Perceived Image and Utility of Collective Action Organizations Among U.S. Physicians

We know little about the views of U.S. physicians toward collective action organizations such as professional associations and labor unions. This is an important issue given the increased relevance of smaller group, market-based approaches to advancing physician interests in an era of managed care. Seven focus groups and 18 interviews were conducted during 2000 and 2001 with members of three different but prototypical collective action organizations, i.e. the American Medical Association (AMA), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and Doctors Council, a physician union with headquarters in New York City. The strong evidence supporting instrumentality over both normative and affective motivations as the driving force for belonging to all three organizations implies a further undermining of professional cohesiveness, shifts in the form and function of traditional representative organizations serving medicine, and the continued erosion of large-scale collective action within medicine.