Advantages and Disadvantages of Employing Behavioral Management Theory in Healthcare - Essay Example

"Advantages and Disadvantages of Employing Behavioral Management Theory in Healthcare" is a great example of a paper on the health system.
The human relations movement commonly referred to as behavioral management was developed by George Elton Mayo. Classical management approaches did not adequately consider aspects like employee behavior and motivation. Those theories were not sufficient to deal with many management situations and to explain the behavior of individual employees. This led to the formation of behavioral management theory. The behavioral management style gives particular attention to people’s behavior in groups or in the workplace. This paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of employing behavioral management theory in healthcare.

Advantages

Today the behavioral management style is being increasingly employed in the healthcare sector so as to improve the quality of care and patient safety. Since this theory addresses the effects of various working conditions on productivity, healthcare management can identify effective ways to increase patient safety. To illustrate, medical errors represent a major issue affecting patient safety in today’s healthcare environment. As Garrett (2008) claims, medical errors occur as a result of several reasons including a low nurse-to-patient ratio, tough work schedule, and stressful workplace situations. Under the behavioral management approach, an effective communication system is maintained and it is helpful to identify any issue leading to medical errors. Referring to Dunn (2007, p. 29), using this communication system, the healthcare management can listen to employees’ complaints and hence serve them better in the future. The behavioral management style promotes better relationships between nurses and managers. Therefore, the management can easily understand an employee’s past life, family background, and living conditions. In addition, this management style includes provisions for hiring and retaining qualified personnel who can effectively deal with different working situations. In other words, the behavioral management style is very effective to reduce the chances of medical errors and thereby promote patient safety. As Dunn (2007) points out, the human relations movement also gives specific focus to employee motivation, which is a key tool to improve the overall organizational productivity (p.29). According to Omowumi and Osamede (2011), motivational techniques like financial incentives have a great influence on nurses’ worksite efficiency, which in turn contribute to the quality of the care and patient safety. Since the healthcare management under the behavioral management approach is in close relationship with nurses, the managers can easily identify which motivational strategy may influence each individual nurse. In short, this management style is advantageous to motivate individual nurses, to prepare them to deal with different working conditions and to improve patient safety.         

Disadvantages

Increasing staff shortage appears to be the major factor reducing the scope of behavioral management style. As a result of this problem, managers are forced to compel nurses to work under tough schedules and overtime. Under such circumstances, managers are less likely to make good relationships with their employees. Evidently, this situation reduces the scope of behavioral management style in the healthcare environment.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is clear that the behavioral management style can be very suitable for the healthcare sector as this approach promotes patient safety to a large extent. Consultative and persuasive management styles are recommendable for healthcare organizations because decisions are taken in the best interests of employees and clients under these management approaches.