Impact of Environment on Healthcare

This assignment examines the complex interplay between internal and external environments and their impact on healthcare. It delves into organizational culture, leadership behaviors, and job satisfaction within healthcare settings. Furthermore, it explores the influence of social and economic factors, as well as external environmental pressures, on health outcomes and overall well-being. The analysis draws upon various scholarly sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of these multifaceted influences.

Running Head: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 1
Influences on Health and Social Care Organisations
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Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 2
Abstract
The study aims at identifying some of the influences on health and social care
organization. In order to provide a high quality healthcare, there is need to consider some of
the factors that may affect the healthcare and social care organization. After identifying them,
necessary steps are taken to cub them. Studies from primary and secondary sources on health
topics have indeed proven that there are influences on health and social care organization,
some of which if not taken into consideration may completely damage the health sector. That
is why there is need for further study on some of these influences on health and social care
organisations.

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 3
INTRODUCTION
One of the primary concerns and objectives of a health care is the improvement of the
quality of healthcare. Any patient would want a high quality healthcare. Poor quality
healthcare always has a resultant effect. This applies mostly to the public health sector with a
majority of patients. To better understand the influences on health and social care, there is
need to explore the relationship that exists between the health and social health care
organizations and the external environment, the impact of the organizational culture and
structure to the delivery of healthcare services. Finally, there is need to explore leadership in
healthcare and how it affects the service delivery in a healthcare or a social care organization.
TASK 1
1.1 Analyse the impact of external environmental factors on health and social care
organizations
To begin with, what would be the relationship that exists between the health and
social health care organizations and the external environment? When talking about the
external environment, there is a direct reference to the political, economic and social
environment, according to Kinyua (2014). Political environment surrounding a particular
health related organization would operate its activities either on the positive or the negative
side. On the positive, it is the political leaders that always fight to ensure that adequate and
better health care services are provided to its citizens. It is some of those in politics that
always sit down to come up with better health policies that make the health services better in
a country.
In addition, politically, the opposition party always keep the ruling party on toes to
ensuring that the government has the health of its citizens at the top of their interest list.
Failure to which peaceful demonstrations are conducted until the services in the health sector
is improved. Thirdly, ‘good’ politics attract foreign investment to the health care of a country.
Especially to the developing countries, no foreign support can be given to a country that is
politically unstable. The public perception of a particular health care service can at times be
interfered with politically by a few minorities, with an aim of bringing down a competitive
health care service provider. This, to the public, might spread so widely to an extent of
keeping away the usual customers as they opt for other service providers, thus leading to the
deterioration of the health and social care provision.

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 4
Positive politics will, therefore, affect the health and social care organizations
positively. Political environment may affect the health and social care organizations through;
high public benefits for everyone, strong labour movements as well as full policies on
employment. Through the three political activities, the result obtained would be low
inequalities in the health and social care sector (Tomljenovi, 2014).
1.2 Evaluate the ways in which organizations respond to the impact of external factors
including those of external stakeholders
Depending on the strength of a labour movement in a health sector, the working
conditions in a health sector will either rise or fall. A strong labour movement will always
fight for better medical services, employment of more medical staff where necessary and
promotion of its members as a way of motivating them. A medical practitioner will perform
better where there are better terms and conditions. Therefore, through such political labour
movements, there is better health and social care service provision. Through politics, the kind
of services offered at the health and social organizations tend to be universal and with no
favouritism because of its location.
This would have otherwise been very difficult to obtain. Politically, the citizens are
able to willingly participate in paying taxes. Through the taxes, funds allocated to the health
sector rises thus better health care service provision. A country that provides fair employment
opportunities to its citizens is better off that the one that does not. This is because countries
with such policies encourage employment of women thus giving them their own income.
Better health, to women and children, is dependent on the income. Such policies are only put
into place politically (Mazurenko, 2012).
The socioeconomic environment may also affect the health and social care
organizations in a number of ways which include; socially, how resources are shared from
state to state will strongly determine the value of health care provision in a particular state.
Poor resource distribution, especially the healthcare resources result to very poor health care
services thus affecting the quality of health care being offered in the health and social care
organizations. Availability of resources in the first place is important in service provision.
One has to feed themselves before they can spend on the health costs. According to CLAPH
(2013), the social attitudes and norms strongly affect the health sector. An environment with
high discrimination of any kind cannot promote better health care services thus affecting the

