Management and Organizational Behavior - Mountain States Healthcare - Case Study Example

Case study: Mountain s Healthcare Part Definition of the situation The organization The Mountain s Healthcare(MSH) brought together a number of hospitals and affiliate clinics from the states of Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. It started as Utah Health Group after acquiring other hospitals and clinics from Utah and only changed to Mountain States Healthcare after it crossed borders to acquire a hospital in Colorado, and became a holding company. It was owned by shareholders and was led by a board of directors. The company outsourced consultancy services and used latest technology in its operations. Incumbents were considered for higher positions before sourcing from outside the company as evidenced by the promotion of Aaron Nelson and Kyle Christiansen from state billing office manager to the VP of Technology and director of the new unit of Medical Billing respectively (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 1). The situation Mountain States Healthcare was facing issues of high turnover in the recently consolidated medical billing directorate and was anticipating failing cash flow. These issues were drawing largely from the inflexibility of the leadership of Kyle Christiansen. Christiansen was instigating changes that were causing undesirable results especially on the employees working in his unit. Christiansen made promises to his employees when he rose to power but after two months, he was not delivering on these promises, and this made his juniors doubt his ability. The employees were aggravated over the cut-down of their work roles and flextime. Those in the offices that were being closed down were living for jobs in other companies. The software in the directorate was failing due to overloading. The postponement of issues addressed to Christiansen, his oversimplification of some, and excessive exertion of his authority demonstrated the ineffectiveness of his leadership (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 3). Part 2 – Analysis of the situation Management process and the organization The decision by the Board of Directors of Mountain States Healthcare to expand operations to states beyond Utah was a desirable aspect of the company’s management process. This is because the growth in profits would have led to the company outgrowing the potential of its initial market share. Additionally, the fact that this expansion would increase the profitability of the company’s shareholders showed that the board emphasized social responsibility. The decision to outsource consultancy services on the concern of how to cut on unnecessary administrative costs showed that the board’s management process aspired for objectivity (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 1). However, this objectivity was not achieved because the board chose to act on the idiosyncratic view of Aaron Nelson on the suitability of Kyle Christiansen for the director of the medical billing and not Colleen. The managerial decision making that was used in appointing Kyle into his new position was flawed because of Nelson’s subjectivity. The support he got from other members of his committee in endorsing Kyle showed that the committee had little regard for workforce diversity that would have seen Colleen as the new director. It is possible that if they had diversity management skills like those that emphasize equality for all regardless of gender and other parameters, the impediments that faced the company would have been avoided (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 2). The situation The undesirable changes that Kyle instituted in the medical billing directorate showed that his management skills were lacking. Perhaps, the major skill that he was lacking was change management. Kyle should have prepared his juniors for these changes and persuasively mobilized them to pursue his envisioned goals. Based on trait model of leadership, Kyle was lacking in alertness to the social environment and he was domineering. His domineering attitude showed when he convinced himself that his idea always worked and that it was going to work even in the new directorate (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 6). Kyle lacked planning that would follow a well spelt out process. He made directions without anticipating or planning for how to address the repercussions. For example, he directed that Colleen and her unit move to Utah from Denver but did not plan for how this unit would operate. He also directed the merging of operations without considering the capacity of the existing software. Clearly, Kyle was not able to manage in the global environment that is competitive and talent retention is what would have helped his organization compete more favorably than the organization to which some of his employees went after leaving MSH (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 7). The lack of strategy is another contributing factor that precipitated MSH’s situation. Despite the fact that the board of directors had envisioned that a good way to cut on unnecessary administrative costs was to consolidate operations, it failed to lay down good action steps. Colleen had a good functional level strategy when operating from Denver because she allowed her juniors to work with convenience. She used the tenets of the expectancy theory that require that a leader allow his or her followers to work with their expectations and those of what will happen to them if they do not deliver on their organizational mandate (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 3). Part 3 – Recommendations Giving Kyle time to refocus his actions might plunge MSH further into issues of high employee turnover and loss making. Whereas giving Kyle a chance to makes things right is an option, it is important to consider that his juniors have lost confidence in him. In light of all these, the best solution to this issue is changing Kyle’s leadership with the transformational leadership of Colleen. Transformational leadership would help take charge of the situation and impress the vision and goals of MSH more clearly on all employees. This would be done with passion for work and with the ability to make employees feel recharged and energized for realizing these goals and vision. These attributes are evident in Colleen (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 3). Colleen comes across as a person who can not only challenge the status quo but also inculcate creativity in employees. Colleen will able to cultivate supportive relationships by expressing individualized consideration to employees. She seems capable of inspirational motivation and can act as a role model to her juniors (Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare 3). In conclusion, implementing this change of leadership and steering MSH back to success a clear course of action is needed. Firstly, Kyle needs to be demoted since he has failed to deliver and Colleen instituted as new director. While in power, Colleen needs to develop a vision either with a number of team members or from the outcome of discussion meetings with all employees. Thirdly, she would need to sell her vision, persuasively, to her juniors. The forth step would be to find the way forward especially after brainstorming with her unit. Finally, she would need to lead the change. This would enthuse and inspire others to remain on track. Work Cited Case Study: Growth Pains at Mountain States Healthcare. class notes, n.d. Print. Read More