Background and Problems Faced by Bruce Hughes Healthcare and Rehabilitation Organisation

The health care organization that has been chosen for the case study analysis is the Bruce Hughes Healthcare and rehabilitation organisation. This organization was set up independently by Mr. Bruce Hughes in the year 1984(Hugheshealth.com, 2018). Prior to the establishment of the healthcare organization, Mr. Bruce was a doctor and catered to the medical needs of the people. Mr. Bruce decided to assume a role of an entrepreneur and adopt measures to expand his clinical service delivery. This is what struck in him the idea of undertaking a health care business. This paper would effectively discuss the background of the current problems faced by the organization and proceed with identifying the strategic management approach that could effectively help in the prevention of the issues faced by the organization. It would further analyse the external and internal business environment and the modified leadership role that could effectively help in combating the present complications and ensuring better management policies. Further, the paper would also focus on drafting an effective management plan so as to improve the patient service delivery.

Bruce Hughes healthcare organization that was developed in the year, 1984 was solely established by Dr. Bruce Hughes. Initially as the healthcare organization was just a start-up, it was not difficult for Mr. Bruce to manage all administrative responsibilities single handedly band at the same time also treat his clients. However, as the organization expanded and the strength of the client increased, Mr. Bruce employed a few health care professionals who were responsible of talking care of the clinical department as well as the administrative department handling patient documentations and maintenance of accounts. However, there have been tremendous issues within the organization in terms of disparity between the administration department and the clinical department. In addition to this, the prevalence of gossip culture popular among the employees have led to the deterioration of the work atmosphere that has hampered the productivity of the organization(Hugheshealth.com 2018). The disparity that is prevalent among the admin department and the clinical department is primarily on account of the available provision for training and the facility of leaves that can be availed by the members of the clinical department. Despite allocating job responsibilities to the clinical and the administrative departed the ultimate managerial responsibilities are handled by Mr. Bruce independently(Hugheshealth.com 2018). It has been observed that the profit outcome of the healthcare organization has suffered a huge set back and as a result Mr. Bruce has considered the proposal of hiring a manger who would frame adequate managerial policies and help in the proper enforcement of the managerial policies and laws. It is expected that with the assistance of the newly recruited manager, the organization would undergo a major reform and accordingly the profit outcome would also improve to a decent percentage. It is seen that after the new manager assumes his job role, there is a major resistance from the work force, however after a tenure of twelve months, the profit outcome is seen to increase by 12% (Hugheshealth.com 2018).

Internal and External Environment Analysis

Strategic management helps in establishing policies that would critically address the complexities existing within the organization and at the same time would also set guidelines for enhancing effective strategies (AvolioandYammarino, 2013). On closely evaluating the case study, it can be said that the organization had serious issues with reference to the prevalence of gossip culture popular among the employees. This not only affected the performance output of the employees but also acted as a primary element that promoted digression. The identified problems were sought out or addressed with the use of effective management strategies and strategic planning (Karkand Shamir, 2013). The strategic planning involved designing and ensuring a better communication strategy that eased the flow of communication between every department working for the organization. It also involved managerial policies to strictly stop the gossip culture and at the same time invest heavily in the organization for the improvement and redesigning of the organization’s infrastructure. The policies encouraged a positive work atmosphere and at the same time allowed ample amount of opportunities to admin level employees as well as the assistant employees to realise their potential with the available opportunities for training and development. Hence, it can be commented that with the use of effective strategic management, the performance output of the employee workforce can be effectively enhanced.

