Managing Health Services - Essay Example

Managing Health Services Describe your understanding of the term ‘organisational culture’. List the observable aspects of a culture and identify how you have either experienced them or witnessed them in organisations you have been a part of in recent years. 1.1. Organisational Culture Organisational culture is indeed one of the most commonly used concepts in post-modern business management context. However, the concept has often been misunderstood and presented as a complex approach towards organisational behaviour (Scott, 2003). The definition put forward by Robbins & Judge (2007) states that organisational culture is a system concerned with shared values of the members that in turn distinguishes an organisation from others (pp. 573). From a generalised point of view, a major constituent of organisational culture is the fundamental shared values of assumptions by the members that direct the ideology of the organisation. The concept of organisational culture determines the attention of the members towards a particular aspect such as organisational goal. It also exhibits the response of the members concerning organisational change and/or the changes in the external business environment (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000). The fundamental tenets of organisational culture depict it to be an autonomous concept which cannot be perpetually directed by leaders within the organisational structure. It is in this context that the managing organisational culture in relation to changes in the overall business environment becomes a significant challenge (Robbins & Judge, 2007). 1.2. Observable Aspects of Culture in Health Care Organisations Healthcare practices have changed considerably over the recent years. Imposition of legal and economic reforms, strategic inclusion of technological instruments, and overall development of management standards played a crucial role in directing considerable changes within healthcare organisations. These changes were observed in different regions which depict that the external environment of healthcare related sector was also changing (Scott, Mannion, Davies & Marshall, 2003). On the similar context, it has been widely stated by researchers and experts that changes of any kind are not readily accepted by people (Robbins & Judge, 2007; Scott, 2003). Thus, managing culture to deal with the changes becomes an apparently observable issue. Another aspect witnessed in this context is the rise of conflicts due to changes between members that in turn caused another challenge to maintain shared values as a fundamental tenet of organisational culture (Davies, Nutley & Mannion, 2000). 2. Culture is difficult to change and requires effort. Based on your readings on the topic, what conditions would need to exist if culture was amenable to change? With organisational and business environmental changes being reluctantly accepted by the members, a considerable effort from the leaders become mandatory to manage the organisational culture effectively (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000). However, if changes were amenably accepted by the organisational culture there should be a few given conditions that would influence the shared values to be changed readily. The concept of organisational culture is observed to be fundamentally based on the shared assumptions and values of the members towards a common goal (Scott, Mannion, Davies & Marshall, 2003). Thus, it becomes quite significant that the values are strongly shared by the members increasing chances to readily accept the changes. Furthermore, as it is quite challenging for leaders to steer organisational culture towards a determined pathway, they should intend to enhance integrity within the members so that every member can contribute to control the changes occurring (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Strong commitment among the members is also necessary to foster their efforts towards the change management in organisational culture which can be derived from effective motivations (Sirkin, Keenan & Jackson, 2006). 3. Explain, in your own words, what organisational politics is and describe briefly its role in organisations. In the 21st century context, power, organisational politics and culture have emerged to be inseparable parts of organisational behaviour (Robbins, Judge & Sanghi, 2010). It can be defined from the leadership perspective that as a concept it intends to make things done with the enforcement of power by the authorities. This power is attained from the hierarchical position of the leader over his/her lower level workers. It is in this context, decision-making is termed to be a political activity which is engaged with tactful implication of hierarchical power over the subordinates that will assist in managing people with minimum effect to their shared values. Organisational politics also influences organisational behaviour to a large extent. It acts as a linkage between the organisational structure and the organisational culture. For instance, hierarchical power is obtained through the organisational structure which again influences the work culture creating an impact on the shared values of the members. It also plays a crucial role in decision-making and therefore can be termed as a significant facet in organisations. 4. What differentiates power from empowerment in organisations? Power and empowerment can be termed as two distinct but interrelated and significant aspects with regards to decision-making in organisational management. Power is often observed to be concerned with the enforcement of rules and regulations within the organisational culture to extrinsically motivate the workforce for better performance. It is basically the hierarchical position and the personal traits of a member that signifies his/her power over the subordinates (Robbins, Judge & Sanghi, 2010). On the similar context, empowerment# refers to the intrinsic motivation of subordinates through added responsibilities and inclusion in the decision-making with the intention to facilitate their involvement in the organisational culture (Yukl & Becker, 2006). To be precise, implication of power intends to realise meaningful work or productivity from the subordinates through rigid norms restricting the ideas of the members. On the contrary, empowerment intends to facilitate the inclusion of ideas from members that in turn enhances their commitment and effort through shared assumptions. Thus, the sole difference between these aspects relies on the way of accomplishing the determined objective. 5. Introduction Organizational change forms an important part of any organization and is considered to play a grave role. Change is a constant process and so, organizational change is the factor that helps the organizations to keep pace with the business environment which is undergoing a constant change. Organizational change can be said to be the fresh ways of functioning and systematizing things in an organization. A growing concern for any kind of organization nowadays is to find out ways to put in order the actions of employees so as to make sure that the offered goods as well as services are given worth. Thus, it can be observed that organizational change is extremely crucial and important in order to meet the changing demands of the people and also to maintain “service excellence” (Dawson, 2003). 