Healthcare Organization with Management Issues
Discuss about the Bruce Hughes Health Care Case Study.
Bruce Hughes in the year of 1984, straight after graduating from the university built his own healthcare firm in Cape Town and had been carrying out the administration of the firm for a tenure of almost 30 years[1]. However, Bruce happens to be a professional physician and lacks the basic knowledge about principles on efficient management. As a result, Bruce encounters a number of critical issues pertaining to systematic client handling and employee conflicts. Julian, who is in charge of handling client account details is laid back and has stopped putting in sincere efforts, tired of his mundane work routine. On the other hand Kathy is in charge of the clinical proceedings and Lynn is her assistant. Lynn tries to convince Bruce to incorporate a new business strategy and he agrees, however Julian and Kathy interpret her interaction with Bruce as ‘complaining’ and gossip behind her back which creates an extremely negative impact. Further, organizational problems take a toll on Bruce and he finally decided to hire a CEO for the better management of the organization. Mike Bell is recruited as the CEO and he incorporates massive reforms in the organization that initially do not go down well with the employees but after a time period of 3 years the profit percentage of the organization goes up by 30%.
Bruce Hughes Health Care is a health care organization that works to impart quality clinical services to the patients and makes use of the best clinical technology innovations. The Organization was set up by Bruce Hughes independently and has continues to operate for almost 27 years serving to an impressive percentage of patient base with three practice units and an employee strength of about 40.
Gossip culture and subversion has ultimately led to crumbling of the organizational structure lately[2]. It is crucial to note here that Hughes Health Care was set up as a small enterprise and with the passing years has developed into a firm with a considerable patient base. With the increase in the patient database it is almost getting impossible to manage the administration independently by Bruce and as a result there has been a hike in the number of complaints by the employees related to several issues. The most common belief prevailing among the employees include a belief that Bruce prefers the clinical department more and favours them more in terms of leave benefits and appraisals and is not considerate enough towards the other departments. The case study further reveals that there is a serious problem with the flow of information among the employee base[3], for instance, when Bruce agreed to Lynn’s proposal of incorporating a slight change in the business operation that would allow the employees to reach office at 8:30 AM instead of 8:10 AM, thereby providing the employees some extra time to avoid the traffic issues; because of the constraints of the shift timings the information could not be shared with the other employees and as a result the next day, only Lynn and Kathy arrived at 8:30 AM but all the other employees were already there in the office and had started with their work. Also, David who was the maintenance manager for Hughes Healthcare organization since the very beginning and his team were completely isolated from every social gathering that the company hosted. The corporate culture lately had been polluted with the ‘laid-back’ attitude of the employees and the ‘gossip-culture’ among the employees that made it impossible to create a positive atmosphere at the workplace[4].
Employee Issues and Subversion Culture
The human issues that had recently developed in the organization included the development of subversion attitude among the employees. For instance, it is extremely evident from the case study that Julian before the organizational change did not focus on improving his performance at work. He never made an effort to respond to Bruce spontaneously and also did not endeavour to provide the correct information in terms of explaining the treatment the patient had undergone and the details of the patient billing, this resulted in a nasty experience when an angry patient refused to clear the outstanding billing amount on account of the reasons stated above. Julian only started gearing up his performance output once he realised that it was time for his 13th pay check to arrive, also Kathy and Julian involved in gossiping about fellow employees, Lynn to be specific, without even caring to find out what the exact issue is all about. Further, when Bruce asked both of them to be more considerate and friendly towards other employees, referring Lynn, they grew even more hostile towards her.
With close reference to the case study, it can be determined that Bruce tried his best to be a great boss by defending his team while he tried to recover the outstanding amount from the angry and unsatisfied patient and also when he tried to resolve the problem that Lynn had brought to his notice about gossiping. In both the cases, he could not reach a satisfactory conclusion, however he tried his best to generate a positive impact as a result the performance of the employees were affected on the basis of their emotional aspect.
