Executive Summary
The kitchen and cafeteria section of Sir Charles Wilberforce Hospital provides a vital role of ensuring sustainable provision for food and refreshment to all its stakeholders.
In order for the hospital to realize its strategic plan according to Patrick et al (1993), the kitchen and cafeteria department seems to be prompted to redefine its organization culture in tandem with the technology and economic status of the hospital without compromising the quality of foods been served to the patients and staff. The hospital faces a major predicament of timely and quality service delivery.
Meals are supposed to be ready on time. In fact, some patients need special diet, a predetermined menu will not be ideal for such cases according to Hofstede (1980).The kitchen supervisor should have a good working relationship with other operational workers needs motivation and appreciated.
During Mrs. Ann Burton’s tenure as a food service manager, she kept a close tie with workers and she could establish their needs and in turn, workers would feel personal job satisfaction. However, Mrs. Ann Burton’s management style according to Carver et al (2001) rendered itself to a strong working culture of consultation; this is according to Cameron et al (1999).
The workers later could later fail to accept the new autocratic management style that was brought by Keith. No matter the effort of Keith to bring harmony and efficiency in cafeteria, He seemed to fail to involve workers when he was making decisions, a situation that rendered him to hire a young graduate who would have energy to forcibly push on his management style at the expense of experienced workers who knew their work and all what they required was motivation.
Problem Identification and Analysis
The source of the management crisis in Sir Charles Wilberforce Hospital is drastic change of organization culture, according to Shein (1992) which was left by Mrs. Ann Burton. The cafeteria staffs enjoyed and felt motivated according to Cofer et al (1967). They worked in a friendship and family manner without adhering to any sense of orderliness.
The workers seem to be very resilient to protect their working culture by all means no matter the effort of the new Keith- Food Manager to set-up control measures and changing job descriptions. Keith’s new autocratic management style was doomed to compromise kitchen and cafeteria standards because the staff is very demoralized and there was also the likelihood of staff resigning their jobs.
There was imminent failure of the former deceased’s food service manager, Mrs. Ann, who did not orient the kitchen staff to set objectives, a situation which had aggravated the basis of the negative working culture among the kitchen staff. This situation was evident by the resignation of Mrs. Angela immediately after the death of Ann.
Her impromptu decision to resign confirmed an escape strategy and her unwillingness to address the underlying issues of lack of objectives and goals by some staff, it was also apparent that she did not have courage like Keith to face the underlying management issues head on, a situation she knew all along, according to Black (2003). The working environment would lead to the cafeteria operating on losses and even a bloated work force.
The hiring of a graduate, Ms. Madison, aggravated the management crisis in the kitchen because she was inexperienced to offer competence supervisory skills, actually, she would have required time to learn the working behavior of the kitchen staff, unfortunately she practiced Keith’s management skills inflicting harsh measures to workers and now alleviated Keith walk around managerial tactics causing him to be less involved in the occurrence and operation of the kitchen.
On the other hand, Ms Madison felt the experienced kitchen workers were not respectful and she decided to stamp her authority by issuing warning letters to Ms. Julia, She would have used diplomatic measures or verbal warning as after disagreement.
Eventually, the kitchen staff seemed to have agreed to keep a low profile of the strict management style and evidently chosen to work below their potential. A situation that is likely to hinder the hospital administration failed to meet the ultimate goal of offering high standards to their patients and other stakeholders.
Statement of Major problem
It is imminent that the management crisis in Sir Charles Wilberforce Hospital was as a result of an organization culture that requires being refined which was affecting the performance and efficiency of the food and cafeteria department. The approach to mitigate this culture should have been be planned and communicated by the management of the hospital.
The choice of authoritative management by Keith was rewarding negatively on the optimum performance of the cafeteria and kitchen and more so, a burden to the old staff that had not been exposed to this type of management, they needed to be given enough time to learn on the job new management style as time goes by. At the same time Mr. Keith had to take on board the views of all kitchen staff and did not to deny them their right of job satisfactions, fringe benefits, collegiality and over-time allowance.
There was also the tendency or element of Keith failing to appraise and appreciate the effort of the kitchen staff, rendering them to feel like their work was a punishment. He did not at any incidence appreciate the effort of the workers but instead he withdrew their fringe benefits such as coffee and break time among other withdrawals.
