Effective Management of Organizational - Essay Example

? A Comprehensive Plan to Implement an Organization Change Part I of A Comprehensive Plan to Implement an Organization Change Introduction In the modern world, many organizations face a lot of challenges that require rapid change to enable them meet their objectives. This has mainly been attributed to globalization and constant technological innovation that is greatly impacting on the business environment for both public and private organizations (Cole, Harris & Bernerth, 2006). Organizational change requires a lot of attention because it affects the whole organization and defines the future of the organization. All stakeholders have to be involved in the change process for it to be effective. There are various types of change depending on which part of the organization needs to be changed. The most critical part of organizational change lies with the leaders. An organization’s leaders have to manage the change through planning, assessment and evaluation and have to ensure that every stakeholder in the organization buys in to the ides of change and is involved in it (Cole, Harris & Bernerth, 2006). Despite change being recognized as an inevitable and necessary evil in almost all spheres of life, organizational change poses a lot of challenges to leaders. Effective management of organizational change takes four main steps namely; recognizing the need to have effect the change, planning for the change, training staff with regard to the impending change, and getting support from the employees and other stakeholders during the change process (Cole, Harris & Bernerth, 2006). The first step involves conducting a systematic diagnosis of the organization as it is currently so as to identify the need for initiating change and determine the organization’s ability to manage the change. Planning process involves determining the objectives of the change as well as outlining the procedures to be taken when effecting the change. At the end of the change process, it is necessary to conduct an assessment of the whole process to determine if the objectives were met. Organizational change can be said to be successful if it meets its objectives and the benefits of the change are realized by the management and employees of the organization (Cole, Harris & Bernerth, 2006). Successful change also improves communication among employees and other stakeholders. Health care organizations have also encountered numerous challenges that have often forced them to change in one way or another so as to effectively treat patients (Rashid, 2007). Changes in lifestyles have led to emergence of new diseases while technology has made treatment of some diseases much easier. Healthcare organizations need to adopt technology and also support research so as to discover better ways of fighting diseases. This requires a change of strategy, mission, and mode of operation or human resource. In some cases change may be needed in all aspects of the organization (Rashid, 2007). Readiness for change is one of the issues that change management experts have focused on in the recent few years by recommending strategies that organizations need to take in order to be fully prepared for change. Readiness for change is a very crucial concept in healthcare given the ever changing nature of treatment. Healthcare organizations have to be strategically positioned so as to meet the demands brought about by change (Rashid, 2007). An organization’s readiness for change depends on various factors such as organizational culture, flexibility of the organization’s policies, and the ability of leaders to manage changes in the working environment. Managing change in a healthcare facility is not different from other organizations. The leaders have to be very assertive and proactive in steering health organizations in the right direction. This requires constant assessment of the current level of operations in the organization and determining what needs to be done so as to help improve treatment of patients. Departmental heads have to keep communicating with each other and also involving other employees as well so as to ensure successful change. Need For the Proposed Change Deaths occurring from invasive interventional radiology procedures have been on the increase in this health facility in recent years. This has undermined the organization’s objective of prioritizing the health of patients and doing everything possible to save lives. The increase of these deaths is due to factors that can be controlled if the organization implemented certain changes in the department of radiology. As it is now, there is a shortage of staff, specifically nurses, to handle the ever increasing number of patients in the hospital. Radiology procedures require careful monitoring of the patients’ condition from time to time and with only a handful of nurses to do this, it becomes difficult for them to manage all the patients. It is worth noting that the deaths come as a result of insufficient number of nurses, which has nothing to do with their skills. The nurses working currently have the required knowledge and skills to carry out their mandate and have even been working overtime just to help save the patients’ lives. The number of patients being admitted for interventional radiology has been increasing steadily in the recent past while the organization has maintained the same number of employees. In order to reduce the number of death cases, the organization needs to increase the ratio of nurses to patients by hiring at least two more qualified nurses. These new employees will boost the radiology department’s efforts and will work with radiology technicians in the procedure room to monitor developments in patients’ health. The nurses have to be hired through an open process which will involve advertising the positions, conducting interviews and an orientation process. Effecting this change will also require creating an orientation manual, choosing a preceptor and availing the necessary working tools such as lead aprons. The change process will be spearheaded by the director of radiology who will meet with the nurse manager and other departmental heads in order to successfully implement the change. Organizational and Individual Barriers to the Proposed Change Despite the change being necessary for the organization to meet its objectives, there are various barriers that may make it difficult to implement. The organization currently does not have receptors that these nurses will use to perform their duties. The other challenge to implementing the change is the inadequate funds to sustain the employees. Hiring new employees requires huge finances that will be used to facilitate advertising the position, conducting interviews, orientation and salaries for the selected individuals. The organization’s finances are limited and additional funding may be required in order to actualize the change process. Organized orientation for the new employees is another challenge for this process since this organization has of had such events before. This may require outsourcing experts to assist in the whole orientation process, which is a huge challenge for the organization. Summary of Factors Influencing Organizational Readiness for the Proposed Change After conducting a root cause analysis in the organization, it was discovered that the organization was not ready for changes in patient safety in the intervention radiology area. The organization’s lack of preparedness in anticipating the rise in the number of deaths of patients greatly affected its readiness for this change. Theoretical Model That Relates To the Proposed Change Gist and Mitchell’s social cognitive theory reflects the issues in this proposed change. Gill and Mitchell discuss the concept of efficacy and how it relates to an organization’s readiness to effect change (Rashid, 2007). Efficacy is the perceived capability for an individual or an organization to perform a task. This theory suggests that an organization needs to create change-efficacy judgments by letting all the stakeholders share ideas and contribute to the change. Internal and external resources available to support the change initiative Among the internal resources likely to support this change initiative include recommendations from the nursing administration and the safety department. These two departments realize the need to hire new nurses and will fully support this initiative. The intervention radiology director will also support this initiative by collaborating with the nursing manager. External resources include the fact that there are many nurses out there who will be interested in the position and will readily apply if it was advertised. References Cole M. S, Harris S. G, Bernerth J. B (2006) Exploring the implications of vision, appropriateness, and execution of organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal 27:352-567. Rashid, A. (2007). Managing Change in Healthcare. Oman Med Journal 22(3): 9–10. Read More