Creating an Innovation in the Organization - Essay Example

Creating an Innovation in the Organization Highly competitive and aggressive organizations undertake strategic management decisions involving innovation. Majority of business practitioners have identified innovation as synonymous with new inventions and technological advancement. However, discerning organizations suit policy to changing demands of the environment. Global organizations encompass the application of competitive advantages and long-established strengths to unexplored segments of the market via innovations in strategies involving the product, service, process, technology, management practice, or business model. Innovation is the “process by which an idea or invention is translated into a good or service for which people will pay. In business, innovation results often from the application of a scientific or technical idea in decreasing the gap between the needs or expectations of the customers and the performance of a firm's products” (Business Dictionary, 1). The objective of the essay is to proffer an innovation that could be created or designed and to discuss how one will implement it in the identified organization. For this purpose, the organization one is familiar with and one which could use an innovative process to improve organizational performance is a health care institution, St. Luke’s Medical Center. The essay would use at least three models related to innovation and would be structured to include sections on opportunity, ensuring success, impact on results, the innovation, creating customer value, implementation process, measuring the impact, and reflection on learning. a) Opportunity The mission of St. Luke’s Medical Center is to improve the delivery of quality health care conforming to the strict standards of the Joint Accreditation Commission of Health Organizations (JACHO, 2010). It came to the attention of the Vice President for Nursing that their Nurse Managers are torn between prioritizing functions which are administrative in nature vis-à-vis functions that cater to the delivery of patient care. Due to the Nurse Managers’ theoretical orientation for health care, the administrative tasks such as completion of reportorial requirements, monitoring and upkeep of equipment and supplies, staff requirements and budgeting are frequently neglected or seconded with priorities being focused to patient care. In this regard, the VP for Nursing sought the assistance of the VP for Human Resources and the CEO to resolve this issue. One of the most favored recommendations was for an administrative innovation using non-nurse managers to head the diverse units of the nursing department. The officers, members of the board of directors, and the CEO of the hospital deemed it appropriate to hire non nurse unit managers who possess graduate degrees in business, to head the different nursing units. These unit managers have the sole responsibilities of ensuring compliance to reportorial requirements, human resources issues, facilities and equipment, budgeting, and other aspects of the units’ operations – except patient care. The strategic innovative move is projected to improve the performance of nurses as they would be focused on the delivery of patient care. b) Ensuring Success As innovation was defined by Shukla (2009, par. 1) as “exploiting new ideas leading to the creation of a new product, process or service. It is not just the invention of a new idea that is important, but it is actually “bringing it to market”, putting into practice and exploiting it in a manner that leads to new products, services or systems that add value or improve quality”. The innovative idea to hire non-nurse managers to head a nursing team is highly creative and unconventional which could possibly be met by resistance and complaints. However, the importance of the innovative idea comes in terms of according health care practitioners to focus on their primary concern as nurses and at the same time, take additional training courses to improve their nursing skills. Management should highlight the need to develop another career path which could be open to them to eventually make them capable of becoming department managers and maybe, eventually, vice presidents for nursing. c) Impact on Results The suggested innovative move would have strong possibilities to increase morale and productivity in the units, and increased patients’ satisfaction with regard to the delivery of efficient and effective healthcare. Initially, there could be complaints especially from the nurse managers who would perceive the new position as a threat to their existence. Their feared is premised on the feelings that they would eventually lose their “managerial” position and revert to a “staff” position since they would be relieved of the managerial functions and concentrate on patient care. However, the innovative design is an instrument for management to overcome the challenges and resistance through effective leadership and appropriate motivation schemes. c) The Innovation Every nursing unit in the hospital is headed by a nurse manager who is assigned as the chief head nurse on duty. Her job responsibilities entail patient care as the primary task and managerial functions such as planning, directing, staffing and control. These multi-task