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 5
health organizations. Crime, violence and other vices within a society might also hinder the
progress of a state’s health.
A society with high crime rates cannot in the first place operate for twenty four hours.
This would mean that after working hours, the health care services are not available. The
societal infrastructure would affect the health and social care organizations. Poor
infrastructure makes it difficult for the transportation of diseased people from their homes to
the hospital, and at times from one hospital to another in cases of referrals. To respond to
such factors, poverty eradication needs to be at the top of the priority of any government.
This can mostly be achieved by educating all if not most of the children. After education,
when such individuals have become grown-ups, they will have known how to seek
employment or employ themselves thus issues with their healthcare would have been
minimized (CLAPH, 2013).
TASK 2
2.1 Compare and contrast different types of organizational structures in health and social care
Organizational structures in the health and social care organizations are what makes
their operations smooth or tough. Davies et al (2005) note that a proper organizational
structure is one that ensures that different duties and tasks are assigned to different qualified
people thus every employee knows what to do and at what time they should do it. Say for
example, within a normal hospital setting, there should be; multi professional team that deal
with the patient assessment, their treatment and care, a very flexible outpatient service
providers, for instance, the ambulance and transfer team, an integrated rehabilitation, and
prevention, customer care services, facilitators of integrated discharge and patient follow up,
day clinic services other access points like shops and referrals (Davies et al., 2005).
As per the interview session conducted with the management of Care UK, it has been
identified that according to the work scenario, duties are being delegated to the organizational
members. The manager of Care UK contended that organisational structure is the way of
delegating roles and responsibilities to the employees and this is also associated with the flow
of information that circulates in the organizational areas. The categories of organizational
structure are matrix, line, tall and functional and in Care UK, matrix structure has been
adopted by the management. As per the organizational structure, the management of Care UK
is required to emphasize on reporting relationships through which all the work processes
could be managed in effective manner. According to the structure, there needs to be formal

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 6
hierarchy among the employees so that they can manage all their work processes in the best
possible manner.
On the other hand, while carrying out interview with the manager of Royal United
Hospital, it has been identified that tall organizational structure is the one which comprises of
many hierarchies and which also includes different divisions in a single department. The
manager also said that the structure is usually adopted by larger business organizations;
however it also results in longer chain of command. The number of management level
increases when the organizational structure keeps on changing. Thus, this particular structure
has been adopted by Royal United Hospital of UK wherein long chain of command is being
followed.
Nursing and residential care homes may also have its own structure that is different
from a normal hospital set up. For instance, in a nursing home, there should be a multi-
disciplinary team, multi-professional care planning team, cashier department, rehabilitation
programmes and other facilities like hair dressing and shops. Formal care at home and in the
community may have a structure that includes; medical practitioners, access points such as
shops, counselling and referrals, adaptable and flexible services that can suit the needs of
individuals in the target home or community, a multi-professional team that can assist in
rehabilitative as well as preventive measures, department for coordination and
communication with other health care service providers in case there is need, and many
others. Transitory care facilities may require as a structure with access points like shops,
structures facilitating re-assessment and follow-up planning, individual and multi-
professional care planning and integrated services like rehabilitation among other services
(Konte, 2009).
2.2 Analyse the concept of organizational culture in health and social care services
Organizational culture in health and social cultures may refer to what an organization,
in this case, our health and social care organizations are used to performing their activities
wherever they are located. It is the culture of an organization that affects how it performs
especially under an old regime. This, in turn, has a huge impact on the type and quality of
service offered by an organization. An organization that is influenced by its culture in many
cases, is always not so friendly to changes, including the positive changes. Such organization
will always talk of ‘we always do it this way and that way’ specifically pointing at their point
of interest. The kind of managerial practices offered has proven to be one of the most potent

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 7
ways of transmitting a culture an organization. One manager may be so lenient to other
workers even when they repeat the same mistake many times until it becomes difficult for a
new manager to rule the same people.
2.3 Analyse theories relating to the behaviour of individuals and groups in health and social
care
A manager may decide to employ people from his/her home town, people that he is
used to until they forget their main agenda of providing services. Changing such a manager
always attracts an industrial action of the workers because of fear of change. Changing such
cultures as gossip might be difficult for new management hence it is important that such new
leaders themselves practice what they want others to practice. Such action is aimed at alerting
the workers that they need to change their game format. To handle an organizational culture,
prudence, especially on the new management, is required. The top target should be to
influence them emotionally. To the top most leadership, such issues as the organizational
culture can be changed if shifting is done more frequently, say after every two years. To the
new management, doing away with the old traditions of an organization requires calling a
discussion with the staff and frankly sharing with them the reality of what they are assuming
and helping them understand the need for changing how things are done. Predicting the
benefits of changing such negative culture works better in such a scenario. Positive
cultureshould, however, be maintained (Williams, 2014).
The success of any health facility depends on the behaviour of the workers
themselves. Good behaviour will always attract better services whereas bad behaviour results
in poorer healthcare services. The intervention to improve such behaviours in the health
sector calls for an understanding of certain theories of behaviour change and how each
employee can effectively apply them to better performance. Review of the most recent
articles has revealed some of the common theories that are applied to human behaviour,
which includes; the Health Belief Model (HBM), which theorizes that individuals’ belief
about whether they are at risk for a disease and the effects of the disease itself affects their
readiness to take action.
The Trans theoretical model (TTM) has it that for a change of any type to occur, there
must be a procedure to take, which include; pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation,
action and finally maintenance out of which there can never be a change. The Social
Cognitive Theory (SCT) puts it that any behavioural change always depends on

