Introduction
Healthcare setting bring together patients, nurses, physicians, doctors, patients’ relatives, and the general workers. The main goal of these stakeholders encompasses protecting, promoting, and optimizing health. For example, nurses achieve this goal through the prevention of illness and injury. Nursing services are important in the alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of people. Nursing leaders have the responsibility of participating in advocacy for healthcare for individuals, families, communities, and the general population. Nurses are stakeholders within the health care sector, which focuses on the care of individuals and communities. Its goal entails ensuring that people attain optimal health and quality life. To ensure that nurses and other stakeholders facilitate health optimization, organizations and institutions that operate in healthcare settings need to adopt appropriate managerial strategies. This paper proposes the corporate social responsibility (CSR) as one of the interventions that managers and leaders can deploy to enhance employee wellbeing in the healthcare settings.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Organizations and institutions, including those that operate in healthcare settings need to take responsibility to comply with the best CSR practices. Corporate social responsibility is the obligation for companies to serve not only their interests but also the interests of the society. According to Godkin (2015), a thorough examination of CSR is essentially provided through the analysis of stakeholders. Stakeholders encompass all groups and specific individuals who either benefit and/or even are harmed by decisions made by an organization. In the healthcare settings, such people include the patients, employees such as nurses and doctors, and patients’ relatives among other parties who have stakes in the operations of healthcare facilities.
In the literature on CSR in organizations, a scholarly debate revolves around the appropriate principles of managing employees while incorporating CSR best practices (Godkin, 2015). Decisions such as curtailing fundamental freedoms of employees, for instance, unionization, harassment, threats of dismissal, and exposure to poor and injurious working conditions, undermine the CSR principle of harmonization of interests of all stakeholders. The stakeholder theory identifies different stakeholders such as employees, shareholder customers, communities, the environment, and the government among other bodies that are worthy considering in CSR approaches (AbuKhalifeh & Ahmad, 2013). However, in the case of healthcare settings, employees are greatly affected by the bad practices of the management.
Employees are crucial in healthcare facilities. They commit their skills and time to working in healthcare facilities. Their livelihood depends on the facilities. The main task of the management in healthcare settings is to adopt strategies for determining how employee interests are managed in line with the main goals of an organization without creating conflict of interests that lead to labor strikes and destruction of property (Godkin, 2015). Therefore, healthcare facilities have the obligation of taking responsibility and resolving their conflicts with the employees if they need to build their competitive advantage through them (employees).
CSR constitutes an appropriate approach to managing conflicts with employees to guarantee employee wellbeing in the healthcare sector. It ensures that employees in healthcare facilities live sustainable lives. Indeed, Tuan (2013) defines CSR as “business commitment to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life” (p. 6). Hence, employees are important stakeholders who must be considered in any program or policy for enhancing success and effectiveness of organizations, including those that operate in the healthcare sector.
CSR comprises a leverage that healthcare organizations can utilize in reinforcing relationships among different employees. It serves as a discretionary practice, which influences stakeholder relationships (Tuan, 2013). When employees and their leaders in healthcare organizations work collectively towards creating positive working relationships among different stakeholders, they (employees) become committed to enhancing success and fostering the wellbeing of patients or clients. They also become motivated in engaging in programs that increase their wellbeing and commitment to the work of an organization. An arising question is, how can CSR policies influence or be enhanced in the healthcare settings? The next section addresses this issue.
CSR and Employee Wellbeing
Wellbeing is an important component of any work environment. It does not just comprise good health for employees. Rather, it constitutes all elements of wok that employees consider important for them to lead productive lives while at work and outside (Slack, Corlett, & Morris, 2015). The workplace interventions influence the elements. Hence, healthcare leaders who attribute wellbeing to elements such as nutrition, exercise, and weight with an objective of optimizing work miss the point. CSR is a strategy whose concerns exceed this approach to employee wellbeing (Godkin, 2015). It invests in employees’ wellbeing from the perspective of the need to foster their advancement in all dimensions of work life, including enhancing their psychological and physical health.
