The role of collective identity in the mobilization of informal caregivers towards care communities in the Netherlands
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2024-07-04
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en
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Dutch society faces the challenge of an aging population, which yields a rise in health care demands. This situation is accompanied by a shortage in healthcare professionals, imposing an increasing workload on current caregivers. Local elderly care communities are considered a potential solution, which demand from both formal and informal caregivers to collaborate. Challenging however seems the mobilizations of such informal caregivers. In an effort to overcome these challenges to mobilize informal caregivers, solutions are sought in social movement theory, suggesting the development of a collective identity as a key motivator of mobilization. This research therefore aims to find answers to the question “How can a local care community develop a collective identity that mobilizes informal caregivers to participate”. This research undertakes a comparative case study, examining two established local care communities – One situated in a village and the other in a city – to inductively discover new empirical insights. The Gioia method is employed to analyse semi-structured interviews and documents, providing a systematic and qualitative rigorous approach to developing new conceptual insights. This research extends prior literature which highlighted that collective social identification can mobilize followers on cognitive, moral and emotional levels. It contributes by identifying four key measures that help to develop a collective identity. These four key measures include: stimulating ownership among members of the care community, enhancing emotional connectedness, connecting new individuals via informal networks, and finally establishing a separate community appearance.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen