence. And the transformation had all started with Cao’s question, “How can I motivate our clinicians to become enthusiastic about scientific research?”

This case is suitable for courses on organisational behaviour, change management, and leadership at undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive levels. It examines how a provincial maternity and children’s hospital in China underwent dramatic transformation in research culture under new leadership. The case also features the mechanisms for cultural change in a bureaucratic and resource-constrained environment.

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