Culture of the Nursing Workplace Free-Samples for Students

Question: Write an Academic Paper on Workplace Culture. Answer: Introduction In every setting, every healthcare organization is often formed to with the aim of achieving certain healthcare objectives and goals. The formation of the organization often brings together different individuals and creates a common platform that motivates them to deliver their best depending on the assigned roles within the organization. According to Henriksson and Kiessling (2016), a healthy workplace culture is a kind that enables other clinical stakeholders to experience valuable learning and suits the atmosphere needed for the nurses to perform their duties. Safe patient care often requires an evidenced based centered framework as it is essential in achieving positive patient outcomes. The necessary support required for the implementation of effective health care and positive health outcomes hence depend majorly on the nature of the workplace culture of the clinical setting. This essay focuses on workplace culture as the major concept of discussion by presenting the general conc ept, theoretical and practical underpins as well as its relevance to the clinical setting. Background information on the workplace culture In their study, Jamieson and Tuckey (2017) point out that workplace culture is a concept that mainly deals with studying the beliefs, attitudes, and thought the process of employees in an organization. The concept hence evaluates the principles and ideologies of an organization as it is the major determinant of the nature of the interaction of the employees with one another as well as the functionality of the organization. Roberts, Demarco, and Griffin (2012) denote that in the language of a layman, workplace culture is the mentality of the workforce that further determines the performance, operations, and success of an organization. Therefore, in the clinical setting, workplace culture plays a vital role in extracting the best out of the nurses within a clinical environment hence giving them to reason to stick to working in the organization for a longer time. Achieving an effective workforce within a healthcare organization hence needs to provide a positive ambiance to all the emplo yees including the professional and the non-professionals (Finn and O'Fallon 2017, p. 495). In a systematic review, Kim and Oh (2016) denote that there are different views presented by scholars when it comes to the concept of a good, effective, or strong workplace culture. However, from different reviews of other researchers concepts, the study denotes that a strong workplace culture within an organization occurs when the employees happily follow the rules and regulations of the organization. Such an environment also motivates employees to adhere to the regulations and existing guidelines so as to achieve the set goals in the process of executing their duties. Without the motivation, the employees get to be reluctant in following the instructions set by the organization and only strict procedures and follow-ups can push them to work, an aspect that describes a poor work setting and a weak culture. The nature of a good workplace culture In their study, Boyer and Guay (2015) point out that the challenges often faced by the healthcare industry currently require the clinical settings and healthcare systems to adopt the application of all the possible and available resources with the aim of reducing the cost of care while improving the quality of healthcare. However, many organizations often fail in realizing one of its greatest resources and the key success of every initiative of the organization, the welfare of the employees. However, to attract and retain skilled and productive employees requires the clinical setting to necessitate a nurturing environment that rewards, encourages, and innovates through material and non-material benefits. Suominen (2015) asserts that intangible benefits such as recognition and respects are more than just the tangible benefits such as good compensation and health insurance are necessary. In other words, the success of an organization depends on the workplace culture adopted by the orga nization as it will determine the nature of the employees behavior and work towards their roles in achieving the set goals. According to Hahtela (2015), a healthy workplace culture is characterized by many factors. Equality in the treatment of the employees is essential as the opposite will only lead to their demotivation and ineffective workplace culture. The management should thus not give special favors to other employees while valuing the relationship between them to be essential than that of the other employees in the workplace, an aspect that requires that all personal relationships take a backseat within the working environment. On the contrary, Kim and Oh (2016) denote that such issues can only be experienced when there are no policies to govern them. In other words, a healthy workplace culture should adopt employee friendly practical guidelines and policies that will govern not only their relationships but their general performance. For instance, pushing the clinical nurses to be on duty even late at night on their birthdays is very impractical as regulations and rules should be made in benefit o f the employees to ensure that they maintain the decorum of the healthcare setting. A healthy workplace culture should as well encourage openness and suitable environment for discussion on matters affecting both the employees and the organization. Menguc, Auh, Katsikeas, Yeon (2016) point out that the culture should motivate employees to share issues amongst themselves with the aim of reaching effective conclusions while everyone is at liberty of sharing their views. Such a workplace culture will also encourage the managers and team leaders to frequently interact with the subordinates to encourage transparency that is essential at all levels and will create better relationships. With openness and discussion in sharing views, issues such as manipulation of information or clinical data to suit personal objectives while causing harm to other employees will be eliminated. Free discussions can as well be achieved by promoting team building activities that will bind them