Impact of Organisational Structure and Culture at Silverwood Care Home

This essay delves into the organisational structure and culture of Silverwood Care Home, examining how these elements influence the quality of care provided. It identifies the care home's functional authority structure, highlighting the roles of key personnel like the manager, team leader, nurses, and care assistants. The essay discusses the impact of the organisational culture, particularly the autocratic leadership style, and its effects on employee satisfaction and the overall work environment. It analyzes the roles and responsibilities of the manager, emphasizing the importance of managing personnel, ensuring quality of care, setting organisational policies, and strategic planning. The analysis covers potential conflicts, leadership styles, and the impact on employee satisfaction and organisational success.

Healthcare Environment
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Introduction:
Organisational structure and culture are important for determining quality of care to the
patients. Organisational structure is useful in assigning respective tasks to each employee
based on their qualifications and expertise. Organisational culture comprises of shared
beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviour of different stakeholders of the healthcare
organisation. Collectively organisational structure and culture are helpful in binding all the
employees socially and professionally in a collective enterprise. Organisational structure and
culture should be aligned with each other and there should not be mismatch between these
two aspects. Manager of the healthcare organisation should be solely responsible for
establishment of effective organisational structure and culture. Organisational structure and
culture are helpful in defining quality standards, delivering health care according to the
defined standards and monitoring quality of care (Wagner et al., 2014). In this essay,
interaction between organisational structure and culture in Silverwood Care Home is
explored for understanding working environment of care home.
Organisational structure:
Silverwood Care Home is having Staff or Functional Authority Organisational Structure. In
this type of organisational structure jobs or positions of an organisation can be assigned based
on the line position and staff position. In line position, direct chain of command can be given
which is necessary for achieving organisation’s goals. In the Silverwood Care Home,
employees of different positions like manager, team leader, registered nurse, care assistant
and domiciliary workers can be considered as the individual line. Command flows from
employees of higher position like manager to team leader to registered nurse to care assistant
and domiciliary workers. Ultimate goal of command of staff of each line is to achieve goal
for the organisation to provide quality care to the patients. In staff position, each staff
member should provide expertise, advise and support for the next level line positions. Hence,
each and every staff member can contribute to the activities of the organisation based on their
respective expertise (Low et al., 2015).
In Silverwood Care Home, manager would implement his expertise in managerial role and
give advice and help to team manager in performing his tasks. Team manager assign work to
the registered nurses based on their competency and experience. Registered nurses take help
of care assistance and domiciliary workers and guide them in providing nursing intervention
to the patients. Managers have the authority over the line to get proper work done to achieve
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organisational goal. This type of authority is called as the functional authority or staff
authority. In Silverwood Care Home, functional authority is evident because respecting
authority is very important for Jacob because he is the manager of this care home. He is
occupying highest position in the organisation and he has authority over the line of staff. The
organisation which implement staff authority over the line personal is called as functional
authority organisation. In functional authority each staff member of each line has their own
expertise and they have authority over the staff member of next level (Chávez and Yoder,
2015).
In line organisation, it is not required for the line managers to be expert in all the activities of
the department. In case of Silverwood Care Home, this line organisation doesn’t suits
because this is very small organisation. Hence, leader should be expert with all the activities
in the organisation. Line organisation can be implemented in large organisation where in each
department more number of expertise can be placed. In functional authority organisation,
manager should have expertise in that particular department. Hence, functional authority is
applicable in this home care. Jacob should understand all the activities in the organisation.
Hence, he can guide and train all the staff members to provide quality service to the residents.
Moreover, it is evident that Jacob doesn’t like to question his decisions. In such case, he
should be well versed with all the activities in home care to make right decisions. There is
possibility of confusion among the line workers in organisations with functional authority. In
such organisations, there is possibility of getting orders from both manager and line
supervisor. If there is the discrimination in these orders, there may be possibility of confusion
among the workers. In this care home, Jacob is having knowledge about the activities in the
organisation. Hence, he can give orders to the registered nurses along with team leaders.
Confusion due to multiple orders can lead ineffectiveness in the organisations like
Silverwood Care Home which has functional authority (Pawson et al., 2014; Goel, 2009). In
this type of organisational structure, there is possibility of potential conflicts among the
employees due to defilement of principle of unity of command. Managers are considered as
the central authority in such type organisations. Jacob is also considering himself as the
central authority in Silverwood Care Home.
