Health Services Management - Term Paper Example

I. Introduction Health Services Management is one of the most challenging sectors of management, as it requires a deep understanding of what is really the task at hand. It is a given fact that sustainability of an organization hinges on the presence of a clear and explicit management concepts that is formulated by top management. These management systems shall serve as the backbone of the organization and shall be the basis for long-term development strategies and strategic objectives (Davidson 1995). The strategy formulated by top management should then be translated at the lower levels of the organization into business unit plans, budgets and operational action plans. To achieve efficiency, the management concepts formulated at top-level management must be supported by unambiguous and well-organized planning and control cycle (Anthony et. al. 1989). II. The Present Scenario Within my organization, experienced clinical prosthetists are often promoted into managerial positions. Although highly trained clinicians with experience of patient case management, they have no formal organizational or business management training. These promoted posts are to mange specific branches in geographically separate locations. Once promoted to branch manger the clinical has the responsibility of carrying the following task at the local level, namely: man management, human resource management, finance, stock, workforce planning, H & S, quality control, maintenance of facilities and at the same time, they are also expected to carry out clinical case load. The branches provide a clinical service to the NHS, which involves the assessment of patient’s needs and the repair and manufacture of individual prostheses. For some of the areas of management, training has been provided by the company but as a whole, the whole introduction process is rather sketchy. The mangers are mostly made to identify what support they need to perform their duties efficiently. III. Analysis of the Scenario Given our case scenario, we come to the question on how to best assist the local mangers in performing their task and what trainings do they need in order to effectively management their branches given the fact that each branch had unique needs and concerns that must be addressed properly. To do this, we must go back to the directions set by top-level management and translate them into lower level applications. Let us bear in mind that as management tool, goals can be very useful in stimulating and guiding behavior. However, managers must determine the goal attributes1, the goal-setting process2 and the type of reward3 that will work best to produce goal commitment and motivated behavior for their subordinates. Stretch goals can be extremely motivating, but they usually require employee participation and supportive managers who are willing to provide the resources and latitude needed (Sweeny 2005) However, in our case scenario, there is no objectives feed down from senior management team to the lower level. We therefore ask the question on what is really the goal of the company? To answer this, we go back to the nature of our company, which is health service through repair, and manufacturing of prostheses. From this point on, we draw a hypothetical statement that provision of high quality service is the goal of the company. IV. Performance Management and Culture of the Company Before we go into the skills inventory and training needs assessment, let us first look into the aspect of performance management and the culture of the company. As what have been observed, our company culture is geared towards multi-tasking where an employee performs varied task, which are sometimes contrasting to each other. As in the case of us managers, we are not only expected to render managerial services to company, we also take care of the administrative and technical aspects of the business o top of our clinical workloads. Given our present scenario where there are no clear directives from top management as to how management should be implemented at local level, there are no established uniform methods of handling operational matters of the company at the local level. Each manager is free to improvise, which in the long run may not be sustainable at all. At present, the company has no management performance systems in placed, which will serve as a guide to the managers. At the outset, this company culture is detrimental to the sustainability of the organization. Where there is no clear guidance as to where and how the company will go, general behaviour of the employees would tend to be less motivated4. However, since there is already an existing work to at hand, it is best to proceed by assessing how situations can be remedied through trainings an organizational development. IV. Training Needs Assessment Part of my task to facilitate change and to make the organization efficient is to assess how each manager’s deal with its day-to-day branch operations. As what have been previously intimated, each branch seem to be functioning at different levels, according to the present competence of its manager and the bulk of their existing work and clientele. In order to make the assessment, we must conduct a resource inventory and training needs assessment. Resource inventory and training Needs Assessment are tools used in management to assess the needs and degree of competence needed for each branch5. The objects of the resource inventory is to identify what are existing