Managerial Decision-Making (MGMT530)
{Date}
Executive summary 3
Introduction – Overview of Decision Problem 4
Problem Statement 4
Objectives 5
Summary of Key Objectives 5
Alternatives 6
Description of Alternatives 6
Selection 7
Consequence Table with Original Values 7
Scoring Model 8
Weighted Scoring Model 9
Consequences: Risk Profile 10
Implementation, Monitoring and Control 11
Timeline 12
Summary 13
Works cited 14
Executive summary
The following decision-making proposal is designed to provide solution for the future management of the Preoperative Clinic (Rutledge Tower) and Ashley River Tower Clinic, both belonging to the Medical University of South Carolina. Both clinics tend to face significant number of management issues, concerned with general development of MUSC. Since 2011, the management of the University has been looking forward to introducing major changes to the management policies, so that objectives of its Strategic Plan are implemented. However, no significant changes have been implemented, and the University is suffering from the lack of employee satisfaction and, consequently, from the lack of patient satisfaction. The issues are most serious at the level of above-mentioned clinics.
The main objectives of conducting change include increasing employee satisfaction, promoting higher patient satisfaction, as well as improving effectiveness and efficiency of the University’s functioning. Another crucial objective is saving costs. Alternatives include design and implementation of changes at the level of MUSC; design of changes at each of the clinics separately and combining two preoperative clinics into one (MUSC, 2010). The combination of two preoperative clinics into one is concerned with providing the new clinic with broader financial autonomy. The analysis of above-mentioned alternatives shows that combination of two clinics under study into the one preoperative clinic is the alternative that fits the objectives of the change the best, despite being concerned with significant risks and the need for careful monitoring of the way the change is being implemented.
It is estimated that the clinics will be combined over the period from October, 2014 to May, 2015. Important phases of the project include conducting preparatory activities (research, work with personnel), elaboration on the organizational chart of new clinic, consultations with management and staff, estimation of the initiative’s results.
Introduction-Overview of Decision Problem
Problem statement
The problem under study is concerned with dealing with wide range of management issues, being faced by the Medical University of South Carolina at the level of two major preoperative clinics of the University (Preoperative Clinic (Rutledge Tower) and Ashley River Tower Clinic). Since 2011, the top management of the University has been looking forward to introducing changes in order to support ambitious Strategic Plan of the University’s development for 2010-2015. The objectives of the plan include facilitating interprofessional and interdisciplinary research and cooperation; maximization of the usage of advanced technologies to advance healthcare, research and education at MUSC; promotion of the spirit of entrepreneurialism; support of collaboration, coordination and commitment to growth activities (MUSC, 2014). Despite the election of new President of University and its CEO in 2013, no major changes have occurred.
The lack of changes has aggravated the problems that have already existed prior to the start of the Strategic Plan 2010-2015 implementation. The most significant management problem that exists with regard to education, healthcare and research activities of the MUSC is concerned with the lack of employee satisfaction. This issue stems not only from the lack of positive management policies’ change, but continuous efforts of top management, aimed at decreasing costs, being spent on employee benefits and development. While the lack of employee satisfaction undoubtedly exerts negative impact on the quality of research and education at MUSC, this issue is especially dangerous for quality of healthcare services at MUSC, causing the lack of patient satisfaction. The issue is of considerable importance for the functioning of Preoperative Clinic (Rutledge Tower) and Ashley River Tower Clinic. Therefore, considerable efforts need to be applied in order to increase employee satisfaction and, consequently, the level of employee satisfaction. At the same time, it is worth taking into account the need to design cost-saving decision option.
Objectives
Significant range of stakeholders is concerned with solving the problem, described above. Firstly, top management of the University, as well as the management of clinics is involved. The change is going to be designed by joint efforts of the management of the University and the clinics. Secondly, staff represents an important group of stakeholders, because the change under study is concerned with improving job satisfaction of employees. Finally, the decision that will be made relates to patients.
The major expectations that are associated with current decision include high level of employee satisfaction in both clinics; patients’ more satisfied with the quality of services and staff’s attitudes, as well as clinics’ getting significant capacity to be able to conduct in-house management changes, independently on the top management of the university. The outcomes of the implementation of the change are expected to fit above-mentioned expectations. However, difficulties may be associated with launching the new mode of relationships between the top management of the university and the management of the clinics, as well as staff’s opposition to change. The change is concerned with the quality of services, provided by the clinics. The improvement of patient satisfaction is expected to be directly linked to the employee satisfaction (Topolosky, 2014)
Summary of key objectives
Alternatives
Description of alternatives
Selection
Consequence Table with Original Values: The Change in the Clinics
Scoring model: The Change in the Clinics
Legend
Weighted scoring model: The Change in the Clinics
Legend
Consequences: Risk profile
The analysis of two basic alternatives (implementing changes at the level of separate clinics and uniting the clinics) showed that the combination of two clinics can help realize the objectives, defined on the basis of managerial problems at MUSC more effectively, than conducting the change at the level of each clinic. However, combination of two preoperative clinics into the one and providing it with greater capacity and independence is likely to be associated with a range of uncertainties that require thorough preliminary analysis and elaboration on the ways to tackle them,
The risk profile shows that the change under study is associated with two major risks, namely the active opposition of employees and the inability to survive financial difficulties. However, while other alternatives do not seem to meet the objectives of the change and the nature of the change provides enough space for experiment, it is important for the management of MUSC to adopt significant degree of risk tolerance. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand that the decision to conduct changes, aimed at increasing employee satisfaction (especially the ones that require significant investments) is linked to the decision regarding the combination of clinics and broadening their financial autonomy.
Implementation, monitoring and control
The peculiarity of the implementation plan of the change under study lies in the fact that its different stages will be conducted at different level. The combination of clinics and designing the mode of their financial autonomy will be conducted by the top management of MUSC, while the implementation of changes that are immediately concerned with increasing employee and patient satisfaction will be enforced by the management of the combined clinic. Furthermore, the success of the activities, concerned with immediate influence upon the level of employee and patient satisfaction will depend on the mode of relations between MUSC and the combined clinic, chosen at the first stage of the project’s implementation.
Timeline:
Evaluation of the results of the change will be conducted by monthly monitoring of the state of combined clinic’s financials (by comparison with financials of separate clinics). The results of the implementation of measures, aimed at improving employee and patient satisfaction will be traced with the help of quantitative and qualitative methods, such as surveys and in-depth interviews with employees and patients respectively.
Summary
The project was dedicated to providing solution for the future management of the Preoperative Clinic (Rutledge Tower) and Ashley River Tower Clinic, both belonging to the Medical University of South Carolina. The objectives of the change that is required include increasing employee satisfaction, patient satisfaction, broadening the autonomy of the clinics, as well as maintaining cost-effective manner of the change. The alternatives included conducting change at the level of MUSC; at the level of two separate clinics or combining two clinics into the one. Multi-stage analysis showed that the best option was combining two clinics into one. Possible risks include the lack of clinics’ capability of functioning autonomously from MUSC, as well as the staff’s opposition to change. The likelihood of these issues’ appearance and the ways to tackles them are discussed. It is expected that the poject will be conducted from October, 2014 to May, 2015.
Works cited
MUSC (2010). Strategic Plan 2010-2015. Retrieved 2 June 2014 from http://etl2.library.musc.edu/strategicplan/
Topolosky, P.S. (2014). Linking employee satisfaction to business results. London: Rotledge
