Abstract
An organisations is composed of many entities that form its core and are charged with the implementation of its objectives (Florjančič & Pape, 2003). Strategic planning is one of the key areas that organisations have to address well to ensure they are headed towards their vision. An organisation’s vision conveys a lot about the organisation as it shows its culture, values, aims and mission (Thompson & Mchugh, 2002).
Therefore, to ensure success the planning and implementation of strategies aimed at the development of the organisation must be in line with its plan, be all inclusive and have a good implementation and control mechanism if any success is to be achieved (Hacth & Cunliffe, 2006). Failure in addressing any of the above will lead to poor implementation no matter how good the plan is.
Introduction
The case looks at attempts to introduce multi-skilled ward based teams of support in a medium sized NHS trust in the UK. It is part of a wider strategy change in NHS with focus on the human resource side. The case is set in a NHS trust which provide full range of acute and midwifery services to a population of about 250000. The personnel in the organisation are 2800 with 1659 working full time, 80% of whom are female. Absenteeism rate is normal though, among the staff affected by changes it is prevalent. The implementation of the changes was done by the size services director.
The generic worker concept is part of a large business plan that included reduction in waiting times, compliance with government initiatives and introduction of new information systems. The objective of the plan is to introduce teams of generic hotel services assistants at ward level so as to improve flexibility and responsiveness to patient needs by combining the role of the porter, domestic and catering staff. Thus the workers would be multi-skilled and able to handle a wide range of problems.
Analysis
Corporate Culture
An organisation’s corporate culture is determined by the systems, values, beliefs and norms that govern all. The culture is therefore unique to organisation and can be used in determination of which organisation an employee belongs to. Many porters especially the male ones have openly showed their unwillingness to engage in cleaning duties. This gender issue was very dominant in many discussions and was the views from the union. This is a major issue in the corporate culture cultivated by the organisation and the union in particular. The culture appears to be discriminative and segregate on the basis of gender.
The support by the union gives a hint of male dominance though they are the minority. There is evidence of hostility between the union representatives and the managers as they harbour personal conflicts, this is a clear indication of a divided company and lack of a good conflict resolution mechanism, furthermore it could imply a gap between the workers and the management for it is that bridge that manifests itself in personal differences.
The culture is also characterised by cynicism and prejudice as some managers believe, without any concrete proof, that women would go for the new idea as they enjoy varied workloads and the idea of seeing men cleaning. Mistrust characterises the culture as most of the workers feel that the new approach is simply a cost reduction exercise, this may be true by implication but the main reason behind the formulation of the policy is better service delivery, which the management has been trying to educate all in the organisation to no avail as such a culture does not permit reason.
Organisational Politics
Just like in any other policy making session the involvement of politics is inevitable (Hiat & Daft, 2000). The union of workers voiced its rejection of the approach and advised that such an approach could only be applicable after the current employee contracts expire. Though some of the nurses were for the idea as it goes in line with their duty for the patient, the union made it a personal vote for either the union or the management and they won though over half of the employees absconded the voting process. This is a typical example of a situation where organisational politics takes on a wrong path.
Many of the employees are of the view that any voting is not objective and thus prefer to skip the process. The rest vote on a political context and its not surprising if some do not even know why they are voting. The strategy employed by the organisation is very well intentioned and is for the good of the organisation, its relevance to the organisations objectives unquestionable, but due to the politicization of the strategy the good plans fail to take place root.
Organisational Structure
Organisation structure is defined as the format that acts as a basis for the management of the organisation. It therefore defines aspects like the implementation of team work, the interaction between processes, people and the operational environment. In the case some of the special sections of the nurses that do not directly deal with the patients were also against the idea and showed their disapproval by absconding all awareness exercises, moreover the different groups of nurses proved difficult to coordinate into groups. This show that the organisational structure is such that the organisation is not set in a manner that promote the implementation of policies.
The communication breakdown that characterises the system is shown by a poor complain system as workers resort to primal ways of complaining like absconding. This poor structure of governance that make it impossible to carry out policies, implement teams and control the organisation is partly to blame for the failure of the plan.
