Organisational Structure Of Whitlam Memorial Hospital

Strengths and limitations of the current structure

Discuss the Organisational structure of the Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH).

Whitlam Memorial hospital is a health care facility that is located in the suburban region of Sydney. The hospital is known to provide emergency and acute services that are related to the health of the people. The local communities in which the hospital is located is affected in a positive manner by the existence of the hospital. The essay discusses the need to change the existing structure of the health care centre and increase the number of bed from 130 to 250. This is mainly because of the significant increase in population and the growing needs of the community. The essay discusses the strengths and limitations of the current structure that exists in the hospital and provides an analysis of the organisational structures that exist in other health care centres. The importance of the mission, vision and objectives of the health care centre is analysed to understand the manner in which it can reach its goals. The thesis statement of the essay aims at identifying the effectiveness of organisational structure in a hospitality environment and the opportunities that may be obtained with a new organisational structure.

According to Shafritz, Ott and Jang (2015), organisational structure is the formal system that defines the tasks and relationships that exist in an organisation. It defines the manner in which actions and resources are utilised to ensure that goals of an organisation are met. Organisational structures generally evolve to improve the system of an organisation and ensure that organisations are capable of providing job satisfaction to the employees. According to Sullivan and Garland (2013), the health care centres tend to follow an altogether different structure than the structures that followed in other business organisations.

Whitlam Memorial hospital follow simple yet bureaucratic organisational structure that can often be described as functional or line structure. In this form of structure, the authorities, responsibilities and jobs of the people are delegated and a clear indication is provided that highlights the superiors and supervisors of the people. The advantage of such a structure is the fact that it indicates the direct report of the employees and the responsible person that can be given a specific role (Scott et al., 2003). This can help employees to understand the responsibilities that are given to them and the authority to which they can report.

At the same time, this type of organisational structure has certain disadvantages as well. One such limitation is the fact that decisions regarding an organisation are centralised by the top-level management. This provides a hindrance to the flow of communication as communication is made in only one direction. For Whitlam Memorial hospital, this deprives the employees of taking part in the decision-making part of the organisation, thereby causing dissatisfaction among them. In the case of health care centres, communication among the top-level managers and the nurses are important for the protection of the safety of the patients (Westphal, 2005).

Importance of mission, vision and objectives

In the case of Whitlam Memorial hospital, the health care centre follows the functional structure and therefore, it becomes a problematic factor for the centre to ensure that proper communication takes place in the centre. Whitlam Memorial hospital adopts this structure to ensure that employees have full knowledge of the people to whom they are reporting and the manner in which tasks need to be carried out to fulfil the organisational goals. However, the lack of communication between the nurses and doctors can cause issues in quality and safety for the employees.

Figure: Line structure

(Source: Bos & Brown, 2014)

According to Goetsch and Davis (2014), for an organisation to remain effective in the market, it is necessary that it understands the manner in which it needs to formulate its business. For this reason, it is necessary to formulate a strong vision, mission and objective so that defines the organisation. The importance of the mission statement in a health care centre like Whitlam Memorial hospital is for it to big in the market and serves the key holders in an effective manner. The mission statement also involves the summation of the value of the health care centre.

On the other hand, the vision statement is more future-oriented and because of this, it helps in declaring the purpose of an organisation. Howitt et al. (2014) stated that the link between the mission stamen and vision statement is the fact that the mission statement lays out the purpose of an organisation and based on that purpose, the vision statement determines the necessities of the organisation. In the case of Whitlam Memorial hospital, the mission statement is to provide high quality and specialist health care service with partners taking into consideration the stakeholders. The vision statement of Whitlam Memorial hospital is to develop health experts that can help in responding to the necessary changes in the health care centres.

Omotayo (2015) stated that the goals or objectives of an organisation help it to remain in line with the mission and vision. The goals of an organisation are to ensure that the challenges are faced in an effective manner and at the same time, they meet the necessary requirements that can help in its success. In the case of Whitlam Memorial hospital, the goal of the health care centre is to ensure that high performing and multi-disciplinary teams are formed so that high-quality special service can be provided to the patients. This helps in keeping at bay with the mission and vision of the centre and ensures that each goal is achieved to comply with the requirements.

Identifying different organisational structures

Thus, it can be said that the mission, vision and goals of an organisation help it to remain competitive in the market. At the same time, it helps in the development of an organisation internally. The link that can be established between the three factors and the organisational structure is that the organisational heads set up the mission and vision. At the same time, the top-level managers set up the goals so that the mission and vision can be attained. Thus, it requires the involvement of the three factors that are necessary for an effective organisational structure. The organisational structure can help in the development of the mission and vision by analysing the internal capabilities. Hence, the organisational structure of Whitlam Memorial hospital can be attributed to the development of the mission, vision and goals of the health care centre.

Bolden (2016) stated that organisations can be structured in a different manner and in different ways. Each of the structure that exists in an organisation functions in different ways. In the case of Whitlam Memorial hospital, the current structure of the health care centre has certain limitations that may affect the working of the centre. For this reason, it is necessary that the health care centre adopt a different organisational structure such as the divisional structure. The divisional structure provides organisations with the opportunity to group the functions of an organisation into various departments.

This can be considered as a manner in which, Whitlam Memorial hospital can get to increase the number of beds in the centre. Bourne (2016) stated that the divisional structure helps in establishing a good relationship with the stakeholders and it can help Whitlam Memorial hospital to explore a large horizon of products. This type of structure is normally used in organisations that have a large number of products and maintain the capability of flexibility in the business. The divisional organisational structure does not have a connection with different departments in an organisation. Therefore, Whitlam Memorial hospital can prevent its functions from being affected by the application of the divisional structure of the organisation.

At the same time, Bratton and Gold (2017) stated that divisional structure has certain disadvantages as well. The fact that divisional organisational structure cannot separate the inefficiencies in the specialised functions may pose threat to an organisation. The communication gap between employees working in the same profession remains if such an organisational structure is adopted. For example, the finance department of one division does not communicate with the finance departments of the other divisions. At the same time, Hill, Jones and Schilling (2014) stated that divisional structure might increase the accounting and tax implications in an organisation. This is because each of the cost of the divisions needs to be implemented while preparing the annual budget. Thus, this can be a huge disadvantage factor for Whitlam Memorial hospital as the health care centre need to improve on the cost it incurs in developing the centre.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that the Whitlam Memorial hospital needs to analyse the pros and cons of the current organisational structure and ensure that it is aligned with the vision and mission. Organisational structures are the support that binds the members of an organisation together and ensures that the members collaborate with one another for its success. In the case of Whitlam Memorial hospital, the health care centre needs to adopt the divisional structure so that the cons of the line structure can be mitigated. However, the interest of the stakeholders also needs to be considered to ensure that the health care centre gain efficient assistance from the application of the new organisational structure.

References

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