Management Practice at Care Home - Research Paper Example

Management Practice at Care Home Contents Contents 2 3 Introduction 3 Research Methods 4 Critical review of concepts 5 Ways of developing employee relations 7 Recommendations for Care Home management 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Abstract This study deals with various dimensions of management practice at an elderly care home. Theoretical frameworks suggest that specific management styles are usually adopted by a firm so as to sustain their market position. In real time cases such as that of Care Home it has been observed during the study that wide array of styles need to be considered. The study encompasses major problems faced by the organization and their root causes. Management of the firm believes that employee retention can be facilitated by developing employee relations and not through increasing salary. Further the study also includes a set of recommendations for future prospect of the firm. Introduction This study will be centred towards identifying management practices in an organization. In the current scenario it is essential to maintain healthy relationship with employees. Employee relations is all about fulfilling demands of employees and aligning all team members toward common goals or objectives. Management often witness problems in terms of handling employees and motivating them so as to facilitate employee retention. In this study focus shall be on a private, unionised organization for elderly people. Care Home is an organization that majorly works for all elderly people to give them a better life. It comprises of wide base of experienced employees who work towards achieving organizational objectives. This organization has its care homes located across every region in United Kingdom. Their main aim is to help people so that they can live a much healthier and happier life. The firm understands that people who are moving into a residential care home possess a different mindset and needs to be taken care of properly. Every possible effort is made by the management so as to make their residents or family or friends feel comfortable in the new environment. In a care home greater benefits can be given to elderly people. Expert team of the organization is always ready to deliver support to any individual of care home. However there are some problems surrounding the business operations of the organization. The management is not been able to retain employees within the system and there is a great need to maintain a pool of talented employees. Staff turnover rate has drastically increased in the recent years even though competitive salary is been offered. Recruitment is not the major issue with the firm but problem is associated with them working along with the organization. In a staff satisfaction survey there was a high rate return observed but staff members had raised wide array of issues. Training dates was usually postponed because of staff shortages and staffs were also not getting well along with their supervisors. Working with residents appeared to be a problem for the firm due to high staff turnover rate and demanding work nature. On the other hand, staffs feel that management does not take into consideration workplace related issues. Problems are getting worse at the firm and management is not in favour of increasing salary to retain staff. This study will highlight the various concepts related to employee relations and put forward certain recommendations which might be useful in terms of improving workplace conditions. Research Methods This study shall encompass secondary research methods to investigate the areas that need to be improved by management of care homes. It can be stated that secondary research methods widen the scope to explore articles, journals, reviews of various authors related to the topic. In this study, secondary research shall be an ideal tool since the case is about developing employee relations within the system. The theoretical framework used in managing employee relations can be incorporated in this particular study. On the other hand market related data is not essential in this research since interpretation of previous results will be more beneficial. Critical review of concepts Management strategies are greatly associated with overcoming any possible risks present in an organization. It is essential for individuals present in managerial position to handle all team members effectively and constantly motivate them to deliver desirable results. Management is all about leading an organization towards common goals or objectives. In the modern world there are various risks which surround functioning of an organization. These risks can be associated with financial terms, operational terms or human resource management. Participatory management style is usually adopted in present day to collaboratively work together with employees. This management style believes that every team member actively contribute towards overall growth of a firm. Manager’s belief system is originally based on a management theory known as McGregor’s Theory Y (Legge, 2006). According to this theory managers are motivated internally. These managers are highly satisfied with their work and perform exceptionally. Indifference symptoms are a common issue in every workplace and it separates one from the end result. It is entirely responsibility of managers to adopt best practices so that every employee feels a sense of ownership. Managers who perform as per this management style are engaged into some form of behaviour. In order to engage employees more in organizational activities, management communicates and establishes organizational direction (Rose, 2008). This mainly facilitates developing a shared vision and this is used to develop innovative plans to achieve the set vision. The role played by a manager in the entire process is that of a leader. In the present context, leaders not only aim towards improving employment conditions but even are concerned with aligning employee’s efforts with work process. Autocratic management style is another approach which denotes that every time employees cannot make valuable contribution towards work process or might not want to participate. This situation requires proper management of workforce so that they deliver required results (Nicholls, 2005). Theory X refers to this kind of belief system where management guides team members in terms of what is right and what is wrong. Employees falling under this theory