Job Redesign Strategies for a Healthcare Organization - Case Study Example

A Work Redesign Plan for a Healthcare Organization Abstract: This paper presents the outline of a work redesign plan which has been proposed for a healthcare organization that has recently undergone the process of a merger. The report incorporates the job redesign strategies which can effectively lead to an increase in the workforce’s productivity as well as facilitate sense making in these turbulent times of change. Another important aspect that this report aims to incorporate into the work processes of the merged organization is the implementation of strategies which create a learning environment in the firm and allow the employees to excel at their respective jobs. Introduction: Healthcare today is rapidly changing and organizations, mostly due to financial and technological turbulences, are constantly undergoing re-formations, both small and drastic. Healthcare organizations such as hospitals are seeing re-organization of work processes, reductions in hospital staffs and changes in skill mix due to these changes and the most pre-dominant effect that they have appeared to have on the performance of these organizations is not positive in nature. While some organizations do manage to turn this change into a positive force, most are ill adept at handling the re-structuring efforts and poor execution as well as a lack of proper communication can manage to do these organizations much more harm than good. This report aims to outline and suggest job redesign strategies in a way which can provide maximum benefit to the organization by creating a standardized redesign effort. The report also deals with laying out strategies which the administration of the hospital will have to take up in order to create an affinity for learning within the organization; practices through which employees can enhance their capabilities and work with increased efficiency Re-design Strategies under consideration: Hackman and Oldham (1980, p.44) have defined work redesign as "changing the actual structure of the jobs people perform‘. While this may seem to be a simple term, in the context of a hospital, researchers agree that the type of redesign strategy that a hospital administration will take up will be directly linked to the generic strategy that has been employed by the hospital in matters other than the specific redesign. According to Das & Tonges (1995), hospitals can be differentiated into three broad categories in this regard: the Prospectors, the Analyzers and the Defenders. The organization that we are discussing is essentially a Prospector, it chooses to operate in changing domains and has a certain fluidity to its alignment with environmental demands and needs. One of the most prominent redesign options that the hospital administration is considering presently is that of the creation of a “Universal worker” who will be able to provide cross departmental services. The universal worker would ideally be a healthcare provider who would be trained in a manner which would allow him/her to work in more than one departments, and the administration plans to incorporate this plan by selecting individuals from respective departments and training them so that they can provide asynchronous services in more than one department. This decision is mainly supported by the administration on the basis of the fact that employees may feel more positive about change implementations that do not involve direct staff reductions, and instead offer skill development opportunities (King et al., 1991). Since the hospital would be operating on a much larger scale and the combined medical facility would be much larger than before, the admin does not plan on making any major lay-offs and more than 95% of the original staff is planned to be retained. Therefore, the idea of the Universal worker, which might have been considered as a direct threat by the health care providers; something that would ultimately result in major lay-offs, will be viewed in a much more positive light, and will have a higher chance of succeeding. A major part of the work redesign strategy that the administration will be focusing on would involve the retention of the nursing staff as prior research in this regard and the hospital’s own history has shown that under-staffing produces an over-worked and under performing patient care delivery staff and results in inadequate quality of care provided (Fottler & Unruh, 2002). Another work redesign strategy that is under consideration also somewhat utilizes the concept of the universal worker. This strategy, developed at Florida’s Lakeland Regional Medical Centre, is known as the “patient-focused” concept which underlines the decentralization of the laboratory and radiology to the unit level, and the “care pair”- a pair composed of a registered nurse and a technical assistant who have been cross-trained in multiple patient care activities such as Laboratory testing, physical therapy, and diagnostic radiology procedures etc. The idea is favorable because it provides a patient focused strategy that is not only effective but also efficient in the way that it makes use of the workforces’ specialties. The administration is also going to focus on administrative aspect of the hospital’s work processes. For instance, a study of the hospital’s outpatient department has shown that, on average, every appointment made required a minimum of seven transfers of information, a startling number which was reduced by the redesign, and a new post, known as the clinic coordinator was created so that accountability and staff performance could be improved and services could be expedited. Performance Expectations from the re-design: The foremost expectation from the redesign strategies proposed is a major increase in employee satisfaction and productivity. The administration understands that since the aim of the hospital is to provide healthcare of an unmatchable quality, it is imperative that the health providers themselves are kept satisfied. Although the redesign process itself is a hard task, as people are generally inclined to view all change activities with initial skepticism, the hospital’s management is confident that the strategies that have been suggested would ensure that employees find that their interest is also kept in mind during their creation. Not only this, the administration also expects a direct improvement in accountability as the job designations will be specifically skill based, allowing for employees to work on their respective areas of expertise. Aside of that, although the trainings would incur an extra cost, but this is projected to be a particularly desirable trade-off because it would result in the long term reduction in running costs for the hospital. The aim to create a Learning Organization: The hospital under consideration being a “Prospector” strategy wise, the leadership envisions an organization which is constantly evolving and growing. Since this organization on the whole has a flexible and adaptive attitude towards changes and is seen to mould itself most creatively to the changed demands of the surroundings, it is easy to assume that the organization will be productive as well. However, as most authorities note, for an organization to be all of these things at a single time, it is imperative that a learning culture is created within the organization. A culture which makes room for a commitment towards learning at all levels and through all situations. Peter Senge (cited in Smith, 2001), the noted academic calls any such organization a ‘learning organization’. The author notes that an organization which engages in learning activities is literally enhancing it’s own abilities to create and hence, is being more productive and efficient in its own place. For this purpose, a set of tools have been suggested, among which, one which suit’s the requirement perfectly in this particular context is that of the creation of a shared vision. Hoe (2007) suggests that “Shared vision refers to a clear and common picture of a desired future state that members of an organization identify with themselves – essentially a vision that has been internalized by members of the organization”, and entails a thorough understanding of the grounds and principles upon which the organization’s very base is standing. Through this understanding, the employees will be able to directly relate their fate with that of their organizations and this sense of identification will make the relationship much more fruitful. Organizational Communications and Job Satisfaction through these turbulent times: The organization, in the current circumstances is in the midst of a drastic change. However, the strategies which have been suggested are all focused on the construction of a well fitted organization that runs smoothly, integrating knowledge, management and skills in a way which creates ultimate harmony. Through this period, workplace communication will play the role of a sense making instrument, and through it, the management can let the employees know that their organization cares about their future as much as it cares about providing excellent quality health care. Through discourse as well as by holding regular informational sessions, the administration should ensure that employees are at all times kept informed of the various proceedings that are being made and all the changes, small or big, that are planned to be carried out. By doing so, the leaders and the management is essentially ensuring that they can maintain a level of trust with the employees and this trust wil eventually lead to employee satisfaction, higher productivity and provision of a better service to the patients. References: Das, T. K., & Tonges, M. K. (1995). Effective Hospital Administration: Linking strategies with work Redesign. The International Journal of Organizational Analysis 1995, Vol. 3, No. 2 (April), pp. 121-137 Fottler, M. D., & Unruh, L. Y., (2002). Nurse staffing and Nurse performance: A review and synthesis of the relevant literature. Advances in Health Care Management, Volume 3, pages 11-44 . Hackman, J., & Oldham, G. R. (1980). Work redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Hoe, Siu Loon. (2007). Shared vision: a development tool for organizational learning. Development and learning in Organizations. Vol. 21, No. 4. pp 12-13. King, N., Anderson, N. and West, M.A. (1991), “Organizational innovation in the UK: a case study of perceptions and processes”, Work & Stress, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 331-9. Smith, M. K. (2001). Peter Senge and the learning organization. Retrieved June 3rd, 2010 from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm Read More