Organisation Analysis of Mental Health - Essay Example

Practise Study II: Organisation Analysis of Imagine Mental Health. of the Organisation My placement is with a voluntary organisation called Imagine Mental Health. They are a leading mental health charity with operations mainly in the north-west of England, where there is a positive attitude to mental health support programmes. These mental health support programmes are coordinated through centres located at Liverpool, Halton, Lancashire, Sefton, Wirral, London and Greater Manchester. The primary objective of these activities of Imagine Mental Health is to promote recovery and facilitate social inclusion of individuals with mental health problems. These activities of Imagine Mental Health stem from its belief that by supporting people with mental health problems it is possible to enable them to do what they want to do, live their lives as they want to live and access those opportunities that are available to all citizens, in short to lead a full and independent life (Imagine). Governmental support for these activities is available through the government social exclusion action plan. This action plan became a reality in September 2006, when the department of health and the department of work and pension initiated it to encourage social activities and employment for those suffering from severe mental health. The social exclusion action plan is envisaged as a programme that will involve the participation of the public sector, the private sector and the voluntary organization. As a voluntary organization with similar objectives as the social exclusion plan, Imagine Mental Health is associated with this effort of the government (Reaching Out: An Action Plan on Social Exclusion). The company operates through the mainstream service by enabling clients who have been socially excluded to reclaim their place back in the mainstream of society. The company is staffed by bridge builders, who have a background, and specialist expertise, in a number of life domains that the clients can choose to access. These domains include employment, volunteering, education and training, sports and leisure, art, cultural communities, faith and spirituality, and homes, families, neighbourhoods and befriending (Life Opportunities). As a social work student undergoing placement with Imagine, I have been given the role of employment, education and training bridge builder and also to support other bridge builders to attain the primary objectives of the clients. I have to be creative and have good networking skills to fulfil my responsibilities. I also support clients as their first contact point at Imagine for assessment and referral to other bridge builders based on the outcome of the assessment and their areas of interest. This activity of mine receives supported from Payne 2005, p.:32 who recommends that we can use ideas “where they effectively meet workers’ and clients’ needs, taking account of the range of possibilities, avoiding unhelpful options and seeking to develop ideas from basic theories”. The manager looks at each referral and decides on who she believes would be better suited to attain the aims of any new client and assigns a bridge builder. The bridge builder collaborates with the members of the multi-disciplinary team members to attain primary objectives. Theoretical Framework A theoretical framework is a collection of interrelated concepts in a structured form that assists in the study of the subject (Liehr & Smith). It guides research and helps in determining what things to measure and what statistical relations to look for. An organisation is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment (Hodge & Anthony, 1988). To attain this, an organization must develop a theory that Hodge & Anthony, 1988 in their opinion believe that this would help the organization to understand how to improve its activities, form, and function for it to survive and remain fully operational. This operational theory leads to a culture that gets embedded in the organization and the people employed in it. This is clearly defined by Brown 1998, p. 9, “as the pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organization’s history, and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in behaviors of its members”. In my perspective, it can also be defined as the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with other multidisciplinary team outside the organization. There are several theoretical perspectives that explain what an organization is, however my attempt will look at organizational theory from the perspective of a voluntary organization and as such explain the theory of bureaucracy and the theory of human relation as adopted by the company. Bureaucracy Theory Max Weber (1864- 1920) is the accepted founder of the bureaucracy theory. The theory has produced a major transformation in the understanding of organization of work, the patterns of authority relations, and the position of individuals in society. Mouzelis 1968, p. 39, clarifies the bureaucracy stating that it is “a system of control based on rational rules, rules which try to regulate the whole organization structure and process on the basis of technical knowledge and with the aim of maximum efficiency”. Weber believed that an organisation requires clear lines of authority organized based on a hierarchy. This means there are clear levels of authority. All employees in an organisation must know who their manager is and each person should always respect the chain of command in the hierarchy. Such a concept requires that people should give orders only to their own subordinates and receive orders only through their own immediate superior. In this way, the people at the top can be sure that directives reach where they are meant to and there is a clear understanding of the where a responsibility lies (Mouzelis, 1968). In addition to this, the bureaucracy theory allows highly trained old staff to be used as managers based on their rotational experience in the company departments rather than new managers from another department with no broad experience. This concept within the bureaucracy theory is through the aspect of bureaucratization offering the optimum possibility for achieving the principles of specializing administrative functions based entirely on objectives considerations. Individual responsibilities are allocated to functionaries who have specialized training and who by practice learn more and more. The ‘objective’ discharge of business primarily means a discharge of business according to calculated rules and without regard for the individual (Jackson, 1984). In addition Roethlisberger & Dickson 1939, show that research conducted on Hawthorne plant 1927 practicing the bureaucracy theory proves that worker’s attitudes and sentiments, their patterns of interaction, and the structure and culture of the work group might have a greater influence on worker’s performance, rather than the physical attributes