Enhancing Productivity Within an Organization: The of Mayo Clinic - Case Study Example

FINAL PROJECT of the of the Introduction The research study has been carried out on a generic organization and the selected group for the required analysis is Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic is considered to be one of the most renowned hospitals in United States. It belongs to the healthcare industry and is a non-profit organization which was founded in the year 1889 in Rochester, United States. Mayo Clinic is a medical research and medical practice group which was founded by William Worrall Mayo and few other people. The hospital is considered to be the largest and first integrated medical group comprising of more than 3800 scientists and physicians, and approximately 50,900 health staff. Mayo Clinic focuses on delivering the best healthcare services to all its patients and believes in handling most difficult cases with tertiary care. The hospital spends more than $500 million per year in its practice and research. It has been 150 years Mayo Clinic has been operating in the healthcare sector and provided continuous quality services to all its patients. The hospital encompasses world’s best practitioners along with wide array of treatment ranging from heart disease and cancer to urology and respiratory disorders. Impact of each problem on group’s productivity Mayo Clinic over the years has served large base of patients and has been continuously involved in medical research. There is wide range of departments in the hospital and it becomes essential to bring forth work collaboration amongst all the team members. The hospital comprises of majorly two divisions such as research department and department of medical facilities. However the departments can be further segmented such as internal medicine, health sciences research, surgery, pathology, laboratory medicine, etc. In such a scenario where there are multiple departments it becomes important to bring about synchronization so that intergroup conflict can be effectively avoided. There has been certain problems identified in the hospital which is adversely affecting the overall group productivity. The major issues are in the form of conflict in role within the groups, problems in terms of communication amongst team members, lack of group cohesiveness encompassing diverse members and intergroup conflict. Role conflict has a major impact on group’s productivity. This problem majorly arises when there are diverse set of expectations from other team members. It can occur within a single role or across wide array of roles. Intra role conflict is majorly observed in situations where an individual is expected to perform different roles. Such as a medical officer in the hospital is expected to act according to the set guidelines of hospital as well as solve problems of the patient (Levi, 2010, pp. 203-205). This in turn gives birth to a lot of issues and is witnessed in Mayo Clinic where individuals are not able to perform their moral duties due to strict regulations and norms of the hospital. Thus it affects productivity of the group as it brings down the image of the medical group in terms of unsatisfactory service received by patients. The other major issue is communication problem which is often noticed in larger organizations such as Mayo Clinic. Since there are two different segments in this non-profit organization such as research department and medical practice group the problem of communication gap is prevalent in the organization. This issue results into incorrect strategic decision which greatly affects the future growth and success of the organization. Communication gap often results into misunderstandings amongst departmental members. The team members eventually lose the mindset of working in collaboration with one another. This ultimately affects overall productivity as combined decisions cannot be taken and neither any improvement can take place in relation to treatment and healthcare facilities. Group cohesiveness is a vital element whether it is a small organization or a large firm. Research study on this particular organization states that there is lack of such cohesiveness amongst team members. This is simply because Mayo Clinic encompasses large base of employees who belong to diverse culture and background. It is often an issue to make such a large group act cohesively as different team members would have different opinions and would try to act superior on the basis of their respective medical degree. This affects productivity as there would be conflicting opinions and much difficulty in arriving at a final decision. There are several critical medical cases which needs to be handled by the organization but lack of cohesiveness tends to delay decision making process. Conformity amongst team members of the organization is also reducing as more new practitioners are hired with focus towards individual interest then common goal or non-profit motive of the organization. This tends to decrease the level of quality service which proved to be the most important pillar of this hospital. The last factor which is affecting overall productivity of the group is intergroup conflict (Torrington, Hall & Taylor, 2005, pp. 90-91). There are several departments in Mayo Clinic and each of them possesses experienced doctors. However with more of investments by top management in wide set of medical practices it is becoming difficult to handle group members and convincing them on strategic decisions been taken for future benefit. Members of one department have been observed to enter into conflict with other departmental members. This eventually affects medical treatments as there is no such coordination amongst members of different groups. For instance pathology department often delays generating reports which affects functioning of internal medicine department. Hence it can be stated that such factor has a severe impact on productivity and delivering required medication to patients. Recommendations The problems which has been mentioned in context of Mayo Clinic needs to be eliminated effectively so that productivity of the group can be maintained. Often these group conflicts lead to a situation where there is unrest and negativity in the workplace. Hence it becomes duty of the top management to take proper initiatives so that such conflicts can be presented. In Mayo Clinic the problems which were identified was due to diverse culture workplace and presence of various departments in charge of handling of different kind of issues. The first major problem which was determined was of role conflicts occurring within the groups. In order to solve this issue it is highly recommended that board of directors should interact personally with all the group members. This would help in analyzing the areas of problems which were being witnessed by group members. Intra conflict majorly arises when an individual is not able to meet the expectations of other people with whom one is associated directly or indirectly (Haynes, 2012, pp. 112-113). In a healthcare organization it is important to be aligned with needs of patients