CSR involves a set of corporate actions, which extend beyond legal, economic, and technical operational requirements of any organization (Tuan, 2013). It has a dual orientation. It focuses on increasing social welfare and improving relationships with stakeholders. This role reveals why CSR policy relates to employee wellbeing. Employees are crucial stakeholders for organizations that operate in the health care sector. They determine the effectiveness of a healthcare facility in increasing patients’ outcomes through enhancing the quality of service delivery. The health sector has multiple stakeholders. Therefore, it needs to be on the frontline with regard to implementation of CSR strategies. On the other hand, it is an industry that needs the cooperation of both private and public sectors. Eradication of diseases such as Diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and Autism require the concerted efforts of both sectors because of the vast amounts of resources required. Amid this importance, Waldman and Siegel (2008) reveal the limited focus of CSR literature on employees. CSR’s primary focus is on its relationship with ethical leadership and corporate behaviors. For instance, many pharmaceutical companies provide consumers with misleading information regarding the efficacy and safety of drugs. Several cases have been reported of companies falsifying evidence to convince the public that their drugs are safe and effective. The pharmaceutical industry is destroying the reputation of the health care sector. This emerging trend has compelled the government to increase regulatory vigilance because many drug manufacturers are unregistered and hence operating illegally. On the other hand, many companies have abdicated research and instead turned to counterfeiting drugs from other certified pharmaceutical companies. However, only few studies empirically investigate the contribution of CSR to influencing employee wellbeing. However, the existing studies on the relationship between employees and CSR practices mainly focus on potential or prospective employees.
The adoption of CSR practices is important in healthcare settings since it sends a positive signal to potential employees. In turn, the organization in question identifies such employees, especially when a match is witnessed between the values that are promoted through CSR and the employees or the organization. Indeed, the nature of work in healthcare settings underlines the necessity to engage in CSR practices to guarantee employee wellbeing (Godkin, 2015). For example, nursing leaders plan, control, direct, and guide other people towards attaining common mutual objectives and goals. It has organizational and personal elements. Success with time requires commitment to these two aspects. Leadership serves to influence the relationship between leaders and employees who act as the tools for change within an organization. They must reflect shared purpose for the interaction of both employees and leaders. Hence, behaving in a socially responsible manner is inevitable if nursing leaders must enhance the well-being of their subordinates.
Under the King’s conceptual system and theory of goal attainment and transactional process, the best results in nursing care are obtained through the interaction between nurses and patients to meet common goals. Hence, the theory views nursing leadership as emerging from direct experiences with patients. Consistent with this assertion, Stanley and Gannon (2008) hold that a direct contact with patients can help to induce better coping skills, which every nursing leader needs to understand, especially while leading new recruits. The contact is important considering that the profession is strenuous with practitioners experiencing high rates of burnout (Zoutman, Ford, Bryce, & Gourdeau, 2010). By incorporating CSR practices in the nursing theory and leadership, nurse wellbeing is enhanced through the consideration of the likely implications of work assignment and their management on their likelihoods to experience burnout.
Healthcare givers work under strenuous conditions and burnout related with handling very ill patients. They also face the risk of infections. This situation indicates the necessity for developing strategies for ensuring that such risks are mitigated so that their nature of work does not turn against their interests of leading healthy lives as an important component of employee wellbeing. In fact, the risk of infection while at the healthcare facilities challenges the basic tenet that such institutions should ensure better health wellbeing of people in all nations. In Canada, Zoutman et al. (2010) estimate that above 200,000 people contract HAI (Healthcare-Associated Infections) with 8000 of the infected people dying annually. However, the problem equally attracts the attention of healthcare professionals even in other parts of the world apart from Canada. For instance, the World Health Organization posits that HAIs constitutes a universal challenge in all nations. The prevention of HAIs requires cooperation among the patients, families, and healthcare staff together with the utilization of the right equipment to manage them. This approach requires bringing together all stakeholders in healthcare facilities through CSR.