On critically analysing the relevant case scenario, it can be stated that the role of leadership played a pivotal role in the development of a positive work atmosphere and enhance the production output (Braun et al. 2013). The style of leadership that was undertaken to address the complexities of the case scenario was the transformational type of leadership. The transformational leadership is based upon the idea of identifying the existing problems in the organization, develop a rationale to address the problem and clearly develop a vision (McCleskey, 2014). On being able to develop a vision, the primary responsibility of the leader lies with the ability of the leader to motivate the employees and create adequate opportunities (Choudharyet al. 2013) so as to provide them with facilities for their career growth and development. In the context of this case study, it can be said that on appointing the new CEO who was entrusted with the responsibility to mage the administration of the organization effectively, the work force offered a stiff resistance. The work force was not ready to accept a change in the leadership style. This is a common scenario in any developing organization. A change is often associated with a major setback to the present work force and as a result faces tremendous resistance (OdumeruandOgbonna 2013). However, the manager implemented various organization reforms and committed to effectively improve the performance output rate of the employees and at the same time also lead to the increased profit output. In order to successfully implement the improvised strategies, the newly hired CEO had requested for a minimal time frame for the employees in order to make them realise the positive outcome of the improved managerial policies. At the end of the tenure, a massive change was noted in terms of employee satisfaction, positive work atmosphere and smooth functioning of the organization. It should also be mentioned here that after a time period of 3 years, the annual sales report of the organization revealed a success rate of more than 25%. The organization earlier followed a scheme of awarding a bonus to the employees with the 13^th cheque, but the new CEO changed the system and divided the pay of bonus into 12 equal cheques. This was done to ensure that the employees remain motivated throughout the year and put in their best efforts to earn a bonus. It was identified that the system of awarding a bonus with the 13^th pay cheque made the employees work casually throughout the year and with the onset of the 13^th month, the employees focused on their responsibilities in order to gain bonus and recognition. Another policy reform included the incorporation of the feedback system that determined employees to generate feedback about the behaviour of the co-workers. This not only helped in putting an end to the unhealthy gossip culture but also promoted the concept of maintaining a positive work atmosphere that boosted up the performance output of the employees. Dr. Bruce Hughes’ main intention of collaborating with the new CEO of the organization was primarily due to his inefficient capability to manage the business administration and at the same time to address the poor patient outcome. Dr. Bruce Hughes was overloaded with the work pressure and problems related to the manhandling of the administration. With no training and knowledge in managing business operations, it became extremely difficult for Mr. Bruce to keep a track with the emerging market trends prevalent in the healthcare sector and accordingly design healthcare strategies. Hence, the collaboration with the new CEO proved to extremely productive for the growth and development of the organization.

Leadership Role in Addressing the Problems

Force field analysis serves as a tool in evaluating the driving as well as the restraining forces that are essential to maintain the proper functioning of the organization and promote the growth of the organization (Markiewiczet al. 2014). While the driving forces facilitate the identification of the key issues that need to be addressed and are contributing towards the poor growth of the organization, the restraining forces form a part of the inhibiting forces that lead to the opposition of the workforce to accept the improvised reforms (Maresovaet al. 2015). In order to successfully design an effective management strategy for an organization it is important to compare and consider both these aspects and develop a clear rationale (Barr andDowding 2015).

 With relevance to the case study it can be said the availability of inadequate training facilities to facilitate the growth opportunity of the employees led to the feeling of excessive work pressure and over load. In addition to this, it also acted as a demotivating factor that led to the worsening of the work force spirit and facilitated poor performance outcome. In order to address the driving forces, the existing managerial policies were reformed and it involved in undertaking certain major reforms (IzogoandOgba 2015). The response of the employee workforce to the introduced managerial reforms witnessed major opposition by the employees. This led to the adoption of effective negotiation in order to develop a rational and convince the working employees about the positive outcomes that can be achieved with the stringent implementation of the reformed policies.

The successful growth of an organization is heavily dependent on effective planning (Ng et al. 2013). An effective planning in management heavily depends upon carrying out a stringent external and internal analysis. The external analysis is commonly known as the PEST or the PESTEL analysis and comprises of identifying all the external factors such as the political, economic, social, market threats, environmental and legal factors and accordingly plan the business idea (Aslan et al. 2014). It has been reported in research studies that conducting an external environmental analysis is pivotal in case of expanding the business operations to a foreign nation (Legare et al. 2014). The external environment analysis provides an overview that helps in considering all the external factors and carefully addressing them so as to launch a successful business program (Baker et al. 2017). On the other hand, it should be mentioned that the internal environmental analysis takes into consideration the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats associated with the business idea and evaluating the efficacy of launching the business and measuring the successful outcome (WHO 2014).

Strategic Management Approach

In relation to the case study it can be said that the significance of conducting the external and the internal environment analysis would help in developing an overview about the current market trends in the health care industry and at the same it would also help in improvising the existing policies so as to suit the analysed trend of the existing internal and external environment and at the same time also ensure the sustaining capability of the healthcare organization from the emerging market threats and new entry (Drucker 2014). Hence, it can be said that the external and the internal analysis would help the organization in being able to identify the strength and weaknesses and avail the possible opportunities to introduce an innovation and enhance better service delivery. The external environment analysis would help in figuring out the possible threats by rival companies in terms of their innovation and also analyse the changes in terms of changes in market value, price hike or legal and environmental restraints (Johnston and Marshall 2013).

