Loma Linda University (LLU), Essay Example

A major problem that is creating conflict in the workplace is the lack of organization present in my clinical department at Loma Linda University Medical Center-Murrieta. Because the hospital is currently undergoing renovations and restructuring, the employees have an unclear understanding of their specific job responsibilities, in addition to the hierarchy of power that is present. As a consequence, one of the departments at this hospital filling out electronic error reports (EERs) on other employees in the same department, which raises ethical concerns. Ultimately, the EER is used to notify the patient relations department about medical and resource problems that are being experienced by different departments. Because employees are filling these forms out to report the practices of other employees, it is difficult for the patient relations team to take these reports seriously because it appears that the employees are attacking each other on purpose.

Despite our current need to support the quality of patient care, there have been many structural barriers that prevents our department from accomplishing this appropriately. Because not every employee is certain about what their job responsibilities are, many workers have been participating in overlapping responsibilities, which has been detrimental with regards to the degree of progress made in the clinical setting. Due to the uncertainties that this lack of structure creates, employees are constantly making mistakes and calling in sick in an attempt to not need to come into work and face these problems.

The lack of leadership in this setting is a result of the uncertainty of the job responsibilities of the workers within the department. There is an unclear understanding of who should serve as the authority figure. As a consequence, the department is currently functioning as an anarchy. Unfortunately, this is not conducive to patient care because a lack of responsible leadership results in a lack of employee motivation in addition to a general sense of disorder. Therefore, the department staff members are not really working together to achieve common goals. While everyone is concerned with patient care, the effort that each individual is putting forth is not organized and therefore lacks efficiency.

The systematic dynamics that defines the energy flow of this facility seems to be exemplary of polarization theory. Prior to this disorder, our key leaders were in charge and everyone had a general understanding of their individual responsibilities in addition to how the team should collaborate in order to ensure successful patient care. However, many of these individuals have left to seek better job opportunities, which has left an unsettling energy in our current work environment. To resolve these difficulties, it is apparent that an individual needs to step up and take charge of the leadership position until an alternative resolution is found. Otherwise, the hospital supervisory staff needs to hire an experienced and educated individual that feels confident enough to serve in this position.

According to the exchange theory, relevant stakeholders include the employees, current patients, and future patients. In addition, it is important to consider that the family members of the patients are indirectly related to the outcome of this problem as well. All of these individuals are impacted by the degree of skill and ability to apply practice that each health care professional in the facility holds. However, for everyone’s stake in the situation to improve, it would be necessary to resolve the leadership problems that have formed.

I believe that I have the skills necessary to serve as a leader within this organization in order to temporarily resolve these structural issues. Ultimately, I believe that I can do this by listening closely to the concerns of other employees and trying to find common ground between these individuals. Since someone needs to take the leadership role, this could also involve delegating responsibilities based on the needs of the patients. Therefore, each employee should be provided with specific responsibilities based on their individual expertise and work together in a manner that promotes productivity. While it is likely that this leadership situation would require the implementation of democratic leadership as a result of the many different opinions present among the employees in the department, some level of organization through my leadership is expected to effectively confer an improvement. Overall, it is important to listen to everyone’s opinions and resolve the conflict by becoming the listener instead of the aggressor. Since the third step of the exchange theory is to begin discussing possible solutions to the ones that exist within the organization, it will become necessary for me to become the facilitator of this discussion.

Ultimately, it is expected that providing the current staff ample time to sit down and discuss the problems at hand within the organization will lead to a sufficient resolution to the problem. It is important for all members that are impacted by this disorganization to identify the problems that they believe exist within the workplace. Next, everyone will discuss a willingness to implement change to resolve these problems. Once this comes to agreement, the team members will discuss ways in which they believe these goals will become achievable. Designating leaders for various responsibilities will be necessary in order to ensure that patient care is regulated as a part of practice. Furthermore, methods must be put in place to ensure that communication between team members is made to be more effective. Overall, the shared goal to improve the organization is expected to drive results. However, an individual must step up to be the leader of these plans in order for the best results to become possible. While I will attempt to serve this role at first, I would be willing to pass this responsibility on to another individual if the team finds that they would be better off in such a position.

In conclusion, my workplace can reasonably resolve their leadership problems by assessing the patient care and organization issues that currently exist in the workplace and by electing a leader that would be able to select and implement solutions. While the solutions could be selected as a team, it is necessary to ensure that a leader is present so he or she could determine whether the discussed plan is being followed and to suggest alterations to the solution as needed. Overall, it would be beneficial for the team to meet to discuss these problems, even though the exact solutions to the problem are not currently certain due to the need for planning. However, it is expected that the proposed recommendations will serve as a reasonable solution compared to the behaviors that are currently being implemented in terms of patient care.

References

Tittemore, James A. (2003). Leadership at all Levels. Canada: Boskwa Publishing.

Vroom, Victor H.; Jago, Arthur G. (1988). The New Leadership: Managing Participation in Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.