Healthcare Environment: Organizational Structure and Culture Report

This report provides an analysis of the healthcare environment at Silverwood Care Home, focusing on its organizational structure, culture, and the role of the healthcare manager, Jacob. The report defines organizational structure and hierarchy, identifying Silverwood's hierarchical structure and its implications. It then explores organizational culture, examining how Silverwood's structure impacts its culture and communication. Finally, the report defines the roles and responsibilities of a manager and a healthcare manager, specifically analyzing Jacob's contributions to Silverwood Care Home. The report highlights the importance of structure, communication, and management in providing effective care within a residential healthcare setting.

Running head: HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENT
Silverwood Care Home
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
Residential homes are many in number and largely depend on the needs of the individual.
Silverwood understands well that the most important thing is the meal of the residents and so
focusing that their menu has a variety of options each day for each meal along with different
snacks, fresh fruits as well as refreshments, which are available to the residents for all day
long. Silverwood care home provides services for those who are generally old or the ones
suffering with dementia. There are various activities designed for the residents keeping in
mind their health. However, the residents can live comfortably with proper bedrooms and
garden, they can bring their furniture along with them or even they can carry their pets.
However, in this task the focus will be on the organizational structure of Silverwood along
with how the organizational structure they follow can have an impact on its culture. Lastly,
the role and responsibility of Jacob who is the manager of his health care home will also be
discussed and analyzed from the perspective that how much Jacob is contributing to the
benefit of Silverwood care home.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................4
Definition of organizational structure....................................................................................4
Type of organizational structure in Silverwood.....................................................................4
Definition of hierarchy...........................................................................................................5
Hierarchy structure in Silverwood.........................................................................................5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................6
Definition of organizational culture.......................................................................................6
The impact of organizational structure on the culture of Silverwood....................................6
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................8
Definition of a manager.........................................................................................................8
Definition of a healthcare manager........................................................................................8
The role and responsibility of the Health care.......................................................................8
The role and responsibility of the Health care in Silverwood..............................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Silverwood care home is located in Beeston, Nottingham and its main objective is to
provide residential, nursing and respite care. Currently it has 15 residents whose age is
between 72-98years. However, two among them have been diagnosed with Dementia.
Dementia is a term that has been given to the decline in mental abilities that are severe
enough to hinder with daily life. The most common examples of Dementia are Memory loss
along with the common type of Dementia is Alzheimer. The manager of Silverwood care
home is known as Jacob. However, along with Jacob the staff team comprises of 2 registered
nurses, 2 domiciliary workers, 5 care assistants and 1 team leader. As far as Jacobs’s role is
concerned, it can be said that he is the one who takes maximum decisions in the home. Jacob
communicates his final decisions once he has made it to his team leader. However, his
expectations from his team leader is that the decisions that he took for the care home gets
implemented properly by the team leader without questioning his decisions. Jacob consider
respecting the authority to be very necessary in his job. Residential care homes are mainly
long-term care centers for adults or children who can stay in a residential environment rather
than being in their home or with their family (Falk et al. 2013).

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Task 1
Definition of organizational structure
An organization can be a business unit or a non-profit seeking entity; organization is a
group of people who are working towards a shared goal. Every organization regardless of the
scale and nature of operation have a set hierarchy that is usual maintained in a formal or
informal way depending on the culture of that organization. Organizational structure is
defined as the process in which responsibilities are delegated and assignments are segregated
in order to maintain coordination in the daily operations of the business. Every organization
has an arrangement that illustrates the roles that the members associated with the organization
have to perform so that there is a collective understanding about the duties and the
responsibility on a daily basis. The structure described with the help of info-graphics and
charts. The hierarchy of the company has to be clear, in order to maintain a flow in the
organization (Claver-Cortés, Pertusa-Ortega and Molina-Azorín, 2012).
Type of organizational structure in Silverwood
Communication process in an organization depends on the steps of hierarchy and
hence the structure has to clear in the minds of the people associated with the organization.
This helps the employees to respect the posts and the organization as well. There are many
types of organizational structure: hierarchical, functional structure, divisional structure and
matrix structure.

