A POSH way to enhance health service management : inquiry and engagement intertwined

In an era of purported healthcare 'crises', an innovative approach to examine, understand, and ultimately improve health service management is one that focuses on brilliance. Revealing pockets of brilliance gives voice to practitioners who might otherwise remain (unfairly) stereotyped as part of a systemic problem. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it describes how brilliance emerged and evolved as a research focus and how secondary narrative material was used to shape the process of inquiry. Second, it explicates the philosophy that informed this methodology" namely, positive organisational scholarship in health (POSH)" which promoted and entwined inquiry and engagement. By detailing the process of inquiry and engagement, this paper reveals how POSH engaged the researchers with the data they analysed and with each other, and how it provided a different vista. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications associated with POSH for researchers and practitioners.