Organizational Assessment
Joshua Rose
Fort Hays State University
I work at a large not for profit organization which is the only level one trauma center in roughly 100 miles. It is also a teaching facility and a clinical site for students from various institutions. The organizations mission statement is to “Improve the health of the communities we serve” (Carilion Clinic, 2018). There are five core values that comprises organizational focus consisting of Community, Courage, Commitment, Compassion, and Curiosity (Carilion Clinic, 2018). The organization utilizes excellence theory which holds that the public’s relationship with the organization contributes to management and organizational proficiency as a whole (Scheible, 2017). Excellence theory necessitates that communication is the integral driving factor for efficiency and thus excellence. It further states that internal public relations are equally important (Scheible, 2017).
Carilion states that they utilize “symmetrical two-way communication between the organization and employees” (Scheible, 2017, p. 6). Support for this from of communication is exemplified by utilizing a type of intranet blog wall where employees can recognize each others efforts and management can post comments publicly. Feedback is the primary key that by definition separates one-way from two-way communication (Rigolosi, 2005).
While the blog wall utilized by Carilion is a good idea it is not a form of two-way communication. This form of asynchronous mediated communication is actually by definition one-way due to poor interpretation of feedback and the time lapses that occur between interaction (McCornack & Ortiz, 2017, p. 66). Additionally, my experience with in the facility can attest that management utilizes a leader behavior style one (LBS1) approach which is also one-way communication (Rigolosi, 2005). Nursing staff is told what they have to do and feedback is not expected. There is a continual trend for adding tasks and responsibilities to nursing staff regardless of our feedback. This is a trend that I have observed at many large corporate hospitals and ultimately results in poor staff retention and patient satisfaction. One would expect that a facility claiming to utilized an organizational structure revolving around communication to understand its importance, or at least be accurate in understanding different types of it.
Great assessment Josh! Feedback needs to be the standard if 2-way communication is going to be effective otherwise you are left with 1-way communication like you said. Has this been brought to the organization’s attention?
I believe the organization to be aware that two-way communication involves more than blog wall posting. In their defense there are various shared governance groups that nurses can join to try and voice opinions to initiate change. Ultimately when there is directives to be accomplished as delegated by management they are still handed down as tasks with out regard for feedback.
That is an interesting way for an organization to communicate with its employees! I’m sure several of Kotter’s steps were used to create this change. However, I do see your point on how this could potentially be problematic. How effective is the blog at voicing employee concerns? Does change occur in a reasonable amount of time?
I would have to say that I have not notices the blog wall to reflect any critical opinion that goes against the grain of the organization so to speak. The most likely reason if that individuals fear to publicly voice concerns that would “rock the boat” so to speak. The wall is instead filled with positive comments from one staff member to another for behavior they feel worthy of recognition, which is good for staff as positive feed back can be limited.