On the basis of the effective findings after conducting the strategic audit based on the external and internal analysis it can be said the strategic actions should primarily focus on keeping a close track on the changing patient demands and the other medical health facilities being provided by the rival organizations (Autio and Thomas 2014). In relation to this, it can be said that the organization needs to work on the existing infrastructure and incorporate the recent diagnostic advancement technologies that would efficiently promote better service delivery (Verbeke and Tung 2013). At the same time, it would also ensure that the organization is in close association with the changing patient demands. On closely accessing the case scenario, the health care organization has been using applications such as ‘tele-health tools’, this has helped in revolutionising the health care sector (Hallstedt et al. 2013). The feasibility of this application can be measured in terms of better patient satisfaction as the patients are being able to communicate closely with their doctors on encountering a typical complication. At the same time, it also reduces the hassle of tracking the availability of a doctor, booking an appointment and waiting for the doctor to diagnose the patient. This technology is based on a dynamic approach and it helps the patients in conveniently seeking an advice at any time of the day over the phone. Also, the organization has a provision of organizing a one to one session, where the client is provided with an opportunity to seek the advice of multiple experts before proceeding with the treatment( Schneider and Spieth 2013). This helps the patients in seeking better health care facilities and also helps them in being sure about the treatment procedure that would be followed. These tools however can be termed as dynamic tools and are found to be under constant development and up-gradation in order to provide the best healthcare service delivery to the patients (Gyrd and Kornum 2013).

Effective Management Plan to Improve Patient Service Delivery

On closely evaluating the existingstrengths and weaknesses of the policies in the organization. It can be said that the organization has improved tremendously in terms of enhanced service delivery and employee satisfaction. The success rate of an organization is marked by the employee workforce working for the organization and the level of job satisfaction in accordance to fulfilling the expected job roles and responsibilities for the organization (Porter and Lee 2013). The reforms in the organization primarily focused on identifying and accessing the factors that led to the poor employee performance and service delivery. It was noticed that the prevalence of gossip-culture and absence of a well-defined hierarchal structure acted as a factor that qualified as a factor of weakness for the organization. These factors needed immediate attention to be addressed and amended. On the other hand, the changes that were made in the managerial policies by the recruited CEO helped in considerably improving the status of the organization in terms of enhancing the productivity rate with improved service delivery. Moreover the issue of the prevalent gossip culture among the employees could also be tackled to a considerable extent. The management policies also included a reformed and modified infrastructure that encompassed of modifications such as incorporation of ‘tele-medical services’ or an online portal to efficiently generate an appointment for the client, thereby saving the hassle (Hallstedt et al. 2013). However, on analysing the emerging market trends in the health care sector, it can be said that the rival organizations are much more advanced in terms of the medical equipment (Flores et al. 2013). This makes it obvious that there is a bright scope for the organization that has been referred in the case study to undertake major reforms. Reforms such as inclusion of a genetic screening and counselling department would efficiently help clients with genetic disorders or critical complications to get tested within the organization and avail the treatment facilities. Also, this would help in lessening the expenditure of the organization on outsourcing these genetic samples to be tested elsewhere (Lega et al. 2013). Also, there is a bright scope on incorporating a palliative care unit so as to efficiently provide care to the elderly patients who need assistance with palliative care. Inclusion of a community service department would tremendously help in increasing the patient database as it has been reported that the patients undergoing a surgery require assistance with medication and activities of daily living till complete recovery is obtained.

