Change and culture case study

Change and culture case study

Table of Contents

When organizations are considering bringing in the management to oversee the daily operations of the heath care facilities, it usually faces difficult decisions. The organization that has merged have to weigh the cost associated with the management company, the impact of the change on society, and the effect it is going to have on the local staff to the benefit of bringing in specialist who will lead to improved performance, cost saving, patient safety, quality, and high productivity. The health care managers are usually asked to redesign the jobs in the organization. The redesigning process can be overwhelming if it is not handled in a thoughtful and organized way. Managers should recognize the barrier that might hinder the implementation and conception of the change process.


Some of these barriers may include failure to evaluate the progress of change, resistance to change, and lack of coordinated and concise goals (Worthington, A & Cameron, J 2010). This paper will focus on the redesign process of the health care organization, the factors that the manager should consider when redesigning. When a manager is deciding on the redesigning process, in order for it to be successful, he must achieve the unique balance of the factors that match the situation. This paper will determine the means of facilitating the redesign process in the work force brought by the reduction of the work force. The concept of universal worker is examined as part of the redesign.


Job redesign

Since the organization has had a reduction in the workforce, a new design for care delivery for patients needed. Universal worker is an option for the redesign and other options need to be examined. This will ensure that the new delivery system can be provided to the community served. A universal worker is that person cross trained for most job departments and can also provide coverage in other areas so that to alleviate staff shortage in the hospital. Nurses in health care play an essential role of cost effective and quality care delivery in health care. Restructuring the work design offer excellent opportunities of opening scopes of practice fully, role tension, work motivation, quality work performance, minimize role ambiguity, work satisfaction and promotes effective care delivery (McConnell, R & Liebler, G 2008). When a manager is redesigning the organization, it is necessary to note that a change in one place has an impact on another area.During the redesigning process, it will focus on service enhancement through a holistic approach that will increase the number of skills to the job and reduce the number of staff needed to complete all tasks. Factors to be considered are job analysis, information collection, work environment, cross training, and workload.


Information collection

A successful job redesign will require that I collect all the necessary information concerning the current work environment and job. This information will include the current job description, documents on the different tasks assigned to jobs, minutes of meeting, duty rosters and outcome of tasks, databases, and employee behavior (Worthington, A & Cameron, J 2010). During this process, I will also be required to observe the workers during their day to day routine. Observing the employee interaction between themselves and with patients will also provide a clear insight of the current job specification efficiency. When planning the job redesign, it is necessary to meet with employees and have informal conversations concerning their job description.


Job analysis

This is the process where all aspects of the job redesign are considered by breaking it into elements, skills, abilities, knowledge, worker autonomy, required employee behavior, and abilities needed to perform the job (McConnell, R & Liebler, G 2008). During this process, I will consider the physical abilities needed to complete the redesigned job. I will also consider the individual tasks required for all job functions that will relate to the outcome.


Cross training

In the process of job redesign, it usually brings about additional skills needed to perform the job. It involves comparing the current skills determined in job analysis and the skills needed for the redesigned job and providing the information needed for employee training. I need to consider the time length and the basic requirements for the training when implementing the new job. I should consider the abilities of the current employees so that to master the additional skills needed successfully.


Work load

The work load is a factor that should be considered during the redesign process. The redesign of job is the product of improving workflow efficiency and productivity and also the quality of the organization. As a designer, I have to consider workload by grouping the required skills and the job tasks so that they can fit together perfectly. The intention of the job redesign is to improve the work flow.


Work environment

When beginning the job redesign process, I have to consider the work environment. I should evaluate the current work environment, the proposed one, and the psychological impact of the changes. The job redesign will certainly affect the culture of the organization, the relationship between the workers and worker supervisor relationship. Considering the work environment is essential because, the physical environment is likely to change when employees are performing tasks in areas that they never worked in before.


Work process and expectations

The whole health care organization should consider all the processes involved in shifting the employees to the new job design. The training session for orientation in new job environment, new skills, performance evaluation, and valued employee communication is extremely essential for a smooth transition. I should develop process and indicators of outcome for all processes associated with the new job implementation. The work process will include the impact that the new jobs will have to the organization and workers who will interact with the employees in the redesigned job.When the job redesign completed, some work processes should be considered. Some of these processes involve motivation factors. During the process of job analysis, I have to develop processes that will evaluate the impact of the motivational factors on job dissatisfaction and satisfaction and ways of managing the factors after implementing the new job.