of their work For example it was found that even if lighting conditions and work length periods were altered, close- knit conditions amongst the workers caused them to band together and continue to be productive (Hodge & Anthony, 1988). Human Relation Theory Although the Hawthorne research indicates that non-coercive supervision is far more important than monetary rewards in motivating people in group work, the human relation theory believes that “man is basically good, infinitely malleable, capable of perfectibility, and therefore organization goals and individual interest should be compatible (Kaplan and Taisky, 1977, p. 171). The human relation theory proposes that people have an inherent desire to work and can exercise self- control and self-direction if they are committed to the goals of the organization. Such commitment can be evoked if people are encouraged to exercise their imagination and creativity and realize their potential in the organization through the voluntary work that the organization is involved in. It follows, therefore, that organization effectiveness and productivity will be maximized when organizational structure and processes enable members to achieve self-actualization. This receives support from the Hawthorne plant experiments that established the proposition of a worker’s performance being determined by relationship patterns that emerge in the face-to –face work group. Porter, Lawler, and Hackman (1975) suggest that the group has a pervasive impact on the behaviour and attitudes of individuals in the organization, because it controls many stimuli to which the individual is exposed in performing organizational tasks. In particular, the work group will influence a worker’s motivation, level of effort, and ways of carrying out the job. Both the theory of bureaucracy and the human relation perspectives tends to make up what Imagine is practicing indirectly. In terms of bureaucracy theory, there is clearly defined a hierarchical structure, ranging from staff members at the bottom to the managers and directors at the top. All decisions are taken at the highest level and passed down the hierarchical structure to the staff at the bottom. Management always emphasizes that they are open to ideas and love bridge builders’ creative ideas, but decision and ways of working are always structured down from the management, for example in ISO 9000 formats for simple letter writing or forms. Another example is the idea of referrals not keeping in touch after sending in a referral form. The bridge builders working directly with clients have suggested other ways of working with a client to stop time being wasted through this referral system, but the management has refused to accept this suggestion by stating that the bridge builders need weeks to organize meetings between referrals and clients. Thereby not bothering what could happen to the client in those weeks, when there is a delay in the referral for providing the care plan and risk assessment that is necessary before any work with a client can be initiated Another aspect of the bureaucratic way of management practice is the company requesting for creative ideas form the bridge builders, in a pretension of carrying bridge builders along in management decisions, but when idea of more activities for client relating to finances come up, the management then ignores the idea with the contention that it is a voluntary organisation with minimal resources forgetting that other things, which are more costly are part of the organizational activities. With the practice of a bureaucratic system being indirect in Imagine, there are times when features of the human relation theory emerge. Even though bridge builders have suggested changes to the ways of working in the referral stage as mentioned above and are not listened to, they still get together because they share the same strong views. Further, from my interaction with other bridge builders, they believed that in their contacts with clients and the assessments that they make ideas of clients emerge, which need to be valued and respected based on Abraham Maslow self actualization hierarchy of needs. These are the needs that are supported stage by stage by bridge builders, once the action plan is set. In addition the voluntary organisation has developed a good motivating technique for staff by organizing several internal and external training and promotion programmes, including mental health first aid training, clued’ in training, fundraising training and good communication skills training.. This can be clearly seen by the team activity of members empowering each other to participate in training after one of them has been to it and also of individuals going for mental health training and providing feedback to all other members of the team. Team members are also motivated to carry out joint activity with each other to foster empowerment and avoidance of the impression in any bridge builder of being left alone through manager’s or staff support by home visits, events and activities. Analysis of External Environment To help make decisions and to plan for future events, organizations need to understand the wider meso-economic and macro-economic environments in which they operate. The meso-economic environment is the one in which we operate and have limited influence or impact, the macro-environment includes all factors that influence an organization but are out of its direct control. An organization on its own cannot affect these factors, nor can these factors directly affect the profitability of an organization. But by understanding these environments, it is possible to take advantage of them to maximize the opportunities and minimize the threats to the organization. Conducting a strategic analysis entails scanning these economic environments to detect and understand the broad, long term trends. Organizations employ a tool called PESTLE (Political, Economical, Sociological, Technological, Legislation and Environment) to analyse themselves based on its usefulness for understanding the big picture of the environment in which they operate. Specifically a PESTLE analysis is a useful tool for understanding risks associated with market (the need for a product or service) growth or decline, and as such the position, potential and direction for an individual business or organization. A PESTLE is often used as a generic orientation tool, to enable finding out where an organization or product is in the context of what is happening outside that will at some point affect what is happening inside an organization. The six Political, Economical, Sociological, Technological, Legislation and Environment elements form a framework for reviewing a situation, and can also be used to review a strategy or position, direction of a company, a marketing proposition, or idea (Cheverton, 2004). Economical Economic factors include financial resources available to the company through grant application and contract bidding. Day