functions coupled with low pay contributed to low morale and low productivity. These nurses opted to gain the minimum experience required to enable them to leave the country and work abroad. The leadership function assigned to nurse managers conflict with their functions as providers of patient care. They are expected to deliver timely reports on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. They monitor staffing requirements. They prepare the time sheets for payroll purposes. And most importantly, they are expected to know all the nursing intervention requirements for all the patients are their nursing units. There is this question on prioritization of function. As nurses, of course, they should prioritize patient care. But as managers, the function of attending to the human resource needs of the unit suffers. Reports are not completed on their specified time schedules. Upkeep of facilities in patients’ rooms and hospital areas are not regularly attended to. Equipments that need repair and reorder are forgotten. Staff vacation leaves are not properly plotted and thereby not taken as scheduled. Performance evaluation and appraisals are not conducted regularly for monitoring purposes. All of these functions are important managerial functions which would create an improvement in productivity and morale of a hospital unit. All of these should be attended to ensure customer satisfaction and efficient delivery of health service. What were the alternative courses of action open to management to solve this problem? The officers and top management of this hospital were aware that there were several options open to them, among which are: 1. Separate the patient care and managerial function from the nurse managers. 2. Hire administrative managers to take care of the managerial functions. The innovative models which can be used are: the use of a cross group solutions team (by hiring non-nurse managers), though leader resource network (through the use of an external consulting team to provide an outsider’s view to the suggested pioneer move); and the use of open innovation networks (through tapping new and highly professional masters of business administration graduates to head the nursing units) (Kaplan & Winby, 2009). As averred by Kaplan & Winby (2009), “Cross Group Solutions Teams are self-directed teams of individuals chosen from selected business units, who work together for a period of time and have a specific charter, often looking to identify new opportunities that combine the competencies of discrete businesses” (1). By hiring non-nurse managers which specific qualifications of graduates of masters degree in business administration, the focus on management functions (planning, directing, organizing and controlling) is a natural expertise. Further, the use of leader resources network (“an external network of expert practitioners and thinkers that can be tapped at any time” (Kaplan & Winby, 2009, 1)), an outsider’s professional opinion on the suggested innovative design could be solicited. This approach would surely generate an objective perspective on the recommended strategy. Finally, by using an open innovative network, again through hiring from external sources, fresh ideas and competencies are potentially infused in the organization to provide creative and fresh administrative perspectives on leading the nursing units. d) Creating Customer Value The success of every organizational endeavor is measured in terms of satisfying the needs of its customers. In the case of St. Luke’s Medical Center, their mission is to “to deliver excellent healthcare through caring and highly competent professionals, utilizing world-class technology and research. This we shall do in the most financially viable way without losing sight of our primary purpose - to be of service to God and mankind” (SLMC, 2010). The value of innovation is management’s drive and commitment to discover new ways to deliver efficient and effective health care. This is done by encouraging new ideas in every aspect of patient care. Through implementation of the innovative administrative process, more and effective focus would be rendered by the nurses to the delivery of patient care. This aspect can be measured in terms of regular customer satisfaction survey to be distributed to all patients and to be answered prior to the patients’ discharge from the hospital. It would clearly identify any improvement in the delivery of patient care accorded with commitment and a renewed hope for a developed career path within the organization. e) Implementation Process Lewin (1951) in his book on Frontiers in Group Dynamics, as cited by Martires & Fule (2000) identified three steps in the process of change, to wit: (1) unfreezing; (2) changing; and (3) refreezing. The unfreezing stage is the initial step involving awareness and recognition of the need to change certain aspects in the current situation. The changing stage involves the introduction and application of the new patterns of behavior (Martires & Fule, 2000). This stage encompasses orientation, training and learning the new system or aspects which were initially identified as needing change. Finally, under the refreezing stage, those new patterns, systems, or behaviors must be stabilized and sustained for it to be effective and considered successful. At