Organizational Behaviour in Red Line Hospital - Assignment Example

? Organizational Behaviour – HRM Report Table of Contents Introduction 4 Workplace Diversity in Hospital 5 Changes in the Workforce 6 Productivity and Innovation 7 Advantages and Disadvantages of Multicultural Workforce 7 Managing and Challenges of Diversified Workforce in the Organisation 11 Managing Age of Birth Diversity 11 Managing age of service diversity 11 Managing Religious Diversity 12 Managing Gender Diversity 12 Challenges in Managing Workforce Diversity 13 Hierarchy of Needs Theory to ensure employee satisfaction 15 Herzberg’s Theory to Manage Multicultural Workforce 18 Hygiene Factors 19 Motivator Factors 20 Conclusion 20 References 23 Introduction Global healthcare industry is becoming highly competitive as several public and private healthcare organizations are trying to develop and implement unique business operation strategies into the business processes. Red Line Hospital is an UK based private hospital operating with 200 beds. The healthcare organization can be considered as one of the largest organization in terms of bed capacity and employee strength. The employee strength of the organization is 1000. The organization has adopted the workplace diversity aspect in the business operation process. Strong multicultural workforce of the organization states that the organization believes in workplace diversity. Human resource management is considered as one of the important organizational departments that help to manage the overall performance of the organization. The functions or the activities of human resource department includes recruitment, selection, orientation, training, performance management, leadership, motivation, performance management, performance appraisal, compensation, reward distribution and employee retention. Now-a-days, several organizations within the healthcare industry are trying to improve the human resource management practices in order to increase the efficiency in the business performance. Effective human resource management practices help the organizations to maintain effective workplace environment that influence the employees of the organization to improve their performance level. Efficiency in this human resource department helps the management of the organization to motivate its employees. Several healthcare organizations are trying to maintain strong workplace diversity as the management of these organizations believe that the knowledge sharing and skill of entire workforce can get increased due to having multicultural employees in the organization. An organization cannot manage a diverse workforce without having effective managerial and leadership skill. In addition to this, employee motivation can be considered as an important aspect as several motivational techniques or tools help an organization to maintain effective relationship with the effective and skilled employees. These aspects will help the organization to retain their skilled employees. In addition to this, effective human resource management practices can help an organization to maintain sustainability and corporate ethics in each and every business operation processes. It is highly important for an organization to develop and maintain strong relationship with the external and internal stakeholders in order to develop a strong image within the competitive industry. It is clear that the Red Line Hospital can be termed as one of the largest private hospital due to its 200 bed capacity. Moreover, the healthcare organization has 1000 multicultural employees. Therefore, it is important to analyze the efficiency of human resource department and organization behaviour of the organization. Kurt Lewin’s change management model, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, Herzberg’s motivation theory has been discussed in this study with respect to the workplace diversity and organization behaviour of Red Line Hospital. Different types of leadership styles has been discusses in this study in order to help the organization to improve its multicultural workplace performance. Lastly, the assignment will summarize the key points that will be gathered from the detailed analysis. Workplace Diversity in Hospital The diversity and human resource is now getting more importance in any job market and has a major impact in the globalization. It has become an important issue in many organisations because of rapid economic advancement and growth. Human resource development is an important tool for the organisation to manage the diversity, reform and equity in the workplace. It is very important to understand the diversity of a workplace so that productive work can take place which will promote a healthy work environment, avoid conflict and loss of the employees. Through diversity management Red Line has to implement strategies through which a wide network of employees are knitted together to form a dynamic work force. Red Line has a workforce of 1000 employees. The employees include doctors, nurses, physician, surgeon, hospital staff, administrative staff, and employees working in different departments like Finance, Marketing, and Human Resource etc. Each of them has different specialisation with different needs to cater to. There are two ways in which the management can manage the diversity. First is the individual identity and second is the group identity. The main objective of managing workplace diversity is developing the organisational system, the working procedure to be followed so that different characteristics of the employees are put in good use (Salisbury, Consulting and Byrd, 2006, 18). One of the main challenges which comes with workplace diversity is the wide range of employee needs which the management needs to satisfy by giving benefits like job-sharing, flexitime, child and elder care program and