Organisational structure and culture:
Organisational culture and structure have significant impact on the organisational
performance. Organisational structure comprises of distribution of work roles and authority
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relationship which monitors interaction of managers and subordinates. Organisational culture
comprises of values and norms exhibited by managers and subordinates which has impact on
each others behaviour. Organisational culture is one of the vital components of the efficient
working of an organisation. According to strong culture theory, managers and employees of
an organisation should follow all the moral principles for positive outcome with employee
satisfaction. In case of Silverwood care home, Jacob is exhibiting more authorities to the
employees. It reflects he is not following moral principles. In such cases, positive outcome
can be obtained for the organisation, however employee satisfaction would be compromised.
Organisation and employee should share common culture to make work environment suitable
for productive output in more efficient way. It is evident that Jacob’s culture is not aligned
with the organisational culture, hence work environment at Silverwood Care Home is not safe
environment to work. Hence, it can impact positive outcome of the Care home (Butler et l.,
2011).
Autocratic leadership style of Jacob has positive impact on outcome of Silverwood Care
Home. Most of the literature suggests that positive outcome in an organisation can lead to
positive culture in an organisation. Hence, there is high possibility that in Silverwood Care
Home, positive culture can be established. In positive culture in an organisation, most of the
activities used to be carried out after discussion among key stakeholders and employees
(Zimmerman et al., 2014). It has been observed that, in Silverwood Care Home this is the
main drawback. Employees are not getting opportunity to discuss the activities to be carried
out. Positive culture can improve upon on these aspects in Silverwood Care Home.
Development of an ideal organisational culture has positive impact on the outcome of an
organisation. It is evident that in Silverwood Care Home, there is existence of Functional
Authority Organisational structure. In this organisational structure, Jacob likes to be
authorative to his team leader and other employees of the care home. In this type of
organisational structure, there is very less scope for the discussion. Jacob also want to give
only orders and don’t wish to discuss with the employees. Jacob doesn’t like questioning his
decisions. In such type of organisations, it is difficult to implement constructive
organisational culture. In constructive culture of organisations, there is more scope for
interaction and discussions among the people. In such organisations, tasks can be approached
in such a way that people get higher satisfaction by performing these tasks. Due to
authorative organisational structure of the Silverwood Care Home, discussion and
interactions are less in care home and there is less satisfaction among the employees. It is
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evident that there is existence of aggressive organisational cultures in Silverwood Care
Home. In aggressive organisational cultures, employees are forced to complete their tasks in
a forceful way. Employees don’t have opportunity to express their views. Employees need to
follow this route because they need to protect their status and job (Wild and Kydd, 2016).
In Silverwood Care Home, subordinates need to complete their tasks in a forceful manner.
Jacob used to order tasks and subordinates need to follow these orders in a forceful manner
without having opportunity to express their views. In aggressive cultures, success of the
group or organisation gets compromised. Every employee in the organisation work for their
own benefit. This type of culture can be more stressful to the employees (Pitfield et al.,
2011). It is not clear whether Jacob is having expertise in the health care. However,
employees need to follow his orders based on his status as the manager of Silverwood Care
Home. This type of organisational culture can be more critical and cynical in few instances. It
can lead dictatorial leadership in an organisation like Silverwood Care home.
In this type of work culture oppositional occurrences can occur. Employees need to answer
tough questions by the leader, however there is more possibility of productive work. Leaders
tend to be more critical towards their sub-ordinates, however due to pressure of leaders
employees work more efficiently. Power is one of the important aspects of aggressive
organisational culture. Jacob is exhibiting power to maintain prestige and try to influence
others. Leaders in this culture tend to dictate others instead of guiding their sub-ordinates.
Employees in this organisational culture try to influence their leaders for appraisal and
recognition. These employees tend to compete with other employees and try to outperform
them. There are expectations of flawless results, attainment of high standards, and excessive
demands from the sub-ordinates. This can lead to unnecessary burden on the employees
(Shier et al., 2014). Organisations like Silverwood Care Home, expect employees to be more
competent, controlled and superior. In such organisations, employees with deficiency are
considered as incompetent. However, in such organisations there might be possibility of
short-term gains at the cost of long-term gains (André et al., 2014; Kane-Urrabazo, 2006).
Roles and responsibilities of manager:
Most important role of Jacob should be managing personal. Jacob should manage each and
every personal in the Silverwood Home care in a very smooth way and there should not be
any hitch in the organisation. Jacob should maintain good communication, build positive
working relationship, acknowledge good work, be real, be decisive, delegate jobs to the right
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person, manage conflict and set good example. Jacob should manage different types of
persons like team leader, nurses, care assistants and domiciliary workers. Hence, Jacob
should implement different techniques for training and evaluations for these employees
(Hodgkinson et al., 2011; McCulloch et al., 2011).
