Organizations: Systems for Improved Society & Relationships - Essay Sample

Introduction

Organizations are systems designed to fulfill certain goals through people-to-people and people-to-work relationships. They are critical social entities in various ways as they allow a gathering of people with different skills and expertise to come together and discuss and create ideas that can help improve society as a whole. Essentially, each organization is often influenced by its own internal and external environments, which, in extension, determine the nature of the relationships according to its specific needs. By definition, according to Cooper and Burrell (2015), organizational analysis is a diagnostic process that gives an adequate understanding of the performance of an organization. It can help leaders and managers obtain deeper knowledge about the sources of organizational weaknesses and failures and to identify the best practices through emerging opportunities. Over the course of their lives, different organizations encounter various crises, either internally or externally. For instance, mature organizations can become too rigid, lacking ideas, energy, and capacities to renew themselves and to adapt to new environments. Ascension Health is an example of a complex adaptive system coupled with unique culture and leadership. It serves as a strong example for all complex systems to conduct organizational analysis upon in terms of polarity thinking, Collin's research finding and conclusions, and disruptive technology.

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Healthcare Organizations as Complex Adaptive Systems

Complex adaptive systems are viewed and present everywhere. They can be found in stock markets, in governments, in human bodies and organs and even in hospitals. In many instances, it is not surprising when one studying or working in a healthcare organization refer to such organizations as a system. This is mainly because of the enormous complexity of the healthcare organizations in the 21st century; both by their consolidated and integrated designs and also by their dynamic, nonlinear, and random nature (Sittig & Singh, 2015). Indeed, as opposed to the mechanical systems that were often used in traditional healthcare organizations, to produce a predictable output, the modern healthcare systems are more complex due to the nonlinear interaction of its components, therefore, results in unforeseeable outcomes. According to Akgun, Keskin, and Byrne (2014), just like in the complex adaptive systems, the components of the modern healthcare systems are independent agents. These agents may include clinics, hospitals, rehabilitation units, patient homes, and nursing homes. They often interact nonlinearly on different scales and act based on surrounding or local knowledge and conditions; therefore are rarely influenced by a central body.

Transformation of complex systems is quite challenging compared to the traditional mechanical systems in which output can be controlled by manipulating each of its agents. In complex systems, the outcomes become more unpredictable, the more regulations are devised to influence the behavior of the systems' components. In particular, the transformation of complex systems is overall challenging because they are characterized by their dynamic states (Sittig & Singh, 2015). These systems have a large number of agents which are highly interconnected, and when combined with external forces creates a discontinuous change. Similarly, the relationships in complex systems are massively entangled and involve numerous components being influenced by a large number of interdepended forces. Additionally, complex systems are usually sensitive to minor changes, especially during the inception period.

The Organization

The organization chosen in this case is Sacred Heart hospital Pensacola Florida, Ascension Health. It is considered to be the leading provider of quality and effective health care for adults in the Northwest Florida and the only hospital specializing in the care of children. It is also America's largest Catholic and largest nonprofit health system attending to patients from all over the world through a network of hospitals and related health facilities. The organization's mission is the commitment to serving all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable (Ascension, 2019). In terms of values, Ascension Health strives to bring spiritually centered, holistic care that sustains and improves the health of the surrounding community. These values revolves around integrity, compassion, respect, teamwork, and spirituality. It has a philosophy providing patients with the highest quality home healthcare services since everyone is entitled to the best healthcare they can obtain. Ascension Health is governed under executive leadership which comprises of men and women who have dedicated their time to improve healthcare.

Since its inception, Ascension Health continues to live by the legacy in which it was sponsored through its mission and values. For instance, through its mission statement, the organization continues to deliver and inspire based on the foundation on which the ministry is built. Although it has expanded to include related health facilities, the patients' well-being continues to be the primary focus of Ascension Health. Its value "bringing spiritually centered, holistic care that sustains and improves the health of the surrounding community " has been instrumental over the years and remains one of the reasons the organization is regarded as the number one healthcare provider to children and adults in Northwest Florida. Even more, in terms of an employer, Ascension Health and its related health facilities are staffed with more than 100,0000 associates located in over 20 states and District of Columbia (Ascension, 2019).

