Organizational Culture in St Amos Hospital - Essay Example

St Amos Hospital – Case Study In St Amos Hospital the linen replacement cost has been increased the last three months because of the shortages occurred in the above period. The particular department of the hospital is directed by Jean McDuff who is the night nursing director of St Amos Hospital. Current paper will examine all the issues related with the decrease of the performance of employees working in the night shift of St Amos Hospital. Possible effects of the relevant issues on the firm’s managerial activities will be also investigated in order to retrieve the appropriate methods for the improvement of the performance of the staff employed in night shift. I. Organizational Culture In St Amos Hospital, culture and ethics were closely related with the provision of extensive initiatives to employees. It is for this reason that absenteeism has never been a problem for the company despite the difficulties and the tension that characterize the specific sector. However, the problem of the missing linen proved to be the beginning for the decrease of the firm’s performance due to the measures introduced for its investigation. More specifically, because of the increase of shortages in linen, the hospital administrator, Paul Seay sent two memos to the night nursing director Jean McDuff. The first of these memos was rather general proposing just a few changes to the existed work framework (proposals included the observation of handling of linen and the report of any irregularity). However, the second memo was too difficult to be followed and as a result many of the employees working in the night shift were either resigned or asked to be removed to the morning shift. On the other hand, absenteeism that had never been a problem became frequent. In general, the performance of the hospital was radically decreased for the period followed the application of the second memo. It could be stated that the strategies proposed by the firm’s manager, specifically the hospital administrator, where not appropriate in accordance with the extension and the nature of the particular problem. This assumption can be supported by the fact that the application of the measures suggested by Paul Seay led gradually to the decrease of the employees’ performance specifically regarding the night shift in the above hospital. For this reason, the turbulences occurred in the organizational culture and the ethics applied throughout the specific organization could be regarded as a normal consequence of the measures proposed in order to face the problem of the shortage of linen. II. Strategic Planning The firm’s strategic planning could be generally characterized as efficient. More specifically, in the particular case it has been proved that the major fact that led to the decrease of the firm’s performance has been the application of the measures included in the second memo sent by the hospital administrator to the night shift director. Apart from this event, all organizational activities could be characterized as well structured and appropriately prepared. On the other hand, it should be noticed that all information related with the firm’s strategic management is concentrated on the performance of employees of night shift while limited data and information are provided for the firm’s operation on a daily basis. However, the development of suspicion within the organization – as a result of the measures included in the second memo – was a disaster for the whole organizational performance. In this context, the firm’s strategic management team has been proved to be unprepared to face effectively the problems related with the firm’s daily activities. Of course, the continuous shortage of linen can be considered as a significant issue taking into account the area of the firm’s activation, however the measures proposed can be characterized as ‘too strict’ in accordance with the targets set by the firm’s administrator and the workload of employees in the night shift. Moreover, the firm’s top management team has been proved to have limited knowledge on the needs of employees and the demands of the market and for this reason the restrictions imposed on the employees’ daily activities within the hospital led to the total ‘disorientation’ of the firm’s top management team. At the same time other issues, like the lack of sufficient and appropriate communication among employees and the limitation of the employees’ initiatives were not examined by the hospital administrator. The night shift director had a major responsibility regarding the evaluation of the appropriateness of the measures proposed. For this reason, both the hospital director and the night shift manager should be considered as responsible for the failure of strategic planning in St Amos Hospital. In the particular case it should be noticed that Paul presents a series of proposals without in fact to take into account the side effects of his decision. It is mainly for this reason that severe turbulences take place within all organizational sectors. III. Environment and Task The problems caused to St Amos Hospital because of the shortage of linen could be characterized as justifiable at a first level because of the extension of organizational activities and the high value of all assets involved. More specifically, the need for linen is high in the particular hospital because of the high number of cases handling on a daily basis. However, the measures proposed should not be so ‘hard’ affecting all areas of employees’ activities in the night shift. Because of the measures proposed, members of the staff had to treat every aspect of their daily activities in the hospital with suspicion, a fact that led gradually to the reduction of interest for work and the limitation of the initial motivation. At this point, it should be noticed that organizational environment before the introduction of the measures included in the second memo of hospital administrator should be characterized as particularly active and promotive regarding the employees’ personal development. For this reason, their performance was high and effective in accordance with the firm’s daily needs. There are also a few issues that should be taken into account when designing the firm’s