telecommuting. Red Line needs to understand that no organisation is homogeneous; all are heterogeneous in nature and hence are diverse. Red Line needs to exploit the diversity within them to benefit the organisation as a whole. Changes in the Workforce Red Line has an increased number of racial and ethnic employees. In healthcare industry the workforce continues to have major workforce diversity. Women workers and minorities staff continues to rise and they comprises of the highest percentage of new employees into their labour force. The white baby boomers are now retiring and it significantly changes the demographic composition of future healthcare workforce. Hence Red Line needs to develop cultural competency to manage them. For them to be successful it is important that they recruit the right diversity of the employees which reflects and meets the needs to the company (Healy, Sharman and Lokuge, 2006, pp. 108-110). Productivity and Innovation To enhance Productivity and Innovation, the company needs to inculcate the workforce cultures which are both inclusive and have value diversity in nature. It is true that diversity can result in conflict, discomfort and chaos. Hence if the workforce culture allows different voices to be heard, then the needs of the patients can be addressed more effectively. Red Line can avoid costly litigation like this to benefit the organisation. Diversity is often used in the context of the legal requirements with respect to harassment and discrimination laws. Diversity includes all potential differences which affect the way we behave and interpret. In the healthcare sector there are four layers of diversity. Internal dimensions, personality, external dimensions, and organisational dimensions. There are also some less visible aspects to the diversity. For example, a patient may because of culture; ethnicity and religion believe that death is another spiritual journey, may find that the conversation about the informed consent is less stressful as compared to someone who fears death and believe that the modern medicine will alleviate all the risks (Yih, 2011, p. 413). Advantages and Disadvantages of Multicultural Workforce Hospitals hire workers from different backgrounds creating a multicultural, diverse workforce. It is against labour law to discriminate labours against religion, colour, race, sex, ethnic and age when hiring workforce. They should be hired strictly on the basis of their qualification. A diverse multicultural labour force in healthcare industry can result in increase in yield of the business. Improve customer service Presence of multicultural workforce in Red Line Hospital can improve the business’s ability to make profit. It also improves the business’s ability at communicating and connecting with the customers. For example if the hospital is located in Spain, then by hiring Spanish speaking staff, they will be able to deal with local customers who can speak only that language. A diverse work force allows the employees to become more sensitive to the other cultures. This helps the workforce to become more responsive to other cultures. Hence the productivity of the company as a whole improves. Better results With the presence of diversified workforce there is chance of increased creativity, better overall productivity and generation of better ideas. With multicultural workforce the problem solving capability of the company will increase since each employee has a unique way of thinking. The employees are from different background; hence they have a different perspective when dealing with any problems or confronting the creative opportunities. This enhances the quality and quantity of the ideas generated out of them (Niles, 2011, p. 154). Management Cost It is evident that managing diverse workforce requires a great deal of employee engagement. It is necessary for managers and the leaders to devote their time and attention in helping the employees build on the relationships. It also helps resolve conflict with diverse colleagues. Hence the leaders need to have adequate leadership styles to help the employees cope with the multicultural environment. There are many leadership qualities like Authoritarian, Democratic, Paternalistic, Laissez faire, Transformational and Transactional. Each of these styles must be applied according to the situation as when demanded. It is not possible to apply the same leadership style to every situation. Some situation may demand Authoritarian or other may demand Laissez faire. These reduce the cost incurred whenever any conflicts arises. Again in many cases, the companies have to pay external parties to provide the training. With effective leader, these cost may get reduce since the employee turnover may reduce. Broader Coverage Employees with diverse backgrounds provide the company with a broader coverage in the global market. An organisation which has diverse set of employees is better able to communicate with the customers across many countries. If an organisation serves across 10 different countries, it would need employees who are able to communicate with local customers across different markets. The ability to accurately write and speak many languages helps overcome the cultural and communication barriers. Presence of Workforce diversity results many disadvantages to the organisation. Communication To gain the advantage of diversity, it is important to provide the diversity training. These include the sensitivity training and cultural awareness. The communication barrier sometimes becomes a major challenge for a diversified workforce. An employee who comes from different cultures speaks in different languages and hence encouraging communication between them is a challenge. The management needs to build an effective communication medium which improves the flow between the top and bottom level