Change of Management at Briardene Care Home - Free Essay Example

Introduction This study aims to help the management, staff, service users and anyone directly or indirectly linked to Briardene Care Home understand a vast range of theoretical approaches or typologies that can be applied in the event of change of management at Briardene Care Home. It is written with the notion to help the management to design a strategic approach with tools to meet the needs of Briardene care Home in work force planning. It also aims at ensuring that Briardene Care Home maintains or increases its rating by meeting the required standards of delivery of nursing care as required by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Briardene Care Home Briardene Care Home is a privately owned nursing home belonging to the Executive Care Group. It is situated in Newbiggin on the western end of Newcastle Upon Tyne and has a maximum occupancy of 60 residences. Service users are normally people with dementia or elderly people needing nursing or residential care. It also accommodates people who need specialist care like those suffering from Alzheimer and most residences speak English apart from a few who are Polish. All rooms conform to the sizes required by the National care standards guidelines and at present employs 62 members of staff but number of staff employed normally varies as determined by the assessed needs of clients. Diagnosis There are several frameworks and theories which can be used as a tool for diagnosing business strategies but in this Study we shall focus on the Mckinsey 7s framework. Postma and Kok (1992) defines organisational diagnosis as a process of research into the organisations function in order to recommend ways in which it can improve. It is essential for organisations like Briardene care home to always consider their market position and constantly research their capabilities because of the way the health and social care industry is growing. Since the advent of the recession in 2008 a lot of companiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ specialising in Residential and Nursing care closed down and also new laws have were put into place to accommodate the higher life expectancy and revised retirement ages. This resulted in big and major companiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ to merge and absorb small companies which could not cope with both the new laws and the harsh economic conditions. Briardene Care Home has evolve d with the moving times and has managed to position itself to face any competition within the harsh conditions under its operational existence in the Executive Care group. Mckinseyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s 7s Framework at Briardene Care Home. The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model developed by well-known business consultants Waterman and Peters (who also developed the MBWAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬  Management By Walking Around motif, and authored In Search of Excellence) in the 1980s.The model is most often used as a tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organisation. The model is based on the theory that for an organisation to perform well, the above seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. The above 7S model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance or to maintain alignment (and performance) during other types of change. The 7S model is a good framework to help you ask the right questions but it does not give you all the answers. For that youll need to bring together the right knowledge, skills and experience. The Mckinsey framework is the management tool designed to facilitate the process of strategy implementation within the co ntext of organisational change. Successful implementation of strategy requires management of the interrelationships between seven elements. 4.1Shared Values Briardene Nursing home has operated as a nursing care home for the past 20 years. From the time of its inception till to date it has evolved in a lot of ways in order to reduce its running and administrative costs whilst maintaining excellent standards and being able to meet customer needs. It has also evolved in line with technological changes and has also faced the harsh conditions of a Care market which has been stagnant in the past decade. In the past few years it has been restructured to cater into account the population needs of the country, the lower level of sponsorship and diminishing pensions and benefits for pensioners because of the rise in life expectancy and the increase they have managed maintaining high standards despite the changes in economic climate. Maslow motivation theory believed that individuals exp erience a range of needs and will be motivated to fulfil which ever need is most powerful, self-actualisation, esteem, belongingness and love, safety and physiological .(Maslow 1970 cited in Boddy1998). 4.2Systems: Briardene Care Home has formal processes and operational procedures in place to manage the day to day running of the home. Emphasis is always placed on policies and techniques that aim to improve employee morale and job satisfaction so as to increase the employee efficiency and reduce unrest, there is need to focus on productivity, efficiency and promoting understanding between employees and clients. Management and staff understand structural development in terms of growth of the care home and also in line with adjustments pertaining to development of premises and the work and stress which they are associated with. Although there are all these procedures and policies in place there is lack of measurement for operations for example lack of accountability and no measu re of productivity. 4.3Styles Organisational structure of Briardene is a functional structure, each group knowing its structured roles, responsibilities and having a team leader within the group who coordinates with the lead manager. Although this programme is ideal for Briardene problems normally arise. Functional approach can be efficient as people with common expertise work together sharing and seeing a professional career path. The major difficulty with this line of professionalism growth is that it may be a source of conflict (Nauta and Saunders, 2000) if the separate function develop different perceptions of the organisational goals and compete for posts. The structure of an organisation is described as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"the sum total of ways in which it divides labour into distinct tasks and then achieves coordination among themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Mintzberg 1979 cited in Boddy1998). It means span of control at Briardene is narrow, meaning staff are closely supervised. It p rovides a framework for operational planning meaning increase in effectiveness. The manager at Briardene as the leader coordinates the day to day running of the home and is the single source of authority which suggests that the leadership style is of an authoritarian nature. Employees do not got have much influence on any changes to the Nursing home and are told what to do .Dundon and Rollinson (2011) argue that the authoritarian organisations often have poor communication skills there is less contact between employees and the top managers. Kotter(1998) suggests leadership has to be multiplied and shared if for change to be successful . 