centre that was formerly available seven days a week has now been changed to three days a week for financial reasons and claims that day centre is boring. Financial support is given to service users to keep them active by engaging in external trips. Some incentives have been withdrawn due reduction in financial availability. The salary of permanent staff that could act as a motivating factor is not satisfactory, resulting in staff shortage as was observed by me during my placement. The staff shortage is compounded due to the lack of providing temporary staff. These factors have led to service users in the borough not receiving adequate support. Social Social factors include demographics and structure of the population, the manner in which population behaves, and the way in which the culture of the communities making up the population of the country changes and develops. Factors that impinge on this include increase in levels of migrants settling in Merton and requiring accommodation, increase in referrals coming from such migrant communities and the staff shortage being experienced. Migrants with mental health problems settling in the borough and seeking assistance of voluntary agencies would face a deficit in service provided, as there is insufficient understanding of their needs and the cultural activities that make up their way of life. This can be seen from the inability to provide the necessary support for a migrant from a different culture based on the action plan agreed upon by the migrant and me. There was simply no way to action the plan due to the lack of anyone from that culture to support the activity and the lack of interest in understanding the cultural support required by the support personnel. Technological Technological factors involve he magnitude and rate of change that organization faces and how this affects their capacity to meet the demands of the service user. In this voluntary organization that I am a part of every bridge builder has a computer with Internet connection. This facility assists the bridge builders to more effectively and efficiently in their functions of research purpose activities and liaison activities with the local multi-disciplinary team and even beyond when necessary. The facsimile system available for use is good and so are the telephone facilities for interaction with clients. . Legislative Legislative factors include the 1990 Community Care Act, the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act, the 1983 mental health act and the 2005 Mental Capacity Act with which the voluntary agency must comply with. The local authority has the duty to create community service /activities for people with mental health regardless of age or gender employing various mental health innovations. The Mental Health Vision 2015 is one such community service activity 2015, which the voluntary organization that I am with is actively supporting in attaining its objectives. The impact of the various legislations have caused the voluntary organization to ensure that there is no stigma attached to any individuals referred to it and in taking decisions on the clients issues related to their mental capacity is considered. Ecological Ecological factors include the wider ecological system, which surrounds the area that the voluntary organization operates in. Merton council is a small borough with large communities emerging out of it. However, based on the large community emerging out if it, more staff would have to be chosen from the community so that the staff would be able to understand and interpret what the service user wants or issues on which there is an emphasis. Analysis of Internal Environment Organization internal environment can be analyzed using McKinsey 7 S framework developed in the early 1980s by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman (style, system, staff, strategy, structure, shared values and skill). The framework was developed as a tool for managerial analysis and action that provides a structure with which to consider a company as a whole, so that the organization’s problem may be diagnosed and a strategy may be developed and implemented. For this framework to be effective, the company must have a high degree of internal alignment among all of the seven S’s. Each S must be consistent with and reinforce the other S’s. All S’s are interrelated so a change in one has a ripple effect on all the others (seven S model, 2008). (Waterman & Peters 1982, p.10) Strategy: This is the route that the organization has chosen for its future growth. A plan the company formulates to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. The mission statement of Imagine is ‘we are committed o enable client who has been socially isolated to reclaim their place back in the mainstream of society’. System: This is the daily activities and procedure that staff members engage in to get the job done. It can also be defined as the formal and informal procedures, which includes the innovation system, the compensation system, the management information system and the capital allocation system that govern everyday activity. In this voluntary organization, company, it is the way the bridge builders deal with client starting from their referral till they are put on hold after achieving their primary action plan. Structure: These frameworks enable the activities of the organization members to be coordinated. The four base structural forms are the functional form, divisional structure, matrix structure, and network structure. For Imagine, the company has a clear structure of hierarchy with bridge builders reporting to the in house managers and the manager reporting to the area manager. Any information or new ways of working only come from the head office down to the area manager, then to the office manager and on to the bridge builders. Skill: This is the distinctive capabilities and competence that reside in the organization. This voluntary organization employs people they believe are capable to carry out the appropriate role, based on being creative and capable of working in a team. The company policies also support working alone, but only when such staff are monitored adequately. Style: This is the leadership approach of top management and the organization’s overall operating approach. It is also the way in which the organization’s employees present themselves to the outside world and the clients of the company. As an employment bridge builder, my style of work in finding new jobs was quite new and accepted by the other staff. However, when the company employed a full time employment bridge builder, her style was different and yet both were accepted based on the attaining of client and company’s objectives. Staff: This refers to the number and types of personnel within the organization and how the company develops employees and shapes their basic values. In Imagine personnel are employed based on their background, knowledge and how they are able to be more creative