Organizational Structure of Whitlam Memorial Hospital: A Critical Discussion

This essay critically analyzes the organizational structure of Whitlam Memorial Hospital and proposes an alternative structure to enhance patient outcomes and quality of care. It discusses the strengths and limitations of the current functional structure and the importance of organizational mission, vision, and goals. The proposed divisional structure is examined in terms of its strengths and limitations. The essay concludes by justifying the selection of the divisional structure for Whitlam Memorial Hospital.

Running head: CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
Name of the Student:
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1CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
Introduction:
The essay will focus on the organizational structure of Whitlam Memorial Hospital
(WMH) as highlighted in the case study and the primary aim of this essay is to critically
analyse an alternative organizational structure that can reform or restructure the present
organizational structure. The restructuring is required by the organization to enhance the
environment of the hospital including both external and internal environment and therefore
increasing the accountability of resource exploitation for enhanced patient outcome and
improved eminence of care (Harper, 2015). The organization requires structuring to improve
their current bed volume and to expand their therapeutic services that includes
cardiovascular, cancer, renal services, community services, paediatric, trauma and aged care
services. The current structure of organization was not operative enough for handling any
enhanced operation thus the organization required few changes in their overall planned goals
comprising of new mission and vision statement. Hence, this essay will discuss the viable
organizational structure, which will improve the services of the hospitals thus refining the
patient outcomes and quality of care (Zingg et al., 2015).
Organizational structure of WMH
The organizational structure is defined to identify the hierarchy of any organization,
which highlights on various methods of how an association functions in order to accomplish
its objectives and goals. The vision and mission of the organization is strategically significant
to achieve attainment in the corporate environment (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018).
Organizational structure constructs a foundation that is mandatory for the organization
members to emphasize as their mirror towards the objectives and goals of the organization.
The organizational vision states the future objective of the organization by motivating the
employees feel as a crucial part of the association. The organizational mission define the

2CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
resolution or justification of the organizations and therefore acts as a basis of decision-
making practice (McNaught & Shaw, 2017). Hence, it is well justified that the vision and
mission of the organization will affect the organizational structure by positioning a basis that
has to be followed by the organization.
Strengths and Limitations of the Current Functional structure
Strengths: The complete team is devoted with the supervisor or manager who is experienced
enough with the product information. Therefore the manager is adequately competent to
review and judge the effort of fellow team members. The involvement of managerial skills is
effective in the domain of healthcare as the experts can consult and reach out easily to the
manager without wasting much time therefore, it is considered as a good application of
expert’s abilities and skills (Jasimuddin & Hasan, 2015). Since team work is very effective in
the organization the new members can easily adapt and gain knowledge hence, it is
considered as a good source of knowledge management. Hence, any issue related to any case
will resolve faster and on time thus increasing the overall effectiveness of the organization.
On the other hand, the employees will get motivated and work with enthusiasm under low
pressure (Zaridis & Mousiolis, 2014).
Limitations: In case of functional structure an unhealthy competition is always existent and
the workers perform their task on an urgency level, which means that in state of emergency
one department is preferred over the other department, which can lead to an internal rivalry or
competition within the structure (Carley & Prietula, 2014). Therefore, in case of alteration in
any organizational level will lead to conflict within the present organization. Another major
disadvantage of functional structure is the absence of effective communication within the
team members on an everyday basis. In such case the juniors cannot communicate effectively

3CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
with the manager and seniors and will further slow the entire process of flexibility and
innovation leading to other management issues (Deng, Hu & Srinivasan, 2017).
Importance of Organizational Mission, Vision and goals linked with the
organizational structure
Mission: The mission of the restructured hospital in this case study was determined to deliver
the highest quality of care in association with carers, patients, carers, health care providers
and communities. The mission was good but lacked feasibility within the current structure of
organization. The current organizational structure lacks frequent and effective
communication among the juniors and seniors, which means that the skill development
process is little sluggish and slower within the functional organisation (Lupton & Beamish,
2014). The restructured mission is dedicated to offer the preeminent facilities to consumers in
association with other carers. Hence, the restructured mission lacks the basic requirement of
frequent and effective communication among juniors and seniors.
Vision: The vision of restructured hospital is to deliver effective health experiences in
counter to the requirements of the developing community. Due to the present functional
structure the restructured vision is falling short. The current functional structure of the
organization is distributed into different departments and any department is not responsible or
accountable for other department (Ravasan, Nabavi & Mansouri, 2015). Restructuring is
required in Whitlam memorial hospital as the population is developing and expanding in the
neighbouring community thus increasing the need of recruitment. However, it is evident that
the present structure is not following the required objective of internal communication, so
that, any patient query can be identified and resolved as soon as possible at a faster pace
within the concerned department.

4CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
Goals: The restructured goals or objectives of the organization is to deliver high quality care
and service with the assistance from the multidisciplinary teams (MDT). But, in the current
functional structure it is not visible that the organization is following any such MDT
approach instead the team members are disconnected and non-accountable for any
happenings in the former departments (Oeppen et al., 2019). As concerned in the case setting,
it is not feasible to counter any escalating insistence and accomplish the altered strategic
objectives or goals.
Proposed Structure for supporting the mission, vision and goals of the
WMH
The changed vision, mission, and objective of the organization includes the proposed
divisional organizational structure that is considered as the most feasible approach. The
altered mission, goals and vision of the organization require an arrangement where team
members are accountable for each other and the departments are connected to each other
(Kuntz, Scholtes & Sulz, 2019). A proper structure was required to backup or support the
educational surroundings at WMH, in order to increase the relevance of creativity and
innovation. In order to provide specialized services a creative approach is required in the
community. The proposed divisional structure is effective from the recognized perception or
viewpoint. Divisional organizational structure will comprise of one professional expert who
will be the in charge of only one division hence in case of healthcare centre, different
departments will be responsible for new services beside the current services. In the proposed
organizational structure, different sections will signify to their respective seniors and those
seniors will directly report to the main chief executive officer (CEO) in the current centre
(Ansoff et al., 2019).

5CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
Strengths: The suggested divisional structure of organization is appropriate since it provides
importance to the final result as one facility is devoted to single product that will help the
organization to attract the focus on the final result thus maximizing the quality of care and
patient output. WMH hospital also requires the same end result (Stoelwinder, 2019). The
vision of the organization will be to supply the finest skill and experience by maximizing
their specialized services. In this divisional structure, special importance is given to sole
product mark hence, performance is measured easily, which means that any kind of losses or
gaps can be identified easily and later can be nullified in a short span of time (Bolman &
Deal, 2017).
Another strength of divisional structure of organization is in identifying the need of
separate division thus not hampering the growth of any other product line thereby increasing
the coordination in the organization. Any sort of overlapping or confusion can easily be
avoided and will assists in creating managers or specialist for diverse service line (Qasemi &
Behzadi, 2019). In the case study, WMH can hire more number of managers in the future as
every division requires an assigned specialist only thereby decreasing the overall burden
within the organization. Hence, in order to attain maximum remunerations the efforts will
upsurge (Zaridis & Mousiolis, 2014).
Limitations: As more divisions are recommended in this structure, the budget strain can be a
possible limitation therefore, increasing the total estimated cost of the organization.
Furthermore, the organization will require discrete mangers for different position in various
divisions (Botin, 2019). Hence, the requirement of specialist doctors will increase for distinct
planned services. If the situation is not controlled appropriately, information monitoring
system can be used for testing.

6CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
Justifying the selection: From the various organizational structure the divisional structure
has been preferred because it will deliver a skilful operation of various specialty services thus
improving the coordination within the organization and enhancing the time period of solving
any problem (Lee, Daugherty & Hamelin, 2019).

7CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
Conclusion
In this essay the existing organization structure was identified that was being used in
the Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH). The existing organizational structure used was the
out-dated functional organizational structure that was not effective in handling or managing
any constant complexity within the business surroundings. The strengths and limitations are
described and highlighted in the essay hence, stating that the divisional structure is best suited
for restructuring WMH. Restructured organization structure will improve the coordination
within the organization and will support in rapid diagnosing of any problem or issue. The
issue can be resolved in a shirt span of time as the improved structure will help the hospital to
enhance the coordination among the team members. Hence, Whitlam Memorial Hospital
(WMH) can fulfil the restructured vision, mission, and goals of the organization.

8CRITICAL DISCUSSION PAPER
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