Building Organizational Capacity In Health Care

Advantages and Disadvantages of Current Organizational Structure

Discuss about the Building Organizational Capacity in Health Care.

This section presents a critical analysis of merits and disadvantages of prevailing hospital organization structure for present health care setting and altering health needs of the populace. The prevailing hospital has adopted the traditional, functional (bureaucratic) organizational structure. The functional organization describes a situation in which the organization is divided into distinct units anchored on roles like marketing, accounting, research and development. This structure provides various potential merits and demerits (Cordery et al., 2015).

The advantages include specialization and efficiency and productivity whereas limitations are lack of teamwork and difficult management control. With respect to specialization, this structure is that it provides a high degree of specialization. Individual unit runs as a kind of independent mini-organization, delegated with undertaking its particular role (Cummings & Worley, 2014). Workers characteristically commerce their respective professions in entries level point under function as well as develop specific knowledge as they shift up in the ladder. The employees turn into professional in their functional regions, and the unit as well as organization gain from their respective know-how along with experience over period (Dunning, 2015).

As provided for in the in the vision statement “provide positive health experiences for the community”, specialization will help propel this vision. This is because the work will be divided to particular units and each unit will have developed the required expertise to needed to achieve this vision statement. With respect to mission statement, specialization will also help achieve the mission (Fan, Wong & Zhang, 2013).

The mission for example, is emphasized on quality and this is what specialization provides as expertise and specialist health care will be accomplished. Specialization will also enhance the achievement of the overall strategic goal (Hurlburt et al., 2014). This is because specialization allows for expertise who will push for the accomplishment of the strategic goal.

Another advantage is efficiency and productivity. Since functional organizational structure produces an expert worker through specialization in his corresponding functional area, it can accomplish the tasks with a high degree of swiftness as well as competence thus augmenting organization’s productivity. Workforces in this hospital will know their jobs well and will able to proceed with confidence as well as with a least amount of mistakes. Since the career paths within the functional unit is clear, the workers will be highly motivated to advance their respective careers in the organization by attainment of the following step on ladder, thus making them more productive. This is in line with vision, mission and overal strategic goal of the organization as explained above.

Specialization and efficiency and productivity

The limitation of the functional organizational structure is that there will be lack of teamwork. The vision and mission of the hospital as stated above will be dealt a blow with lack of teamwork. This is because whereas specialized components within functional structure usually execute under a high degree of efficiencies, there will be trouble working well with some other units in the organization. The units will become territorials and unwilling to collaborate with one another to achieve the mission, strategic goals and vision as stated above. This is because individual unit will serve in its individual best interests rather than those of organization in entirety.

The backbiting in the organization will cause tasks and projects to fall behind schedule. The other disadvantage is problematic management control. This structure will inflict a test for the top management to uphold effective control as the organization enlarges.  As the hospital get greater and the top management embraces more delegation relating to decision-making errands to particular functional area, the degree of independence will rise. This makes the coordination of activities critical in meeting the mission, vision and strategic goals above more difficult. Maintaining control of as well as managing separate functions become even more challenging hence derailing the expected accomplishments.

The best alternative organizational structure to push this agenda through is the collaborative structure. This structure will be appropriate for the new health service. The features of this structure include; a networked along with nonhierarchical organizational structure; an openness, trust and honesty and; an engaged along with valued staff culture. It is basically a fundamental culture of collaboration which propels all activities with organization. 

Under the networked and non-hierarchical structure, it gives the antithesis for the traditional command as well as control organization and hence will eliminate the rigidity of roes and management authority. It is a more fluid as well as flat with individual workers assigned greater responsibility to make decisions suitable to their respective roles as well as concerned tasks without bottlenecks resulting from coatings of management endorsements along with red tape (Garner, 2014). The players are well-defined by what they are trying to accomplish rather than their respective positions in the organization and emphasis is put on leadership with targets being set for individuals alongside teams and subsequently offering suitable inspiration besides backing to assist them accomplish such goals.

Under the culture of openness, trust and honesty, every stakeholder including employees will have a voice besides being fortified to showcase their diverse opinions deprived of any dread of treading on toes of the executives. It is fewer around individuals being availed a podium to publicly criticize their counterparts, managers and even leaders, but rather about the creation of a surrounding in which openness, sharing as well as discussions remain core to everything which happens, be that declaration or explanation of a newfangled approach or course for the organization, a proposed alteration to processes in a given part of business, or simply event, news items or suggestions at the local degree.

Lack of teamwork and difficult management control

It does not imply to assert that each action, conclusion inside this cooperative organization is essentially continuously accomplished collaboratively, nonetheless rather there is a shared pledge of trust amid the peers, between employees and leaders. This means no intellect of threat or inconveniences from inviting other people to underwrite an opinion, or offer response, and individuals remain confident as well as willing to do that when the need arises.  