When trying to apply the motivational factors in the process, I will consider the motivational model like Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs that will help in improving the success rate. Job evaluation is another work process to be considered. The health care will have to evaluate the new designed jobs according to the education required, level of employee’s responsibility, the skills and conditions needed to perform the new tasks (McConnell, R & Liebler, G 2008). While doing job e valuation, it will result to the hierarchical ranking of jobs, and this can also lead to the adjustments of salaries.


Learning organization

There are changes that result after the redesign process, and they tend to cause stress to the organization. The organization can reduce the stress in the organization by promoting and implementing the principle of a learning organization. According to Peter Senge, the core disciplines for building a learning organization are five, which include mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, team learning, and system thinking (Smith, K 2001).Personal mastery is the process of focusing on the system and whole; therefore, the organization management should encourage employees to look at themselves and develop towards the choose purpose and goals. Personal mastery enhances the sense of achievement of the individual and personal vision expansion. Personal learning forms the building block of the learning organization, and it also expands the capacity of the individual (Smith, K 2001).


System thinking is that process of focusing on the whole instead of the individual parts. It also involves encouraging employees and the organization to consider interrelation among various functions. In health care, there are dynamic tasks and processes involved. The processes and tasks integrate to provide patients with a satisfactory outcome. Therefore, job redesign should focus on the whole organization and not only individual tasks individually performed (Smith, K 2001). When the employees see how the new design fits into the system, they will get to understand and encourage all employees to embrace the change; thus, achieving success.In order to build a learning organization, it is necessary to build a shared vision.


When employees embrace the idea of a learning organization and then open their minds to the new system thinking and ideas, they will start understanding the purpose and destiny of the health care. Employees can build an organization shared vision by having open communication with management and colleagues, having suitable guiding principles provided by the health care. With a shared vision, the organization will be able to work towards achieving the set goals by the leadership.Mental models can be used in building a learning organization. Every person has mental pictures and a perception of the organization. When learning, individuals should look at the surrounding they are in with open minds expand their perception and view about the world (Smith, K 2001). Any employee who has this concept reshapes decisions and actions and enhances the improvement process and change. Peter also suggests team learning as a discipline of building a learning organization. Team learning develops collective thinking skills that enhance the ability of being greater that the total sum of talents of individual, team members.


Inter organization and intra organization communication

When redesigning jobs in the organization, its success depends on inter organization and intra organization communication occurring. When implementing change in the organization, it requires excellent planning and design and the way the management communicate the decisions (Harris, M 2005). All levels of the organization should have a smooth flow of communication that is clear and containing all the necessary information. Upward communication should be made possible for employees to ensure all relevant problems and concerns reach the management. Communication in the organization should include the new flow process, decision making process, the anticipated service quality, and the new job hierarchy. The management should clearly communicate all aspects and those employees to be affected. Communication is usually the central to prediction of the planned outcomes during the change implementation process.


Job satisfaction

In order to ensure job satisfaction in all positions, in an organization, it is necessary to have participation in decision making, perceived work performance, certainty on future directions, and task variety. This achieved by having well defined job description that indicates the tasks and expectations clearly. Each tasks assigned to the employees should indicate the expected outcomes so that employees can work towards achieving the outcome. Providing employees with training and orientation will be of help to employees as they will feel safe and prepared for the job (Righi N, Ritchie, J & Morgan B 2010).By considering all the factors in the design process, it will help in ensuring job satisfaction. As a manager, frequent performance evaluation is necessary by having active participation of the employees. Performance evaluation will help the employees in raising their concerns with the job and the manager can adjust the description of the job when necessary. To ensure job satisfaction, the organization should always address the concerns of the employees, and it will also increase the productivity of employees


Conclusion

Redesigning the job is just like change management because many changes need to be addressed in this process. Organizations implementing the concept of system thinking in learning organization usually have better chances of being successful. In job redesign, it is necessary form the health care organization to plan this process carefully. The management should ensure clear and effective communication with every personnel so that everyone can be informed of all processes that are happening. To have job satisfaction, it is essential that the management provide performance evaluation so that they employees can lay down their concerns and problems.


Reference

Smith, K (2001). Peter Senge and the learning organization The Encyclopedia of informal education

McConnell, R & Liebler, G (2008). Management principle for health professionals Jones and Bartlett Publishers

Righi, N Ritchie, J & Morgan B (2010). Job satisfaction in the home health care context. Journal of Health Care Management 55 (1)

Worthington, A & Cameron, J (2010). Physician retention in rural Alberta. Canadian Journal of Public Health 101 (1)

Harris, M (2005). Managing health services Elsevier





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