After an interview with a practicing health care administrator it was evident that, like any other organization, health care facilities also have issues that it has to deal with in the course of its operations. Starting with the issues on human resources management, factors such as the size, composition and distribution of the health care workforce, training issues, level of economic development in the country, the migration of health works and socio-demographic, geographical and cultural factors contribute to the major human resources issues in the organization (Melcrum, 2012).
The variation of size, composition and distribution of health care workers in a country is a key indicator of that country’s ability to provide delivery and interventions. Provision of health services is also determined by factors such as social, geographical and cultural.
The training of the workforce is essential as it is required to ensure that the workforce is aware and is prepared to meet the a country’s present or future needs. Any health care system is sure of success as long as its workforce is properly trained.
The mobility of health care workforce can cause imbalances that would require better planning, attention to issues of pay and other rewards to improve the management of the workforce. Other incentives would include job rotations, housing, and infrastructure as a way of recruiting and retaining employees.
Another issue that arises in the global health care systems is the economic development. Countries with high domestic gross product tend to have larger healthcare forces compared to those whose GDP are relatively lower.
Socio-demographic elements such as age play a major in a country’s health care system. An ageing population for instance would increase the demand of health care services and health personnel. Whereas ageing populations in the health care system will result in additional training of younger workers to replace the older ones after retirement.
For any organization to be competitive in the fast paced competitive world of business, there must be set goals, plans must be made, work must be done, people motivated and mobilized, resources gathered and distributed and the objectives of the organization must be monitored and assessed(Melcrum, 2012). . All these are done by the mangers to see the objectives and goals reached. Management however falls into different levels, the top-level managers, middle-level managers and low-level managers.
The top management is made up of senior level executives of the organization such as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), President or Vice President. These managers are responsible for the direction in which an organization is to follow and also ensuring that the major objectives of the organization are achieved. Their role can extend to other department of the organization or to specific units such as finance, marketing or the human resources.
Middle-Level Managers report directly to the top-level management. The middle-level managers serve as the heads of the different department and their specific units in the organization. They act as the liaison between the top managers and the rest of the organization and they interact more often with the greater workforce than the top managers. Most of their time is spent on trying to reach goals set by the top managers by developing and implementing action plan necessary to achieve these goals. The job titles of these managers include directors, division manager, branch manager etc.
On the issue of employee morale, organizations rarely allocate budget to deal with employees morale and yet there are cost effective ways in which this issue can be dealt with. Positive morale help employees feel more in control of their environment which in turn impact the outcome positively. To improve employees’ morale and increase productivity, an organization needs to adopt proactive measures.
1. Listening to the employees
Organizations need to listen to their employees and getting their concerns in the public. These issues must be acknowledged and necessary improvements made. Mangers should be approachable, visible and well briefed so that they can be in a position to field the employees questions and grievances.
2. Communicate the organization issues and employees concerns
There should be an employee advisory workgroups that should be responsible in addressing the challenges that are most critical to the organization. Mangers also should create opportunities for dialogue and discussion which leads to the employees’ engagement. These dialogues can be done through public forums, electronic media, face to face etc.
3. Recognize employees and the organization accomplishments and success
Recognizing employees accomplishments will keep the morale very high. Mangers should be quick to point out wins and thank the employees for their contribution to the organization or team initiative. This can be realized through formal initiatives, informal gestures, or public recognition.
In the health care facilities it has become a norm for union to have conflicts from the greatest of issues to the smallest of a situation. These conflicts are brought about by issues such as scarcity of resources, different attitudes, values or perceptions, disagreement about goals, needs, interest and priority, inadequate organizational structure, poor communication, lack of team work and/or lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities. These conflicts are usually solved by means of information sharing where the union members are kept up to date with the current issues, encourage each other by expressing positive expectations, team building by expressing good morale, by publicly crediting an employee who has performed well and empowering each other to achieve results, and can also try and resolve conflicts by bringing different opinions into the open.
Labor laws have widely impacted on the human resources management in the health care. The law requires employer to protect employee’s medical records as confidential. The law protects the employees of sexual harassment and in the case where one is sexually harassed, he/she needs to prove that they are working in an abusive environment. The labor law also includes the affirmative action that requires employers to hire and promote people who belong to a protected group. This action is aimed at eliminating the present effect from the past discrimination. Labor laws also require that every individual should have an equal employment opportunity and no one should be discriminated against.
Conflict resolution strategies tend to follow common procedural steps, but differ depending on various factors concerning the nature of the conflict, the parties involved and other organization or industrial factors. Some of the conflict resolution strategies include the following:
Competing: This strategy is both assertive and incorporative in that each person follows his own concerns at the expense of the other party (Daft, 2007).
Avoidance: This style is unassertive but uncooperative, and is characterized by a form of neutrality, in which a person does not pursuer for his or her own interest neither does the interest of the other party followed (Furlong, 2005).
Collaborations: This strategy attempt to work with other parties involved in order to find a solution that will certainly satisfy the parties in conflict (Furlong, 2005).
Compromising: The objective in this strategy is to measure, equally satisfactory resolution that to some extent satisfies both parties.
References
Daft, R. L. (2007). Management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Furlong, G. T. (2005). The conflict resolution toolbox: models & maps for analyzing, diagnosing and resolving conflict. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
Melcrum, (2012) . Engage Employees in Strategy and Change. Retrieved from
https://www.melcrum.com/research/engage-employees-strategy-and-change
