Clinic: Building an Ethical Organization Essay

The organization

The organization is a nonprofit making behavioral health clinic, which aims to serve mostly patients from within the county. Its range of clients includes drug abusers, mentally ill patients, and those with mental disabilities. Being a nonprofit making organization, it will largely depend on donations, both from internal and external donors, to carry out its operations. The clinic will offer both inpatient and outpatient services and collaborate with other service providers for services which they may not be in position to offer.

Among the services that the clinic offers are: cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, children’s play-related therapy, stress and anger management, and any other mental treatment that may be required. Apart from these services the health clinic will also provide education on these and other related issues to the interested members of the community.

Mission statement

In any organization, the mission statement should describe the reasons or the purposes that explains its existence. In other words the mission statement should explain at a glance the main purpose for the establishment of the organization. In nonprofit organizations the mission statement should identify the target market, product and the services that the organization is offering (Oster, M., 1995, p.22). It should tell what we are producing and for whom. Among the nonprofit organizations the mission statement serve boundary functions, serve to encourage both the staff and the donors and help in terminal evaluation of the operations of the organization. Some basic things ought to be considered in developing the mission statement. Things such as the organization’s products, services, the public, as well as the target market should never be taken for granted. In many cases the mission statement may be confused with the vision statement. However, the vision statement should describe the organization critically as it endeavors with its operations.

The mission statement of the health clinic is “providing free quality treatment and education, on matters of mental health to promote a mentally conscious society”. In this mission statement the health clinics clearly at a glance explains its purpose and the reasons for its existence. Any person looking at the mission statement would know that the health clinic does not aim at making profit, since the mission clearly states that it services are offered free. The statement also gives the services offered, that is, treatment and education on matters relating to mental problems.

Value statement

Values are the priorities that drive the organization. In developing the value statement, it is important that you consider what the customer’s values are as well as the shareholders if any, employees and the general public or community.

The value statement for the organization will be “ensuring a mentally upright society that is able to manage mentally related complications at any time”. This value statement would probably represent the value of the society. Every society would value good mental health for its members. Being a nonprofit making organization, the health clinic is likely to receive quite a large number of volunteers. This value statement also incorporates the values that such volunteers as well as employee are likely to uphold and defend. Value statement enables the health clinic as well as any other organization to operate within its foundation and meet the expectation of other stakeholders such as the donors and the general public. Having the values of the organization and those of the stakeholders in agreement provide a good environment for the organization to operate in. This encourages co-operation from those concerned and therefore ensuring that the health clinic lives to attain its main objectives which constitutes the mission statement. This is why it is important for any organization to put into consideration the values of its development partners when developing the value statement. Nonprofit making organizations actually must put into consideration the values of its stakeholders especially the donors. This will make sure that they are able to get funds to finance their operation. In our case the value statement of the health clinic has the potential to attract many corporate organizations especially those interested with the welfare of societies and the marginalized as well the human rights organization. The health clinic will therefore, not be faced by problems of financing operations, which is a key elements owing to the fact that it’s a nonprofit making organization.

Code of ethics

Codes of ethics are standards that need to be observed by the members of the organization and all the stakeholders in the course of duty for the organization. These codes outline what is expected of every member or employee of the health clinic with regard to executing their duties and responsibilities for the health organization. The codes will help the health clinic to operate within the set principles or the set legal formulations. They will help the organization to live to the expectations of all the stakeholders without compromising the values of these stakeholders and those of the health clinic. Nonprofit organizations should come up with codes of ethics for its staff and stakeholders. The behavioral health clinic should also come up with codes of ethics for its employees. These codes will include the following:

1. Obedience to law of the land; laws of the must be adhered to in all operations of the clinic.
2. Openness and honesty should be maintained at all levels.
3. Integrity and dignity of our clients and the public must be respected.
4. Confidentiality must be withheld in dealing with matter concerning our patients. No information concerning a patient should be revealed to a third party.
5. Clients are expected to be responsible in matters concerning appointments with staff and other medical personnel.
6. Professional codes of ethics must be maintained in the course of duty.
7. The staffs are responsible for safe custody of client’s record. The staff must ensure that information is presented to whoever is responsible for filing
8. Staff performance is to be evaluated fairly and honestly
9. Any dissatisfaction on job matters should be expressed urgently
10. Volunteer employees should perform their duties and responsibilities promptly and capably. They should also maintain the codes of ethics set out for other employees

Organizational culture

Organizational culture and leadership is one and the same thing to some extents (Schein H., 2004, p.10). According to Schein (2004, p.14) culture is the level of stability in a group in terms of structures. There are many types of organizational cultures, but for the case of the clinic, the culture of ‘shared meanings’ will be appropriate. In this culture, Understanding among the various stakeholders is created as members interact with each other. Having in mind the kind of patients that the clinic is dealing with, it’s good that such a culture to be created so as to enable the staff meet the needs of the society and the patients. The culture will also be fundamental in operating within its core values of serving the society through interactions between our staff and the community.

Leadership style

Leadership styles are the task and relationship behaviors that a person employs to try and influence others in the same group. This being a nonprofit organization, among the many styles of leadership, laissez faire stands out to be the best style to use. This is where every employee has the freedom to make group or individual decisions. The head of the clinic will only assume the role of the administrator for matters that calls for leadership, that is, when dealing with donors and other stakeholders. The leader will ensure that moral standard of work are observed in the course of duty to partner with donors and other stakeholders.

Oversight

To ensure that the clinic operates within the laid out policies and that the goals and values are achieved, an oversight committee will be set up comprising of staffs, donor representatives and the public. This committee will evaluate semi annually the operations of the clinic, its achievements, challenges and recommend the way forward.

References

1. Oster, S. (1995). Strategic management for nonprofit organizations: theory and cases. New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Schein, H. (2004). Organization culture and leadership. California: John Wiley and Sons.