relevance of these managerial archetypes. Fig. 1 shows typical
differences between CEOs with a dominant clinical
backgrounds (‘clinicians’) and CEOs with a dominant
administrative background (‘administrators’) based on
a study by Bacharach et al. [26].
Upper echelon research has argued and demonstrated
that differences in the experience of top managers
not only explain differences in managerial behavior
and strategic choices [22], but also in the management
techniques and information processes they choose
to apply in their tasks [14]. Abernethy and Stoelwinder
[20], for example, showed that administrators have a
higher preference for formal controls than clinicians,
and they use MIS more for economic decision-making
than clinicians. In another study, Abernethy [28] found
the managerial competences of medical directors in
hospitals to be a necessary condition for the effective
use of control systems in hospitals. The relatively
straightforward argument was that medical education,
which emphasizes patient care and is directed towards