With reference to the case study, Bell devised new inter and intra psychological strategies that allowed employee autonomy and enhanced employee motivation at a higher rate[5]. This was achieved by Bell with the inclusion of performance analysis tools and clearly defining the team responsibilities so that there is no scope of confusion or excessive workload among the employees[6].
The new organizational structure has tremendously helped the organization in reaching greater height of success with a business profit rate of about 30%. The first reform included the cancellation of the 13th cheque and inclusion of 12 month bonus pay on the basis of feedback given by fellow employees. The administration followed a strict level of hierarchy and the employees were expected to strictly stick to their job roles[7]. Uniformity in terms of pay cheque and leave allowances were also introduced and every department was given equal priority which finally helped in overcoming issues related to employee retention and also significantly improved the organizational culture in Hughes healthcare organization[8].
Bruce's Leadership and Performance Impact
Yes, the team has effectively been able to resolve the issues that had led to the emergence of a poor organizational culture at Hughes Healthcare Organization. With the enforcement of strict managerial policies pertaining to maintaining a positive work atmosphere by being warm and friendly to each other and promoting frequent employee training with clearly assigned job roles and encouraging feedback from employee base, the organization could address all the existing issues effectively and taste the sweet fruit of success.
Lastly, in order to develop as a high performance organization, it is important to incorporate the concept of a learning organization with the inclusion of scope for training which would help in the development of organizational learning by allowing a convenient flow and accessibility of information among the employees.
References:
Azanza, Garazi, Juan Antonio Moriano, and Fernando Molero. "Authentic leadership and organizational culture as drivers of employees’ job satisfaction." Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones 29.2 (2013).
Hogan, Suellen J., and Leonard V. Coote. "Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model." Journal of Business Research 67.8 (2014): 1609-1621.
Korzynski, Pawel. "EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN NEW WORKING ENVIRONMENT." International journal of academic research 5.5 (2013).
Menguc, Bulent, et al. "To be engaged or not to be engaged: The antecedents and consequences of service employee engagement." Journal of business research 66.11 (2013): 2163-2170.
Moench, Emanuel, Serena Ng, and Simon Potter. "Dynamic hierarchical factor models." Review of Economics and Statistics 95.5 (2013): 1811-1817.
Njoroge, Caroline Ngonyo, and Rashad Yazdanifard. "The impact of social and emotional intelligence on employee motivation in a multigenerational workplace." Global Journal of Management And Business Research (2014).
Porath, Christine, and Christine Pearson. "The price of incivility." Harvard business review 91.1-2 (2013): 114-121.
Schneider, Benjamin, Mark G. Ehrhart, and William H. Macey. "Organizational climate and culture." Annual review of psychology 64 (2013): 361-388.
satisfaction." Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones 29.2 (2013).
Hogan, Suellen J., and Leonard V. Coote. "Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model." Journal of Business Research 67.8 (2014): 1609-1621.
Schneider, Benjamin, Mark G. Ehrhart, and William H. Macey. "Organizational climate and culture." Annual review of psychology 64 (2013): 361-388.
Porath, Christine, and Christine Pearson. "The price of incivility." Harvard business review 91.1-2 (2013): 114-121.
Njoroge, Caroline Ngonyo, and Rashad Yazdanifard. "The impact of social and emotional intelligence on employee motivation in a multigenerational workplace." Global Journal of Management And Business Research (2014).
Korzynski, Pawel. "EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN NEW WORKING ENVIRONMENT." International journal of academic research 5.5 (2013).
Moench, Emanuel, Serena Ng, and Simon Potter. "Dynamic hierarchical factor models." Review of Economics and Statistics 95.5 (2013): 1811-1817.
Menguc, Bulent, et al. "To be engaged or not to be engaged: The antecedents and consequences of service employee engagement." Journal of business research 66.11 (2013): 2163-2170.