as well as norms and regulations of a hospital. This can be achieved by bringing forth a rule in which highly sensitive medical cases would be discussed with top authority directly and through incorporating flexibility in the system where group members are able to contribute their innovative ideas. On the other hand top management also needs to extend leisure time of their practitioners so that they are able to devote sufficient time at home as well as workplace. The next issue which was identified was lack of communication amongst group members (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2011, pp.92-93). This issue can be resolved by setting up an open forum where all the group members can interact with one another on weekly basis. The recommended approach would enable members of different group or of the same department know each other and establish a health relationship which would increase the overall productivity of the organization. It can also be stated that this open forum would not only be a platform for discussion on various issues but an initiative to understand the problems being faced by different departments. On similar context intergroup conflict can only be eliminated by top management if the practice of inter-departmental activities is incorporated within the organization. Through this recommended approach practitioners or researchers belonging to specific unit would be given a chance to spend some time working with another unit. This would help to eliminate intergroup conflict as members of each group would understand the issues being faced by other group. On the other hand this mechanism would even facilitate faster decision making and bring forth work collaboration in the organization. Group cohesiveness can only be increased when all the group members are directed towards a common goal. In order to achieve this objective frequent meetings need to be conducted where major problems will be discussed and resolved (Hunziker, Johansson, Tschan, Semmer, Rock, Howell & Marsch, 2011, pp. 2381-2388). A performance appraisal system needs to be implemented where hardworking team members would be appraised and set as an example for other team members. Apart from all these recommended solutions to increase group cohesiveness the most effective would be to reward group performance. This would enable all the members to work together as their performance would contribute towards group’s success which in turn would help to achieve common goal and objectives. Suggestions on company-wide training program Group productivity is a vital component for every organization and mostly for those which are operating in the non-profit sector. The topmost authority of Mayo Clinic have been investing considerable amount for overall functioning of the hospital. Hence it becomes essential to ensure there is high productivity and successful target achievement. However the objectives of the organization can only be accomplished when it is able to eradicate the identified problems and set up a training program based on best practices for improving overall productivity of the group. The organizational wide training program needs to encompass experts from the medical field who possess sufficient knowledge and experience in this field. This would help in solving much of the issues which are being faced by medical practitioners in Mayo Clinic in the present scenario. The training program needs to encompass certain techniques which would highlight the effect of group conflict on organizational productivity (Forsyth, 2009, pp. 67-68). Storytelling is an effective approach that can be included in the training program. This would enable group members as well as trainers to share certain real life experiences which have greatly affected operations of an organization. The training would not be fruitful if practical experiences are not engraved along with theoretical knowledge. Apart from medium and lower level specialists this training module would even encompass experienced medical practitioners from the organization (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2008, pp. 56-57). This in turn would help to remove barriers between individuals working in the same department. Ethics is a major concern for organizations which can be maintained by setting forth a guideline for all group members in context of their expected behavior in certain crisis situation. This would help all the members to implement required action in certain scenario where quick discussion with the management is not possible. On the other hand this program for best practices needs to include certain outdoor activities of team building which would improve cohesiveness in the group. It can be considered as an indirect approach through which group members can identify weakness and strengths of each other and suggest appropriate steps to enhance or eliminate such factors. Conclusion The thorough research study on the healthcare organization states that there are various measures which need to be incorporated so as to enhance overall productivity of the group. As stated there were different problems which were identified in the organization and all of them were related to intergroup conflicts. Mayo Clinic has been associated with this industry from last 150 years and during this time frame it has served many patients suffering from various diseases. The organization comprises of large base of medical practitioners and researchers belonging to different areas in medical field. However the major reasons which were identified for such group conflict was lack of interaction between members of different departments and superiority issues. There are several specific ways recommended which can reduce the level of conflict amongst group members. An organization wide training program has also been suggested which would encompass theoretical knowledge of group dynamics as well as some real time experiences. For a non-profit organization productivity becomes more essential as it helps in maximum utilization of resources and in such large organization cohesiveness in a group can be achieved only by improving communication channels. Intergroup conflict can only be reduced if members belonging to different departments of the hospital work in collaboration and are focused towards a common goal. References Forsyth, D. (2009). Group dynamics. USA: Cengage Learning. Haynes, N. M. (2012). Group dynamics: basics and pragmatics for practitioners. USA: University Press of America. Hunziker, S., Johansson, A. C., Tschan, F., Semmer, N. K., Rock, L., Howell, M. D., &Marsch, S. (2011). Teamwork and leadership in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 57(24), 2381–2388. Jackson, S., Schuler, R., & Werner, S. (2011). Managing human resources. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Levi, D. (2010). Group dynamics for teams. USA: SAGE. Marchington, M., & Wilkinson, A. (2008). Human resource management at work: people management and development. London: CIPD. Torrington, D., Hall, L., & Taylor, S. (2005). Human resource management. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited. Read More