5.1. The Concept and Importance of Organizational Change Organizations today are constantly witnessing external as well as internal pressures which make changes unavoidable. External pressures for instance demographics related to fresh work force, altering expectations regarding quality, degree of customer contentment along with productivity. Fresh technologies are being introduced frequently and this is having a noteworthy effect on organization’s operating environment across the world. The internal pressures can be credited to the financial limitations, the necessity of doing maximum with minimum, acquisitions as well as mergers, teams that are cross-functional and authorized workers all create an effect on the capabilities of organizations’ when it comes to contending in the marketplace globally. Automation, outsourcing, downsizing, repositioning, best practices, re-engineering and all other such expressions imply and propose change to be introduced in the work force. Owing to such changes, organizations face tremendous challenge in harmonizing the expectations and requirements in between the stakeholders. This involves management, customers, employees and shareholders as well. Without striking a proper balance, organizations call for hazards in an apprehensive work force which might give way to retreating productivity. The enormity of success for an organization is ascertained on the way it chooses to communicate, stimulate and incorporate changes within the work force (APQC, 1999). 5.2. Types of Change Characteristically, organizational change refers to a significant alteration in an organization for instance reorganization or making major additions in the line of product as well as service. The major kinds of organizational changes are elaborated below: Planned Change This is said to be a purposeful, cognizant decision to augment a particular organization in some way or possibly alter the entire structure in a much more essential and deeper way (Burke, 2010). Unplanned Change Unplanned change takes place when an organization is needed to react to few external changes that are unexpected for instance making a whole fresh technology which would affect the center of the business operations. Response is supposed to be adaptive as well as impulsive in case of unplanned change (Burke, 2010). First-Order Change This particular structure of change engages the concept of “continuous improvement” which means that the change involves making modifications or alterations in the accessible system features for instance altering the mission of an organization (Burke, 2010). Second-Order Change This is more of an elementary form of change. This is often referred to as a revolutionary change as it brings in alterations in the deep arrangement of an organization. Revolutionary change can be perceived as a jerk to the complete system owing to which everything related to the business operation changes. Merger can be cited as a suitable instance for such a change (Burke, 2010). 5.3. Conflict in the Process of Decision-Making and Communication To begin with it is first necessary to understand the meaning of conflict. Conflict is said to be a process that commences when it is professed by one party that something that the first party is concerned about has been negatively affected or will get negatively affected by some other party (Robbins & Judge, 2007). One of the most common conflicts faced in organizations is interpretation of facts and in the decisions taken based on those. Many people from diverse cultural backdrop work in an organization and so, it is an obvious fact that there will be conflicts among them. Communication forms a step in the process of conflict. There exists problem in the process of communication among people which gives them a wrong representation of facts and this prevents them from taking the correct decisions which hampers the business operations. The intention of an individual is prevented from getting communicated to the other person because of differences in the word connotations, inadequate information exchange, jargon and noise in the channel of communication (Robbins & Judge, 2007; Enayati, 2002). The conflict in the process of decision-making and communication can be managed and influenced by implementing certain approaches like forcing, avoiding, compromising, collaborating and accommodating. Conflict can also be managed and influenced in organizations by encouraging interaction between the people working, should encourage to trust each other, should not promote dominance and lastly people needs be provided access to information and should be free to discuss alternatives (Carter & Byrnes, 2006; Bercovitch, 2011). 5.4. Change Implementation in Organizations Change in organizations has become an integral part so as to achieve success and attain competitive advantage. In this context it is worth mentioning that change should be introduced in an organization with the help of certain techniques which would ensure in successful execution of the change. A sense of exigency ought to be established for change, an alliance to direct the process of change should be established, the change managers or leaders should build a strategy as well as vision for change, the appropriate idea suiting the need should be looked for, plans to conquer struggle to change should be developed, change teams should be created. With the application of the mentioned techniques, change is possible to be implemented successfully but however, it should be also ensured that there is active participation of the employees in the change process which would also facilitate successful implementation (Daft &Murphy & Willmott, 2010). 5.5. Barrier to Effective Change Barrier in the process of implementing change in an organization has been attributed to resistance. Resistance originates from the fear of facing the unknown, fear to be unsuccessful, lack of understanding for the need of change, inertia, losing something valuable and differing with the requirement for change. The above mentioned resistances can be conquered with the help of communication as well as education, developing support and assurance, participation, negotiation, choosing the appropriate people who would agree to the change, influencing and cooptation and compulsion are some effective ways of dealing with the struggle towards adapting change (Topping, 2002; Robbins & Judge, 2007). 5.6. Conclusion From the above discussion, the importance of adapting change in organizations can be identified. Organizational change is considered to be a crucial factor for organizations for sustaining its existence and attaining competitive advantage in today’s environment of business which is undergoing a continuous alteration. The requirements as well as the expectations of the people keep on changing and in order to meet up to these varying needs, it is a must for organizations to introduce change in their system. Modifications in technology are being introduced regularly and advancement in the field of technology is taking place at a rapid pace which is outdating the old system of technology. With the intention of keeping pace with the changing technology and maintaining quality in the products as well as services, it has become a common phenomenon for organizations to introduce changes. In this context, the barriers to effective change have also been discussed along with the ways of managing them. References APQC, (1999). Organizational Change: Managing the Human Side. International Benchmarking Clearinghouse. Retrieved Online on October13, 2011 from http://www.exinfm.com/pdffiles/change_apqc.pdf Bercovitch, J., (2011). Conflict and Conflict Management in Organizatios: A Framework for Analysis. 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Effective Empowerment in Organizations. Organization Management Journal, Vol: 3, pp. 210-231. Read More