Intercultural Communication And Organisational Behaviour Business

Identification and Explanation of the Motivating Factors that help the Health Care Workers to Continue Working in the Sector

Discuss about the Intercultural Communication and Organisational Behaviour Business.

The health workers are a significant part of the health system, however often neglected, that is why the huge shortage of health workers in New Zealand is a critical issue in the present time. Researchers have found that there are several factors such as limited budget, lack of motivation, lack of effectual planning system, migration of workers, limited allotment of budget in the health sector causing low salary for the workers, limited opportunity for the employment and professional growth are responsible for the severe deficiency of human resources in the health sector (Champoux, 2016). Lack of workers often turns into inappropriate mixing of skills and creates gaps in the worker distribution in the field.

In coping up with the problem, there might be various motivation strategies that can be applied. Theories of motivation say that the workers can be motivated towards a common goal of achieving the shared target. There might be both financial and non financial incentives that are going to help to motivate the workers in the health sector field. However, financial incentives have been worked as the most important motivation factor for the workers in the health sector (Bücker et al., 2014). The incentives may include salary supplements, higher salaries with benefits and several allowances. Researchers in investigating the aged care centres in New Zealand have found out that low salary is a major reason of job dissatisfaction and migrating into different sector for the health care workers. If more improved salary and other benefits are provided to the workers as a major financial incentive, it will make the workers stay in the field. This measure has helped the overall numbers of medical helpers around the globe and proved to an effective one. If the Government is unable to revise the pay scale for all the health care workers, it can be applicable for the high priority groups too. Apart from the revised pay scale, salary benefits, supplements and other allowances can be offered to the workers to attract them and retain in the field (Jeon et al., 2015). It may include location based hardship allowance, accommodation allowance, and other financial benefits like pension plans, health insurance, lucrative overtime payment, transport allowance etc (Merkin, Taras & Steel, 2014).

There may be few non financial incentives that can be offered as well. Few studies in the field have proved that only financial benefits are not sufficient enough to retain the workers in the health care sector. Huge range of non financial incentives needs to be included in the package to encourage the workers, especially in the remote and rural areas. The working environment can be the strongest influence in order to provide the job satisfaction (Killett et al., 2016). All the workers should get adequate facilities and environment to fulfil their job requirements. While most of the evidences are anecdotal, it can be said that improving the living and working conditions may appear to be an important one. The suitable infrastructure, sanitation, appropriate equipments and other drug supplies, communication can make the work environment more approaching to the workers (Bird et al., 2015). The non financial motivation may include the proper training and development for all the workers, such as arranging programs that focuses on the local situation, or language training for the migrated workers can help the limited workforce to be influenced. There are ample numbers of specialized training programs that can be offered to the care givers as well. If the workers do not get proper training and developmental opportunity, that can be de-motivating for them. Also, the rotation of their job location can be another motivating factor. Several findings from researches show that if workers from rural areas get the opportunity for transfer, they do not get isolated professionally and this can be highly motivating (Brodaty et al., 2014). 

Identification of the Major Role of Stress and how it can be Managed to Reduce the Staff Turnover

According to the study by NZ Herald in 2012, one in four caregivers has left their job in the aged care homes and hospitals in New Zealand. Several studies around the world have recognized that provided care to the older people has a negative effect on the emotional being and the social activity of the caregivers, especially the ones who are in charge of elderly people, are seen to experience more psychological and physical burdens (Okello & Gilson, 2015). They also suffer from severe stress, anxiety and depression than others. Job stress arises from both the organizational and individual stressors in the aged care homes. Therefore, the long term job stress leas to suffer exhaustion in the place of work; also it is characterized by cynicism, lack of personal achievement and depression (Lim et al., 2014). This also results in the decrease of organizational commitment and lower productivity. Over the past few decades, researchers have followed this trend and examined the significant factors related to job stress and exhaustion and realized that there is a need to consider the organizational stress on the employees to create a healthy word environment for them. The health sector employees are supposed to be responsible for the ill and the aged ones, and there might be situations that can result into death. This has been the main cause of their health and safety concerns.

Studies have shown that even if the caregivers are professionally trained, they have high chance to experience emotional and mental strain (Meissner & Radford, 2015). Around 25% of the caregivers leave their job because of their own physical and mental health and experience several issues like frustration, anger, anxiety, depression and other mental attributes because of several reasons. It might be distressing for them to put someone’s life on hold and to take care of someone who becomes upset frequently and bad-tempered. They might feel guilty of not paying attention to their personal issues as well. In order to manage the stress and anxiety of the employees and reduce the employee turnover, every organization should follow few regulations, or else the organizations like the aged care homes will not have professional and trained caregivers to offer quality work.