Jacob should monitor quality aspects of the healthcare services in Silverwood Healthcare and
adherence to the regulations. These regulations include different national and international
regulations and accreditation by different bodies. Along with the quality care to the patients,
Jacob should also monitor environmental safety. Jacob should ensure that all the employees
in the healthcare home hold required certificates and licences for performing respective
activities. Jacob should ensure that all the employees received proper education and training
for preforming specific duties in providing quality care to the patients (Spector et al., 2016).
Jacob should set organisational policies and plan accordingly to achieve organisational goals.
Implementation of improvement procedures to achieve organisational goals is also one of the
important functions of Jacob. He should analyse new developments in healthcare and
implement it in the Silverwood Home Care. He should take new initiatives to improve current
practices in the care home. He should utilize literature data resources to analyse ongoing
practices and find new ideas for the improvement of activities in the home care. Jacob should
disseminate all the information to the employees and make sure that all the activities in the
organisation are aligned with the organisational goals.
Jacob should work closely with industry suppliers for the delivery of instruments and
accessories for healthcare delivery. All the purchases in the home care should be according to
the systematic procedures involving invitation of quotations and selection of best possible
supplier. Jacob should act as business man of Silverwood Care home. Activities under
business include decision making and strategic planning. Jacob should work in line with
Government regulations and staff of the Care Home to plan activities aligned with budget and
goals of the organisation. Jacob should establish collaboration with outside medical staff and
healthcare organisations to carry out ongoing and daily responsibilities (McConnell, 2012).
There should be discussions with nurse, care assistants and domiciliary workers for their
requirements and should supply them with their requirements.
Jacob should monitor information management responsibilities. He should monitor all the
processes which are required for storage and utilization of information in the Silverwood
Care Home. There should be storage of information about the patients and case studies. Jacob
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should use this information as evidence for future studies. He should make sure that all the
stored information should be accessible, relevant, factual and secure. He should maintain
information integrity. Jacob should identify all the obstacles in the organisation which are
preventing organisation from achieving its goals. He should utilize analytics method to
identify threats and opportunities in Silverwood Care Home. He should utilize varied sources
for providing care to the patients and healthcare delivery. He should delegate responsibility to
each and every employee based on his/her expertise for providing quality care to the patients.
Jacob should take responsibility of both administrator and clinical manager (Kwiecień et al.,
2012). As an administrator, he should manage human resources and care home facility
maintenance. As a clinical manager, he should monitor medical unit and patient care. As a
clinical manager, he should take every responsibility to make patient cure possible. He should
supervise work and shift schedules for the employees. He should present himself as
representative of Silverwood Care Home for meetings of governing bodies. Jacob should
chair meetings with all the staff members and provide training to them for improvement in
the patient care. He is responsible for quality standards and compliance with safety standards.
He should oversee personal care and medication administration and ensure that there are
within regulations (Khalil et al., 2017).
He should establish effective communication with the family members and provide them with
information, advise and support. He should take responsibility of organising activities for the
residents and ensure that they are enjoying their independence. He should ensure safeguard
and promote welfare of the residents. He should effectively handle concerns and complaints
of the residents and ensure their protection (Smith, 2011). He should support residents
emotional and behavioural needs. He should carry out inspections of care home on regular
basis. It is evident that Jacob is not visiting Care home on regular basis. Even though, he is
spending most of the time in paperwork, he should visit employees and residents on the
regular basis. He should travel to other locations for monitoring domiciliary patients. Jacob
should establish effective communication with the insurance companies and should assist
residents in selecting best plan (Buchbinder and Shanks, 2011).
Conclusion:
Silverwood Care Home is working for improving quality of life of people. This care is
providing specialised services like dementia care. Hence, round-the-clock service is required
in this care home. In this organisation, there is existence of Functional Authority
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Organisational Structure. In this organisation, employees at higher levels of hierarchy exhibit
more commanding orders on the employees at the lower levels of hierarchy. This type of
organisational structure can be productive, however employee satisfaction would be less.
There may be conflicts among employees. Functional Authority Organisational Structure
leads to aggressive culture in Silverwood Care Home. In aggressive culture, leaders work in
more autocratic manner. As a result, employees feel work under pressure and feel insecure
under Jacob. Employees adopt to this work culture to safeguard themselves and to impress
the leaders. In such organisations, work environment would not be safe for employees and it
can affect overall productivity of organisation. Jacob should take responsibility of changing
organisational structure and culture of Silverwood Care Home to improve overall functioning
of care home. This care home Healthcare manager like Jacob should be multitasking for
achieving goals of Silverwood Care Home.
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