Marlot Kuiper

84 Connective Routines Intermezzo: The gate-keeper The first couple of months of my PhD project I spent on exploration. Starting from a fascination for contradictory news reports about surgical care delivery - as mirrored in the introductory chapter of this dissertation - I delved into the literature about the reconfiguration of professional work and standardization. I learned about routines as an interesting lens to study these processes. After a while, I had some initial ideas on the design, that covered ‘surgical work’ and ‘standardization’. Just when I was starting to worry a little about ‘how to put these exciting plans into practice’, my first supervisor put me in touch with who turned out to become ‘the gate-keeper’ (Though ‘gate-keeper’ sounds a bit Harry- Potter-like and is way too detached vocabulary to express what this person has meant for this research project, I will tell). The role of ‘gate-keepers’, or ‘key informants’ has been widely covered in literatures on qualitative research, especially with regard to ethnographic approaches (Burgess, 1982, 1991; Miller & Bell, 2002; Whyte, 1955). Participant observation can be extremely difficult, as the researcher is not only busy collecting data but has to continuously negotiate access and establish relationships and trust in the field. Gate-keepers can be helpful here. Gate-keepers are defined as “selected insider participants who aid the researcher in orientating to the setting, developing relationships and getting access to others” (Walshe & Boaden, 2005, p. 164). The role of the gate-keeper has been identified as ‘crucial’, since the roles and relationships of the gate-keeper in the setting can impact upon the success in gaining access to and trust of other participants. Interestingly enough, I did not ‘select’ a gate-keeper. I was so fortunate, that the gate-keeper just kind of ‘appeared’ on the exact right moment. The ‘gate-keeper to be’ was put into touch with my first supervisor, because he was struggling a bit with contextualizing his clinical data. Experts in the field of Public Administration and organisation science can provide some useful insights here. That is when my supervisor saw some interesting links between this clinician who had a genuine interest in organisational processes, and my initial research plan, and decided to put us in touch. And so, about a week later, I had my first conversation with the gate-keeper. I still remember his enthusiasm for the idea – even though he just finished a long night shift in the hospital. From the start, the gate-keeper was extremely supportive and we discussed some ideas for the fieldwork and getting access to