planning. In this context it could be stated that because of the area related with the particular workplace (a large building), task involves a lot employees’ movement and interaction. IV. Staffing As already stated above working in St Amos was a significant experience for all employees in the night shift. Indicatively, we could refer to the innovative ‘restructuring’ of the 2.30am break. Under the approval of the night nursing director the particular break included many activities like employee birthdays and anniversaries. However, after the new measures many of the employees were obliged to resign because of the turbulences occurred in night shift. It should be noticed here that although there are many informal arrangements related with the training of new staff, in fact there is no specific staff succession plan while the training of the hospital administrator should be highly doubted as of its quality. V. Leadership and supervision Towards the same direction the firm’s leaders could be characterized as capable to produce effective plans but incapable of providing the appropriate directions for their implementation. On the other hand, managers belonging to lower organizational levels should be also considered as having a responsibility for the turbulences occurred in the firm because of their failure to evaluate appropriately the firm’s needs and the skills/ competencies of the employees. In the particular case, it could be stated that Jean MacDuff appears to be a good leader and for this reason her team achieves a high level of performance. However, after the introduction of Paul’s proposals the performance of employees’ of Jean has been dramatically reduced. Towards this direction, it could be noticed that Paul Seay has not the appropriate qualities in order to respond to the firm’s needs. His reactions on the issues stated by the company should be ‘customized’ to the customer’s personal behaviour. VI. Conclusion The examination of all issues related with the night shift in St Amos can lead to the assumption that the main problem of the hospital is not the shortage of linen – as originally thought – but the lack of appropriate experience and skills of the firm’s leaders. In case of the firm’s administrator, the memo produced – particularly the second one – could be characterized as insufficient regarding the needs of the firm at the particular period. More specifically, the main priority for the firm’s strategic management team should be the increase of the employees’ productivity in all organizational sectors. However, it has been proved in the long term that the plans applied within the organization have to be appropriately structured taking into account the major characteristics of the particular organization, its structure, its position in the market and the forecasts for the future – related with the daily organizational activity. In general, the efforts made by the hospital administrator and the night nursing director should be regarded as encouraging and valuable. But it should be noticed that these plans are not appropriately prepared and do not reflect the organizational culture. For this reason any relevant strategy should be carefully reviewed as of its effectiveness and its relation with the subject under examination. Regarding the above, it should be stated that organizational culture is a ‘powerful’ term regarding the firm’s daily activities. Moreover, the systems of control developed by the firm should be carefully reviewed in order to identify any potential failure. In the particular case, the thorough research over the firm’s existing systems proves that there is no appropriate control system in the particular company. Even the introduction of the new system did not help towards the resolution of the problem. The firm’s stock control continues to face severe difficulties regarding the completion of the tasks assigned in the particular department. Event Analysis: GT Green Technology General Trading and Contracting Co (GT) is a Kuwait based company. In fact, the firm is just a small wholesaler owned by a family. Its main objective is the production and exporting of fruits and vegetables. The firm operates in the market for about 6 years and its development has been continuous despite the fact that there are problems related with the management and the control of firm’s daily operations. Current report will present all aspects of managerial activities in GT trying to identify the areas which would need restructuring in order for the company to improve its performance in the long term. It should be noticed that the evaluation of the practices followed by the firm’s managers will be based on a particular event. More specifically, the firm’s warehouses and store manager, Mohamed Hamza, forgot to switch-on the refrigerating system before installing fruits and vegetables which lead to spoilage. On the other hand, the Maintenance Division Supervisor, Korsheed Khan, failed in checking the system before leaving the particular warehouse in Shuwikh Industrial area. This is the firm’s main warehouse and the damage caused to the products stored in the refrigerators was severe. Because of the high level of daily production, the firm managed to ‘cover’ the damage caused relatively quickly. However, a significant issue was put under severe consideration especially regarding the effectiveness of the firm’s first line managers. For this reason the roles of Maintenance Division Supervisor, Korsheed Khan and of Production Division Supervisor, Kamal Mohamed were examined and evaluated especially under the terms of the event mentioned above. 