together. According to Pasqual (2013), performance appraisal is an essential part of a healthy workplace culture but is mostly adopted by business organizations with the aim of promoting more sales by rewarding employees for good performance. However, appreciation of top performers is essential even in the healthcare setting. Praising employees for their good work will not only make them feel like part of the organization but will also motivate them to offer their best and make them feel indispensable for the workplace. Rather than just firing, clinical managers should often play a servant leadership role for those who display poor performance as a way of showing them an example and also helping them to pull up in their areas of weaknesses. Sheep (2016) denotes that a healthy workplace culture can only be promoted effectively by bosses who act more like mentors to the employees. In that manner, they will be viewed as a source of inspiration as they provide a sense of direction to the employees while guiding them whenever there is a need. Theoretical and Practical Underpinnings of the Workplace Culture In a clinical setting, Pennefather (2016) denotes that there are different competing variables that have a direct influence on the operation and success of the organization as well as the nature of response displayed by employees towards their duties in the workplace. A healthcare setting is characterized by different facets of conflicting needs for families, institutions, patients, providers, government and healthcare policies, standards, and regulations that tend to create various mixed messages and inconsistencies. Together with the issues of hierarchy, a clinical setting also has silos where every unit or role independently operates without evaluating and understanding the underlying consequences and full implications of their actions to others. In a systematic review, Choi, Oh, and Colbert (2015) denote that such complexities and issues of conflicting interests often create a blame culture within the workplace, an aspect that is considered very pervasive in the clinical setting. According to Elder and McNamara (2013), healthcare as a professional has often been perceived as a role of sole medical professionals working with individual patients. As a result, there is often a blame game of reactions of trying to determine who was at fault so as to find a way of disciplining them to prevent future dangers that can be imposed by patients in case something did not go well with the healthcare procedures or outcomes. Azmat and Rentschler (2017) denote that this can be described as a blame and shame approach, a framework that often leads to the hiding of the professionals rather than the freedom of reporting errors whenever they occur. It is an approach that is practiced by many providers but is considered an antithesis of a workplace culture of safety and effective healthcare provision to patients. However, there are many interventions that are being adopted to change this underpinning factor while encouraging openness among employees so that they can share their ch allenges and views rather than hiding. Bedford (2011) denotes that being open will enable the management of the clinical setting to address the issues and create a free, safe, and motivate working environment that will promote a forward-thinking workplace culture that can enable the organization to meet its set healthcare goals and objectives. In a systematic review on the nature of the global healthcare industry, Milliman, Gatling, and Bradley-Geist (2017) point out that advancement in technology has lead to the progress of clinical knowledge. Many technological innovations are thus adopted in all facets of the clinical setting to ensure effectiveness in the clinical operations and better patient care. The healthcare environment is also encompassed with advancement in the behavior of disease-causing organisms such as bacterial resistance to medication among other challenges. With all these complexities, Lyubovnikova, Legood, Turner, and Mamakouka (2017) denote there is also a constant update of the healthcare policies and standards that often governs the operations of all healthcare settings depending on the location. As a result, a healthy workplace culture faces challenges especially those with old employees that are considered experienced but have little knowledge on the current nature of technological adoptions within the clinical setting. In such a case, the organization will adopt strategies of conducting workshops, training programs, presentations, and seminars will as well be essential in helping the employees to upgrade their skills on the new developments and knowledge towards different issues of their professions. However, this is a strategy that can only be effective for the healthcare professionals of a certain age group that can easily adapt to the changing nature of knowledge and the working environment. In his study, Punke (2013) also points out that most of the global industries do not only have an overall culture but other three subcultures known to be the executive, technical, and operational subcultures. In most cases, each of the identified subcultures tends to have their strategies and ways of executing their roles. As a result, it is very difficult for the professionals to move from one area to another within the subcultures besides their ability to directly or indirectly influence the success of the operation of the organization. It is thus necessary for the management of the healthcare organizations and healthcare executives to first tackle issues that can arise within these subcultures before they focus on improving the overall environment of the organization. Lyubovnikova et al. (2017) also assert that the relevant stakeholders of the management, as well as the caregivers and nurses, need to focus on fostering teamwork while the executive subcultures evaluate and adopt st rategies that will provide value to the services offered within the clinical settings. Relevance of the workplace culture to the clinical context Every clinical setting desires to provide a better or improved patient experience in every area within the healthcare setting. However, Punke (2013) denotes that this can only be achieved by first enhancing the hospital