While fostering the wellbeing of employees in healthcare settings, it is important to focus on CSR initiatives that aim at reducing the risk of infections while at the workplace. Such focus is critical upon noting that employees are the most vulnerable groups since they spend most of time with ill people. Infections involve three aspects, namely, source, transmission mode, and the existence of susceptible host (Godkin, 2015). In healthcare settings, the source of infection includes infected patients, their friends, family members, or any other person who interacts with sick people within the facilities. Contact, air, or droplets constitute the three possible modes of transmission of infections.
Contact transmission takes place in the form of direct or indirect transmissions. Direct transmission takes place through transferring of infection-causing microorganisms from an infected person to the susceptible host. Indirect transmission entails the transfer of disease-causing microorganisms via an intermediary formite and/or object. Such objects may include bed tables, toilet door handles, bath tabs, hospital instruments, and bed railings among various environmental surfaces. Droplet transmission takes place whenever respiratory droplets associated with sneezing and coughing encounter vulnerable host’s mucosal surfaces. In some situations, this diffusion may involve contact with environmental surfaces that contain microorganisms followed by contact with mucosal surfaces of vulnerable hosts. By recognizing that employees have an interest in living productive lives free from infections while in their work environment, healthcare facility leaders must develop various infection-prevention initiatives to foster the wellbeing of employees.
The noble objective of CSR entails managing the risks of all stakeholders within an organization. For the healthcare sector, one of the risks, which attract an immense concern, entails violation of patients’ wellbeing via making them susceptible to infections. All healthcare facilities should identify potential risks and then derive strategies for managing them effectively. Indeed, they need to consider avoiding risks, managing them by first identifying them, analyzing, and then treating them after conducting thorough evaluations (Godkin, 2015). Hence, healthcare facilities have a responsibility of conducting frequent assessments for preventing the spreading of infections. These risk management approaches also require healthcare professionals to design comprehensive protocols together with processes for enhancing prevention and control of infections within their local settings. Although conducting complete assessment of risks, especially when conducting routine performance evaluations is impractical in some cases, identification and analysis of the risk of likelihood of transmission should constitute the daily activity of a healthcare facility.
By deploying CSR strategies for enhancing employee wellbeing in healthcare facilities, including mitigating the risk of infections, an organization develops the capability to prevent risks, which may impair the happiness of employees. Prevention encompasses the best strategy for managing risks. Many of the cases of HAIs (about 70%) are preventable. However, the prevention demands compliance with control and HAIs deterrence approaches. Monitoring, prevention, and HAI tracking collectively aid in reducing cases of spreading of infections.
As part of CSR initiatives for fostering employee wellbeing, Canadian hospitals and other healthcare facilities engage in surveillance activities to reduce infections that spread within their facilities (Zoutman et al., 2010). The surveillance targets specific units within a facility or can be implemented from broad-based approaches. Research suggests that that not all programs for monitoring the effectiveness of surveillance prevent infections in healthcare facilities. For instance, CDC conducted a study in the US on the efficacy of various SENIC (Noncomial Infection Control) programs to single out the most effective infection control, prevention, and surveillance programs. The study found that not all hospitals implemented such programs in accordance with the recommendations offered by CDC. Such hospitals fail to guarantee wellbeing of their employees. They do not pay attention to the stakes of their employees. Consequently, their CSR programs for employee safety are open to criticism.
Conclusion
Healthcare organizations and institutions have a responsibility for enhancing the health of their employees. CSR focuses on protecting and promoting the interest of all stakeholders within an organization. For employees, issues such as preventing infections while at the healthcare facilities and putting in place strategies for reducing burnout associated with handling very ill people comprise important CSR initiatives for increasing employee wellbeing. Without preventing and controlling of risks that are likely to influence employees in healthcare settings, organizations that operate in the sector fails in terms of development and implementation of CSR initiatives and policies.
Reference List
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