Using the functionalist and interpretivist perspectives to solve a complex organisational problem

This report discusses the use of functionalism and interpretivism perspectives to solve a complex organisational problem faced by an urban hospital in Melbourne. It covers the importance of consultation with staff, the challenges faced, and the theoretical reflections on the process.

Using the functionalist
and interpretivist
perspectives to solve a
complex organisational
problem

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Learnings from the procedure betterment pilot: A captious functionalist perspective..........1
Benefits and challenges of the functionalist approach used by organisation................1
Theory of functionalism................................................................................................1
The importance of integrated interpretivism / social relativism into the plan of a fresh
procedure betterment undertaking..........................................................................................2
Theory of interpretivism / social relativism..................................................................2
Why consultation with staff is so important.................................................................2
Why the pilot was not reviewed by employees as lawful.............................................2
Methods of consultation to develop a fresh procedure betterment undertaking...........2
Planned consultation procedure, informed by interpretivism / social relativism...................3
Evolve a consultation procedure to underpin new process improvement project.........3
Process model...............................................................................................................3
Planned consultation procedure: challenges and limitations..................................................3
Challenges that client might face as they facilitate this consultation...........................3
Practical limitations of interpretivism/social relativism...............................................3
Reflections on consultancy anticipation and their capability and challenges........................4
Reflect on the function as consultant for this undertaking............................................4
How does the activity is done as a consultant incarnate anticipation about company and
social group that represent an involvement in, and importance of, order and rules?....4
Advantages and disadvantages of reviewing the planetary via visual aspect based on
order/regulation anticipation.........................................................................................4
Theoretical reflections............................................................................................................5
Draw on the functionalist and social relativist paradigms to aid..................................5
Did you incline to be acceptive of antithetic views?....................................................5
Did you actively promote aggregate views?.................................................................5

