Control Systems and Quality Management in Relation to Motivation - Essay Example

Control Systems and Quality Management in Relation to Motivation Introduction Quality management and control systems provide information that may be used in the evaluation of the organization’s performance and for motivational purposes. The control system is important as it helps in the implementation of the organization’s strategy. Control systems and quality management incorporates techniques which motivate the behavior of employees in evaluating their performance. Quality control and quality management systems in the healthcare company ensure quality of products and services. They involve a planned and organized approach to monitoring, analyzing and enhancing organizational performance which is a source of motivation. Most healthcare organizations have established continuous quality control and improvement systems for an excellent and constant quality management program as suggested by Shortell and Kaluzny (1997). Healthcare companies should consider that institutions with constant quality control systems desire to adopt positive changes in all aspects of the organization’s activities. Quality management in healthcare companies offers a framework for service delivery and helps hospitals organize their operation to provide quality services. Management control systems aim at bringing commonness of goals and coordination of processes in health care organizations for dysfunctional control systems. The control systems are expected to monitor and regulate the behavior of workers in the organization. For instance, the top management depends on information provided at different management levels to make decisions and to evaluate processes. Management control systems in healthcare organizations are concerned with resource allocation, coordination and motivation of the employees. The control system in management of healthcare organizations applies techniques such as total quality management. Total quality management is an aspect of management which constantly aims at enhancing quality services and management. Every healthcare organization’s management should develop a control system customized to its goals and resources. These control systems relate to motivation of employees in healthcare organizations through different principles as outlined below: Focus in critical points: for instance, controls are used where failure is a threat and the costs do not exceed a specific amount. This critical point involves all healthcare operations that affect the motivation of workers. Established processes integration which implies that controls in healthcare organizations must work in coordination within various processes in order to motivate the employees for improved performance. Control systems are important in providing information on the organization’s resources including human, financial and physical resources. This is because they are manipulated to improve the use of these resources mostly during strategy implementation Information availability is another important principle that goes toward the motivation of employees through quality management. This can be achieved by ensuring that there are set targets in various processes including deadlines for project completion, priority aspects in services, and cost effectiveness. Comprehensibility is another principle which implies that motivational controls must be easy and simple for employees to understand Accuracy demands that an effective and motivational control system should offer real information which is useful, consistent, valid and reliable to workers. Economic feasibility is an important control systems motivational aspect as it ensures that control benefits are above the costs. Functional and Dysfunctional Control Systems Functional and dysfunctional control systems are applied in management to combine data collection. The data collected is normally used to determine employee motivation and evaluate their performances. These types of control systems are mostly used by the healthcare organizations’ management to introduce and maintain change. A functional control system in healthcare companies is used by management to record systematically all current health policies. The procedures which need resource implementation are also recorded leading to a clear flow of services hence a motivation to employees as suggested by Horngren, Sundem and Stratton (2005). Usually quality management implies that there is need for management to spend resources while analyzing a functional control system. Motivational acts such as opportunities for advanced training for employees equip them with relevant knowledge hence acts as a functional control system. Quality control is a form of functional control system in health care organizations and involves the procedure of reviewing quality in various service and production aspects. It uses performance and the integrity principles in analyzing quality management as it is depended on quality control. The human resource department applies quality control as a functional control system in the hiring of employees. This ensures that employees are hired on basis of knowledge, proficiency, experience, skills and credentials. This improves motivation in service delivery thus improving staff performance. Lack of proper motivation in control systems which is attributed to quality management can lead to reduced performance in work. A functional control system inform of quality control ensures products are tested before they are distributed to the hospitals. Most health care organizations have both functional and dysfunctional control systems. The main effects of functional control systems are that they lead to increase in production of services. However, in order to achieve this, the organization needs to employ control systems which motivate the employees. A fully functional control system in health care organizations conveys distinctive motivational characteristics. These include coordination between components used in transfer of information, self organization as well as self adaptation. Complexity is an important factor that governs organizational interactions in healthcare organizations. It conveys systems functionality and replicates relationship process towards self organization and adaptation. A dysfunctional control system involves a fierce cycle that results in poor strategy execution and leads to unmotivated employees in the organization. The bureaucratic control system is a type of dysfunctional control system which favors impersonal laws aimed at protecting the top management in an organization. The health care companies which employee dysfunctional control systems have their decisions made by those not directly affected as hey are protected. In this cases quality management is poor and the workers are less motivated. The dysfunctional control system suppresses the opportunities for improved performance as the subordinates feel suppressed and this reduces the healthcare organizational culture. The major drawback here is that organizational culture in healthcare organizations is highly valued in motivational proportions. Due to these dysfunctional control systems, there results an unhealthy competition leading to management not focusing on laid strategies. In stead they head up in fight for to prove the worthiness of their various departments. Other characteristics of dysfunctional control systems include information filtering such that subordinates have to hide some information from management. In such a case, there is poor quality