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However, as far as Silverwood is concerned this healthcare organization is found to have
following Hierarchical organizational structure.
Definition of hierarchy
In hierarchical organization structure, the idea of the concept of hierarchy is that it has
vertical levels central to a top authority figure where the higher levels guides the lower levels
in the hierarchy. It can be defined as the process by which power and authority along with
responsibilities are maintained among a group of people, the people of the organization are
arranged in the order of rank (Ashkenas et al. 2015).
Hierarchy structure in Silverwood
This type of a structure clearly defines the bond between the managers and the underlying
staffs from the top to bottom of the organization. The staff members are given defined roles
and responsibilities. Therefore, apart from having few disadvantages it has several
advantages for small organizations. The features that this organizational structure bears in
Silverwood are as follows-
 In Silverwood the departments are small will few employees thus, they knows that
they have to seek guidance from their managers who the supervisor just above them.
 In the hierarchal organization structure, the managers are very skilled in the
department’s particular functions. Jacob is a skilled manager of the unit and maintains
the hierarchy while taking any decision.
 The employees have a clear notion whom to approach for promotions so that they can
arise in the organizational ladder. Jacob knows that he cannot take decision on the
behalf of the management and hence he reports to the team leader. It is clear to the
employees in this type of an organizational structure that where the path is guiding
them and where it is ending.

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 In hierarchical structure, the staff members can relate which each other as while
working, they may face similar challenges and can share their previous experiences.
Task 2
Definition of organizational culture
Organizational culture involves the organization’s assumptions, experiences, values and
philosophy that binds the organization together and is demonstrated in their internal
workings, self-image, and communication with the external world as well as their future
expectations (Alvesson 2012). The culture in any organization is based on shared beliefs,
customs, and attitudes along with written and unwritten rules that are evolved over time and
are considered valid. Thus, culture gets reflected in the ways the organization runs its
business, behaves with their staffs, clients and the community as a whole, the level in which
freedom is given to the employees for taking part in decision making, delivering new ideas
and expressing themselves. Moreover, organizational culture depends upon how power and
information is transferred through its ranking and lastly, how the staff members are
committed towards the collected goal of the organization.
The impact of organizational structure on the culture of Silverwood
However, as discussed earlier a formal structure always requires achieving the
objectives of the organization in an effective manner (Thornton, Ocasio and Lounsbury
2012). Therefore, when employees have to work together to provide the specific services to
their client in Silverwood under the restrictions of the functional structure to reach their
ascertain objectives which are done by following a specific way to speak and communicate
which definitely forms an organizational culture. The organizational structure is known to
partially describing the organizational culture, therefore any difficulty the structure can have

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an impact on its culture. The organizational structure is mainly the framework for their
culture to be executed while on the other hand the organizational culture commands how the
organization should be structured (Gordon et al. 2013). Communication is important in the
daily operations of the business and in this culture, the approach is clear as the roles and
ranks are defined clearly.
Silverwood care home follows a hierarchical organizational structure and hence the
culture corresponds with the structure (Mullins 2016). This ensures stability and reliability as
the decisions and the powers are not concentrated in the hands of a single person.
Organizational structure affects the culture directly because of the employee’s placement
within the formulated structure (Bock et al. 2012). Thus, if the employees in the structure are
not coordinated enough then that will surely affect the organizations culture. The work
environment that includes hierarchy makes the process of operation smooth and easy, as the
people are well aware of their roles and responsibilities, therefore works accordingly. Thus,
when the structure is made the focus should be on what the organization wants to achieve
otherwise the culture will get affected. A communication structure, top down information
flow, neural networking and most importantly the size of the organization also affects the
culture along with the structure. However, the hierarchical structure also affects the culture of
the organization as it is based on the defined role and responsibilities in each level of
hierarchy thus, many a times it may be considered that too much control can hamper the
creativity as well as productivity of the employees, which in a way affects the organizational
culture. The organizational culture is also affected because it not only has little scope of
communication but also rarely allows any kind of flexibility. It further has an impact on the
culture by not encouraging the employees to collaborate and share among the reporting
structure. Hierarchical culture in an organization ensures planning and strategizing in a way
that will be most effective for the origination. The people in an organization seek help and

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motivation form the people who are higher in the ladder and the seniors take the grievances
and challenges of the subordinates seriously, as it affects the commitment of the employee
towards an organization (Scott and Davis 2015).

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Task 3
Definition of a manager
A manager is a person who is responsible for a team or a group of people who have
the same goal. A manger is responsible for the administration, operation, finance and human
resource of an organization. The roles and responsibilities and the post of the manager
depends on the scale and the nature of the business unit. The manager is a person who
ensures smooth running of the business on a daily basis (McKinney et al. 2016).
Definition of a healthcare manager
A healthcare manager is a person who serves both administrative as well as leadership
roles in the organization dealing with health care facilities. A manager in the healthcare
industry is expected to be skilled in many dimensions he should not only have managerial
skills he should also be aware of the minimum requirements of the healthcare sectors inorder
to understand the objectives of the organization better (Buchbinder and Shanks 2016).
The role and responsibility of the Health care
The main role of a health care manager is to manage the business aspects like the
finances and operations of the heath care organization (Iles 2005). Their basic responsibilities
are to ensure that their clients are receiving higher quality care by imparting physicians and
nurses along with the tools that are needed to provide greater health care. According to the
U.S Bureau of labor statistics, the main role that managers play is to supervise the personnel,
finances, facility operations as well as information technology in a health care organization
(Buchbinder and Shanks 2016). They also try to improvise the efficiency as well as the
quality of care provided to their patients while keeping a check on their costs. However,

