Group Productivity In Hospitals:
Introduction
LA Hospital is a health care institution that needs to change to a new model. This model need to be team based care whereby the nurses, physicians, pharmacists, social workers and all the other staff members are supposed to work together in new ways. All the staff members in the hospital have not been cooperating with each other, and this has contributed to poor production of services in the hospital. There has been a lot of conflict between the staff members because there is no team work. Every member in the organization does things on their own without consulting each other, and also decision making is just done by the senior leaders of the hospital. Despite the fact that physicians are the group leaders, they do not collaborate with the group members. There is no sharing of responsibility among the members.
The goal of LA hospital is to improve the quality of their services by making sure that they lower the cost. This has not been possible because of the many conflicts that the groups have. Some of the problems that the groups in the hospital face are role conflict among the group members, there are communication problems, there is excessive inter group conflict, and lack of cohesiveness in groups with the diverse members. The hospital need to adapt to the practice of group work. This is because when the physicians, nurses, and every other staff work as one unit, it make the job be easy and efficient and ensures that the care of every patient is enhanced. If LA emphasis and value group work, every member of the organization will work with each other for the purpose of taking care of the patients. The objective will be to improve the outcome of the patient.
Role conflict in groups
Role conflict is a form of conflict usually caused from a person being forced to perform incompatible and separate roles. Role conflict happens when a person is torn between performing separate duties for different institutions. Role conflict within groups is one of the greatest problems that are affecting the productivity of LA hospital. The physicians and nurses are expected to perform different conflicting roles like being a co worker and also the supervisor.
Role conflict in hospitals is very complex, and it is also personally challenging (Gregory, M & Griffin, R 2010). Role conflict in the organization happens because of the different obligations that one have to different groups. In LA research shows that role conflict among groups has occurred because most of the individuals have various responsibilities which are conflicting. Because of the many conflicting roles that the nurses and physicians are expected to perform, it tend to affect the productivity of the group.
A good example of role conflict that can be seen in LA hospital is, a manager is expected to work together with the people he is supervising. This led to regular role conflict because the manager is expected to work both with the group that he is managing, and also he is expected to report those members of the group who are underperforming. The group members are the ones who are faced with this problem of role conflict. The member can be asked by their supervisor to make sure that they increase quality control, and another supervisor can ask them to make sure that they increase production. Due to this conflict of roles it affects the productivity of the group in the hospital (Gregory, M & Griffin, R 2010). Role conflict has a great impact to the group’s productivity. This is because every member of the group expects to see certain conduct from another member where that person is expected to perform their role.
When the role of a person is questioned by another opposing role, the results that one receive are disappointing, and they even cause anger. The member of the group who is faced with the conflict of roles tends to feel frustrated by the contradictions, and this reduces their productivity.
Communication problem
Communication is one of the problems that have affected the productivity of the group in the hospital. Poor communication tends to reduce the morale of the group members. Communication has been a problem because the members of the group do not understand what causes communication breakdown and techniques that they should use in group communication.
The leaders of the company do not involve each and every member of the organization when making decisions. When the physicians order for interventions, the nurses are the ones responsible of carrying out the intervention. This is not the case in with this hospital because the nurses and the physicians do not work together and there is no effective communication. Whenever there is a change in the status of the patient, the team members do not communicate this information whether it is an improvement or deterioration (Worley, C & Cummings, T 2009).
Some of these events need attention from the physicians but, because of poor communication among the group members it affects the productivity of the group. Another problem that the hospital faces are the lack of communication when the nurses are changing shifts. The nurses do not share all relevant information about the care of the patient. Lack of communicating this information will pose a big problem to the patient, because the incoming nurse does not know about the progress of the patient which can affect their medication.
Lack of cohesiveness
When a group in a state of cohesion, is the time its members are possessing bonds that link them to each other and the entire group. LA hospital has one great problem that is affecting the productivity of the group. The nurses, physicians, pharmacists and all the workers of the hospital are from a diverse community. This diversity has caused a huge problem because the members of the group tend to discriminate one another according to color, ethnicity, race, and religion. This discrimination has affected the productivity of the group. An illustration of lack of cohesiveness is when a white physician tends to despise a black nurse, and they do not collaborate in ensuring that they take care of the patient. Lack of cohesiveness with diverse members has resulted to decrease in the productivity of the members (Worley, C & Cummings, T 2009).
The white people do not want to relate with the black and during communication the leader tend to ignore decisions which might be contributed by blacks. Cohesion usually comes from the commitment of the group members to work together with the aim of completing their task and also accomplishing their goals. The group members are not committed to working together, and there is also poor communication among them, because some of the members of the group are divided into two. This division has made it hard for the group to achieve their goal, which is improving productivity. There is no unity among the group members as one group does not want to have any involvement with the other.