It might cost a little more for the organizations to take measures to reduce the employee turnover, yet this may be useful for them in the long run. The well being of the organization entirely depends on the well being of the employees, that is why this issue has been considered to be a necessary one in the modern workplaces. This includes the employees feeling safe and healthy, also having a positive attitude towards the job and the work not undermining their personal lives (Dong, Seo & Bartol, 2014). The organizations should effectively target the key issues that bother the employees from all levels and identify the stressors. They should also have a stress reduction policy with relevant arrangements that might enable the employees to reduce their anxiety and not opting for leaving the job. In any organization, the management should have a positive work culture and the staffs should have a clear vision about their contribution to the job. This might make them feel more connected to the organization and their success. In addition to that, the organization may revise the pay structure and the other financial benefits to have a motivation for the employees.

Identification of the Role of Organization in Affecting Employee Behaviour and Improving the State of Residential Care in New Zealand

The contemporary health services including the residential care giving homes, have confronted the workforce challenge, fiscal constraints, changing demands of the consumers and also the issues with employee behaviour in the organization (Bamblett et al., 2014). Effectual governance is crucial to increase the effective care management in the aged care homes in New Zealand. Effectual clinical leadership is linked with the functions of the health care sectors. This is one of the basic requirement of the health care sector that includes the systematic performance and the achievement of the objectives of the residential care organizations (Edvardsson, Watt & Pearce, 2017). In the residential care homes the management and the employees should always respect the needs of the client in order to provide quality care. There are several internal factors in the organization that might enhance the quality of service the organization is providing to the consumers.

In order to achieve good employee behaviour in the organization, it should adhere to the effective role of the managers and leaders (Wood et al., 2016). They play a significant role in influencing the individual behaviour in the workplace. The caregivers in the aged care homes face a lot of mental health issues and they tend to leave the job. Studies show that around 25% of the caregivers have left their job. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the manager to set a proper direction for the employees. If the employees have strict boss, they tend to feel reluctant towards their job, especially when they already have immense work pressure and a stressful job. In addition to that, the culture at the workplace has a higher chance to influence the employee behaviour where the positive culture brings out the best from the individual, a stressful work culture enhance the employee turnover (Drury et al., 2014). The organizations should ensure that there is enough transparency in all the levels.  There also should be effectual communication between the organization and the employees, in that way the management gets to know the exact problems in them and find solutions to that. Most of the times, the caregivers feel guilty about not providing enough time to their family lives, so the organization should make sure that the employees get enough time to spend with their loved ones. In that way they will have relaxed and happy employees at the workplace (Kok et al., 2015).

If the management takes care of these internal factors in the residential care centres in New Zealand, soon they will be able to improve their state and a effective employee behaviour in the organization.

I have interviewed three healthcare employees regarding their motivators and other experiences at the workplace. The first one was a junior employee, who has just been employed in one of the eldercare centres. Another two healthcare employees were senior employees of the eldercare organization, who has been working there for two years and one and a half years respectively. The questions asked in the interview centred on their respective experiences in the healthcare centre and their past experiences. 

Regarding the motivators on a regular basis, the employees seemed quite involved with the aged and ill ones they provide care. They are involved in their job role and that is the primary reason for them to join this sector. However, they seemed to be a little unsatisfied with the pay structure of the organization. Their job demands a good amount of time and they sometimes have to avoid their personal responsibilities and expect to be well praised for that. My suggestion to the management is that the organization needs to revise their pay structure a little. If there are not enough resources for applying that for all levels of employees, the high priority group can be chosen for that. If the pay structures of senior employees get revised, the junior ones will get motivated to reach that place, and it might work as a major motivator on a regular basis.

While talking to the employees, I realized that a major de-motivator for them is unhygienic atmosphere at the workplace. The healthcare employees are very much expected to be particular with cleanliness and hygiene; therefore they cannot tolerate the dirtiness. The authority should ensure that they provide a clean and positive workplace to their employees. This will help the staffs to reduce the job anxiety and stress.

Regarding the regular stress and anxiety at the workplace, the employees seemed to have few important issues. The primary problem with the healthcare employees is that they experience death of people they take care for quite some time. This impacts on their mental health and they might get depressed as well. Regarding this issue, the management might organize few motivating sessions with the employees, so that they do not get depressed with such situations and keep the motivation to offer good quality care to the clients.

Reference List

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Brodaty, H., Low, L. F., Liu, Z., Fletcher, J., Roast, J., Goodenough, B., & Chenoweth, L. (2014). Successful Ingredients in the SMILE Study: Resident, staff, and management factors influence the effects of humor therapy in residential aged care. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22(12), 1427-1437.

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Champoux, J. E. (2016). Organizational behavior: Integrating individuals, groups, and organizations. Routledge.

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