Assessing Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Assessing Organizational Culture Essay around every make-up, whether public or clannish, on paper or in practice, has a floriculture that somewhat dictates its everyday functioning. The term culture has m both definitions but in this discussion it is defined as dual-lane flavors, value, symbols, and behaviors. Culture binds a workforce in concert and is its control mechanism, or purpose, to facilitate its functioning. These items are powerful parkway forces in the success of an organization and their value to the community they serve whether it is a public or private entity will affect the success of any organization. While cultures are found in some organizations to a greater extent prominently than in others, thither are those organizations where the culture of that specific organizations ideal stands step up above others. Police departments, military units and religious organizations all own a strong, centralized culture that forms its mingy and permeates its entire existence. Many times people outside of those professions do not substantiate the mentality or job commitment a person from one of these career fields shares with his/her co-workers.An example would be the certificate of indebtedness and honor commitment of a United State Marine, especially when considered by a person who was anti-military the Marines flavour or core value system is not understood. The medical examination checkup profession and more specifically hospitals, shew a common goal that simply stated, is the care and healing of the sick or injured. For the most part, the medical staff employed at a hospital is there for that specific purpose. The medical field brings together a vast array of individuals from different backgrounds and cultures.But once they become a doctor, hospital nurse, running(a) technician, etc. they take on a upstart life and thereby absorb a new culture into their lives. Subcultures, as defined by organizational theorists John van Maanen and Stephen Barley, are a subset of an organizations members who interact regularly with one another, identify themselves as a distinct groupand routinely take action on the basis of collective understandings unique to the group (Cheney, 2011, 78-79) The organizational culture in a hospital is found on the premise that the hospital is there to provide a plant for the care and healing of the sick or injured.Organizational theorist Mary Jo Hatch puts forth that there are five (5) Degrees of Cultural Integration and preeminence (Cheney, 77) identified as follows Unitary, diverse (Integrated), assorted (Differentiated), Diverse (Fragmented) and Disorganized (Multi-cephalous) (Hatch, 1997, 210). A hospital in its purest form would be well represented as a Unitary culture because the staff as a whole all have the same determine or beliefs. But individual staff or even medical units whitethorn fall into any of the other cultures identified as well.A particular unit, i. e. cardiac telemet ry cut down, may be a Diverse (Fragmented) unit receivable to a group of nurses who do not view their critical task requirements in the same way and as a take the level of patient infections or deaths rises, causing hullabaloo among the staff, supervisors, patient families and resulting in legal ramifications thereby fragmenting the staffs solidarity. Social psychologist Edgar Schein formulated a abstractive model that shows an organizations culture is built on three levels artifacts, values and norms, and assumptions and beliefs.Artifacts are unremarkably the most common and visible sign of a specific culture. Schein puts forth that things such as nurse uniforms, terminology, surgical protocols and more, actually and accurately represent the basic aspects of organizations culture. The values and norms aspect of his theory, musical composition not always visible, can be seen through behavior of the individual or group it reveals what is authoritative to the group and how the y treat each other within their organization. Each aspect of the profession may have an operating procedure or environment nique to that area of specialization, but static have the same values and norms for their actions.In a surgical room, sterilization of the environment is much more important than it would be in a patients room on a medical/surgical floor, but they still have the same belief in keeping an open scandalize as clean as possible. While values in the medical profession do not vary as a whole, values do define accepted behavior and action. Genuine assumptions and beliefs are nurtured by a persons or organizations values and norms. Values vary only slightly in the various medical professions and facilities.Depending on the medical specialty area, operational norms and methods may differ according to training priorities, equipment and environment unique to that specialty. For instance, the hospital in-patient wound care team may have the same desire to treat a patients wounds as a firm health nursing team, but the methods of treatment or medications used may be different. Differences begin to surface when a patient is sent home on a electronegative pressure wound therapy system, i. e. a wound V. A. C. , that aids in the healing of wounds via suction (http//www. kci1. com/KCI1/vactherapy).Many home health nurses does not know how to properly change the intricate dressing or fully understand this equipment or the damaging results that can occur if not changed properly. Faulty assumptions are therefore made based on the beliefs of the home health nurse of what should be done for the patient. When that happens, problems arise in this particular scenario that could result in the patient being brought back to the hospital for a further period of hospitalization due to a breakdown of their wounds or even the creation of new wounds as a result of unfit V. A. C. placement.The overriding culture of the medical field is based on the Physicians Creed of F irst, do no harm (author uncertain but it is based on the Hippocratic Oath which states to abstain from doing harm). This belief echoes throughout the medical field all over the world. And while there are individual exceptions or exceptions in areas such as animal research for the betterment of mankind or the ethical restitution of abortion, the creed has gone unchanged since the time of the ancient Greeks and before. Scheins three (3) levels of artifacts, values and norms, and assumptions and beliefs, are intelligible in every clinical setting.With further exploration, Hatchs five (5) Degrees of Cultural Integration and Differentiation will also be found, albeit not everyone will be seen on every hospital floor or unit. Medical facilities are a kaleidoscope or a microcosm of many subcultures under the roof of the main culture of being a place for the care and healing of the sick or injured. Without that organizational culture giving guidance to all of the subcultures involved in this humanitarian career field, the death rate for child injuries and diseases would compound exponentially.