Organization Development of Healthcare
Introduction
Hawthorne effect refers to some studies performed to show how training impacts on employee productivity at work. Comprehensive studies showed that sending employees for training tends to motivate them to work harder. This is because the employees consider themselves as long term investments of the organization. According to Hawthorne effect workers perform better if they are constantly being evaluated. Supervising the employees ensures that they are constantly focused on their work hence increasing their productivity. Evaluation increases employee motivation as it also involves the harmonization of salaries. Employee motivation will in turn increase productivity as employees. This theory explains the influence that the supervisors can have on their workers. Supervision of workers tends to increase their production as the workers focus on the work fully. It also ensures that there are constant consultations between the employees and their supervisors. More emphasis needs to be put on the improvement of employee welfare in order to increase their productivity. This can be done through increasing their wages and improving their working conditions. This way the employees have a conducive environment for proper focus on their job and hence increasing productivity.
Effective management
According to experiments performed Hawthorne effect increases productivity in organizations. Hawthorne’s effect also ensures that there is effective leadership in an organization. It makes managers effective leaders in many aspects. The managers are able to align workers in order to ensure that there is a collaboration of workers and effective interdependence between workers in the organization. When workers are aligned, they together pull their efforts and skills towards the attainment of their set objectives. This ensures that there is coexistence between the workers, and people are able to work together harmoniously.
Effective leadership allows management openness in an organization. This allows subordinates to voice their opinions on the work they are undertaking. It also allows the manager to give the required consideration on their suggestions. This way, the manager can be able to know the problems affecting the workers and know how to address them. It also allows managers to be present and available when needed and hence they can inspire the subordinates into doing the work. Human contact between the manager and subordinates ensures that managers can be able to inspire the emotions of the workers. This enables them to realize their talents and know how they can harmonize them towards the achievement of their goals. The ability of the manager to talk to anybody in the organization eradicates fear of the workers towards the manager hence they can approach the manager freely.
Motivational influences
Participative leadership allows the manager to motivate workers by satisfying their need for self esteem and personal development. This opens people up to the manager hence creating a good relationship between them. It increases workers' confidence hence enabling them to be better team players. Managers are also able to give emotional encouragement to the subordinates. Supportive managers are kind to the workers and always support them when they are undergoing emotional difficulties. Supportive managers also initiate programs that enable workers to help each other even in non-work-related matters such as bereavement of family members. Emotional encouragement increases workers self esteem and morale hence increasing their work rates and productivity.
Workers' participation
Hawthorne effect ensures that there is workers participation. This way, the workers can utilize their talents and skills. More workers' participation will encourage them to be more committed to their work hence increasing productivity in the organization. Workers' participation is a way of employee motivation. The workers feel as if the organization is investing in them. This, therefore, makes them feel valuable to the organization. The feeling of being part of the organization motivates them to work even harder. Workers' participation increases cooperation between the workers and management. This way they are able to voice their opinions regarding their work to the manager. The manager is also able to know the problems affecting the employees and address them amicably.
Shortcomings of the theory
This theory has been criticized based on claims that it focuses more on human personality rather than the needs of an individual. However, these criticisms have proved to be baseless. This is due to the fact that the theory focuses on both the individual’s needs and human personality. There are, however, some few shortcomings of the theory. Constant supervision of workers may be boring to the workers. Increase in boredom may increase absenteeism at the workplace hence reducing g productivity. In some cases, increase in productivity may not be as a result of increased employee satisfaction. It may be attributed to the accurate accountability portrayed by the workers. Increase in accountability may not necessarily be as a result of increase in employee satisfaction. An employee may be working under poor work conditions, paid low wages but is still accountable.
Hawthorne effect has been applied in a number of organizations in the health education sectors. It was used in Donn and Haimann’s health care management It clearly indicates that employee satisfaction was vital in the management of health. Employees had job satisfaction hence this led to increase in the quality of services rendered. This effectively explains the need of employee motivation in the organization. The more employees are motivated the higher the quality of work they rendered. The productivity of employees depended wholly on the motivation they got from the management. Motivation raised their morale increasing their work rates. This, in turn, increased the productivity. Supervision of employees in the health centers ensured that the supervisors were able to experience the work that the employees did. It also ensured that supervisors were readily available for consultation. Hawthorne effect can, therefore, be applied to a number of organizations for employee motivation. The theory has been applied, and it is evident that, in most cases, there is a relationship between employee motivation and increase in employee productivity. This theory has proved to be of great success.
Management style of choice: servant leadership
Servant leadership helps the manager to help others achieve their goals. As a good manager, I would be committed to helping anyone irrespective of their position and status in an organization. As a servant leader, a manager is more devoted to helping others as opposed to acquiring prestige and higher status. Being a servant leader helps a leader to lend a hand to workers during the peak periods. This way, the leader is able to know the problems that the workers face while doing the work and come up with ways of solving them. A servant leader also provides emotional healing to the workers who experience emotional distress. It includes granting workers permission to visit their sick relatives in hospitals. They also give them emotional support when they are undergoing difficult times.
Decision on layoffs
As a manager, the decision to lay off workers would depend on the amount of jobs to be laid off, the department in which they lie and the importance of that department to the organization. The organization can decide to outsource some services if they’ll cut down the operational cost. The organization should lay off workers in the departments which will not greatly affect the existence of the company. For instance, as a manager I may choose to do away with the transportation department. This way the organization may turn to hiring of vehicles for transport services. The jobs can be easily eliminated from the organization are those that can easily be replaced without compromising the quality of services rendered by the organization.
As a manager, I would ensure that I involve the necessary departmental heads in the decision making. These include the financial manager, the human resource manager and the head of quality control. The quality control manager would ensure me that the quality of services rendered would not be compromised by the laying off workers. The HRM would ensure that the organization gets rid of the most unproductive workers. The financial manager would ensure that there will be a cut of the cost after layoffs.
I would notify the employees to be laid off, first by convening a meeting and then sending them letters notifying them of the inevitable layoffs. Convening a meeting would ensure that there the employees are able to ask me any questions about the issue.
References
Dunn, R. ,. (2010.). Dunn and Haimann's healthcare management (9th ed ed.). Chicago: Health Administration Press.
Flippo, E. B. (1984). Personnel management (6th ed ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kazandjian, V. A., & Lied, T. (1999). Healthcare Performance Measurement: Systems Design and Evaluation. Milwaukee,: ASQ Quality Press.
Nord, W. R. (2011). A field experiment on Hawthorne effect and psychological demand characteristics. new york: Cornell University.