employees. Risk of Discrimination With the presence of diversified workforce, there is a high chance of discrimination. If two people belonging to different cultures are made to work in a group, it is likely that the employees with prejudices can use it against them. This increased risk of diversity is the reason why management of such multicultural workforce is so important. Organisations need to provide sensitivity analysis and cultural awareness to help the company create a culture of acceptance and tolerance of such diverse workforce. Diversity is just another form of conformity One of the biggest challenges in diversity is to avoid the pressure to be different when the organisation is trying to be itself. Diversity is recognizing, embracing and honouring the differences. It is not like something which people have to conform with, but it should be understood that it is an existent issue for the organisations. The organisations have to decide from time to time to examine and reform the culture. The culture goes deep in to the organisational fabric which is reflected in the behaviours of the employees. Hence changing the culture of an organisation means going deeper in to the nature of an organisation, its beliefs, values that shape the workforce of an organisation. Culture change is one of the ways by which organisation makes significant change which helps to increase the success. But unfortunately not all organisations are willing to change their inbuilt prejudices. Instead they portray that they don’t have any prejudices and hence they embrace the diversity willingly. Managing and Challenges of Diversified Workforce in the Organisation There are several ways by which Red Line can manage their diversified workforce. Managing Age of Birth Diversity According to Abraham Maslow, people will always have needs, and whenever the person satisfies one need others emerge in predictable sequence to take the place. Hence the managers must anticipate the need of different age group according to their profile and present them with opportunities to satisfy their emerging needs. According to a study, by 2050 it is projected that more than one in five persons in the world will have age over 60 year. According to a study in the labour market, they found that proportion of people of older age fell sharply in the workforce. Hence Red Line needs to ensure that age discrimination among the workforce does not act as a barrier. They should try to ensure positive interaction among people of any workgroup. They should try to encourage the polder employees to participate in the decision making process. They should recognize their experience and let them have a say in the decision making process. Red Line needs to understand that both younger and older workers are needed to run the organisation. The process of age diversity management include training, job recruitment and exit, development and promotion, flexible working conditions, changing the attitude of the company towards the aging workers. Managing age of service diversity The management is facing the challenge of finding right experienced workers. Hence they are giving more importance on retiree-work programs. Red Line needs to understand that the employees who retire today can become critical employees for them tomorrow. Hence the Human resource department must recognize the good employees, loosen the bell when they leave the organisation and bargain with them when they return on a contractual basis. Any employee who have been in service for a long period of time has acquired a variety of skills throughout the time and a new employee have modern approach under them. The older employees have developed wisdom which helps them find ways to solve complex and demanding situations. The organisation can use other options for the older employees like short term contract, part time working, seasonal working and flexible working hours. By hiring back the retired employees, the company can get back the experience and skills which they lost and this can result in substantial cost savings to the firm. Managing Religious Diversity According to the Herzberg’s theory of motivation, if organisational policies are unfair, it can come in the way of the employee satisfaction and the overall productivity of the company. According to a survey in 1996, it was seen that employees worked harder if the company put in place job features like self-expression, recognition, support and challenge. Hence the company needs to accommodate the belief of the employees. Religion is not a choice. It is a part of the people; it makes people who they are. The companies should try to avoid judging religious beliefs of other employees. Rather it should try to make reasonable effort so that the religious request of all the employees can be accommodated. The company should try to gap the religious beliefs that exist between the employees and the employers, so that there can be a harmonious co-existence of different religious groups. Managing Gender Diversity According to Elton Mayo, the attitudes and effectiveness of the employees are dependent on the social demand which arises both from inside and outside of the work. The demands from the inside are the expectations which they have from work, while the demand from outside includes the responsibilities towards their families. In England, women comprises of 40 per cent of the workforce. The companies need to develop strategies for the working married employees so that they can maintain an effective work-life balance. They can employ strategies like friendly policies, work from home and flexible working condition. The employees can be given family and friendly benefits which can help the employees maintain a better work life balance and reduce family conflicts. It will increased productivity and reduces absenteeism among the employees. Challenges