What consequence did this have on the running and the superiority of its activity?....5
Limitations related with accommodative assorted view points....................................5
How did you manage such limitations?........................................................................6
Did one specific view influenced; what consequence did this have on you and the quality
of the activity?...............................................................................................................6
How did the disciplinary views impact this project and the entire outcome?...............6
Did the hypothesis on functionalism and social relativism affected the manner the you
worked?.........................................................................................................................6
Did you utilize this hypothesis to your personal team procedures, in regards to initiate the
needful activity?............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Functionalism is defined as the structural framework which aids in building theory which
reviews the society as a complicated system whose assorted parts work all together in order to
encourage solidarity and stability. Interpretivism is defined as the theories which states the
ability to gain the knowledge of the world in terms of interpreting the meanings about human
attachment with their actions. The following discussion is based on the case study of urban
hospital located in Melbourne who are facing the issues in their processes. This report covers the
lessons learned from the process improvement pilot, the importance of integrated
interpretivism/social relativism into the plan of a fresh procedure betterment undertaking,
planned consultation procedure, planned consultation procedure, reflections on consultancy
anticipation and their capability and challenges and theoretical reflections.
MAIN BODY
Learnings from the procedure betterment pilot: A captious functionalist perspective
Benefits and challenges of the functionalist approach used by
organisation
 Strengths of functionalism approach used by urban hospital located in Melbourne are
such that it has helped in minimising the conflicts via socialization and social control.
Moreover, it has assisted in the improvement process system to work collaboratively.
 Limitations of functionalism approach used by urban hospital located in Melbourne are
such that it has resulted in the contradictions of thoughts among staff members of the
hospital in terms of economic changes and social stability.
Theory of functionalism
 Theory related to the urban hospital located in Melbourne are such that nurses and
doctors are required to work all together even if nurses teaches the doctors or doctors
teaches the nurses, there must be coordination among the (Lowe, Espinosa and
Yearworth, 2020).
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The importance of integrated interpretivism / social relativism into the plan of a fresh procedure
betterment undertaking
Theory of interpretivism / social relativism
 This theory in relation with urban hospital located in Melbourne states that it has resulted
in the emergent and specific opportunities to the problems along with the associative and
divergent in nature which explores and expands the improvement process.
Why consultation with staff is so important
 Consultation with staff in urban hospital located in Melbourne is important to make the
strategic decisions along with the proper employee engagement in processes and
improvement project for better operational ideas and implementations of it (Tourish,
2019).
Why the pilot was not reviewed by employees as lawful
 The pilot plan which is also known as the trial run of plan was not seen effective by staff
in legal terms because of the nurses who are responsible to teach to the doctors for better
management but doctors disagreed and proved it against legislations.
Methods of consultation to develop a fresh procedure betterment
undertaking
 Methods includes the Model-Based Integrated Process Improvement Methodology
(MIPI), Super Methodology, Benchmarking Methodology, PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
Methodology, Six-Sigma Methodology, Lean Thinking, Kaizen Methodology and Total
Quality Management (TQM).
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Planned consultation procedure, informed by interpretivism / social relativism
Evolve a consultation procedure to underpin new process
improvement project
 Model-Based Integrated Process Improvement Methodology (MIPI) is chosen as a
consultation process, steps are, first is to understand the business needs and existing
processes, second is to process modelling and analysis along with the mapping and
redesigning, third is the new process implementation and methodology assessment along
with the reviewing of it (Castro, 2019).
Process model
Planned consultation procedure: challenges and limitations
Challenges that client might face as they facilitate this consultation
 Staff engagement is the major challenge which a client can face while implementation of
this process because decision making is performed by the leaders and managers.
Moreover, it can also result in the communication gap as well.
Practical limitations of interpretivism/social relativism
 The major limitations is the subjective nature of this approach because the primary data
collected for basic research for the improvement process in urban hospital located in
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Melbourne is based on the personal view points more than the practical nature (da Costa
Junior, Diehl and Snelders, 2019).
Reflections on consultancy anticipation and their capability and challenges
Reflect on the function as consultant for this undertaking
 Consultant follows the series of steps such as plan and organize along with the
monitoring and initiatives identified by the client end. Consultant aligns the project
management with the company objectives to accelerates the performance of business
(Alsharari, 2019).
How does the activity is done as a consultant incarnate anticipation
about company and social group that represent an involvement
in, and importance of, order and rules?
 Work is done by analysing the concept of order/regulation - conflict/radical change such
as there are four paradigms which are divided into two basis that are subjective and other
is objective. Radical humanist and interpretive are subjective and radical structuralist and
functionalist are objective in nature.
Advantages and disadvantages of reviewing the planetary via visual
aspect based on order/regulation anticipation
 Strengths includes that each and every process in urban hospital located in Melbourne are
performed in the systematic and strategic manner with better norms and values so that
order and regulation improvement processes can be maintained in a more better way.
 Limitations includes in urban hospital located in Melbourne are such that the order and
regulations are strict in nature which hampers the employee engagement which results in
the dissatisfaction among staff in operating the patient. This can lead to the disturbed
functioning of the hospital.
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Theoretical reflections
Draw on the functionalist and social relativist paradigms to aid
 I have applied the theories of functionalism and social relativism which includes the
paradigms to aid so that the formulation of process improvement can be more relevant
and reliable in nature due to the subjective as well as the objective implementation of it
(Semenova, 2020).
Did you incline to be acceptive of antithetic views?
 I tend to accept the different perspectives of various types of employees which includes
nurses, doctors, administrators, receptionist and many more. This is because everyone
was having their own aspect to study the process improvement methodologies, that is
why it was important to analyse assorted perceptions.
Did you actively promote aggregate views?
 I support and assist more than one perspectives of different employees for the client I am
working for because there are no wrong perspectives, only there are contrary point of
views which are crucial to make it mutual for better implementation of the project
undertaken.
What consequence did this have on the running and the superiority of
its activity?
 Encouragement of multiple perspectives have the positive impact on the functioning and
the quality of the work pursued by the consultant. Because supporting multiple
perspectives helps the organization in good communication flow among staff along with
the enhanced interaction among employees and employers.
Limitations related with accommodative assorted view points
 There are challenges which I faced with reconciling different points of view within
organization such as conflicts among teams and groups along with the management and
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resolution of it. Because of different perspectives, it was important to formulate the
tactics which can initially handles the administrations.
How did you manage such limitations?
 I have handled these challenges by initiating the strategies of conflicts management such
as by thinking opportunistically but not punitively. By offering guidance but not solutions
and by collaborating among themselves. This has helped me in facing such challenges.
Did one specific view influenced; what consequence did this have on
you and the quality of the activity?
 Yes, one specific perspective dominated in the given case study that is the doctors
perception regarding their nurses that they will not learn the new processes form their
junior staff. This has affected negatively on my procedures and quality of work as well.
How did the disciplinary views impact this project and the entire
outcome?
 The disciplinary cultures and backgrounds has positively impacted the particular
assignment and the overall result in such a manner that the employees has followed the
strict nature of the project without any objections which has resulted in the average
results of process improvement that is neither negative nor positive but expected.
Did the hypothesis on functionalism and social relativism affected the
manner the you worked?
 Yes both the theories have influenced the way I worked as a consultant for the hospital as
they have provided me the better ideology regarding the concept of the given case study
and how can I solve the specified problem faced by the hospital.
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Did you utilize this hypothesis to your personal team procedures, in
regards to initiate the needful activity?
 Yes, I have applied these theories to my own group procedures so that I can produce the
work as per my needs and requirements for the particular project in order to meet the
organizational goals and objectives.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that it is important to analyse the lessons learned from the process
improvement pilot. It is necessary to determine the importance of integrated interpretivism /
social relativism into the plan of a fresh procedure betterment undertaking. It is essential to
examine the proposed consultation process. It is significant to gain the knowledge about
proposed consultation process and it is crucial to assess the reflections on consultancy
assumptions and theoretical reflections. Hence, this report covers all such areas in order to better
understand the concept of functionalism and interpretivism.
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References
Books and Journals
Alsharari, N.M., 2019. Management accounting and organizational change: alternative
perspectives. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Castro, P.P.C., 2019. The viable system model as a framework to guide organisational adaptive
response in times of instability and change. International Journal of Organizational
Analysis.
da Costa Junior, J., Diehl, J.C. and Snelders, D., 2019. A framework for a systems design
approach to complex societal problems. Design Science, 5.
Lowe, D., Espinosa, A. and Yearworth, M., 2020. Constitutive rules for guiding the use of the
viable system model: Reflections on practice. European Journal of Operational
Research. 287(3). pp.1014-1035.
Semenova, V., 2020. Technology adoption theories in examining the uptake of blockchain
technology in the framework of functionalist and interpretive
paradigms. Vezetéstudomány/Budapest Management Review. 51(11). pp.26-38.
Tourish, D., 2019. Is complexity leadership theory complex enough? A critical appraisal, some
modifications and suggestions for further research. Organization Studies. 40(2). pp.219-
238.
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