Inter group conflict
Inter group conflict is a conflict within a group of employees who are working within a department. Inter group conflict is likely to occur in hospital situations because the members are likely to cooperate with one another at a regular basis (McKenna, E 2001). When the members of a group take the disputes personally, it is likely to affect the productivity of the group (Worley, C & Cummings, T 2009). In LA hospital inter group conflict are mostly caused when a member of a group violates most of its important aspects.
An example of a dispute that I found to have affected the productivity of the group hence causing inter group conflict is when a nurse tried not to follow the instructions that the doctor had provided when providing medication to the patient. Because of not following the laid down instructions it resulted to some complication to the patient. This resulted to conflict between the doctor and nurse. When one member does not share the same interest as the other, it results to a dispute because one person views the other one negatively.
Recommendation
The best means which the hospital, should use in trying to resolve the problem of role conflict is by ensuring good and open communication. This will help in limiting the tension of role conflict. It will also make it known to all members that every person has multiple roles to play. In order to be able to solve the problem of communication, the physicians, nurses, and all the other staff members are supposed to enhance good communication system (Worley, C & Cummings, T 2009). The hospital is supposed to have a communication system that focus on accessible information, it should have a way in which it will document decisions when it is planning to communicate, and it also should utilize information from credible sources. The physicians, nurses, and therapist should all work together as a team to make sure that they perform the patient care.
The care management should make sure that they ensure communication among the members as this helps in strengthening the ability of all the health care providers in providing high quality and efficient care (Gregory, M & Griffin, R 2010). If the hospital, practices good communication system, it will help in improving the productivity of the group. The best way of solving the issue in the group on lack of cohesiveness with diverse members is through the group leader. The group leader is supposed to bring together all the members let them know how significant it is to interact with people of different background. The members are supposed to have a sense of belonging and a feeling of acceptance, and they will be able to relate with each other without any problem. The group leader should incorporate people from diverse backgrounds in the groups so that they can share different views on certain issues, how they are supposed to communicate with each other and the leadership style that they desire.
An advantage of cohesiveness is that it helps the members of the group to develop group loyalty and shared values (McKenna, E 2001). This will create a higher agreement between the members which will result to less dysfunctional conflict and greater trust with each other. This will later strengthen the task cohesiveness and improve the productivity of the group. In order to ensure productivity of an organization, it is necessary to diagnose the inter group conflict first. A way that can be used to reduce the inter group conflict among members is by breaking it down into layers. This will help in simplifying the means of determining the cause of dispute. When Communicational changes can also be suggested as it will create a good environment which will encourage the development and success of the hospital.
When resolving conflict, the main focus should be on the reason as to why the conflict ensued, the type of the conflict and the seriousness of the conflict (McKenna, E 2001). The group can have a one on one meeting so as to solve the problem by discussing the issue and then reaching to a solution. In the case when then members are having differing goal, the group should try and establish an idea which will only be reached if this two members who are in conflict with each other work together.
Suggestion
Group productivity is a very successful element to any organization. This means that it is important to harness the power of groups so as to multiply the efforts of the individual people who are working with the organization. In order to be able to achieve group productivity, influence and inspiration is very important (McKenna, E 2001). Inspiration is very useful because it make each person in the group to work hard and achieve good results in terms of productivity. Inspiration helps in motivating all the members of the group and it contributes in achieving the objective of the organization.
Group work increases cooperation between the workers, and it make the workers be more competent in achieving the goal of the organization. Influence is also a toll that helps in achieving group productivity as it supposes the existence of effective leaders who will be able to motivate the employees and the all the followers. Influence is based upon charismatic personality, intense commitment to the vision of the organization, goals and mission and also care for all the members (Gregory, M & Griffin, R 2010).
Conclusion
In order to improve group productivity, all members are supposed to cooperate with one another in accomplishing the goals and initiatives of the organization. A good manager should guide the members on what they need to do so as to increase performance. The members of the group need to learn to respond to each other in terms of the ability of that particular individual to contributing to the group’s objective. A way of resolving these problems is by each and every member acquiring a sense of accountability for productivity and effectiveness of the group. The relationship of the members should be based on the ability and productivity to contributing to the group.
Reference
Gregory, M & Griffin, R (2010). Organizational behavior Cengage Learning
McKenna, E (2001). Business psychology and organizational behavior Psychology press
Worley, C & Cummings, T (2009). Organizational development and change Cengage Learning
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