Corporate Governance
This is defined by the mechanisms through which the organisation is controlled, how the policies are implemented and the interaction between all entities in the organisation. The pay differential between members of Hotel services were to be removed with the exception of management’s. This is a clear display of bad governance, as the managers make decisions that favour them in a way regardless of any consideration from the employees. Some managers felt that the variety of jobs that one worker can do will lead to the increase in job motivation, this shows that the decisions made by the managers are based on beliefs and are not factual for they involve no research.
This lack of research has led to a situation where the managers are at loss in explaining the reason for the resistance against such a well intentioned plan. The system of governance adopted by the organisation is hierarchical and the managers are the only ones responsible for the implementation of policies. This has led to a situation where the good policies fail to reach the implementation phase as they are not representative enough. Furthermore, the communication mechanism employed by the organisation is largely informal and ineffective in dealing with the problems the large organisation. This could be one of the reason behind the misconceptions of the idea implemented by the new action plan.
What Should be Done
The corporate culture of an organisation determine to a great deal the success of an organisation (Yuill, 1999). The culture define the work ethic of an organisation’s labour force and therefore all organisations keen on improvements and development should focus on developing and maintaining a good organisational culture. The Trust should therefore channel resource to finding solutions to its culture problems. Some of the ways through which this situation can be rectified is by creation of a society like organisation.
Mechanisms should be put in place to integrate the organisation, this must be implemented by the managers though the employee participation will be paramount to the success of the initiative. Social gatherings and community participation by all members of the organisation, together with the implementation of a more work friendly environment through encouragement and a reward or incentive system will aid the creation and maintenance of a positive culture.
Bad politics is typical of any society in which oppression is prevalent. To deal with the bad organisational politics that lead to non-implementation of good policies, the organisation must first deal with oppression manifested in inequalities as some workers are regarded as special. Moreover, policy making must also be all inclusive. Implementation of these, and the implementation of a better communication mechanism that will involve both the formal and informal means will aid the formation of a better organisation. The implementation of a good conflict resolution mechanism that involve lots of investigation and is based on a fair system, will reduce or even eliminate the inclusion of personal issues and misunderstanding in the policy formulation and organisational politics.
The corporate governance issue is one of the major topics that must be dealt with by the organisation in a bid to reform and be a more implementation focussed organisation (Wolf & Tana, 1995). First and foremost the organisation must channel resources to research on either what organisational structure is best suited for the organisation this could involve adoption of a new structure or the improvement on the existing structure.
The structure adopted by the new system should be more people oriented and easy to implement by organising the employees into groups. The new system should have clearly defined responsibilities for all members of the organisation. The implementation of this structured system of governance should be as er Weber’s theorem on bureaucracy, in that the jurisdiction of each specialised work group should be defined clearly, selection on the basis of technical qualification and the adoption of stable rules (Wolf & Tana, 1995). After the implementation of a new structure a new system of governance should be introduced in which decisions will be made on factual basis.
This new governance system must therefore be inclusive and be research intensive to aid fact finding on whose basis planning will be implemented. The mode of policy implementation taken by the organisation should be guided by Foucalt’s theorem on power, whereby the organisations managers should exercise their power by acting upon other actions with the aim of interfering with them, this will ensure that the employees behave in a manner desired by the employees without necessarily being asked to. This system therefore presupposes freedom in that power is not viewed as enforcement.
Conclusion
Problems in an organisation always have their roots in the implementation of poor systems of governance, poor organizational politics, lacklustre organisational culture and a limiting organisational structure (Hiat & Daft, 2000). In dealing with problems, organisations must trace the root cause of the problem and correct them; it is only through such an extensive mechanism that involve extensive research and resource use will lasting solution to organisational problems be found (Huczynsky, A. & Buchanan, D. 2004).
The implementation of the changes should adopt a model whereby the organisation should first recognise and admit there is need for change; this may involve highlighting the failures of the current system and in general creating an environment that is suitable for change for resistance to change is human. Secondly, once the desire for change has been established the areas that need change are identified, this may involve the definition of the gap that exist between the present system and the proposed system.
New activities and modes of implementation are introduced at this phase. Lastly, the organisation should then steps in ensuring that the new behaviour are adapted permanently by the organisation as it reinvents itself. The three step model is better known as the Lewin-Schein Change model (Huczynsky, A. & Buchanan, D. 2004).
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