Organizational Behavior and Management - Case Study Example

Case study Case study Summary on organizational culture Employee burnout is a major issue that reduces the effectiveness of employees in hospitals (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2013). Most of the nurses, doctors and other health practitioners are often pushed beyond their limits by long shifts, sleep deprivation and demands on their time and attention. This is despite that a single mistake for them can have fatal consequences. As a result, it is important for organization to come up with a structure that enables open communication, support, management of stress and the education for the doctors, nurses and other hospital staff. Each of the hospitals has their own unique culture that can either help or prevent the coping ability of the employees with the stress of working in their demanding environments. Question one As the individual in charge of socializing the new nurses, I would first communicate the desired behaviors through either written or verbal communication. I would ensure that I role model the required behaviors on daily basis. I would also develop a mentorship program for them to encourage them to engage in a two-way communication and build confidence in them in their early career. This will ensure that they remain motivated all the time. I would also create a time out for some few hours to give them a break from their works and make them feel rejuvenated. Question two There are various challenges that hospitals face when creating a culture that helps in the reduction and management of stress among the employees. One of them is that they have to come up with a creative strategy of ensuring that they manage on the time spent on motivating employees. The reason is that the hospital has to continue with its normal operations while the supportive culture is still going on. Thus, they have to divide the employees into shifts to take them out in shifts for instance, and this can be costly in the long run. Secondly, some hospitals lack the required time to motivate their employees in the required levels. This is considering that hospital nurses, doctors and nurses are under pressure on time and they have to give their undivided attention to patients. If the hospital lacks enough number of nurses, doctors and staff, then coming up with an organizational culture to reduce and manage stress levels in the hospital might be difficult (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2013). Question three There was a certain organization that I worked for that had inadequate employees. The few employees that worked there had high-stress levels and had to deal with a lot in the organization setting. Thus, the organization decided to come up with an organizational structure where it could reduce and manage the stress levels of their employees. They first created an effective communication channel where the employees were allowed to effectively communicate to their seniors in the event that they felt their stress levels were taking charge of them. The other strategy was to ensure that the organizations took their employees out once in a while and discuss some of the challenges facing them and come up with solutions. The organization structure worked since the employees were able to remain open and motivated thus preventing any form of burnout. Summary on comparing co-workers against each other A rigid ranking system is capable of hindering teamwork and risk-taking required for innovation. Most organizations in US evaluate their employees by comparing them with their colleagues (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2013). This resulted into the employees lowly ranked to get fired. However, there have been rising cases of lawsuits from employees believing that they were ranked on the basis of age and not their performance. This has resulted into fewer companies adopting this strategy. However, companies are finding it difficult to come up with other better strategies of motivating its employees. The reason is that the forced ranking system is only bringing out employees that compete against each other rather than enhancing a collaborating effort. Question one Forced ranking performance appraisals do not motivate employees. They only serve to kill the morale of these employees. Having the employees ranked based on the performance of their co-workers only brings out the spirit of competition over the employees rather than a collaborating effort. As such, the company records an increase in performance for a short period of time after the forced ranking but afterward the performance drops. This shows how much the employees are aimed at competing against each other rather than working together to come up with creative problem-solving skills. Question two The equity theory calls for a balance between the inputs of an employee and their output. To find this balance, ensures that the employees find a strong and productive relationship and it results into contented and well-motivated employees (Griffin & Moorhead, 2012). Thus, this employee’s negative reaction to forced ranking is due to the imbalance that results from the inputs and their outputs. The employees react negatively since they have invested a lot of their time and effort in directing the required input in the organization. However, the output that come up at the end does not match up with the input they directed into the organization. Question three If an organization decides not to use forced ranking, then they can adopt an alternative strategy. One of them is ensuring that the managers should meet often to perform the review of the performance of their employees and that of the organization. Meeting at least three times each year is adequate in coming up with the best reviews of the employees in the organization. The managers could also make some room for risks by making room for their rankings and their ratings with flexible guidelines. The organization should also adjust their goals with their grades to avoid setting goals that their employees cannot achieve and thus exerting pressure on the employees. The organization should also choose the words they use on their employees more wisely to ensure that they feel motivated by the words themselves. Finally, the organization should be in a position to build trust among its employees to ensure that they feel motivated by knowing that their organization has faith in them. By so doing, they employees are able to maintain a collaborative effort with each other thus achieving the set goals of the organization while the employees remain contented and well-motivated. References Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2012). Organizational behavior. Mason, OH: South-Western/ Cengage Learning. Ivancevich, J., Konopaske, R., & Matteson, M. (2013). Organizational Behavior and Management: Tenth Edition. New York: McGraw- Hill Higher Education. Read More