Importance of Change in Organizational Culture

Introduction

Understanding organizational culture plays an important role in the healthcare sector. Instead of focusing on personal qualities and high social expectations, clinics and hospitals identify specific values and practices to guide all team members. Healthcare organizational culture covers the arrangement and accomplishment of things that strengthen service quality (Mannion & Davies, 2018). If a facility chooses the wrong way of cooperation or misunderstands responsibilities, staff and technical mistakes emerge. In the current scenario, a new clinic’s director notices that the organizational culture based on adhocratic values does not work well and proposes to change it to a hierarchical one. Using Lewin’s change model, it is possible to recognize mistakes like unnecessary creativity and a lack of order and move forward to better organizational results. The leader believes a new clinic may benefit from a hierarchy culture, following traditions, defining responsibilities, and promoting stability in a diverse and constantly changing environment.

Problem and Solution

Leaders’ contributions remain significant for companies in managing activities, completing tasks, and understanding responsibilities. Organizational culture determines if a team can accept or survive under new conditions (Mannion & Davies, 2018). Therefore, the definition offered by Chong et al. (2018) that leadership and organizational change are the two sides of the same coin is applicable to this problematic medical education scenario. A clinic was working under another leader who preferred adhocratic culture for a while. This approach is characterized by flexible working hours, creativity, an adaptive mindset, and innovation (Down, 2019b). At the same time, this type of culture requires professional recruitment, a permanent feeling of confidence (associated with stress and work overload), and the absence of stability (Down, 2019b). Therefore, unnecessary creativity, flexibility, and dynamic production provoke medical errors, organizational challenges, and devastation. The company needs another leadership style that establishes new organizational culture with clear beliefs and missions.

Implementing organizational change and introducing hierarchical culture to a new clinic is offered. Change management methods should be recognized so each employee knows guiding principles and improvement techniques (Harrison et al., 2021). There are many theories and models for organizational culture change, but most leaders prefer to follow Kurt Lewin’s ideas (Wanser & Luckel, 2021). Several reasons support this choice, including administrative and personal aspects. First, organizational culture is based on human values and beliefs, and Lewin’s theory includes the analysis of behavioral changes through psychology (Raza, 2019). Second, organizational culture remains significant in intervention changes (DaCosta, 2020). However, when culture should be changed, it is necessary to find other sources of support and motivation. Lewin’s model is appropriate because it emphasizes management skills and resource usage. Rider et al. (2018) offer to promote humanism in organizations and free demonstration of love, care, self-worth, and other feelings that define human nature. An organizational culture based on these issues will become a strength for employees and the leader.

In the middle of the 20th century, Lewin introduced a change model to explain the nature of change, implementation steps, and possible challenges. The essence of this process is to unfreeze (the creation of perception and the need for change), change (communication, intervention, and empowerment), and refreeze (change maintenance, training, and support) (Raza, 2019). Lewin pays attention to the leader’s roles and responsibilities in organizational change. In addition to leading people and showing them the right way to organizational development, leaders must take ownership of their and personnel mistakes (Vazquez, 2019). It is wrong to blame someone else and neglect personal shortage or subjective standpoints. Therefore, Lewin’s organizational change theory is a good opportunity to involve many people in a working process and share their knowledge and attitudes toward the new organizational culture.

In this case, the leader recommends focusing on the hierarchy as a background for their cultural background. Although some people identify this structure as old, conservative, and deprived of innovation, this type of working relationship has many benefits. First of all, hierarchy culture is characterized by structure and security (Down, 2019a). With definite authority being present, all employees follow their responsibilities and take the space according to their position, qualification, and level of knowledge. In hierarchical organizations, people feel secure because they should not think about new sources of motivation or be obsessed with creativity. They are safe and under the protection of an expert in this field. There is no need to bother about something except a high-level completion of organizational tasks and responsibilities (Down, 2019a). Although poor communication and cooperation are the cons of this culture, much depends on how the leader defines priorities and delivers the message to the staff.

The transition between organizational cultures should not be fast or intrusive. During the first stage, the leader must learn the basics of hierarchy in a team and introduce this necessity as something critical for their facility. During the second stage, roles and department divisions should be distributed so all members understand their tasks and think about their contributions. Finally, a clinic begins working under a new organizational culture where hierarchy and duties are well defined and explained. Cooperation, communication, and support are never neglected in a hierarchical organizational culture because of these change elements.

Conclusion

In general, the implementation of Lewin’s theory to change organizational culture has its strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, it does not take much time to get prepared for a new process and gather enough material to support all participants. Lewin did not try to complicate the task but clarified the stages and goals to be met. This approach promotes a fundamental understanding of how to change a culture and make sure that positive outcomes prevail over challenges. On the other hand, some leaders may need more details on how to initiate each process. Instead of addressing a professional manager, the leader tries to make independent solutions and subjectively analyze a situation. If an employee is not properly aware of the new culture’s characteristics, it could be difficult to accept unknown rules and requirements.

Adhocratic organizational culture may be chosen because of different reasons to enhance creativity, motivate employees, and offer flexibility. Still, this approach provokes unnecessary inspirations that distract the team from completing their tasks. The outcomes are medical and technical mistakes and poor organization of human resources. Using a hierarchical organizational culture is not spontaneous but based on clear reasons and high expectations. Employees will understand their roles and contributions in specific situations. They will rely on authority to control their activities and cooperate professionally and understand how to benefit from a new organizational culture. The hierarchy should not be associated with rules, control, and orders but with a systematic relationship within a group.

References

Chong, M. P. M., Shang, Y., Richards, M., & Zhu, X. (2018). Two sides of the same coin? Leadership and organizational culture. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. Web.

DaCosta, J. (2020). Insights for implementing change in healthcare. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 26(1), 20–26. Web.

Down, R. (2019a). Hierarchy culture: Pros and cons. Breathe. Web.

Down, R. (2019b). Adhocracy culture: Pros and cons. Breathe. Web.

Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where do models for change management, improvement and implementation meet? A systematic review of the applications of change management models in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 13, 85-108. Web.

Mannion, R., & Davies, H. (2018). Understanding organizational culture for healthcare quality improvement. BMJ, 363. Web.

Raza, M. (2019). Lewin’s 3 stage model of change explained. BMC. Web.

Rider, E. A., Gilligan, M. C., Osterberg, L. G., Litzelman, D. K., Plews-Ogan, M., Weil, A. B., Dunne, D. W., Hafler, J. P.., May, N. B., Derse, A. R., Frankel, R. M., & Branch, W. T. (2018). Healthcare at the crossroads: The need to shape an organizational culture of humanistic teaching and practice. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 33, 1092–1099. Web.

Vazquez, C. E. (2019). Successful work cultures: recommendations for leaders in healthcare. Leadership in Health Services, 32(2), 296–308. Web.

Wanser, L., & Luckel, H. (2021). The role of leadership in change in healthcare facilities: A qualitative study. American Journal of Management, 21(1), 16-31. Web.

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