Shared Values and Diverse Ideas in Healthcare Environment

Shared values and diverse ideas are crucial for organisational success. Shared values connect people within an organisation (Schein, 2010), while diversity serves as a source of strength, motivation, and empowerment for organisational members (Danowitz, Hanappi-Egger & Mensi-Klarbach, 2012). This can have a positive impact on employee productivity and organisational performance as a whole. Nonetheless, this may not be achieved if the potential conflict between shared values and diverse ideas is not effectively reconciled. Within the health care environment, it is particularly crucial to ensure coexistence between shared values and diverse ideas.

After highlighting the significance of shared values and diverse ideas to an organisation, this paper discusses how leaders in the health care environment can reconcile shared values and diverse ideas. Within the context of organisational behaviour, shared values essentially denote the beliefs, principles, and standards that bind or are common to members of a particular organisation. Shared values comprise part of an organisation's culture and define what an organisation believes in (Schein, 2010). For instance, an organisation may believe in teamwork, integrity, customer-centeredness, community involvement, and so on.

In any organisation, shared values are vital for integration, coordination, and control (Edington & Pitts, 2016). Integration means that members of a given organisation act in unison -- they behave in a similar manner. Coordination and control means that shared values serve as a valuable mechanism for organising, directing, and regulating organisational members. On the whole, shared values contribute to the achievement of organisational goals and objectives by positively affecting employee outcomes -- they foster organisational commitment, morale, collaboration, and a family-like atmosphere (Edington & Pitts, 2016).

Diverse ideas are also vital for organisational success. An organisation that embraces diverse perspectives benefits from a larger pool of ideas (Danowitz, Hanappi-Egger & Mensi-Klarbach, 2012). Individuals bring to the organisation different skills, experiences, and backgrounds. Without room for diversity, ideas that may be useful to the organisation may be blocked. Encouraging diverse ideas means that there are no for one-man-shows, where all the decisions are made by a single or a few individuals. It means giving everyone a chance to participate in decision making.

The different ideas are then evaluated to come up with the most feasible, suitable, and acceptable idea. In today's increasingly complex work environment, the diversity of ideas encourages creativity and innovation, which can in turn drive organisational performance (Yang & Konrad, 2011; Bell, 2012). Diversity is crucial for not only organisational performance, but also employee empowerment and motivation. When organisational members are given an opportunity to contribute their ideas, they feel appreciated, acknowledged, and valued (Danowitz, Hanappi-Egger & Mensi-Klarbach, 2012). This can increase employee commitment, loyalty, and satisfaction.

While shared values are important, they can often hinder diversity. The presence of shared values means that conflicting ideas may not be embraced. As organisational members are bound by a shared purpose and commonly agreed procedures, diverse perspectives may not thrive. Indeed, shared values and diverse ideas may often appear to be in conflict. In a health care organisation that espouses hierarchy, for instance, it may be quite difficult for ideas that encourage autonomy to be embraced.

Accordingly, leaders, especially in the health care environment, must effectively reconcile the potential conflict between shared values and diverse ideas. As both are important, shared values and diverse ideas can coexist in the health care environment without necessarily creating conflicts. In the health care environment, leaders have an integral role to play in enforcing the organisation's shared values -- they must be role models for their subordinates. Values such as respect, integrity, professionalism, compassion, stewardship, and excellence are crucial in the health care environment.

For health care leaders to ensure such values permeate every aspect of their organisation, they must be at the forefront. Leadership theory demonstrates that followers tend to emulate their leaders (Schein, 2010). Therefore, when leaders portray and enforce the organisation's shared values, they influence their subordinates to espouse the values. Leaders must, however, recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. This is particularly true in the health care environment (Yoder-Wise, 2013). Health care organisations serve individuals and populations with diverse needs.

Without attention to these specific needs, care that satisfies patients may not be achieved. For instance, in an organisation with rigid structures and procedures, every patient may be handled the same way oblivious of their unique needs and preferences. In such an organisation, a health care practitioner with different ideas about a given patient or population may not be allowed to use the ideas. Diversity is about encouraging different ideas at the workplace.

For example, a physician with an Asian background may have a better understanding of the needs and preferences of patients from Asian backgrounds. Utilising the ideas of that physician may result in more satisfying care for such patients. Allowing diverse perspectives about how to handle patients does not necessarily mean that the organisation's shared values are disregarded or compromised. It shows that while the organisation has shared values, it is open to ideas that add value to patients and the organisation at large.

According to Schein (2010), leaders are the custodians of organisational culture in any organisation -- they formulate and enforce the shared beliefs, values, practices, and norms of the organisation. This means that the extent to which an organisation embraces shared values and diverse ideas simultaneously is largely dependent on how the leadership of the organisation views the two. For shared values and diverse ideas to coexist in an organisation, leaders must place emphasis on both at the same time.

Overemphasising one at the expense of the other may be disadvantageous to the organisation. For instance, dwelling on shared values with little attention to diverse ideas may deny the organisation the benefits brought about by diversity. Equally, placing emphasis on diversity with little attention to shared values may block the organisation from the integration benefits.