Under the engaged and valued workforce, the workers are provided greater responsibility, as well as chance to communicate their opinion, engage with peers as well as managers. In doing so, the employees have a say in the manner things are undertaken and direction the organization is taking. The outcome is the staff which is increasingly engrossed in the affluences of the organization, who cares whether the organization achieves its goals as well as feeling a collective sense of ownership along with involvement in process of accomplishing such goals. The workforce will be an empowered one with much greater loyalty to the organization. They will likely churn often as persons seeking to gain greater degrees of accountability, and finding a proprietor with healthier values to workers dedication.     

The collaborative organizational structure could better expedite the achievement of the new mission along with strategic goals of this Hospital.  The strategic goal and mission stand best achieved under this new alternative structure. This is because the rigidities noted in the functional organizational structure as explained above will be uprooted (Majchrzak et al., 2014). The employees and leaders will have a more collaboration with sharing of new ideas and opinions that help drive the goals and mission. The employees will also be motivated and feeling part of the organization and this means that they will give their best to achieve the mission and strategic goals as explained above.

The fundamental authority lines along with responsibilities for accomplishing the overall organizational strategic goals within the recommended structure (collaborative organizational structure. Since this structure is less-structured and less rigid as compared to functional structure, the authorities are reduced as people can communicate and share information across the organization irrespective of leaders, executives and employees. Sharing of information will be increased and consultation will be done without the bureaucratic procedures and authorities (McEvily, Soda & Tortoriello, 2014). The Hospital will benefit greatly as execution of new ideas will be swifter thereby enabling the hospital to respond to the fast growing competitive challenges and market structures (Baron et al., 2014).

Alternative Organizational Structure Identification

The benefits is this slightly- structured and nonhierarchical collaborative context for working is that it will allow for the execution of new ideas more swiftly thereby enabling the hospital to respond to the fast growing competitive challenges and market structures (Vincent, Burnett & Carthey, 2014). Moreover, the new projects and teams will get up as well as run rapidly, deprived of the necessity for substantial reorganizations hence generating new dynamics in the Hospital. Communication is considerably quicker, with core news that allow for accessing individuals directly, instead of being filtered via management (Ashkenas et al., 2015).

The information will as well flow more effortlessly in the entire organization through a peer-to-peer channel. This effectively aligns to altering health care atmosphere alongside what this Hospital desires to accomplish for its stakeholders. The limitation of the collaborative structure is that some employees may over criticize in pretense of offering opinions and ideas which may delay the achievement of the set goals (Albers, Wohlgezogen & Zajac, 2016). Also, some traditional managers and leaders may feel as if they are not respected when employees offer their opinion hence bringing conflicts. 

References

Albers, S., Wohlgezogen, F., & Zajac, E. J. (2016). Strategic alliance structures: An organization design perspective. Journal of Management, 42(3), 582-614.

Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T., & Kerr, S. (2015). The boundaryless organization: Breaking the chains of organizational structure. John Wiley & Sons.

Baron, S. L., Beard, S., Davis, L. K., Delp, L., Forst, L., Kidd?Taylor, A., … & Welch, L. S. (2014). Promoting integrated approaches to reducing health inequities among low?income workers: Applying a social ecological framework. American journal of industrial medicine, 57(5), 539-556.

Cordery, J. L., Cripps, E., Gibson, C. B., Soo, C., Kirkman, B. L., & Mathieu, J. E. (2015). The operational impact of organizational communities of practice: A Bayesian approach to analyzing organizational change. Journal of Management, 41(2), 644-664.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Dunning, J. H. (2015). Reappraising the eclectic paradigm in an age of alliance capitalism. In The Eclectic Paradigm (pp. 111-142). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Fan, J. P., Wong, T. J., & Zhang, T. (2013). Institutions and organizational structure: The case of state-owned corporate pyramids. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 29(6), 1217-1252.

Garner, W. R. (2014). The processing of information and structure. Psychology Press.

Hurlburt, M., Aarons, G. A., Fettes, D., Willging, C., Gunderson, L., & Chaffin, M. J. (2014). Interagency collaborative team model for capacity building to scale-up evidence-based practice. Children and Youth Services Review, 39, 160-168.

Majchrzak, A., Rice, R. E., King, N., Malhotra, A., & Ba, S. (2014). Computer-mediated inter-organizational knowledge-sharing: Insights from a virtual team innovating using a collaborative tool.

McEvily, B., Soda, G., & Tortoriello, M. (2014). More formally: Rediscovering the missing link between formal organization and informal social structure. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 299-345.

Vincent, C., Burnett, S., & Carthey, J. (2014). Safety measurement and monitoring in healthcare: a framework to guide clinical teams and healthcare organisations in maintaining safety. BMJ quality & safety, 23(8), 670-677.