to the company. They are expected to be experts in what they do and they are also need to be flexible to remain in tune with what other team members are doing. Shared value: These are commonly held beliefs, mindsets, and assumptions that shape how an organization behaves. In Imagine there is the expectation that their core values should underpin all their work through the handling of stigmatization, discrimination and isolation. Analysis of Organization Culture Organization culture is the common mind framework of the members of the organization. This framework contains basic assumption and values. These basic assumptions and values are taught to new members as the way to perceive, think, feel and behave and in their expectation of the behaviour of others. Schein (1985, p.14) defines organizational culture as “the basic assumptions which a group has invented, discovered on developed in learning to cope with its problem of external adaptation and integration, which have worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to problems”. Schein’s fundamental view was that culture is not the behaviour or visible signs that one might observe, if one were to visit the company, but are the assumptions which lie behind the values of the organization and which determine the behaviour patterns and the visible signs such as architecture, office layout and dress codes (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2006). Schein’s (1985) put forward a premise that organizational culture is in three levels and each level is distinguished by their visibility and accessibility to individuals. Schein’s Three Levels of Culture Surface manifestation of organization culture. E.g artefacts, ceremonials, courses.  Values  Basic assumption e.g. relationship to environment; nature of reality, truth, human activity and relationship. (Schein, 1985, p.14). The first level is the surface manifestation of culture (artefact). On Schein’s opinion this is not the organization’s culture itself but only it’s most visible, apparent and accessible aspect which can be perceived by people. In Imagine Mental Health personnel are expected to dress very casual, such as jeans and sport wears. This creates an impression that staffs are approachable. The office layout is also informal with flowers and personal items left on individuals table. There are billboard and posters on the office wall and the manager’s table is seen first when entering the main office emblazoned with friendly greetings. Shine’s second level is the organization exposed values and beliefs. In Schein’s view these are located below the surface manifestations and underpin them. While these values are not visible, individuals can be made aware of them. They determine what people think ought to be done and are part of he cognitive sub- structure of an organization culture (Brown 1998). For Imagine their core value is tackling client well-being through their humaneness, befriending, education and training. Each bridge builder is committed to these values and this is an evident through observation working with them. Colleagues that I have left behind at my placement have been there for a while and they have formed a close relationship and bonds with each other by being committed to share these values as a team. Basic assumption is the third level in Schein’s, 1985 view of the levels of culture. He refers to it as an invisible preconscious and is taken for granted in understandings held by individuals with respect to the aspects of human behaviour, the nature of reality and the organization’s relationship to its environment (Huczynski & Buchanan 2001). This includes the assumptions that individuals hold about the organization and how it functions. During my placement, I noticed hat some staff took their role more seriously than the others. They contribute more in a bridge builders meeting while, some participate without giving full attention to it. Also I noticed that once it is 12 pm some staff took their lunch break everyday without bothering on their work requirements. This resulted in some of the new staff also assuming that 12 pm is the lunch break irrespective of whether it was opportune to take the break, while some others and I took our lunch break at any time without dislocating our work. Measuring Effectiveness The company has a many ways of measuring effectiveness of its service delivery. They use the auditing department, which goes around the various offices in the country and check up on what individuals are doing and if they are working according to ISO 9000 requirements. They also check each office by asking the question pertaining to the number of people that have entered the mainstream from all the referrals they have received in the year, before holding out a new contract. Also the company gives out a compliance form to client at the beginning of the engagement, so clients could complain if they are not happy with the service they are receiving. Names and phone numbers of who to contact are printed on these forms. Recommendation for Change The main area for change would be more beneficial use of feedback from service users and the community and through appropriate action taken on the feedback. For example, as a student, I organized a client focus group for quality check and feedback with qualitative questionnaires and other bridge builders where surprised at how I was able to achieve this. I told them how it would be good to have a quality check and feedback forum with client and the community to achieve the company mission and objectives. I also feel that there is a need for change in the referral system. Referrers send in referrals and don’t follow it up after sending it in. This causes time wastage through document chasing, while client expectation remains high once referred and through the letter of introduction received from the allocated bridge builder. Another area I feel needs change is in the area of finance. The voluntary company does support many clients and they need to create petty cash for client. For example, after my assessment with a client, I discovered he is in need of urgent attention and needs £4 for a freedom pass. I could not get in touch with the referrer and I spoke to my manager who said they don’t assist client financially. I told her that client would need this to boost their motivation and the company should look into it. She refused any support for the client as the organization does not offer any king of financial support for the clients irrespective of the size and need of the support. Another area where there exists a need for change is in the matters relating to confidentiality. This includes the need for places where interviews and assessments are conducted to have a confidential environment to instil confidence in shy clients and also in those conducting the interviews and assessments, rather than in the middle of the office, which is the current practice . 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