Staff Morale Is Low. Employees

¶ … staff morale is low. Employees are tardy, little motivated, and aggressive. To elaborate on the latter, all departments (lab, pharmacy, medical records, insurance, provides, nurses) are more competitive than collaborative, so a relaxed, under-motivated environment has swept through the entire corporation. For some reason or other, employees who eagerly sought employment here are now leaving en masse; turn-over is at an all time high. Committees are not working cooperatively, people are not showing up to meetings, and some of the working teams seem to have set their own agendas. Employee satisfaction has dropped along with associated patient satisfaction. What we are seeing here, then, are the nine signs of a failing organization, namely fuzzy vision, lack of leadership skills, a discouraging worksite culture (evidenced by the high rate of employee dropout), possibly strict bureaucracy, lack of initiative, poor vertical communication (where employees and divisions both across and through the length of the organizational hierarchy fail to effectively communicate with one another), poor cross-functional collaboration (where the different departments fail to adequately communicate with one another), poor teamwork, and poor idea and knowledge management (Chaudron, http://www.organizedchange.com/assess.htm). Together, they are called in Chaudron's words 'programitis' when an organization has reached its umpteenth frustration and discouragement, and a feeling of cynicism and indifference has infested the entire organization. This draining of enthusiasm, not staunched at the outset, naturally festered and spread.

The major concerns obviously are that these factors, not obliterated in their initial stage, have been allowed to expand and distend infecting the entire organization, until each and every division has been negatively impacted, causing not only employees to leave but also attracting a negative reputation to adhere to the company. The ramifications and effects have been extensive. It is questionable whether the damage can be reversed, or whether it might not be too late.

Questions to ask to learn more about the problems

Focus groups, surveys, and interviews can be used to assess the breadth and depth of the symptoms.

I would like to know whether these have initiated from symptoms within just a few groups, namely around some goals, roles and relationships that some individuals within a few groups felt disaffection with, and the negative environment than transfused to other divisions. Alternatively, the situation may be traced back to a few key individuals, and this is something that I would like to investigate. On the other hand, it may be symptoms between and within groups such as over responsibility issues, over hiring procedures, over monetary issues, allocations of resources, struggles for power, and the like. In this case, apparently, the symptoms lie across the breadth of the organization (and this is something that I would like to determine). Being so, this implies that the following organizational symptoms are a cause of the corrosion. These include compensation, management style, performance appraisal, employee selection process, authority/communication patterns, as well as organizational mission, vision and goals (Eicher, www.pignc-ispi.com).

My survey methods would focus on the identity and breadth of these problems. Generally, the more diffuse the negative situation, the more likely it is that more than one of these factors will be involved (Eicher, www.pignc-ispi.com).

Questions to ask my employees

I would like to know about the history of the organization. Whether any new managers have recently been put into charge, and I would like a detailed report about the conduct and policies of these managers. I would also like to see the record of new employees and investigate whether any have been of detrimental effect to the organization. I would like to see whether there are any conflicts over resources, or individuals who feel that they should have been promoted to a certain division or position. I would also like to ascertain whether any individual feels that he or she was treated unfairly and, if so, by which manager. I would investigate satisfaction over remuneration, whether employees are content with management style, whether they are satisfied with the fairness of upper hierarchy appraisal of their performance, where they receive clear, timely and valid feedback regarding their work performance. I would also like to assess whether organizational vision, mission and goals are clearly articulated and in an exciting and persuasive manner. Finally, I would like to ask the employees their opinions on hiring procedures and on whether they feel one or more of the hired employees were unfairly selected.

Stakeholders I might seek input from Stakeholders are defined as "those key individuals (or groups of individuals) who have an influence over either decision-making or implementation (or both) either directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly" (Begun & Heatwole, p.25). They can be a wide array of individuals, groups, and/or organizations. These are usually individuals within the organization who are decision makers or who are associated with key issues and/or actions being considered.

Stakeholders may be both external and internal to the organization and with the community health care system -- as in this case -- they may certainly include state and local governments, as well as certain research and pharmaceutical agencies. If implemented wisely, the input of these stakeholders can assist with decision-making.

The concerns for each stakeholder

With stakeholder analysis, I would adopt a retrospective approach where my objective would be to uncover past experience, processes, and patterns (Brugha & Varvasovszky, 239). This is particularly appropriate in this case, since I would want to assess the situation in its entirety, and the situation is complex with likely a wide range of stakeholders involved.

Furthermore, since questions of policy are involved, I would also adopt a long-term, retrospective, broad scope analysis, as well as a prospective peek into the future to see whether plausible modifications would work.

What I would do to fix the problem

I would address the nine symptoms that characterize this falling organization. More specifically: fuzzy vision would be corrected by assessing the passions and interests of my employees and then delineating a vision in their language that they can identify with and feel motivated over. Lack of leadership skills would be corrected by employing a leader that would possess the following characteristics: (Eicher, www.pignc-ispi.com):

1. Empowerment

2. Risk-taking

3. Participation

4. Development

My leader would have all of these characteristics. I would empower the employees, take them all into my confidence, listen to their ideas regarding how the organization can work. Most importantly, I would ensure that the leader has the skills to inspire the employees to work independently and to gain their own knowledge.

I would inspire an atmosphere of innovation so that employees together decide how to modify and alter the situation, and this would be done in a face-saving manner in a supportive rather than in an accusatory atmosphere. Finally, I would ensure that my manager foster an environment of continuous learning and growth, and I would set a stratagem in place where this development is continuously monitored so that positive change is assessed.