Discuss the Roles of Top (senior), Middle and Frontline Managers in a Chosen Australian Health Care - Coursework Example

The Role of Top, Middle and Frontline Managers in Royal Perth Hospital Name Institution Course Date The Role of Top, Middle and Frontline Managers in Royal Perth Hospital Introduction The overall function of management is to direct their efforts towards achieving the organisation vision through formulation and implementation of strategic plan (Lewis et al., 2006, p. 91). Over the years there has been a paradigm shift in management field whereby instead of managers being just people who do planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling, they are now called upon to be leaders and motivators who can be able to build an inspired team that work together to achieve organisational goals. These kinds of approach views human resource as the most integral asset that can organisation can have in achieving their vision. In this new concept of people management, managers are required to employ soft skills in combination with technical skills so as to lead from the front (Barry and Hansen, 2008, p. 3, 4 and 5). Management in the hospital is a critical factor since they deal with human life rather than goods or other known services. This calls for a responsive management that is able to take care of human needs. This paper examines the role of top, middle and frontline managers in Royal Perth Hospital. The Theoretical Traditional Roles of Managers It has been observed that an organisation has three levels of management hierarchies. The first is top level managers. The second is the middle level manger and the last is the low level or frontline managers. The function of top level management is related to policy initiation, leading, financing and creation of enabling environment. In a nutshell they are discharged with the function of creation of organisation’s vision and objective in liaison with other managers and employees. This is termed as facilitation (Weaver and Farrell, 1997, p. 1-4). In crafting organisation vision so to be able to compete effectively in their area of operation it is prudent to do internal analysis through strength, weakness, opportunity and threats analysis (Lewis et al., 2006, p. 92). The second is the industrial environment analysis where they analyse their immediate environment. This can be attained through porter’s model of five competitive forces (Lewis et al., 2006, p. 100). The last is through larger environment analysis through political, economic social, technological, environmental and technological analysis (Lewis et al., 2006, p. 115). This will ensure that an organisation be responsive to change and stays afloat. Other functions of top level management include performance appraisal. This helps them evaluate if the company is achieving its desire vision and objectives as stated in the strategic plan. Performance appraisal is done through sales evaluation and employees turn out among others. They also determine policies; determine activities and approval of budget. This level comprises of board of directors and the chief executive officer who can also be called managing director, general manager and president (Singla and Singla, 2009, p. 35). The next in the line is the mid level managers. This level comprises of divisional heads, departmental and deputy departmental heads. These are the people in charge of the operation of each functional line of the organisation. They are discharged with the duty of ensuring that their departments contribute to the overall success of the organisation. Some large organisations have two sub hierarchies for this level of management (Singla and Singla, 2009, p. 36). The first is the upper level middle management. The second is the lower level middle management. Their functions entail interpreting policies of the organisation so that they can be put into reality. Thus they are the one who ensure that the organisations strategic plans are implemented by formulating strategies that support the blue print. They are also engaged in preparing organisational set up by examining human resource requirement of the organisation and filling them appropriately. Other functions are like submission of information, issuance of instructions, creation of cooperation within and between departments and motivation of employees. Motivation of employee is an important aspect as it contributes towards synergy and employee identification with the organisation (Singla and Singla, 2009, p. 37). The last hierarchy of management is the lower management level. This level is also referred to as operational management, supervisory management and first line management. As the name suggest, their main duty is supervisory. Their aim is to ensure that work is done as stipulated (Singla and Singla, 2009, p. 38). They act as a bridge between employees and the management. Thus, they submit employee grievances among others. Apart from the above, they are also entrenched with the authority of ensuring proper work environment. This is in the realization that work environment is critical for service delivery. They also act as suggestion inviters and this is important for communication and innovation. Others are creation of better human relation and ensuring safety of workers (Singla and Singla, 2009, p. 39). Skills in Management The core aim of any organization is to be a market leader in their respective field of operation through delivery of high quality product and services. This desire for market leadership can only be achieved through investment in human resource by selecting and developing them (Gillard, 2009, p. 724). While there was initial