Moreover, subjecting kitchen staff to mop the floor instead of cleaners was intimidating and unappreciative of the role of kitchen staff that performed a task that even cleaners cannot carry out if roles had been substituted.
The entire work force for the kitchen and cafeteria department developed low morale to carry out their duties because they were not involved in changing organization the culture and the fact that Keith had not been able to establish a healthy working environment with them, he did not communicate the change of policy in a courteous manner.
The entire cafeteria workforce felt intimidated by the drastic change of management style and would missed the days of Mrs. Ann because Keith was not working closely with them. There was a feeling of loss of direction because Keith was only issuing directives, a situation they were not used to and it would take time for them to comprehend with this new working environments.
It would have been prudent for Keith to realize how desperate the workforce depended on him for support and motivation. This situation would have been an opportunity for Keith to grab in order to influence the kitchen workers to comply his new bureaucratic administration of cafeteria operations.
Another weakness or a problem facing the hospital was a lack of appraisal for the kitchen supervisor who required constant review of her objectives and performance. This would have been effectively affected by Keith because the supervisor reported directly to him. In fact, the appraisal exercise would have been clearly used as a tool to anticipate the kitchen problems before quality and efficiency got compromised.
Ms. Madison being a young graduate, young and not overwhelmed would also have appraised the kitchen staff so that they were also held accountable with what they did in the kitchen. Appraisal of objective would also have been used to eliminate and mould the new organization culture at an individual level because the current kitchen staff were too dependent on their supervisor’s directives and would always reject any mode and ways of changing their working culture that has become their comfort zone.
Generation and Evaluation of a range of Alternative Solutions
Toward evaluating and redefining the organization culture according to Shein (1992), it is paramount for the hospital administration to empower workers to dedicate the organizational culture to the hospital’s vision and mission. The deceased, Ann, had managed to compel workers to integrate the organizational culture in their work which was evident on high performance and quality services of cafeteria by then.
Not all organizational cultures are bad or negative according to Hofstede (1980).Some cultures are effectively used to aid and instill a great warm working relationship. Therefore, any strategy to review the organizational culture should be addressed with extreme consideration to avoid long term resistance by an already motivated workforce.
The prevailing existence of a discontented workforce at Sir Charles Wilberforce Hospital – cafeteria ad kitchen department cannot be dismissed with introduction of new workforce composed of young graduates. What is required is management to establish motivation strategies such as team building, better heath schemes, training among others. Such measures would come in handy in redefining the organization culture and orderliness in cafeteria and kitchen.
The workers’ efforts in all processes of cafeteria and kitchen need to be recognized and appreciated. According to Carlson et al (2009) appreciation is psychological and ultimately affects the behavior of workers towards how they perform their duties responsibly.
In itself, appreciation cannot be quantified but ultimately translates to a good working relation that benefits all stake holders of the Sir Charles Wilberforce Hospital. Patients will also benefit with good and quality food that would aid their quick recovery and continued loyalty to the hospital and serves as good ambassadors’ of the hospital.
Despite the negative working culture, the team spirit of workers was inadequate because there was neither informal nor formal evidence of workers putting effort together for a common purpose, according to Cameron et al (1999).
The workers’ welfare serves as an indicator of workers’ spirit of togetherness and if such alignment can be integrated to the working environment, workers can form an amicable team that would be creative and efficient. The kitchen staff was noted to have enjoyed chatting and sipping coffee during their break time, a gathering that would not have been referred as a reflection team spirit but was a strategy of passing time.
Recommendations
The apparent status quo of management crisis in Sir Charles Wilberforce Hospital requires an urgent team building workshop to impact a new culture of team spirit and a forum to capture personal issues that could be affecting each worker according to Patrick et al (1993). The team building should be done on a different environment to psychologically acquit workers to expose and reflect their working issues.
The facilitator of the team building should be a neutral party and should portal leadership quality in order to compel workers not to feel threatened by speaking their mind about their work without a notion or feeling the repercussion if administration will victimize them.
The team building will also serve as an opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation, workers-Julia will be able to reconsider restoring working well with Ms Madison and forget their difference. Moreover, Keith would use team building to capture the other positive character of the kitchen staffs and even trust their effort.
