The politics of survival in private practice contd ...
If one goes back to Colinvaux's ideas about strategies used by animals and plants, he stresses that natural selection designs different animals and plants so that they avoid competition. A fit animal is not one that can fight off competitors better than others, but one that avoids fighting altogether. He goes on to add that natural selection is only harsh to the deviant aggressor who seeks to poach on the established niche of another. Generalising this idea to the context outlined so far, when practitioners start to diverge and establish differentiated niches, there may be individuals who develop new competencies to the point where they can live together without competing at all and they would be favoured to survive. Individuals without a clear strategy who are stuck in the middle would then stray into preserves of others and waste time competing with established competencies.
At an economic level, being all things to all people is a recipe for below average performance because achieving different types of generic strategy requires conflicting actions (one can think of the marketability of a car consisting of an Uno chassis, Ferrari gear box, Toyota engine and BMW body).
It may be useful to concretise these ideas around examples of how practitioners can signal their differences. An example of a broad target/cost focus might be a small town practitioner who has to develop a general competency in a range of activities to meet the differing needs of the whole community. It is difficult to charge a premium for specific competencies because there is not a great enough need to sustain expertise in narrow areas that would justify the extra charge.
An example of a narrow target/cost focus may be a practitioner who works at a clinic, who offers a generalised service to a particular community with unique needs (e.g. a community that has been displaced or had to deal with a particular set of stresses). A broad target/differentiated service may be a practitioner who offers exclusively analytic treatment to a wide range of people. The extra charge for such a service would be justified for the extra effort and study that the practitioner has undergone. A practitioner who conducts very specialised forensic cases would be an example of a narrow target/differentiated service.
Clearly, if one was to do all four, one would be known for very little and referral agents may be confused about what service is really being offered. The changing face of psychology necessitates the adoption of a generic strategy. To ignore strategy is to adopt a strategy of being stuck in the middle where actions towards survival may precipitate decline by giving inconsistent and confusing signals to a market that struggles to understand the profession anyway.
Further reading
Colinvaux, P. (1990) Why Big Fierce Animals are Rare. Middlesex: Penguin Books. L
Loewen, J. (1997) The Power of Strategy: A Practical Guide for South African Managers. Johannesburg: Struik.
Porter, M. E. (1985) Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: The Free Press.
Lindegger, G. (1998) Non-psychologist counsellors/psychotherapists: Finding a place in relation to psychologists. In L. Schlebusch (ed) South Africa Beyond Transition: Psychological Wellbeing. (160 - 162) Pretoria: PsySSA.
Lindegger, G. (1998) Psychologists' right to prescribe medication. In L. Schlebusch (ed) South Africa Beyond Transition: Psychological Wellbeing. (162 - 166) Pretoria: PsySSA.
New Therapist
Indispensable survival guide for the thinking therapist