belief in earlier years that manages required more technical skills such as managing costs, risks and business initiative to soft skills, the notion of late as changed. Managers and employees now acknowledge the importance of soft skills such as negotiation, communication, conflict management and persuasion as integral part for success (Gillard, 2009, p. 725). The one thing that this paper identifies is that technical skills mostly relates to management. Management implies dealing with the present challenge of the organization, facts and how to exploit opportunities by properly utilizing resources. On the other hand, soft skills imply leadership. Leadership deals with the future, ideas, people and personalities (Gillard, 2009, p. 726). Technical Skills According to Gitman & McDaniel (2008, p. 226), technical skills comprises of specialized areas of knowledge and expertise and the ability to apply that knowledge. Technical skills are acquired through formal education, through training and job experience Depending on the position of an employee in the management hierarchy, all have a part to play and thus they need some technical management skills. Managers carry out functions such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling (Koontz & Weihrich, 2006, p. 7). The relevance of technical management skills can be analyzed only through what are the goals of managers and organizations. The goals of managers and organizations are essentially to create profit, ensure productivity, effectiveness and efficiency (Koontz & Weihrich, 2006, p. 8). Soft Skills Ramesh (2010, p. 2), starts with identifying the importance of soft skills in an individual and its relation to career success. The question that lingers on his mind is that why do some employees or managers be successful yet they have limited education. He draws an observation that emotions and emotional intelligence are important and affects how we interact and perceive things at work place. Those who have higher emotional intelligence which translates to effective social skills are more prosperous and effective. He defines soft skills as “those skills over and above the technical knowledge and expertise in the chosen field, required for an individual to relate to and survive and succeed in his or her environment” (Ramesh, 2010, p. 3). He observes that soft skills are built on attitude, manifested through communication and polished through etiquette. As an introductory remark, apart from technical ability, people forms the valuable stock for accompany success. Thus a manager has to possess interpersonal skills that will help in leading people. These skills include motivation, work conflicts and communication (Papulova & Mokros, 2007, p. 4). The Hospital’s Profile The existence of this hospital can be traced from 1829. The hospital is one of the longest serving in Western Australia. Moreover, the hospital is ranked as one of the largest and busiest hospitals in Australia. The hospital treats around 67, 000 patients a year and 270, 000 out patients a year. Apart from the above, the hospital occupies a unique position of being the second largest centre for trauma services. In addition, they have the busiest emergency department in Australasia which handles 64, 000 presentations a year. The hospital operates under two branches with the total bed capacity 833. The first branch is the Wellington Street Campus which is centrally located in the city of Perth. The second branch is the Shenton Park Campus which is situated in the western suburbs. The later campus is ranked as one of the fastest growing health service centre in Australia. This hospital is a renowned excellence centre. The hospital is renowned for its contribution towards innovation in the medical field. Indeed the hospital has hosted numerous significant medical breakthroughs. These breakthroughs were in the field of ulcer where they found out that it was bacterium Helicobactor pylori that is responsible for ulcers. This won a 2005 Nobel Prize for their former two employees (Royal Perth Hospital, 2007). In terms of human resource and staffing, the hospital has a total of 7, 000 with about 4,700 in full time. They provide exceptional care and committed service to Royal Perth Hospital patients. In addition they have 500 volunteers that work in tandem with the rest of the staff so as to make the life of the patients comfortable during their stay. The hospital is also equipped to serve as a teaching centre. In terms of service range and provision, they offer services to all adults except obstetrics. The areas of competencies include interventional neurodialogy, cardiac and transplant, burns management, bone marrow transplant, rehabilitation medicine and trauma services. This kind of massive investment, services and research means that the organisation has dedicated managers (Royal Perth Hospital, 2007). The roles of managers in the Hospital Service Marketing One integral function of managers in a systems view approach is the churning out of services that are in line with customer requirement. However, in the case of hospital this might not be the case. For hospital it relates with what are the prevalent diseases that people seeks treatment for. One integral function of marketing managers in a service sector is the service marketing. Service marketing ensures that the patient would prefer to come back due to the services she or he had received earlier or was referred by a friend. It would be useless if hospitals engage in innovation and services yet they are not marketed to prospective customers. According to Wood and Brotherton, 2008, p. 305, hospitality marketing started evolving