Building an Organizational Structure for Whitlam Memorial Hospital

This analytical essay evaluates the current Whitlam Memorial Hospital organizational structure and suggests a suitable organization structure which can help the hospital management meet their mission, vision and objectives. The essay examines the strengths and limitations of the current bureaucratic system and proposes a flat organizational structure as an alternative.

Running head: BUILDING AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE 1
Building an Organizational Structure
Student by (Name)
Institution

BUILDING AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE 2
Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH)
Introduction
The success of any organization is based on the type of the organizational structure being
applied. Organizational structure plays a very important role when it comes to management of all
activities within an organization ranging from duty allocation, coordination as well as
supervision. The organization structure is also vital in ensuring that goals, objectives, vision, and
mission of a given organization are achieved. Organizations decide on which structure to use
depending on the mission, vision, and objectives (Harper, 2015). The content of this analytical
essay is aimed at evaluating the current Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) organizational
structure and how it is linked to the vision, mission, and goals of the hospital. The organization
management feels that the community is expanding and that they should restructure the hospital
to meet the changing demands of the community. This essay will examine the current
bureaucratic system and suggest a suitable organization structure which can help the hospital
management meet their mission, vision and objectives.
Thesis statement
The success of any organization depends on the type of organizational structure and
strategies employed. Organizational structure helps an organization with management of all
activities ranging from duty allocation, coordination as well as supervision thus keen
consideration when selecting organizational structure.

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Strengths and limitations of the current Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH)
organizational structure
Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) is current using traditional bureaucratic
organizational structure. This current organizational structure at Whitlam memorial Hospital
(WMH) is evidently backed with some strengths and limitations of the Sidney community health
care environment which has been currently changing healthcare demands. With the current
organizational structure, Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) can only accommodate 130
patients as the currently being used bureaucratic structure can only offer 130-bed capacity. This
is one disadvantage of the bureaucratic organizational structure which is not flexible to allow the
capacity increase (Toles, Colón-Emeric, Naylor, Barroso & Anderson, 2016). The hospital has
an only 130-bed facility for over ten years which is an indication that the current organizational
structure is not perfect to accommodate the changing health demands of the community. Even
though the majority of the hospitals in the area may have less bed capacity compared to Whitlam
memorial Hospital (WMH), it is evident that the current organization structure cannot meet the
organizational vision, mission, and objectives.
Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) for over a period of ten years has been offering the
same medical services to the community. According to the provided case study, Whitlam
memorial Hospital (WMH) with the current organizational structure has only been providing;
general acute medical services, surgical services, obstetric medical services and emergency to the
local Sidney community (Yinan, Tang & Zhang, 2014). Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) for
the last 10years has not shown any sign of improvement in their line of service delivery to the

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members of the Sydney community proving further that the hospital is not able to meet the
changing health needs of the community.
Although it has not been mentioned in the case study, the bureaucratic organizational
structure has some invisible limitations such as communication may be limited based on the rigid
and standardized way of operations. High degree of formalized operation may be advantageous
but as well as disadvantageous to an organization (Manners, 2017). The junior doctor within
Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) based on the formalization set by the organizational
structure may not be able to express their opinions which may help make changes connected to
organizational position and service provision. Also, Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH)
bureaucratic units have adapted vertical accountability with poor horizontal accountability and
limited communication between among the bureaucratic units.
On the other hand, functional organizational structure creates an organizational culture
which is advantageous in service provision as each functional group is fully aware of their role.
Various nurses and doctors at Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) have a mastery of the
organizational strategies and ways of performing various activities for a long time span thus
minimum supervisions (Hatch, 2018). Another advantage of functional organizational structure
enjoyed by Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH) is the management control, the head department
has the overall power and makes all decision in the hospital. However, Whitlam memorial
Hospital (WMH) management is currently considering organizational restructuring and change
of the current strategies for a productive outcome.
Organizational mission, goals, and vision

