Interwest hospice is a not-for-profit company that possesses 10 clinics distributed in three western nations. Cynthia Manzoni and Vijay Singh are organization’s chief of party and chief finance manager respectively, and the senior management of the 10 clinics work under the supervision of Manzoni. Singh is greatly alarmed as the hospice workforce is not being keen, especially when putting data into the organization’s electronic management system. The data comprises details on client admission, treatment, and discharge.
This management system is utilized in compiling administration reports like those associating with the costs of different treatment methodologies. In addition, the electronic system is utilized in compiling a report that is needed by the national state organ under different fund plans. Singh understands that in the absence of plausible data, the administration and national reports are not valuable and perhaps misinforming. Additionally, the national state organ occasionally inspects Interwest and may stop funding if the report is considered not accurate (Brickley et al., 2009). Therefore, Singh is concerned regarding the decision-making implications and the possible discontinuation of national funding.
Singh has succeeded in convincing Manzoni that there is a problem. She is in addition aware of the significance of a precise system not only for managerial purposes but also for keeping national funding. Seven months ago, Singh invited the hospice management and personnel from the chief financial department to a retreat at a resort with a view of communicating to the hospice management the challenges of the data input and of emphasizing the need to do a better work. The experience was unpleasant. The hospice personnel accused her of being an individual who was not caring about patient service. Singh accused the hospice personnel of underestimating the significance of generating precise reports. This case analyzes the problem and makes suggestions that might enhance the data entry menace. The following questions will guide the discussion of this case study:
- What are possible causes of the problem?
- What data would be required for evaluation?
- What action(s) might be recommendable for increasing the precision of the information input?
- How does this behavior affect the decision making process?
This situation is based on a real organization. The Interwest Chief of party utilized the “good people framework” (Baker et al., 2007). Manzoni assumed that the hospice administration did not value the significance of submitting accurate reports to the organization. Manzoni had numerous retreats with the necessary staffs. Manzoni promoted precise reporting, emphasized its significance, and encouraged in person meetings between organization and financial staffs. However, not any of these attempts produced the intended impact. The financial notion of behavior proposes that Manzoni should have reviewed the enticements of the workers.
Because it seems that, the financial section staffs required positive motivations to generate precise reports. If the auditing team noticed faults in the management system the employees would get the main censure and were prone to losing their positions. The hospice management was not appraised or remunerated based on the precision of the accounting system. Instead, its major concern is meeting financial demands. Making management happy, and evading legal action and bad media coverage. In motivating enhanced concern regarding the management system within hospice managers, the chief of party should keenly assess the existing motivation system for the hospice management with a view of amending it – with more emphasis on economic/accounting reporting (Akerlof & Kranton, 2005).
References
Akerlof, G. & Kranton, R. (2005). Identity and the Economics of Organizations. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(1), 9–32.
Baker, M., Ruback, R., & Wurgler, J. (2007). Behavioral Corporate Finance: A Survey. In E. Espen (Eds), Handbook in Corporate Finance: Empirical Corporate Finance (pp. 145-188). North Holland: Elsevier.
Brickley, J., Smith, C., & Zimmerman, J. (2009). Managerial economics and organizational architecture (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.