HCM387-0802A-01 Management Principles in Health Care - Phase 1 Individual Project - Essay Example

Studies show that good communication is essential to improving health outcomes and relationships between co-workers, yet poor communication is a common source of complaints about treatment across a range of services. Effective intercultural communication requires a set of skills and competencies which need to be learned and practiced alongside clinical skills. The initial step in the action plan is to conduct training or seminar regarding developing intercultural communication skills. For example, it is necessary to develop the capacity to respond to diversity in an open and reflexive manner, recognizing and respecting difference and paying attention to possible cultural factors (ethnicity, age, sex, education, etc.) which may influence communication.

Second, the management can conduct a group discussion to be able to hear both sides of the story and to resolve the conflict. Only the confronting strategy (as tabulated above) can be truly viewed as a resolution approach, since this method addresses the basic differences involved and eventually removes them through creative problem solving. The confronting approach has many behavioural benefits. Both parties will more likely see the recent conflict as productive, since both parties received gains.

Also important is their perception that the process was mutually supportive one in which problem solving and collaboration helped integrate the positions of both parties. As a result, participants find the confronting approach most satisfying, as they maintain their self-respect and gain new respect for the other party. Many labor-management groups have been formed with the objective of seeking new ways to confront each other constructively in order to attain win-win relationships. A wide variety of other tools and ideas have been successfully used to resolve conflicts.

Sometimes simple application of a relevant rule or policy can solve a dispute. Other times the parties can be separated by reassigning work spaces, removing one person from a committee, or placing workers in different shifts. Another alternative is to insert a third party into the interaction – a consultant, mediator, or other neutral person who can ignore personal issues and facilitate resolution. A constructive approach is to challenge the parties to work together toward a unifying goal, such as higher revenues or better customer satisfaction.

Healthcare organizations want to promote the development of growth and diversity by strengthening our existing relationships and building new collaborative relationships between the existing immigrant workforce and the diverse community that they serve. There are so many dimensions to diversity, both visible and invisible, that makes some companies fundamentally unique, and yet alike, and the employees are different in age, education, ethnicity, family status, gender, gender identity, physical abilities, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.

These are just few examples of the dimensions that Americans differ. Managing diversity deals with the promising approach to overcoming discriminatory practices actually attempts to change the underlying attitudes. Programs aimed at managing diversity build from a key premise: Prejudicial stereotypes develop from unfounded assumptions about others from the overlooked qualities. Differences need to be recognized, acknowledged, appreciated and used to collective advantage. Equal opportunities seek to guarantee equal pay and opportunities for equal work.

This approach demands that reward systems be designed so that people in comparable jobs – those of equal value to the employer –receive similar levels of rewards or compensation. Guest, D. (1987). Human resource management and industrial relations. Journal of Management Studies. 24, 503-521 Guest, D. (2002). Human resource management, corporate performance and employee well-being: building the worker into HRM. The Journal of Industrial Relations, 44, 335-358.