itself as well as the workforce. Unhealthy workforce culture will tend to cause arguments, mistakes, and high turnover while a positive environment can foster engagement and teamwork to motivate stronger productivity. No matter the industry, the workplace culture of every organization is often very essential. In many cases, healthcare professionals tend to have trouble when it comes to collaborating with each other since their focus is always invested in their patients rather than their colleagues. However, coordination and teamwork care are identified as strong pillars of an effective healthcare system with the aim of achieving improved patient safety and better healthcare. A clinical setting hence requires a healthy workplace that is characterized by advanced workfl ows and better communication with a focus on affecting outcomes for the patients who often see most of the benefits. The concept of workplace culture is hence very essential for effective management of a clinical setting and with the aim of developing positivity in the working environment. Workplace culture is essential in developing profiles of successful employees within the organization according to Welbourne, Gangadharan, and Carol, (2015, p. 206). Just beyond referring candidates, the top staff members can also be essential in finding great coworkers through serving as an example to both the current and the future employees of the organization. In other words, the healthcare leaders within the clinical setting can work with the successful employees from different departments to determine and understand the abilities and knowledge they can demonstrate so as to develop a profile by their traits. Punke (2013) denotes that the staff is the best tool that can be adopted in determining and identifying what can make a clinical employee good as opposed to their greatness, an aspect that is essential for the development of the employees portfolio. From the evaluation, the clinical managers will be able to identify what successful professionals do differently and use the sa me information to identify the potential of new employees as well as employing them in developing strategies to improve the workplace culture. Also, the profile can as well serve as objectives and goals to strive towards for other professionals thus helping the employees within the clinical setting to continually improve and develop. There is also relevance in a clinical setting keeping the workplace culture a priority even after the hiring process. According to Woodward-Kron and Elder (2016), the culture of the employees and their engagement plays a major role not only in the hiring process but during the orientation and the daily life of the clinic and the general healthcare system. The organization can effectively take certain steps in making sure that all the employees feel welcomed within the clinical fold during the orientation process as well as monitoring the daily employees engagement. In their study, Bradley and Campbell (2016) also denote that maintaining a positive culture requires the current employees to embrace new hires to help them easily become part of the program. The same study recommends that the management of the healthcare setting needs to conduct face-to-face meetings with the workforce in different departments. Such forums will enable new employees to ask direct questions and share their concerns towards their expectations in relations to the assigned roles. Facilities to take questions can hence be adopted as a strategy of responding to their concerns and update them on the systems of the current events, an aspect that will always keep the employees engaged with the organization for better healthcare. A workplace culture is also relevant when it comes to engaging the employees during the interview processes and evaluation of the organizational performance as pointed out by Elder and McNamara(2016, p. 154). When the employees work as a team and positively get along with each other, a clinic or healthcare facilities often become a better place for work. With the aim of ensuring that an employee fits in a department or a team, the current staff can be involved when hiring new staff. One way of effectively achieving this strategy is adopting a panel interview where the departmental members interview a candidate that will join their department. It is a strategy that will ensure that the selected employee can effectively fit the objectives, goals, and operational process of the department. Conclusion Workplace culture is hence an essential aspect when it comes to ensuring proper management of employees who will, in turn, take good care of the patients and result in a positive performance and success of the organization. In many cases, patients often assess the culture of the clinical setting every time they visit the place and interact with the clinical staffs. It is hence necessary for the management of every healthcare organization to conduct a frequent evaluation of the organizational internal and external culture with the aim of anticipating issues while improving how the visiting patients view the organization. The interaction amongst the staffs as well as with the patients can greatly determine the efficiency and the workplace culture under which they operate. Workplace culture hence tends to be associated with patient satisfaction, teamwork and can be an effective linkage between the clinical and financial sides of the healthcare organization. It is hence necessary for cli nical leader and healthcare executives to employ effective healthcare scheduling strategies to evaluate the labor challenges accoutered by the healthcare system and how they can be fixed to ensure a positive workplace culture. List of References Bedford, Oo 2011, 'Guanxi-Building in the Workplace: A Dynamic Process Model of Working and Backdoor Guanxi',Journal Of Business Ethics, 104, 1, pp. 149-158, Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost, viewed 3 May 2017. Azmat, F, Rentschler, R 2017, 'Gender and Ethnic Diversity on Boards and Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Arts Sector',Journal Of Business Ethics, 141, 2, pp. 317-336, Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost, viewed 3 May 2017. 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