management which limits the motivation of employees. This filtering of information involves manipulation of information, where the management bends the law and rule for their benefit. This kind of manipulations is dangerous to functional control systems in healthcare organizations and the patients end up suffering the consequences. As a result, the hospitals are likely to have a poor impression to the public. Criteria for Developing and Evaluating Control System Control systems evaluation should be accurately conducted for effective representation of the level reliability and expression of facts. This implies that there is need for consistency in the application of control measures to assure the validity of results. This type of reliability is achieved by ensuring employees are well motivated. The motivation is attained through encouraging employees to participate in developing control systems hence their desire to contribute to management. An effective criteria for developing and evaluating control systems according to Anthony and Govindarajan (2007), involves establishment of clear and understandable performance indicators. In healthcare organizations these indicators should be current and relevant to the organization’s daily activities. Furthermore, in developing and evaluating healthcare organizational control systems, there is need to identify and consider both financial and non-financial performance. Quality management involves establishing a good rapport between management and employees with an aim of ensuring efficient flow of information between the two. With this in place, there is a high possibility of developing practical strategies and beneficial control systems. This is because employees will be able to air their views as they are more familiar with the organization’s basic processes and thus help improve performance. The ability of the control system to establish a favorable communication environment for healthcare organizations is an important criterion in system evaluation. Another criterion includes adopting a measure capable of identify gaps in various management levels due to varying performance measures. This involves differentiating performance in management level and at the subordinate level. As a result, various measures are applied for quality control at different levels of the organization. The operational aspect of the healthcare organization is overt compared to the quality aspect which is applied in all health care departments. However the control system in healthcare organizations can be categorized as exact and personalized on various aspects. Essentials of Quality Management and the Techniques Quality Management as well as its techniques is used in determining and sustaining quality control, quality improvement and quality assurance in the organization. Quality management encompasses both the quality of products and services as well as the process involved in their production (Gitlow, Oppenheim, Oppenheim and Levine, 2004). In the healthcare industry, quality management is a management aspect which incorporates various principles which are aimed at enhancing organizational performance. Among such principles applied in analysis of quality management in relation to motivation is recognizing the authorities. A strong leadership results in the adoption of a realistic process of decision making. It also leads to good mutual relationships between workers and management for better performance. Benchmarking is a quality management technique that involves the application of indicators like productivity per unit in comparison with two organizations’ performance. In healthcare companies benchmarking is applied in improving various healthcare services. Its practices are applied through learning hence procedures are handled fast and cheaply. Through benchmarking, the management is able to establish the best hospitals in the area that offer similar healthcare services compared to those offered at other hospitals. Once the hospital is established, the objectives and consequences attained are compared to those of the subject hospital. Then a discussion is embarked on to decide which of the both hospital is to learn from the other which involves determining how they can achieve similar targets. This provides the ability to lay strategies which ensure that set goals are attained and the aim for quality management is achieved. Benchmarking is considered as a continuous aspect in quality management. It entails the application of best practices o ensure that the knowledge from a particular healthcare organization is transferred to others to improve consistency. Consequently the learning of other healthcare organizations practices provides a good opportunity in extending mutual exchange of healthcare services. Hence healthcare organizations strategies are set according to a technique where management is engaged decisions which result in enhanced performance. In health care organizations different benchmarking dimensions entails analysis of comparative studies and staffing activities. Benchmarking in healthcare also involves engaging aspects of performance in service delivery compared other healthcare organizations. Knowledge management in is another technique in quality management which applies a wide range of practices and strategies. These practices and strategies help in identifying, representing, creating, distributing and enabling acquisition of experience according to Duncan, Swayne and Ginter (1997). These concepts entail the knowledge incorporated in individual or organizational procedures such that it becomes continuous process. Knowledge in management in healthcare organizations has many effects in organizational motivational efforts. Knowledge management is important as it incorporates attained knowledge in service delivery hence a developed organizational performance. Knowledge in management also enhances effective management and exemplifies expertise hence improved performance and motivated employees. Conclusion Functional and dysfunctional control systems are opposing aspects in any organizations’ control system. They provide ideas for the management to differentiate between the necessary and the unnecessary aspects. In developing and evaluating the control systems, it should be noted that tool reliability is significant in determining the effectiveness of quality management techniques. The application of management control systems are bound to impact my personal and professional life. With the application of management control, I will be more effective at work and will better be able to motivate myself as well us other people. I will be able to apply benchmarking as a system control tool in the organization. I will also be able to reward other people (subordinates) for their endeavors based on their performances. I will also use targets and clear goals to ensure that work is effectively done at the workplace. This in effect will help improve productivity of the organization. References Anthony, R. & Govindarajan, V. (2007), Management Control Systems. New York:.Mc- Graw-Hill IRWIN. Duncan,W.J. Swayne,L.E. & Ginter, P.M. (1997). Handbook of health care management.London: Wiley-Blackwell. Gitlow, H., Oppenheim, R., Oppenheim, A. and Levine, D. (2004), Quality Management         3rd. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Horngren, C., Sundem, G., and Stratton, W., (2005). Introduction to Management         Accounting, New Jersey: Pearson. Shortell, S.M. & Kaluzny.,A.D. (1997). Essentials of health care management. Auckland: Cengage Learning. Read More