have no such interest towards their work and deliver low quality end results. Autocratic managers usually control the entire work flow to the maximum extent. Complexity in jobs has resulted into this form of management style. It is often not possible to master in all fields and a certain control is necessary to reach target. Quality planning as well as work planning together is a centralized approach. Top down chain of command is practiced by the management so as to ensure that workers perform according to set standards (Thomas, 2005). There is detailed procedure maintained within the organization and frequent audits are conducted to identify any possible errors in the system. However there is no specific management style which is suitable for an organization. There are wide array of conditions which determines the correct management style in a given situation. The analysis is mainly conducted on the basis of external environment of workplace, stakeholder’s expectations and internal strengths and weakness or external opportunities or threats. This kind of analysis leads to a clear overview of behaviours, attitudes, knowledge and skills of staff. All these factors contribute effectively towards high performance in an organization (Gennard and Judge, 2002). It is greatly affected by client’s demand, work type to be accomplished and individual nature of organizational staff. Performance of a firm is totally dependent on the management style incorporated within an organization. Apart from the two mentioned styles there are wide set of other styles adopted by managers. They are directive leadership, missionary and laissez-faire leadership. In directive managerial style, managers exercise their command on direct subordinates in context of their roles and tasks (Dundon and Rollinson, 2011). Missionary leaders are those who are driven by beliefs. They need to possess team members who have similar set of beliefs. Laissez faire management style is about giving full authority to subordinates and middle managers. They are left to perform their jobs on their own with minimum guidance. These styles are directly related to managing workforce effectively and achieving set targets. However in best workplace conditions it has been observed that employees have certain issues which cannot be resolved (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004). In such cases outcome of management style is unpredictable since autocratic managers at times deliver best results whereas democratic leaders fail to achieve desirable targets. On a broader context it can be stated that attitudes and behaviour of employees denote which of the management styles is most appropriate. Ways of developing employee relations Employee relations are developed by managers through a clear understanding about beliefs and attitudes of employees. There are lot of responsibilities that is needed to be performed appropriately by managers. Building a strong relationship with employees is a difficult task due to presence of indifferences within the system. However innovative strategies can be adopted by managers so as to retain talented employees within the system. For instance in Care Homes the major issue was related to high staff turnover rate. This problem can be sorted in different ways but management has certain limitations in the process. Care Home’s management is not inclined towards increasing salary of workforce since they are being paid competitive salaries. On the other hand, staffs do not listen to views of management and are rigid by nature (Harrison, 2005). The management of this firm believes that improvement in moral beliefs might not resolve the issue but focusing on employee relations might change the entire scenario. Strategies implemented by management have a close relation with management styles. Firstly they are two main theoretical approaches of management style such as Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X style indicates certain characteristics within a manager. McGregor states individuals belonging to this style are average individuals or dislike work, people needs to be controlled and threatened to perform, and they need to be directed as they tend to avoid responsibility. On the contrary, Theory Y refers to those individuals whose mental or physical effort is natural, self direction is executed by people to achieve organizational objectives, reward drives job commitment, every individual learns to seek and accept responsibility, creativity is distributed across a wider base, and potential of individuals are only partially utilized (Boxall and Purcell, 2006). However figure1 clearly states that a manager can adopt any style depending on the present scenario of an organization. Figure 1: Management Style (Source: Aswathappa, 2005) There is a wide continuum from which managers can efficiently to choose the most suitable style. Theory Y and Theory X possesses a set of objectives that needs to be incorporated by managers. On the other hand, Theory Z is associated with democratic style of leadership. These three styles are the pillars of management styles and anywhere within a continuum a style can be chosen by managers. Employee relation development largely depends on such management styles. For instance autocratic managers develop relation with employees by providing them required guidance and aligning them to common goals. The team management wheel denotes the activities originally performed by management to facilitate employee relations. This kind of wheel needs to be present within centre of management and is supported with the concept that different team members possess different working styles. Margerison and McCann have proposed this framework in order to denote the wider scope of strategies available to management. Figure 2: Management Wheel (Source: Mueller, 2006) As per this concept denoted in figure2, there are two kinds of people present within an organization known as introvert and extrovert. Introvert people hide their desires but extrovert people prefer to talk about their issues or demands. Practical people are more aligned towards working with tested ideas but creative people are not in favour of traditional approach or prefer to develop new set of ideas. Structured environmental conditions require managers to set regulations or norms which guides overall performance of workers. On the contrary, flexibility in the workplace gives full liberty to team members to adopt best possible workplace practices. The wheel in figure2 