A comparison of healthcare managers and entrepreneurs: investigating the change profile of two different sectors

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which people from two different sectors are ‘armed’ to deal effectively with change. Change is apparently the only constant factor in current work surroundings. A crucial issue to manage change professionally is coping with the involved uncertainty. The individual manager plays an important role in this regard, as successfully coping with change is strongly influenced by the psychological predispositions of the individual experiencing the change. We compared Flemish entrepreneurs and healthcare managers on four traits (locus of control, self-efficacy, tolerance for ambiguity, proactive personality) and on cognitive styles (i.e., individual preferences for organising and processing information). Entrepreneurs (n = 177) scored significantly higher on all traits than healthcare managers (n = 60). Healthcare managers scored significantly higher on the knowing and planning style than entrepreneurs, but no significant differences were found for the creating style. With this study, we hope to enhance the knowledge about the influence of particular characteristics in organisational change processes and to give relevant insights to design effective change management programmes.