from 1960s as a result of development of the concept of service marketing which had earlier been dominated by product marketing. The milestone break through came in 1977 when Lyn Shostack wrote a defining article about breaking free from product marketing in the journal of marketing. She emphasised the need for a well developed service marketing strategy or intangible products. This breaks through challenged the American marketing association to continue with the trends in 1980s. However this noble idea over time died due to the increase of registration fee. Even though there was a decline, this did not spell doom as in 1993 Ray Frisk created a chapter known as America marketing association’s special interest group in services. The industry is characterised intangibility, inseparability and variability. Anticipation of Change so as to Ensure Market Leadership The hospital occupies a unique position of being the second largest centre for trauma services. In addition, they have the busiest emergency department in Australasia (Royal Perth Hospital, 2007). Attaining such a huge feat is not easy when management can not be able to anticipate change in the industry so as to keep abreast with them or be overtaken y time. In this world there are two situations. Change with the changing time or be changed by the changing time. The best way to anticipate change is through taking the lead initiative so that a firm can enjoy first mover advantage. For a company to stay afloat, it has to be responsive change either at industrial level or the larger macro economic environment. Organizational change can only be attained through a visionary leadership that is able to churn out strategic management plans that will guide the internal operations of the company (Barry and Hansen, 2008, p. 3, 4 and 5). One approach towards this as seen in the hospital is the continual improvement/ total quality management and strategic partnership by becoming part of the south metropolitan area health services. Team Building Medical field is a highly differentiated and specialised field. There are numerous practitioners with different qualifications who work independently, but in collaboration with other professionals so as to ensure that the client regains her/his health back. This can not be attained without proper team management. This function is bestowed upon the mid level and lower level managers to ensure this is attained. To show the need for team management, the hospital has departments such as burns treatment, major trauma, heart and lung transplant, bone-marrow transplant, refractory epilepsy, haemophilia, spinal rehabilitation, head injury rehabilitation and interventional neuroradiology. Closely connected to this is the ensuring of consultation. The consultation approach is a technical skill being used widely by many organisations in the field of management and operations development, as the consultation concept includes how to conduct, describes and discusses expertise ideas to maintain organisation achievement (Kilburg, 2002). There is no important integral part of any organization more that the human resource. A united front of work force is one sure way to success while a disjointed one is a step towards failure. A manager should be able to inspire team spirit into the organization by instilling ethics, discipline, time management, consultation and motivation. With a staff numbering 7000 and volunteers numbering 500, managers play a critical role of ensuring team building. The success of the hospital would have not been realized if there was no proper coordination between individuals in different fields and positions and cooperation between different departments. Teamwork is the main reason behind the success strategy of any organisation, because responsibilities and development stages are shared among organisation team. Therefore, teamwork defined as” the work of a number of persons in close association as members of one unit” (Schiffman, 2004, p 17). On the other hand, work environment described as distressed where staff worked as individuals rather than a team. Ensuring Availability and Utilisation of technology The hospital offers wide range of services with the aid of different machines and equipment. Moreover, the hospital has been engaged in numerous innovation services. This would have not been possible if the management had not seen the need for it. Management decision to adopt a new process is usually born in two ways. The first is through bottom up approach where the employees or the firs line managers initiate the process. The second is the top down approach where the top level managers initiate the process. Utilising technology in health care service by using new clinical technology has created significant changes in the level of medical care performance and efficiency, as it has enhanced patient’s health care conditions and the standard of population life quality (Cutler & McClellan, 2001). Implementing the technology of inventory system in hospital has created an effective way to allow doctors and nurses to obtain their required drugs and other medical equipments in easier way as well as to detect what is being delivered from various medical suppliers (Barlow, 2008). It is essential to apply modern technology so as to increase medical staff productivity, enhance health service efficiency and monitoring medical equipment performance. Communication Management Hospital is one of organisations that require well coordinated information flow so as to help the client regain her or his health back. Communication is important among different departments and employees. This is what has even made them to be