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American College of Healthcare Executives have more specifically outlined the roles of a
health care manager which includes the following points-
 Associating with the physicians as well as nurses to provide high quality care to their
clients/patients
 Verifying that the health care organization is at all financially and operationally sound
or not
 Regulating personnel issues of the other employees as well as patients
 Educating the members of the community about the health related problems
In hospitals or any health care homes apart from the need of doctors and nurses, the role
of a manager is very important to handle not only the administrative tasks explained above
but also tasks like budgeting, human resource as well as checking the supplies. Thus, it can
be said that they takes over the profit making tasks for the organization. A health care
manager primarily encourages an environment that can supply important as well as quality
health care towards supreme profit. They not only prepare the budgets or look after the orders
they also administer the payroll and benefits and spread day-to-day communications (Nilsson
and Furåker 2012). Moreover, they are responsible for keeping up with the appropriate health
care related laws, current technologies and standards and thereby representing the
organization at outside meetings or gatherings. Furthermore, they as a healthcare manager
they are responsible to control the needs of health care along with the way medical decisions
affects the system and finances of their care homes. Managers are also responsible to further
conduct meetings with the doctors, nurses, vendors as well as clients or patients.

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The role and responsibility of the Health care in Silverwood
Jacob is the healthcare manager of Silverwood care home. Jacob has to deal with all the
aforementioned responsibilities in Silverwood care home. Jacob is a person who is describes
as one who respects the hierarchy of the organization and does not step up the ladder. But he
is also aware of the fact that he knows the place better than anyone else and seeks
reciprocation from the hierarchy in terms of respect and value. The decisions made by Jacob
are sent for approval by the senior management but he expects that all his policies will be
implemented.
The biggest responsibility of Jacob is managing salaries, delegating work schedules,
training employees as well as ensuring that the organization is working efficiently with the
existing employees (Alfes et al. 2013). They have the power to promote the staffs to
supervisory or at positions where they can become the head of their specified groups. To
become an efficient manager one needs excellent skill of leadership to encourage their
employees and good interpersonal skills. The role and responsibilities of any health care
manager varies with the titles and functions of their organization. Those health care managers
who are working in a hospital are mainly given the charge of admission, employees and
maintenance of medical centers, observing that the patients are receiving the appropriate
services (Hall et al. 2013). However, for Jacob who is working in a health care home has to
focus on almost all the departments and employees. As he is in charge of a not so large
organization thus, he can keep a check on all direction. However, it is Jacob’s job to set goals
and guides the areas of responsibilities of other workers. They also keep a check that
sensitive medical data is protected from random and illegal access. Apart from these there are
few other duties of the health care manager that are discussed below-

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 Strategic planner- they are the businessperson in the medical practices thus, they are
charged with taking the appropriate decisions, guiding the strategic planning so that a
vision is created to carry forward the practice.
 Organizational spokesperson- Jacob are the one who are to act as the spokesperson of
the organization in and outside the organization.
 Collaboration- Jacob also has to link with other medical staffs to guide the ongoing
processes in the organization. Moreover, it is his duty to maintain a good relationship
with nurses and other staff members to maintain a high morale standard.
 Employee management- Jacob not only help the employees in their day-to-day work
but also keep an eye to see if everyone is working appropriately. He decides on the
standard of the performances by his employees and evaluates their work.

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Conclusion
Thus, from the above tasks it can be concluded that Silverwood care home, which is
located in Nottingham, has its main goal of providing residential, nursing and respite care to
their clients or patients. Silverwood has in total 15 residents who are between the age group
of 72-98years of whom two are said to have diagnosed with Dementia. However, Jacob who
is the manager of this health care home is observed to have taken all the major decisions and
then he communicates that with his team leader. This organization has been therefore
following a hierarchical organizational structure with the higher levels of authority figures are
ruling the lower levels in the hierarchy. Moreover, it was also analyzed that organizational
structure does have an impact on its culture. Therefore, if any imbalance is created in the
structure of the organization then it will severely affect the culture. Lastly, the roles and
responsibilities of the manager of a healthcare home are discussed that is for Silverwood that
role of its manager is that he is responsible for administrative, operations as well as financial
duties. Along with which he is also responsible for managing the employees, observing the
authenticity of the work being done as well as taking decisions and planning for the
organization.

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care. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 27(4), pp.999-1009.

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