4.4Staff A performance driven culture has always been the hallmark of Briardeneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s atmosphere. The Management at the care home have a tendency of recruiting families or relatives of staff members. This has led to confusions on the delegation of duties and how employees may relate to each other at work because of family ties. The re is need to ensure that the line of delegation and how staff should treat each other is clarified and effected. Staff should understand the code of practise and should be able to do their jobs without any interference from other people. The work place should be kept exciting and staff should be encouraged to attend both in house training and external courses so that they can improve their work. New employees should be made to feel at home and the induction period should be extended to ensure that staff understands their jobs and that they gain the confidence which is necessary to get the best out of their potential. Briardene care home should educate its staff on the standards it expects from the employees and should also carry out regular feedbacks with clients and their families to ensure that their needs are met. In order to improve and negate above conditions the Management holds monthly staff meetings where staff are given the opportunity to raise issues of concern and areas where they want management to improve and make a safe and beneficial work environment in order to achieve set goals. 4.5Skills Briardene is an organisation in the social care industry which has structured policies and procedures in place that details staff roles, their responsibilities, their limitations and boundaries and clearly outlines as required by codes of practice set out in the Care Standard Act 2000. Management at Briardene makes sure all staff on commencement of employment are made aware of their responsibility. Briardene has a multi skilled team which contributes differently towards achieving the set goals. It relies on training and educating its employees to ensure that the Nursing home runs efficiently and functions properly. They also highlight that it is individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s responsibility as professionals to maintain and develop as a practitioner throughout to ensure that they retain the capacity to practice safely, effectively and legally within the evolvi ng scope of practice. The Chartered institute for personnel and Development (CIPD) emphasises the individual responsibility professionals must take for their on-going development within their definition, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"a combination of approaches, ideas and techniques that will help you manage you own learning and growthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (CIPD, 2008). 4.6Strategy Briardene in their day to day running of the care home have adopted a range of organisation strategies while upholding standards despite the changes in economic climate. The strategies the care home has adopted provides management team at Briardene a framework for operational planning, thereby increasing organisational effectiveness and giving them clarity on the direction of organisational activities resulting in personal employee satisfaction and improve their understanding of the rapid changing environment in the Health care industry which they operate. Research has revealed that organisations that engage in strat egic management generally outperform those that do not. Wheelen and Hunger( 2005 ) states à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"an organisation will perform to a high standard when there is a matching correlation between the organisational environment and the strategy, structure and processes of that organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. Strategy provides structure as to Briardene in the health care high standard when there is a matching correlation between the organisational environment and the strategy, structure and processes of that organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. Strategy also provides structure the health care industry in terms of the consumer which is the clients and geographical sense. The following are the organisational strategies in place at Briardene 4.7Structure The organisational structure at Briardene is of functional structure its tall meaning showing that the span of control is narrow, meaning staff are closely supervised in tall structure there is poor communication between clients and t heir families and manager clients feedback gets to the manager through the employees meaning information can be distorted or misinterpreted. Management takes place within a structured organisational setting with prescribed roles. It is directed towards the achievement of aims and objectives through influencing the efforts of others. Classical theorist Taylor, Fayol was concerned with the structure and mechanics of the organisation while human relations understandably is concerned with the human factors like motivation, group motivation, leadership. Briardene Care home has adopted and applied well the Human relations management approach in the day to day running of the care home thus providing care services to the clients and their welfare. Organisation management is an à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“advance in industrial and organisational psychology and in organisational behaviour, whose general meaning was that when people are being observed by researchers, they temporarily change their behaviou r or performanceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  this became known as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Hawthorne effectà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Boddy,1998). Change in Management Model. We are living in the world where business as usual has evolved in a lot of ways. The harsh economic climates have forced a lot of changes. Companies have merged and companies have been taken over. Companies have been acquired and companies have also changed the way they operate in order to compete with other companies or to adjust to changing laws. Several factors such as new initiatives, project-based working, technology improvements and staying ahead of the competition to name but a few factors have necessitated change and the way companies work. Whether one is considering a small change to one or two processes, or a system wide change to an organisation, its common to feel uneasy and intimidated by the scale of the challenge. Because of the inevitable changing characteristics of the business environment, organisations need to find creative and adaptive ways to successfully manage change to maintain a strong business position in the Health and Social care industry. The decision t o adopt change is often to improve operation performance or reduce cost associated with doing business. Dawson (2009) explains that change is important to organisations as they help improve performance and productivity. However, it is also necessary to recognize that there are different types and levels in order to properly implement change. The duty of organisations is to identify the need for change, involve all affected stakeholders and manage such change effectively to keep the organisation dynamic. Andriopoulos and Dawson (2009) explain that organisational change is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"new ways of organizing and workingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. They explain that change occur in two dimensions movement of state and scope of change. For the organisation to be able to effectively change its practices and communicate properly it should consider reducing its layers and become flat structured. This allows a few people to take control of the change process and to absorb elements that can be crit ical towards the whole process. 1