Transitioning from remote clinician to manager: why do some managers thrive, yet others barely survive?

Today, we live in a connected world. Globalisation, innovation, and automation have changed the nature of how and where we work. For the first time in history, less than half of the civilian Australian employed population have a permanent full-time job with leave entitlements (Carney & Stanford, 2018). Of those Australians employed, approximately 80% work in the service industry (ABS, 2016). Flexible work arrangements are increasingly more common in service industries (e.g. short-term contracts, work-from-home, casualised workforces, outsourcing, and ‘gig’ workers)(Carney & Stanford, 2018). As technology improves workforce mobility across the globe; innovation continues to drive flexible models of working. As a result, frontline managers are increasingly occupying hybrid roles where they retain professional responsibilities alongside their new managerial responsibilities. However, little is known about how to prepare for the competing priorities of a hybrid manager role (Martens, Motz & Stump, 2018). This pilot project examines the hybrid role of a clinician-manager in a geographically remote context to determine better ways of transitioning professionals into hybrid manager roles. The clinician-to-manager transition in a geographically remote context was chosen because it exemplifies the challenges of a remote nonconventional workforce, and the insecurity of flexible workforces.