The Culture of Ascension Health

Schein's Model of Organizational Culture is one of the methods often used to examine the concept of culture in an organization and how it affects them. According to Mate and Rakover (2019), Edgar Schein views culture as a product of joint learning and argues that culture is a pattern shared conclusions and assumptions learned by different people who have a common goal of solving problems of external adaptation and internal integration. Schein also believes that the culture of an organization has a huge influence on the performances of the employees and how they feel about the organization. The success at Ascension Health has often been driven by its unique culture that involves not only team-based medicine but also team-based management and governance. Every employee at the organization understands its primary value that the needs of the patients come first. With this in mind, all the employees have come together to share knowledge and to mainly focus on patients away from any form of distractions. What reinforces the organization's culture, even more, is the fact that the entire institution is run by physicians who still practice medicine. Unlike many organizations, Ascension Health's employees have the tradition and the norm of living by its mission statements and core values, which enables them to attend more to clients without distractions.

The organization's climate at Ascension Health is very supportive and caring. The management values its staff and usually treats them the same way the institution treats its patients. In particular, when decisions are made at Ascension Health, the inputs of the employees are highly regarded. The hospital tends to inquire what matters to its staff then work with them in a co-production, co-design, and shared decision-making process, integrating their ideas so that they feel supported and satisfied with their work environment. With this strategy, employees always remain motivated, engaged, and energized.

Just like people, organizations also need to learn to be able to adapt and evolve. A smart organization can easily adapt to changing conditions and sometimes can lead change by indicating the best way forward. For a complex organization like Ascension Health, all the people involved with it need to learn to transform. It supports education and cutting edge research both for its medical professionals who are continuously engaged in clinical activities and also for its patients as a way of supporting exclusive patient-centered care. For example employees at Ascension Health often receive specialized health and wellness education programs and services to improve health and organizational performance.

Leadership Style at Ascension Health

Currently, healthcare leaders are faced with significant challenges when it comes to patient care delivery and managing the workforce effectively. Being a complex adaptive system, the skills and the competencies required in healthcare organizations for physicians to be effective leaders are outstanding and continue to evolve. As a matter of fact, the leadership challenges in healthcare organizations have recently highlighted the need for better leadership development programs to train competent and adaptive leaders. At Ascension Health, the predominant leadership style is democratic because it involves interactions and exchange of information. According to Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014), under the democratic leadership style, leaders are more participative in nature and prefer including their subordinate team members in critical decision making. This type of leadership requires highly intelligent, competent, and creative leaders and usually effective, especially if the team members are both skilled and experienced. For example, as part of a democratic leadership style, Ascension Health routinely conducts talent reviews which indicate competency and experience to be considered for a leadership position (Taylor, 2015).

Polarity Thinking

Nowadays, one of the critical competencies required in healthcare and for one to become an effective leader in healthcare organizations is problem-solving. However, some of the most haunting challenges facing leaders and physicians in healthcare organizations are not problems but polarities that need management rather than solving. Indeed, polarities are different from problems that can be fixed overnight; they are recurring and therefore, can only be managed. According to Wesorick and Shaha (2015), polarities are a pair of interdependent and mutually crucial values that are an unavoidable part of life and must always remain balanced. This means that if one side of the pole of polarity is emphasized more than the other, the problems may arise in the entire organization. At Ascension Health, leaders strive to maintain equity between the executive board expectations, patients' expectations as well as the staff expectations in vain. For example, when the institution's leaders try to improve the level of satisfaction for the patients, staff members start to question the validity of the decision. In particular, sometimes the leadership at Ascension Health are frustrated with their clinicians' inability to meet the needs of their patients while on the other hand, the staff keeps questioning the ever-increasing expectations from the administration. In this case, it is always important to understand the polarities and how to leverage them.

Collins' Research Finding and Conclusions

Overall, effective leaders usually have a specific blend of skills. These individuals understand what it takes to achieve greatness in their organizations. In fact, they possess certain unique characteristics which are sometimes hard to explain. According to Driver and Wachter (2012), Collins and his colleagues attempted to explore the thin line that distinguishes good companies from great ones using an empirical approach. Their findings came as a shock to him and to the team involved because they contrasted many of the commonly held views about factors contributing to success. These findings st...