1. Planning First, it should be mentioned that the firm is divided into four major departments: the Finance and Administration Department, the Sales and Marketing Department, the Operational Department and the Quality Maintenance Department. Moreover, the company as already noticed above is family owned. This means that the responsibility for the planning of the particular firm’s plans belongs to the owners of the specific firm. Indeed, the firm’s general manager is Mr. Riyad Abdulrazag while the assistant manager is Mr. Abdullah Abdulrazag. These two persons have the responsibility for the design, the implementation and the monitoring of the particular organizational strategies. As for the managers of the particular firm’s departments, these have a limited role supervising the application and the performance of the firm’s plans within their department and suggesting any appropriate change. However, the responsibility for the monitoring of the firm’s daily operational activities belongs to the managers of the particular departments. In the specific case, the failure of the firm’s warehouses and store manager, Mohamed Hamza, to respond to his responsibilities - forgetting to switch-on the refrigerating system before installing fruits and vegetables – should be considered as his personal failure to respond to the needs of his position. The other two managers do not have a significant responsibility mostly because the particular event would not be expected to take place unless a specific person would have involved, in this case, the warehouses and store manager. No failure of planning exists in the particular case because it was an event that was related with a specific person and there could be no way to foresee or prevent it. 2. Environment/ task/ culture One of the major problems that the company has to face is the constant changes in climate conditions across the country especially in the areas where the firm’s production centers are based. In order to minimize the risks involved the company has introduced specific control methods like the refrigerated trucks and transporting in the early morning. Moreover, the greenhouses of the company are climatically controlled. Despite all these measures, because a significant part of the firm’s production is depended on field grown crops, the retention of the production at standard level has been proved to be a challenging task. On the other hand, there are other problems affecting the firm’s production like the performance of the employees and their capability to respond to the firm’s needs. For this reason, the particular tasks have been distributed among employees in an effort to improve their performance. As already stated above the firm is divided in four major departments each of which is furthermore divided into subsections. This distribution of tasks is really helpful towards the increase of the employees’ productivity but there are still issues that need to be reviewed like the quality of employees in accordance with the firm’s needs. In other words, the firm has taken all the appropriate measures in order to ensure the effectiveness of its employees. Organizational environment is friendly towards the employees who are given all potential chances to develop their skills. In the particular case one of the firm’s managers failed to meet the rules set by the organization regarding the responsibilities of staff when executing a particular task. For this reason, no relation between the organizational culture and the specific event could be developed. The latter was just an issue of personal failure and can be regarded just as an indicator of weakness of the recruitment strategy to respond to the firm’s needs and demands. 3. Organizing As already mentioned before, the firm is family owned. Its general manager and the assistant manager are members of the family. Furthermore, the company is divided into four major departments each of which has its own manager in order for the firm’s daily operations to be closely monitored. In order for the firm’s management to operate more smoothly and for the communication among managers of the particular departments to be more effective, managerial activities have been distributed among the firm’s managers who have the responsibility to act according with the rules set by the specific organization. In the specific case there was no involvement of top management but the damage caused by actions of first line managers and specifically of Mohamed Hamza. 4. Staffing The firm’s employees are approximately 300 – apart from its managers. Their selection has been based on a particular recruitment process which however has been proved to be inadequate in accordance with the firm’s current needs. For this reason, many problems have been observed in particular organizational activities, like the handling of machinery of advanced technology, the packing and transporting processes and so on. It is clear that the firm should proceed to the limitation of its existing staff and the recruitment of more qualified persons that would be able to respond to the needs of the firm taking into account the continuous development and the increased demands of the particular market. The above issues involves also in the case of the firm’s managers. They should also be selected more carefully using appropriate selection and evaluation methods while their skills should be in accordance with their role in the particular company. 5. Leading - Controlling The firm is primarily administered by its owners. At a next level, the managers of the particular departments can intervene in the decisions of the firm’s general manager and the assistant manager and propose any change which is proved to be necessary in order to improve the firm’s performance in particular sectors. In GT the observation of the firm’s daily activities proves that in fact the role of the general manager in the design and the implementation of the particular organizational strategies is limited. The managers of the particular departments seem to have a major role in the formulation of the firm’s plans. This fact may lead the firm to severe problems mostly because its daily operational activities do not respond to its owners’ attitude. On the other hand, the lack of appropriate control over employees – especially the managers – can cause severe damages to the firm in case of their failure to respond to their duties/ responsibilities as in the case under examination. However, it could be argued that even if an appropriate framework of control would exist, again the failure of Mohamed Hamza to respond to his responsibilities could not have been predicted. For this reason, the particular event should not be considered as a failure of the firm’s leaders to design and apply an effective recruitment strategy (from a preventive perspective of the whole event) or to implement the appropriate measures for the control of managerial activities on a daily basis. Read More