In order to measure the effectiveness and the sustainability of a business operation, it is extremely important to evaluate the efficacy of the business planning that is being followed by the organization. It helps in clearly understanding the strengths and the weaknesses of the current business plan and provides an opportunity to design effective strategies in order to mitigate the current scenario. It also helps in constantly striving to improvise the business strategies so as to survive the market rivalry and emerge out as a successful business plan. In relation to the case study, it can be said that Bruce Hughes healthcare organization can successfully develop an evaluation strategy with the effective use of the innovative value cycle. The primary requirement to sustain a business in the market is to continuously develop innovation in accordance to the changing customer demands and market trends (Conley et al. 2013). The innovative value cycle helps in developing an overview about all the available business strategies existing in the market and comparing them effectively in order to introduce a reform that would help in the effective development of an innovation (Lega et al. 2013). The innovation value cycle comprises of three essential steps that must be addressed adequately in order to proceed with the implementation of the innovation. Each step is pivotal and must not be compromised at any cost. The first step comprises of idea identification. This takes into account all the available ideas that are prevalent in the market and are effectively contributing towards the successful medium of introducing an innovation in business (Stabile et al. 2013). The second step comprises of identifying the best possible strategies that could be undertaken in order to promote an effective innovation approach. The third step comprises of idea diffusion, that makes use of successful implementation of the chosen strategies to introduce an innovation that would enhance the success rate of the organization and at the same time help the organization sustain market fluctuation. On closely accessing the case study it can be said that the organization could effectively make use of several changes that would generate positive patient outcomes and better service delivery. Innovations in the form of adopting effective marketing strategies such as inclusion of social marketing strategies and content marketing strategies could help the organization in targeting a large number of audience strength. The organization could also make use of inclusion of improved diagnostic tools and improved infrastructure in order to promote better medical service delivery. This could be achieved with the incorporation of latest diagnostic screening standards and inclusion of online services such as booking a physiotherapy at home or maybe booking a counselling session at home. Further the organization could also work on the product promotion strategy and could organise health workshops at corporate offices or schools and provide a free of cost health check-up or genetic screening in order to promote the brand value. The organization could also work on the strategies of spontaneous grievance redressal. This would facilitate a spontaneous and automated process and connect the client to the grievance cell where in the customer query or grievance in terms of payment issue or the ongoing intervention would be addressed on an immediate basis (Stabile et al. 2013). It can be stated that with the effective use of the innovative value cycle the organization would successfully be able to address the elements that promote a weakness or threat to the organization and at the same time also commit to the vision of providing excellent service delivery. However, it should be noted that the process should be under constant monitoring so as to update with the changing pattern of customer demands and availability of recent scientific and technological services. The organization could also work on developing an application that would store the medical history of the clients and update itself with the new interventions being administered to the patient. The application could be easily accessed by the client at any point of time through their smart phone and thus it will minimise the hassle of keeping a track of the innumerable test reports and prescriptions. In addition to this, it would also help the doctors in easily evaluating the medical history of the patient and explaining the treatment to the patient with a proper rationale. The application would also incorporate informations about any possible allergy or genetic disorder that the patient possesses as it would help in administering medication on the basis of keeping a track of the drugs that could elicit a side-effect in the patient. The organization could also include the unique concept of ‘all under one roof’ that would ensure that the prognosis, testing, diagnosis and intervention would all be managed in the same organization. This would provide convenience to the patients in dealing with their complications and getting treated in the same place from top to scratch. It would also help the organization in serving the client in a better way with enhanced service delivery. Hence, it can thus be said that inclusion of these reforms would help the organization in designing an innovation and would facilitate improved service delivery with respect to the changing demands of the patient. It should also be noted that the changing life style and the demands of the clients, time is an extremely compromised factor, hence the psychological approach of the clients necessarily comprises of the availability of the best service concentrated at one place. The innovations focus on covering all the vital aspects of medical service delivery such as patient examination, diagnostic screening and progressing with an intervention localised at one place would ensure better service outcome and would be widely preferred by the clients. It should also be noted that the organization of all the vital aspects would require an efficient flow of communication and a clear hierarchal structure managing each department (Toussaint and Berry 2013). This would help in providing clear guidelines to the employees to commit themselves and contribute towards the welfare of the organization.

Therefore, it can be concluded by saying that there is a huge possibility of enhancing the business operations by following the innovative value cycle that aims to constantly improve the quality of business operations and adopt innovative measures in providing service delivery so as to satisfy the customers with the quality of service delivery and at the same time be able to sustain the tough rivalry in the market in the form of competition and threat of the arrival of new product entry. However it is also important to ensure that the organization develops stringent tools in order to evaluate the degree of innovation and maintain a quality check. At the same time for the employee work force, it is important to include monitoring tools that would help in pushing the employees to deliver excellent performance thereby upholding the vision of the organization to deliver the best services. This could be effectively judged with the help of the KPI tools or the key performance indicator tools that would allow to access the performance and behaviour of the employees in terms of their contribution and idea of innovation to the growth of the enterprise. Therefore, it can be said that for the business to evolve and sustain itself in the market it is important to induce innovation at every step and at the same time undertake evaluation measures to judge the utility and efficacy of the innovation to render quality medical services with the use of quality assessment tools and considering to update at every step.

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