this stage, a full integration of the new aspects is finally ingrained into practice. The changing stage involves introduction and application of the proposed change in administrative leadership in the nursing units. In the introduction stage, the proposal would be forwarded to top management to orient them on the advantages of the new system as well as any costs involved. A cost-benefit analysis is always helpful with emphasis on long term benefit for the company. Once approved, the implementation or application stage requires appropriate orientation and training on the new system. The nursing units should be comprehensively orientated and trained to focus on the transition of leadership responsibilities ensure that all personnel would be competent to address the innovative administrative system. Depending on the scope of change, the learning process may be short or long. However, it should be emphasized that this new system would be beneficial in promoting patient care and thereby increasing productivity in the organization. The employees in any organization develop an adherence to organizational systems which had been used for a long time. Due to some fear or insecurity in job responsibilities, there is a normal and expected resistance for the propose system. Martires & Fule (2000) identified four bases of resistance to change: rational, emotional, social and political. In this case, the possible resistance could be a combination of emotional and social. There is the desire to retain the status quo because they can continue to feel secure in their jobs. The group forces and teams that have been established over time support the status quo for their own selfish personal objectives. In addition, older personnel are apprehensive of the new administrative system for fear that their seniority has been compromised by hiring non-nurse managers to head their units. To manage this possible resistance, management can employ the following strategies: (1) information and communication prior to the change to prepare the employees of the new administrative system; (2) consultation and participation by soliciting employees’ comments, suggestions, apprehensions, and the like; (3) emphasis on benefits of the new system; (4) orientation and training to show the advantages of according supervisory and administrative responsibilities to non-nurse managers; and (5) assurance that the new unit managers would not disrupt employee’s security but rather contribute to a higher level of productivity and morale. f) Measuring the Impact As briefly mentioned, through feedback mechanism, regular customer satisfaction survey to be distributed to all patients and to be answered prior to the patients’ discharge from the hospital, would measure the impact of the proposed innovative strategy. It would clearly identify any improvement in the delivery of patient care accorded with commitment and a renewed hope for a developed career path within the organization. Likewise, through hiring non-nurse managers who would focus on all administrative and managerial functions of the nursing units, the areas of budgeting (cost – revenue analysis), supplies administration, maintenance of hospital equipment and patients’ rooms, and other facets of administration, would be evaluated and analyzed in terms of processes and systems which could be improved to greater increase productivity of each nursing unit. g) Reflection on Learning In creating an environment for performance, organizations must continuously innovate to survive and to lead as well. Innovation deals with searching for creative solutions to human relationships, structures and processes, and ability to assess and adjust to the changing environment. The resources, assets, structures and processes, as well as the leadership of St. Luke’s Medical Center, would reveal that it takes an effective collaboration of all factors to ensure the success of an organization in the achievement of their well defined goals. When the leaders, systems, and strategies are truly effective, the institution is transformed. In resolving issues pertaining to management changes and innovation, it is pertinent that problems are properly and accurately identified. Leaders are assigned and employed to do their tasks. Systems are installed to implement the necessary changes. However, when a gap still exists between knowing and implementing the solution, the top honcho should take the helm and assume responsibility in decision making. References Business Dictionary. (2010). Innovation. Retrieved 04 December 2010. Kaplan, S. & Winby, S. (2009). Organizational Models for Innovation. Retrieved 04 December 2010. < http://www.innovation-point.com/Organizational%20Models%20for%20Innovation.pdf> Martires, C.R. & Fule, G.S. (2000). Management of Human Behavior in Organizations. National Bookstore, Philippines. St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC). (2010). One of the World’s Best. Retrieved 04 December 2010. Shukla, A. (2010). What is Innovation? Why is Innovation Important? Retrieved 04 December 2010. < http://www.paggu.com/getting-into-roots/what-is-innovation-why-innovation-is-important/> The Joint Commission. (2010). Accreditation Programs. Retrieved 04 December 2010. < http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/accreditation_main.aspx> Read More