competence in the company and whoa are these people and where they are assigned and what task are they performing at the moment. This process often yields very valuable information, which are very useful in matching skills to job requirements. On the other hand, training needs assessment is to identify what skills are present, the technologies involved, the relevance of technologies to the local scenes and the identification of gaps between what skills, technologies and competence present and what are needed. A systematic and continuing review of current and foreseeable organizational training needs provides a realistic basis upon which to plan, budget, direct, and evaluate an effective training program. The training needs of individual employees should be assessed within the context of the organization’s strategic goals to ensure employees’ performance competency and development. (DOI University. 1998) Included in the training needs analysis module should be the learning skills inventory where each manager should be able to give a comprehensive outline of the trainings he/she has completed and the relevance thereof to the overall business operations. To get the information we wish to extract from the managers, we can improvise a matrix. A sample matrix to be filled up by the managers may be as follows: Areas of Concern Trainings Undergone Number of Hours Skills learned Application to Work Areas of concern may include all the aspects of management, which the manager is expected to perform, and the kinds of trainings undergone in order to assess him in performing such duties. From the number of trainings conducted and the degree of competence acquired through such trainings, identification of gaps must be done. To do this, we can again draw an improvised matrix that will help us arrive at such conclusion. Upon completion of the matrix, a validation of information should be conducted. To do this, an interview may be conducted together with the respondent manager to ensure that all the information entered in the matrix is correct and that there are no vital information omitted. Once all these data have been gathered and collated into a one single document, a list of gaps must be drawn and matched with the trainings or resource, which would address the gap. For instance, a manager is expected to do planning but have no skills in planning, his needs will then be tagged and matched to specific trainings which will help him carry-out the task of planning. The matching process will then give us a summary of all the trainings needed and the number of persons who will be involved. After drawing out the list of trainings and the persons who need them, we go into the process of budgeting and cost benefit analysis. The cost benefit analysis is a process whereby we analyze cost versus impact; in other words, we compare the amount it will take to acquire such skills with the amount or benefits, which will be derived from the trainings. V. Conclusion Providing adequate trainings to employees especially managers will increase the motivation and commitment of employees and enabling individuals to develop their abilities and achieve their full potential. By so doing, the company increases job satisfaction of employees and inspires loyalty, which will eventually benefit the company. Furthermore, through consultations and other participatory processes, the development of team cohesion and performance is enhanced and sharing of knowledge is facilitated. A feedback mechanism should also be instituted in order to get ideas from the employees on how beneficial the trainings have been and how it should be further enhanced to get the maximum impact. Furthermore, a good recording and documentation of the whole process must also be conducted in order to facilitate replication where it is needed and beneficial. Overall, it is highly recommended that in order to make the company sustainable, there should be a change of culture from within the organization to make it more dynamic and responsive to the needs of its employees especially the managers. Multi-tasking may be all right in some instances but where it is not longer applicable and beneficial, it should be modified to address the needs of the organization. Bibliography 1. Algera J.A. (2000) Performance Management in organisaties, tien jaar ervaring met ProMES (translation: Performance management in Organizations, ten years of Experience with ProMES) Bedrijfskunde 2. Anthony R.N., J. Dearden and N.M. Bedford (1989) Management Control Systems. 6th ed. Chicago: Irwin 3. Armstrong M. and A. Baron (1998). Performance Management: the new realities London: Institute of Personnel and Development 4. Behavioral factors. Online Available at http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/10/04712057/0471205710.pdf#search='organizational%20behavioral%20management' 5. Choo C. W. (2000) Closing the cognitive gaps: How People Process Information 6. Davidson, M. (1995) The Grand Strategist. The Revolutionary New management System. Macmillan London ltd. 7. DOI University (1998) Training Needs Assessment. Available online at http://www.doi.gov/hrm/pmanager/ed3.html 8. Heller, R. (1998). In search of European Excellence: The 10 key strategies of Europe’s top Companies. London; HarperCollinsBusiness. 9. Martins, R.A. (2000) Use of performance measure systems: some thoughts towards a comprehensive approach 10. Paul D. Sweeney (2005) Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management. University of Central Florida Read More