Besides, the team building, it is important for the hospital administration to come up with effective motivation strategy according to Carver et al. (2001).The greatest managerial persuasion and Influence tool is motivation. A motivated workforce concerns itself with productive efforts. It should be open minded and embrace changes.
Therefore, the director of Sir Charles Wilberforce Hospital should give a priority to formulate and come up with motivation scheme. Remuneration alone according to Thomas (2004) does not provide adequate motivation compared to other behavioral hygienic working conditions such as medical schemes, token of appreciations, training, provident funds among other.
In an event that the hospital administration adopts motivation strategies, there will be a realization of improved performance and staffs will be contended with their duties.
The kitchen workforce requires to be trained on how to set their own objects. The advantages of this management tactic will be to empower them to be their own bosses and to make them relevant to their day to day job in easy and diplomatic methods.
The appraisal mechanism will ease the supervisor burden and make her venture into other duties that are paramount to the service delivery and an opportunity for her to carry out research on upcoming food menus and other areas that would promote the hospital image.
The kitchen supervisor and in liaison with the Keith- Kitchen supervisor should out source a workshop to train workers on performance management system. This tool will be used to justify the laying down redundant worker who have out lived their productivity age. The tool will also be an opportunity for the energetic workers who are ambitious to get promotion and have never come close to reach their ambition due to their supervisor’s preferences.
The performance management tool will be conversant to the top management of the hospital and they will easily get acquainted with the performance of the hospital without requiring the long board room meetings. During the appraisal of the objectives, workers can use this opportunity to lists the factors hindering their performance and if the issue addressed the hospital will benefit with acquisition of new facilities and at the same time realize improved performance according to Kapfere (2008).
The cafeteria and kitchen supervisor- Keith should think of establishing a customer care representative who will be in charge of responding to issues and complaints from parents and other staff members. With the eventual filling of this position it is necessary also to look for mechanism to motivate and empower the office bearer.
Implementation
In the realization of the recommendations that a team building should be conduct, Keith the kitchen and cafeteria supervisor should write a proposal for both team building and motivation strategy of which he deems to be viable to solve the current problem of management crisis and bad organization culture.
According to the protocol Keith should present the proposal document to the Hospital director- Mr. Dev. He ought to defend his case and convince Mr. Dev about the benefits of the exercise compared to the cost of both team building and motivation strategies. He should introduce the facilitator of team building to formally meet Mr. Dev so that he/she would respond to any issues that Mr. Dev would be having and the subsequent planning of the venue, reservation and other logistics.
It is therefore important at the recommendation stage to lay down proper mechanisms to integrate an ideal organizational culture according to Carlson (2009). The recommendation face should be integrated in phases to avoid running down the mechanisms and logistics for doing that.
The aspect of addressing individual differences and the setting up of proper communication and sensitization measures to tackle people who may be resentful is vital aspect of this stage This is bound to help the implementers meet cooperative employees who are ready to help with new ideas or to offer any help needed according to Black (2003).
With the ratification of the money to be incurred in the team building and motivation respectively by Mr. Dev and in liaison with account department of the hospital, Keith is required to conduct a meeting with all kitchen staffs and communicate to them about the objectives, date, venue and other preparations.
Keith should also communicate the mechanism that he intends to put in place to substitute the kitchen and cafeteria roles because the hospital cannot be closed due to the team building exercise. He should out source a reliable company to provide food service to the hospital for the few days of the team building according to Cameron et al (1999).
All the staff should be given the materials needed in the workshop and it should be communicated that during the workshop, the staff should behave according to the core values of the hospital.
References
Black, R 2003, Organizational Culture: Creating the Influence Needed for Strategic Success, London, UK.
Cameron et al. 1999, Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework, Prentice Hall.
Carlson, N 2009, Psychology the Science of Behaviors, Pearson Education, Toronto, Canada.
Carver et al 2001, On the self-regulation of behavior, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Cofer et al 1967, Motivation: Theory and Research, John Wiley & Sons, London.
Hofstede, G 1980, Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work Related Values, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA.
Kapfere, N 2008, The new strategic brand management creating and sustaining brand equity long term, Kogan Page Publishers, London.
Patrick et al 1993, Successful Strategic Planning: A Guide for Nonprofit Agencies and Organizations, Sage Publications, Newbury Park.
Shein, E 1992, Organizational: Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
Thomas, J 2004, Guide to Managerial Persuasion and Influence, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.