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 8
environmental influences and personal factors, of which the three must relate. The socio-
ecological Model suggests that for one to adopt a healthy behaviour there is a need for a
conducive environment to change. Generally, service delivery and quality are majorly
affected by the organizational structure and the health and care organization’s culture thus
should be properly and keenly looked into.
2.4 Explain how the organizational structure and culture of health and care organizations
impacts on service delivery
Tsai (2011) notes that leadership and its impact in any health and social care
organizations are so crucial that in a situation where there is no leadership, human beings
tend to behave like some of the crazy wild animals. A perfect organisation requires a strong
and effective management. Leadership may refer to how an individual behaves when
directing a group of people towards a common goal. Inasmuch as naturally, leadership in
some individuals is better seen than in others, it is something that one can train to become.
With the coming up of different transformation in the health sector, there has been a number
of leadership approaches that have been adopted towards providing quality healthcare
services (Tsai, 2011).
These approaches include; transformational leadership, collaborative leadership,
conflict management, shared leadership, distributed leadership, ethical leadership and
functional result oriented healthcare leadership. Guidance on ensuring effective leadership in
the health sector needs to focus on the near relationship between capabilities of an
organization, culture and the leadership values of the organization. All these brought together
are what brings about adorable and highly effective leadership. To escape poor service
delivery, a continuous shifting would be better. This aims at not allowing development of a
negative culture in a health and social care organization. Leadership has many roles in
ensuring the smooth running of different activities in the health sector. Such roles include,
coming up with a work plan for his/her organization, settling of disputes that may arise within
the organization, ensuring sufficient and effective supply of medical facilities required in
their organization, assigning tasks to other staff members, promptly correcting a mistake
made, ensuring better service delivery as well as ensuring that the work place is conducive
for his/her workers (Nicolson, 2011).
Finally, the health and social care organizations can only perform best if some of the
factors limiting their progress are addressed. Factors to do with external environment which

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 9
include the social, political and economic environment are crucial in bringing the best out of
a health organization. Dealing away with negative culture such as partying instead of working
would also be an important action to take in ensuring the improvement of the quality of
healthcare. In addition, the success of any organization highly depends on the kind of
leadership it has.
Furthermore, it can be said that organizational culture as well as structure both have
direct impact on service delivery procedure and both changes the efficiency of service
aspects. Organizational structure as well as organizational culture both changes the way of
conducting business aspects; hence in this respect it can be said that there are several aspects
of organization that are impacted due to cultural and structural facets. It also changes the
working environment and at the same time it leads to more transformation in the service
delivery procedure.

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 10
TASK 2
INTRODUCTION
This essay aims at discussing different influences on health and social care
organizations. The relationship between the eternal environment and health and social care
organisations. The impact of organisational structure and culture on health and social care
service delivery. The role of the leadership in health and social care organisations. Hence, all
these aspects have been discussed in the subsequent essay.
The impact of organisational structure and culture on health and social care service
delivery
A proper organizational structure is one that ensures that different duties and tasks are
assigned to different qualified people thus every employee knows what to do and at what
time they should do it. The structure and culture of any health organization will ensure:
 Smooth running of activities within an organization
 Timely delivery of services
 Only quality medical services are offered.
The relationship between the external environment and health and social care
organisations
1. External environment include:
2. Socioeconomic environment
3. Political environment
4. Socioeconomic environment include:
 Availability of health resources
 Discrimination in the society
 Crime and insecurity
 Violence
 Infrastructure