in Managing Workforce Diversity Though the employee diversity in an organisation provides opportunities for enhancing the organisational performance it presents the managers with many challenges like Interpersonal conflict vs. Group cohesion Though the employee diversity can increase the problem solving skill and increase creativity, it can also lead to chaos and open conflict due to presence of mistrust and lack of respect among the employees. Resistance to change A long established corporate culture is very difficult to change and it is will become a major roadblock for effective organisation implementation. Hence it is required for manager to manage the employee diversity. Segmented communication networks According to a study it was found that most communication within an organisation occurs between members of same race and sex. Presence of segmented communication network in the workplace helps reinforce the shared experiences. This fact hold evident for all types of professional categories, even when the number of minorities and women are small. This type of communication results in three major problems to the organisation. First the segmented communication across the organisation makes it difficult to establish a common ground for the groups. Second, minorities and women employees in the organisation are penalized for not being part of mainstream communication networks. Third, the company can’t fully utilize the perspectives of the diverse employees if the employees remain confined within their group. Through the process of developing cultural diversity, Red Lien hospital must responds effectively to the racial demographic shifts and to the huge ethnic change which the organisation has to confront. Cultural competence is defined as the set of policies, practices, attitudes which enable the individuals and the organisations to work effectively in the cross-cultural situations. It is the ability of the system to provide care to their patients with diverse behaviours, beliefs and patients. The process of achieving these cross-cultural competencies is a long-term commitment of the organisation which begins and ends with the introduction of many hours of training session per year. Hence the organisation needs to be well planned and adopt an integrated multicultural approach to solve this problem. These include many components like Using of inclusive practices and policies which promotes and supports the cultural competencies at all the levels in the organisation. Recruitment of the employees from culturally diverse communities at all levels of the system in the organisation. Hierarchy of Needs Theory to ensure employee satisfaction Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is a popular theory in psychology that was proposed by Abraham Maslow in the year 1943. Several organizations around the globe are trying to understand the significance of this theory in order to maintain employee satisfaction and effective workplace environment. It is highly important for an organization to motivate the employees as the employee satisfaction has become one of the important aspects for the organizations to maintain significant business performances. Skilled and effective employees are considered as one of the major and strongest assets of the organization. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is considered as one of the important theory. This model consists of five different hierarchies, such as physiological needs, safety and security needs, need for social recognition, need for self esteem and need for self actualization. These are the five hierarchies in the model. Physiological needs include the needs for basic amenities, such as food, water, shelter and clothes. Each and every employee in an organization tries to satisfy this basic need. Red Line Hospital implemented workplace diversity in the human resource management process. Therefore, it is important for the organization to motivate each and every employee from different cultural background to enhance workplace performance. Physiological needs can be similar. It would not differ from an employee to another. Therefore, it is important for the management of the organization to maintain strong relationship with the employees in the organization to maintain effective workplace performance. Safety and security needs include need for job security and workplace health and safety. Each and every employee tries to work in effective, healthy and safe workplace environment. Red Line Hospital should try to maintain effective health and safety aspect in the workplace to motivate the employees of different cultural background. It is highly important for the organization to manage a diverse workforce in an effective way. Government of different countries developed several laws and regulations regarding the workplace health and safety. Therefore, it is important for the organization to maintain this aspect. Job security is another important aspect that helps to motivate the employees to work freely with high self-confidence. It is true that culture issues within the workplace create critical workplace conflicts. It is the responsibility of the organization to develop strategies and decision considering the corporate ethics. Biasness towards a particular group of employees can affect entire workplace performance. Therefore, it is important for the management of the Red Line Hospital to assure the employees of different cultural background about the job security against their hard work and good performances. Need for love and belonging or social recognition is the third stage in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. It is evident that several organizations face challenges like workplace conflicts due to cultural barrier. It is important for the management of the Red Line Hospital to assure social recognition