leaders in emergency handling. Human life requires no experiment and thus the need for a concerted effort from different players with different specialization. Communication in an organisation can be in vertical format flowing from top to bottom. The second is the horizontal where the information flows from one department to another. To emphasise on this imagine the departments required to contribute to the well being of a patient from specialised doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, nutritionists and pharmacists. This calls for constant, accurate and updated information to help in decision making. The interesting observation is that no single worker can claim to be knowledgeable in all fields thus the need for well coordinated information flow among team members. Communication management, which includes internally, for instance between different departments of the company and externally such as customer and suppliers, is an essential for all types of organisation. Kotler et al. (2006, p 78) argued that “every company can and should improve the relationship between sales and marketing”, as there is a relationship between their functions by providing constant information regarding customers demands and feedback to support the company to establish and maintain its master schedule of production. Managing Cultural Diversity Culture defined as “that whole complex which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [individuals as members] of society” (Tylor, 1871, cited in Jain, 2001, p212). Australia is a multi cultural nation and moreover, the fair work Act 2009 abhors discrimination at work place. Apart from the above, the increasing numbers of migrant medical staff in the National Health Service in Australia demonstrate the importance of managing cultural diversity with hospital staff. With a large number of staff the hospital management can not afford to give cultural diversity a priority. Moreover, cultural diversity is a positive aspect as it allows people to learn and borrow from different backgrounds. Conclusion The principal aim of any organisation is to be a market leader in the area of its operation by churning out products and services of high quality and in line with customer requirement. This can only be achieved through various appropriate practices such as continual improvement and total quality management, innovation and lean management. Management plays a critical role of ensuring that organisation achieves its vision by outlining strategic plans. In traditional approach to management, managers are discharged with the duty of planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling. Managers can take different approaches to managing their organisations. Moreover, organisation can not only rely on one approach to management but rather they should use these approaches in combination. The approaches include the tradition hierarchical based management that is built on technical skills alone, management by objective, lean management and systems approach to management. This hospital has tried to achieve much of the management objective by having numerous combinations of management approaches so as to attain their vision. Thus, the managers should continue with their current positioning by just adopting it to the changing business environment so as to ensure continued leadership. References Barlow, R. (2008). ‘Stocking up on stockout prevention strategies’. Healthcare purchasing news, 32(6), pp. 64-69. Barry, D. and Hansen, H. (2008). The SAGE handbook of new approaches in management and organisation. London: SAGE Cutler, D. and McClellan, M. (2001). ‘Is technology change in medicare worth it?’. Health affairs, Vol. 20 (5), pp.11-29. Gillard, S. (2009). Soft skills and technical expertise of effective project manager. Issues in informing science and information and technology. Vol. 6, 2009. Retrieved on 30th March 2012 from: http://iisit.org/Vol6/IISITv6p723-729Gillard599.pdf. Gitman, L. J. and McDaniel, C. (2008). The future of business: the essential. Mason, OH: Thomson Higher Education. Jain, S. (2001). International Marketing, 6th Edition. USA: South-western, Thomson Learning. Kilburg, R. (2002). ‘Shadow consultation: A reflective approach for preventing practice disasters’. Consulting psychology journal. 54 (2), pp. 75-92. Koontz, H. and Weihrich, H. (2006). Essentials of management: An international perspective 7th edition. New Delhi: Tata McGraw – Hill. Kotler, P., Rackham, N. and Krishnaswamy, S. (2006). ‘Ending the war between sales and Marketing’. Harvard Business Review, 84(7–8), pp. 68–78. Lewis, P. S., Goodman, S. H., Fandt, P. M. and Michlitsch, J. F. (2006). Management: challanges for tomorrow’s leaders. Mason, OH: Thomsom Higher Education Papulova, Z. and Mokros, M. (2007). Importance of managerial skills and knowledge in management for small entrepreneurs. E-Leader, Prague 2007. Retrieved on 30th March 2012 from: http://www.g-casa.com/PDF/Papulova-Mokros.pdf Ramesh, M. R. G. (2010). The ace of oft skills: communication and etiquette for success. Noida: Dorling Kindersly. Royal Perth Hospital. (2007). About us. Retrieved on 30th march 2012 from: http://www.rph.wa.gov.au/about.html Singla, R. K. and Singla, N. (2009). Principles of management. New Delhi: FK Publishers Schiffman, R. (2004). ‘Teamwork’. Chiropractic Journal, 19 (1), pp. 17. Weaver, R. G. and Farrell, J. D. (1997). Managers as facilitators: a practical guide to getting work done in a changing work place. San Francisco, CA: Berrett Koehler Publishers Wood, R. C. and Brotherton, B. (2008). The sage handbook of hospitality management. London: Sage publication limited Read More