[Leadership and professionalism].
In 1990 a new organizational structure based on decentralization and team leadership, where the leader (usually a doctor) is responsible for the final decision, was introduced at the regional and university hospital of Tromsø. This structure replaces the traditional dual structure of leadership where the leaders (a doctor and a nurse) did not share responsibility for the whole department. In order to analyze organizational practices after the reform we constructed three different organization models of the hospital: the hierarchical model, the professional model and the workshop model. Of five teams, one functioned hierarchically, three resembled the professional model, and the fifth came close to the workshop model. The leader of the hierarchical team behaves autocratically and the employees are dissatisfied. In the three remaining teams conditions have changed very little compared with the situation before the reorganization. In the workshop team decisions are reached jointly. This team functions in an innovative way. Even though the new organizational structure has quite divergent consequences and some leaders have problems, the majority of the hospital employees support the new structure.