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 11
N/B-There is a very small difference between the social and economic environment
and that is why it is referred to socioeconomic environment.
Political environment
 The public perception of a particular health care service-can at times be interfered
with politically by a few minority, with an aim of bringing down a competitive health
care service provider
 High public benefits for everyone (positive impact)
 Strong labour movements (both)
 Full policies on employment (positive)
Nursing and residential care homes structure
 Multi-disciplinary team.
 Multi-professional care planning team.
 Cashier department.
 Rehabilitation programmes.
 Other facilities like hair dressing and shops.
A normal hospital setting structure
 Multi professional team that deal with the patient assessment, treatment and care
 A flexible outpatient service providers for example the ambulance and transfer team.
 An integrated rehabilitation, and prevention,
 Customer care services.
 Facilitators of integrated discharge and patient follow up
 Day clinic services other access points like shops and referrals
The role of the leadership in health and social care organisations
Leadership approaches involved in various health organizations include:
 Transformational leadership approach

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 12
 Collaborative leadership approach
 Conflict management approach
 Shared leadership approach
 Distributed leadership approach
 Ethical leadership approach
 Functional result oriented healthcare leadership.
Specific leadership contributions in health or social care organisation
 Coming up with a work plan for his/her organization
 Settling of disputes that may arise within the organization
 Ensuring sufficient and effective supply of medical facilities required in their
organization
 Assigning tasks to other staff members
 Promptly correcting a mistake made
 Ensuring better service delivery
 Ensuring that the work place is conducive for his/her workers

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 13
REFERENCES
County of Los Angeles Public Health. (2013). How Social and Economic Factors Affect
Health. Social Determinants of Health, 1-23.
Davies, H. T., Nutley, S. M., & Mannion, R. (2005). Organizational culture and quality of
health care. Quality in Health Care, 9, 111-119.
Kinyua, N., Jane, Munyoki, Justus, Kibera, & Francis. (2014). INFLUENCE OF
EXTERNAL ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT ON PERFORMANCE OF
COMMUNITY-BASED HIV AND AIDS ORGANIZATIONS IN NAIROBI
COUNTY, KENYA. European Scientific Journal, 10(1857-7881), 405-426.
Konteh, F. H., Mannion, R., & Davies, T. O. (2009). Understanding culture and culture
management in the English NHS: a comparison of professional and patient
perspectivesj. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practices, 111-117.
Mazurenko, O. (2012). AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND CARE COORDINATION.
Nicolson, P., Rowland, E., Fox, R., Gabriel, Y., Heffernan, K., Howorth, C., …
IlanClarke, Y. (2011). Leadership and Better Patient Care: Managing in the NHS.
Sawa, A. (n.d.). The leadership of Healthcare Professionals: Where Do We Stand? Oman
Medical Journal, 28, 285–287.
Tomljenovi, A. (2014). Effects of Internal and External Environment on Health and Well-
Being: From Cell to Society.
Tsai, Y. (2011). The relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior,
and Job Satisfaction BMC Health Services Research | Full Text. Retrieved from
https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-11-98
Williams, I., & Brown, H. (2014). Factors influencing decisions of value in health care: a
review of the literature.
County of Los Angeles Public Health. (2013). How Social and Economic Factors Affect
Health. Social Determinants of Health. 1-23.
Davies, H. T., Nutley, S. M., & Mannion, R. (2005). Organizational culture and quality of
health care. Quality in Health Care, 9, 111-119.
Kinyua, N., Jane, Munyoki, Justus, Kibera, & Francis. (2014). INFLUENCE OF
EXTERNAL ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT ON PERFORMANCE OF
COMMUNITY-BASED HIV AND AIDS ORGANIZATIONS IN NAIROBI
COUNTY, KENYA. European Scientific Journal, 10(1857-7881), 405-426.

Influences on Health and Social Care Organizations 14
Konteh, F. H., Mannion, R., & Davies, T. O. (2009). Understanding culture and culture
management in the English NHS: a comparison of professional and patient
perspectives. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practices, 111-117.
Mazurenko, O. (2012). AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND CARE COORDINATION.
Nicolson, P., Rowland, E., Fox, R., Gabriel, Y., Heffernan, K., Howorth, C., …
IlanClarke, Y. (2011). Leadership and Better Patient Care: Managing in the NHS.
Sawa, A. (n.d.). The leadership of Healthcare Professionals: Where Do We Stand? Oman
Medical Journal, 28, 285–287.
Tomljenovi, A. (2014). Effects of Internal and External Environment on Health and Well-
Being: From Cell to Society.
Tsai, Y. (2011). The relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior,
and Job Satisfaction | BMC Health Services Research | Full Text. Retrieved from
https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-11-98
Williams, I., & Brown, H. (2014). Factors influencing decisions of value in health care: a
review of the literature.
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