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The effectiveness and functionality of strategies within an organization depend on key
organizational aspects: organizational vision, mission, and core value as well as objectives. The
vision statement refers to the position an organization may wish to beat in the future. The
mission statement, on the other hand, is a short statement which summarizes the purpose of an
organization, the prospects and how an organization operates. Objectives of an organization is
another aspect which contributes to the success of an organization. Whitlam memorial Hospital
(WMH) as an organization has objectives which have been summarized in the organization's
mission statement as “Provide health experiences that can respond to the changing needs of the
community.” Although the organization has a perfect mission statement which indicates its
purpose, the current strategy of the hospital makes it difficult for the organization to meet the
changing health demand of the community (Manojlovich & Ketefian, 2016). The organization
has come up with a new mission which requires new organizational structure and strategies to
achieve. The organization is considering “to provide the highest quality, specialist health care
in partnership with patients, careers, the community at large and other health care providers”
as the new mission statement which will be the driving force towards successful service delivery.
Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH) should come up with an alternatively flexible
organizational structure which involves every employee to meet its purpose.
Alternative organizational structure for Whitlam memorial Hospital (WMH)
Flat organizational structure
Organizational structure is the key driving force towards a successful service provision
which meets customers demand. The management of the hospital should consider the most
appropriate approach where all members of the hospital work towards achieving the vision,

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mission, and objectives of the organization (Burke, 2017). The alternative organizational
structure should allow room for each members contribution with no single boss with experience
the pressure of coming up with new strategies and ways for effective medical service delivery to
the community. The organization should use flat organization structure which will allow
flexibility and autonomy among the member of the organization while working to realizing the
mission and objectives (Thomas, 2015). The flat organizational structure will allow effective
communication such as face to face meeting together with autonomy for various employees to
think outside the box to bring solutions to the table for challenging situations.
Strengths and weaknesses of flat organizational structure for WMH
Adoption of the flat organizational structure by Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH) will
have a lot of benefits to the organization compared to the traditional poor organizational
structure. The flat organizational structure is needed by Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH) to
ensure that the organization meets the currently changing medical demand by the local
community (Thomas, 2015). With the flat organizational structure, the nurses and doctors will be
able to perform their duties with a lot of flexibility and autonomy promptly. According to human
resources reports, employees always appropriately and with a lot of efficiencies when working
within a conducive and autonomous environment (Van Bogaert, & Clarke, 2018). A flat
organization is flexible which makes it the most effective organizational strategy for Whitlam
Memorial Hospital (WMH) currently proposed changes. The old organization structures only
allowed bed capacity of 130 beds.
However, with the current organizational structure, the organization will be able to
expand the bed capacity to the proposed 250 beds. This will be possible as every employee of the

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hospital will work towards the success of the current proposals as well as to achieve the business
mission and objective. Moreover, flatter organizational structure is more flexible compared to
bureaucratic organization structure; this will allow various individuals within the community to
contribute towards service improvement by the hospital. Another advantage of a flatter
organizational structure is the diversification (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Adoption of a flatter
organization by Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH) will enable diversification of treatment as
current epidemiological reports indicate. The organization will be able to treat some diseases
based on increased research and contributions from all nurses and doctors. The organization will
also be able to hire highly skilled personnel.
Likewise, the flat organizational structure works in ways which are in line with the
current Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH) visions, mission, and objectives. Achieving
organizational mission and objectives means effective medical service provider for the Sydney,
community member. It also means meeting the currently changing medical demand of the
community. However, there are various challenges which come with the implementation of new
organizational structures and strategies (Langfred, & Rockmann, 2016). Whitlam Memorial
Hospital (WMH) employees might have few problems adopting the new system, and this results
in various disadvantages of flat organization structure. Nevertheless, Whitlam Memorial Hospital
(WMH) is likely to benefit from the new organizational structure and meet the changing
community health demands.
Conclusion
The above discussion has reviled various benefits of organizational structures to
organizations such as Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH). Since organizations depend greatly

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on the organizational structures, it is required for organizations to have strategies which result in
effective service provision. Organizations such as Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH) should,
therefore, adopt a flexible and effective organizational structure as well as strategies which are in
line with the organization's mission, vision, and objectives. The adopted organizational structure
should also allow innovation and effective communication within Whitlam Memorial Hospital
(WMH). The hospital employees should focus on the new organizational structure and ways of
how to be on the same page with operations involved with flat organizational structure.
References
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