Contemporary social work needs to be understood within an organisational context (discuss) - Essay Example

was revamped completely in 1970s and all health and social care institutions work under this body and thus improvement of NHS refers to improvement of all such institutions. In the 2004 plan, it was made clear that government wanted to bring comprehensive changes to social care bodies in the country by focusing on three major areas: It was felt that social care organizations were suffering from lack of proper targets. It was also found that NHS cannot possibly work as one huge organization if all the institutions working under it did not have uniform standards and targets.

Thus a need for felt to shift the focus from national to organizational improvement where: When we see a body as an organization, we need to define its culture as well. It is the culture of the organization which governs all its actions and directs its efforts. By treating NHS as an organization that has some values and goals, we seek to build a culture for it which can be followed by all the agencies working under it. Organizational culture is defined as “the pattern of shared values and beliefs that helps individuals understand organizational functioning and thus provides them with the norms for behavior in the organization.

” (Deshpande, Webster, 1989) From the definition it is clear that organizational culture is directly connected with values that a firm has. If the firm believes in providing good service and attaining customer satisfaction, it would make it a point to have all its employees follow the same belief. They would all then seek to satisfy the customer by providing best possible care and service. Similarly in an organization where culture of lethargy, tardiness and hypocrisy is prevalent, employees would all be seen adhering to the same values.

Culture is thus very important and by reforming NHS and assigning it goals, values and targets, the government seeks to create a culture of productivity and efficiency which would ultimately affect all social care agencies working