of the employees of different cultural backgrounds. The healthcare organization can be considered as one of the largest organization in terms of employee strength. It is true that inadequate communication and collaboration affects the workplace environment. People of different cultural background used to gain effective social recognition and acceptance comparing to other sub-ordinates or colleagues. Therefore, the possibility of cultural workplace conflicts rose due to this aspect. It is important for the organization to adopt effective leadership style in order to manage diverse workforce. Social recognition of each and every employee in the workplace will help the organization to increase the motivation level of the employees. Need for esteem is another important characteristic of a human being. An individual always tries to avail need for power and self esteem after fulfilling the needs for social recognition of love and belongingness (McGuire, 2012, p.52). It is highly important for the management of Red Line Hospital to maintain effective relationship with the skilled and effective employees. In this stage the organization should try to give value to the experience and skills of the employees. After achieving social recognition, each and every employee within the organization always tries to gain power from the post. It is important for the management of the Red Line Hospital to engage the skilled and effective employees in the decision making process. Engaging skilled and experienced employees in the decision making process can help both the organization and employees. First of all, it will help the Red Line Hospital to develop effective future strategies. On the other hand, this process will ensure the self-esteem of employees in the organization which is highly essential for the organization in a multicultural workforce. Need for self actualization is considered as the last stage in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. It is highly important for the organization to retain skilled and experienced employees. The management of the Red Line Hospital should provide effective performance appraisal to each and every employee. In addition to this, the organization should try to take care of both personal and professional needs of an employee in the organization. Unbiased decision and appropriate promotion of employees by the top level management of the organization will help those employees within the organization to satisfy their need for self-actualization. A self-actualized employee can help his or firm in several ways. First of all, his or her valuable suggestion and experience will be helpful for the new comers or the young employees. It is evident that an employee achieves each and every personal and professional goal when he or she reaches to this level (Rakowski, 2011, p.92). Therefore, these employees intentionally try to improve the performance of entire workplace. This level can be achieved just before or during the retirement. It is important for the management of Red Line Hospital to retail experienced and loyal employees as it will help the organization to avoid several issues and conflicts regarding cultural differences of people within the organization. Herzberg’s Theory to Manage Multicultural Workforce Red Line Hospital also can employ the “Two factor Theory of Herzberg” in the human resource management process to increase the motivation level of each and every employee from different cultural background in the multicultural workforce. It is important for the management of the organization to understand what factors can enhance employee satisfaction in a diverse workplace. According to the Herzberg’s tow factor motivation theory, motivator’s factor and hygiene factors are important for the management of an organization to consider in order improving the efficiency and performance of the workplace. It has been discussed earlier that Red Line Hospital is operating with a diverse and multicultural workforces. Therefore, it is important for the management of the organization to maintain effective workplace environment by motivating the employees of different cultural background. Hygiene Factors Maintain hygiene factor can be considered as the most important success factor for a multicultural diverse workforce. It is true that several leading organizations in the healthcare industry used to face key challenges like workplace conflicts due to inadequate management of a diverse multicultural workforce. In several organizations management or the mangers of a particular tea used to get biased with a particular group of employees. It actually violates the corporate policy or organization culture (Green, 2009, p.32). This inadequate leadership, management, supervision and administration can affect the entire workplace environment. As a result the performance of entire workplace automatically goes down. Adequate job security effective working conditions, proper wagers or salary distribution and adequate performance appraisal can help the organization to manage effectively. It is evident that workplace diversity has several advantages. It increases the efficiency in the knowledge sharing process. In addition to this, it helps the organization to develop an effective inter-personal relationship with the target customers. Red Line Hospital can reduce human resource management operation cost by managing the workplace diversity in an effective way. Motivator Factors There are several advantages and disadvantages of workplace diversity. Language barrier, inadequate communication and biasness in the performance appraisal process can affect the workplace environment. It is quite difficult for the organization to manage a diverse workforce without effective leadership style (Amstel, 2009, p.77). Motivator factors include responsibility, opportunity for advancement, status, sense of personal growth and personal achievement, and stimulating work. The human resource management department needs to take care of the motivation level of the employees as the motivator factors generally differs from an employee to another due to different cultural background. Gender conflict is another issue that may rise in a diverse workforce. It is important for the managers to maintain the workplace ethics and corporate value in the management of a diverse workforce. Motivation level of people used to differ due to different types of needs and cultural background of people (Miner, 2007, p.47). Therefore, it is crucial to consider each and every motivator factors in the business processes in order to maintain effective collaborative work performance in a diverse workplace. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion that the Red Line Hospital can be considered as the large healthcare organization due to high bed capacity and high employee strength. The workplace of the organization consists of 1000 multicultural employees. It is highly important for the organization to consider the advantages and disadvantages of a diverse workforce. Healthcare industry can be considered as one of the sensitive industries in which quality of service matters for achieving positive business growth rate. Conflict of idea, language barrier and inadequate communication process can be considered as the critical consequences of the workplace diversity. It is highly important for an organization to consider this aspect. It is highly important for the management of the Red Line Hospital to manage the diverse workforce by implementing effective leadership process. The performance of each and every employee depends upon the skills and effectiveness of employees. It is true that all the employees demand effective reward and appraisal against their effective job performance. Managing of a multicultural diverse workplace requires effective leadership style from the managers or the management of the organization. It is evident that several leading organizations face issues like culture conflicts within the workplace due to inadequate management of workplace. Organization behaviour and workplace environment are effectively related with each other. Effective and conflict free workplace enhances the organization behaviour of an organization. The management of the Red Line Hospital should understand the significance employee motivation in the workplace. It is quite important for the management of the organization to meet the satisfaction level of the employees. Employees are considered as major asset for an organization. The performance of healthcare organization heavily relies on the effective collaborative performance of the entire workplace as the organization operates within the service providing industry. Quality customer service always depends upon the efficiency of the employees. Employee motivation and employee engagement in key business operation processes are key for Red Line Hospital to get huge business success through its diverse multicultural workforce. The human resource management of the organization should consider two human resource management models in the strategy development process in order to avoid several issues and conflicts in the workplace that may be developed due to inadequate management of a diverse multicultural workforce. It has been discussed earlier that the employee motivation is an important aspect to consider by the organizational leaders in order to maintain the effective workplace environment of a multicultural diverse workforce. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory each and every individual within an organization tries to fulfil their needs in order to justify their satisfaction level. Starting from basic needs to needs for self actualization of the employees; needs to be considered by the management of the organization. In addition to this, it is highly important for the organization to maintain corporate ethics in each and every business operation process. In addition to this, the management of the Red Line Hospital should also consider the Herzberg two factors they in the human resource management process as it will help the organization to maintain the stability of entire workplace performance as implementation of this strategy will help the organization to motivate the employees of different cultural background in the Red Line Hospital. Effective workplace diversity requires significant leadership style from the leaders of the organization as only adequate leadership style will help the organization ensure effective collaborative work performance by reducing several workplace conflicts. References Amstel, D., 2008. Applicability of Herzberg's Motivation-hygiene Theory to War-zone Security Contractors. London: ProQuest. Green, J., 2009. Exploring the Needs of Teleworkers using Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory. London: ProQuest. Healy, J., Sharman, E. and Lokuge, B. 2006. “AustraliaHealth system review”, Health Systems in Transition, Vol. 8(5), pp. 108-110. McGuire, K., 2012. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. London: Routledge. Miner, J., 2007. Organizational Behaviour. New York: Stamford. Niles, N.J., 2011. Basics of the U.S. Health Care System. London: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Rakowski, N., 2011. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Model. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Salisbury, J., Consulting, S. and Byrd, S. 2006. Why Diversity Matters in Health Care, Retrieved from: http://www.csahq.org/pdf/bulletin/issue_12/Diversity.pdf. [Accessed on: 18 December 2013]. Thomson, S., Osborn, R., Squires, D. and Jun, M. 2012. International Profiles of Health Care Systems. 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