reveals the differences within team members (Mayo, 2005). Employees prefer a particular position as demonstrated in the wheel that has significance with key role. Management needs to firstly decide on whether it wants to portray an image of an explorer, organizer or controller. These aspects in turn govern the way by which team members can be controlled and strong relationship with employees can be established. Employee relations can only be established when the management understands its team members well and link individual interests with that of a firm. Recommendations for Care Home management Care Home needs to implement such a strategy that can eradicate the current problems and enhance the rate of staff turnover. It is highly recommended that management needs to understand the viewpoint of its employees. The staffs mainly executives and well trained nurses can only be retained in the system if they are offered value added benefits. These benefits need not be in monetary terms since there are much useful ways to handle employees. Care Home management can offer rewards and even a token of appreciation to all those team members who contribute effectively towards organizational success. This shall be a motivational factor within employees and help to resolve complicated issues at care home. The most appropriate management style in this context is participative style where team members can actively be involved in the decision making process. Care Home work towards improving life of elderly people and this can only be achieved when workers of this organization is aligned with organizational objectives. It can be stated that workers in such non profit firms need to be continuously motivated for avoiding any form of workplace conflict. Care Home management was facing such wide array of challenges since it did not work in collaboration with its team members. The major problem witnessed in this case was employees did not agree with opinion or views put across by the management. On the other hand, there was no such initiative observed from management side which could have controlled the staff turnover rate. Laissez faire management approach can also be considered to be suitable in this context since employees or nurses will be given liberty to control their own functions. This form of flexibility helps to retain more employees in an organization. Another strategy can be adopted by management for long term perspective. The top authority can organize for weekly meetings where team members can put across their innovative ideas. These ideas can be incorporated by the management within the system. This in turn shall facilitate a sense of ownership within team members in terms of striving towards set performance standards. Regular interval meetings organized by a firm will disclose those operational areas that need to be further improved by the management. Other operational actions can be restructuring the entire organizational activities. On basis of this framework every individual would have a set of activities to be performed. This kind of job enrichment shall make team more responsible and they would not be involved in any kind of workplace conflicts. Management can then take advantage of this situation and develop better strategies to manage workforce. The top authority could even allocate job responsibilities as per the expertise possessed by an individual. This can prove to be a sensible measure since it can reduce the degree of indifferences possessed within a team. On the other hand, employees will have lesser scope to argue with the management regarding this aspect. Hence it would prove to be a measure which can enable long term gains. To be more precise a change of management styles as per workplace environmental conditions is most suitable. It can be an effective measure to align team members towards common goal and mission. Thus job enlargement or enrichment is the most productive mechanism to resolve issues facing management of Care Home. Conclusion As per the study, there are different theoretical frameworks which denote the effectiveness of managerial actions within an organization. Management styles greatly vary in terms of wide set of frameworks such as theory X, theory Y, or theory Z. All of these theories have different set of views or characteristics. Managers need to adopt specific attitudes or beliefs so as to be aligned with such theories. Democratic or autocratic leadership approach is implemented within an organization either when control needs to be given to team members or control needs to be centralized. For instance the issues noticed in Care Home needs to be handled appropriately since it is directly associated with operations of the organization. On the other hand, the issue been identified is more due to communication lack between managers and employees. This problem can only be resolved when management decides on restructuring the entire system and increases the set of responsibilities of an individual. A feeling of sense of ownership is essential and needs to be present within every individual. This should help employees of Care Home to be more productive and work for the noble cause of the organization. Apart from all these factors, non- monetary aspects can even motivate employees to continue with their respective job responsibilities. References Aswathappa, K. 2005. Human Resource and Personnel Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Blyton, P., and Turnbull, P., 2004. The Dynamics of Employee Relations. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Boxall, P., and Purcell, J., 2006. Strategy and Human Resource Management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Dundon, T. and Rollinson, D., 2011. Understanding employment relations’ 2nd edition. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill. Gennard, J., and Judge, G., 2002. Employee Relations. London: CIPD. Harrison, R., 2005. Learning and Development. London: CIPD. Legge, K., 2006. Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Mayo, A., 2005. The Human Value of the Enterprise: Valuing people as assets. London: Nicholas Brealey. Mueller, F., 2006. Human resources as strategic assets: an evolutionary resource-based theory. Journal of Management Studies, 35(6), pp. 757–85. Nicholls, P., 2005. Context and theory in employee relations. London: FT/Pitman. Rose, E. D., 2008. Employment Relations. London: Pearson Education Ltd. Thomas, K., 2005. The Oxford Book of Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More