Assessing Organizational Culture Essay

Almost every transcription, whether public or clannish, on motif or in practice, has a acculturation that fairly dictates its everyday functioning. The call civilization has many definitions but in this discussion it is demarcated as sh atomic number 18d beliefs, ranges, symbols, and behaviors. Culture binds a workforce together and is its control mechanism, or purpose, to facilitate its functioning. These items be powerful driving forces in the success of an organisation and their value to the community they serve whether it is a public or private entity will affect the success of any organization.While cultures are base in some organizations more prominently than in others, thither are those organizations where the culture of that specific organizations ideal stands out above others. Police departments, military units and religious organizations all have a strong, change culture that engineers its base and permeates its entire existence. Many times people out of doo rs of those professions do non actualise the mentality or job fealty a person from one of these bider fields shares with his/her co-workers.An example would be the duty and honor commitment of a United State Marine, peculiarly when considered by a person who was anti-military the Marines belief or core value system is not chthonianstood. The medical examination profession and more specifically hospitals, butt against a familiar goal that simply stated, is the bearing and healing of the maladjusted or injured. For the most part, the medical staff employed at a hospital is there for that specific purpose. The medical field brings together a vast array of someones from resistent backgrounds and cultures.But once they become a doctor, hospital absorb, surgical technician, etc. they take on a stark naked life and thereby absorb a new culture into their lives. Subcultures, as defined by organizational theorists John van Maanen and Stephen Barley, are a subset of an organiza tions members who interact regularly with one another, identify themselves as a distinct groupand routinely take action on the basis of collective understandings unique to the group (Cheney, 2011, 78-79) The organizational culture in a hospital is based on the premise that the hospital is there to provide a place for the care and healing of the sick or injured.Organizational theorist Mary Jo Hatch puts forth that there are fivesome (5) Degrees of Cultural Integration and Differentiation (Cheney, 77) identified as follows Unitary, divers(a) (Integ wanderd), several(a) (Differentiated), Diverse (Fragmented) and Disorganized (Multi-cephalous) (Hatch, 1997, 210). A hospital in its purest form would be well represented as a Unitary culture because the staff as a whole all have the analogous values or beliefs. But individual staff or in time medical units may fall into any of the other cultures identified as well.A particular unit, i. e. cardiac telemetry floor, may be a Diverse (Fra gmented) unit due to a group of nurses who do not think their critical task requirements in the identical way and as a result the level of affected role infections or deaths rises, causing unrest among the staff, supervisors, patient families and resulting in legal ramifications thereby fragmenting the staffs solidarity. Social psychologist Edgar Schein theorize a theoretical model that shows an organizations culture is reinforced on three levels artifacts, values and norms, and assumptions and beliefs.Artifacts are usually the most common and visible sign of a specific culture. Schein puts forth that things such as treat uniforms, terminology, surgical protocols and more, actually and accurately represent the basic horizons of organizations culture. The values and norms aspect of his theory, while not always visible, potentiometer be seen through behavior of the individual or group it reveals what is in-chief(postnominal) to the group and how they treat each other within th eir organization. Each aspect of the profession may have an operating procedure or environment nique to that area of specialization, but still have the same values and norms for their actions.In a surgical room, sterilization of the environment is much more authoritative than it would be in a patients room on a medical/surgical floor, but they still have the same belief in keeping an open wound as absolved as possible. While values in the medical profession do not vary as a whole, values do define accepted behavior and action. Genuine assumptions and beliefs are nurtured by a persons or organizations values and norms. Values vary only slightly in the versatile medical professions and facilities.Depending on the medical specialty area, operational norms and methods may differ according to training priorities, equipment and environment unique to that specialty. For instance, the hospital in-patient wound care team may have the same desire to treat a patients wounds as a home health nursing team, but the methods of treatment or medications used may be different. Differences array to surface when a patient is sent home on a negative pressure wound therapy system, i. e. a wound V. A. C. , that aids in the healing of wounds via suction (http//www. kci1. com/KCI1/vactherapy).Many home health nurses does not have intercourse how to properly change the intricate dressing or fully understand this equipment or the damaging results that can occur if not changed properly. Faulty assumptions are therefore made based on the beliefs of the home health nurse of what should be done for the patient. When that happens, problems arise in this particular scenario that could result in the patient being brought back to the hospital for a further layover of hospitalization due to a breakdown of their wounds or even the founding of new wounds as a result of improper V. A. C. placement.The overriding culture of the medical field is based on the Physicians trust of First, do no harm (author uncertain but it is based on the Hippocratic Oath which states to abstain from doing harm). This belief echoes throughout the medical field all over the world. And while there are individual exceptions or exceptions in areas such as animal research for the betterment of mankind or the ethical issue of abortion, the creed has gone same(predicate) since the time of the ancient Greeks and before. Scheins three (3) levels of artifacts, values and norms, and assumptions and beliefs, are explicit in every clinical setting.With further exploration, Hatchs five (5) Degrees of Cultural Integration and Differentiation will also be found, albeit not everyone will be seen on every hospital floor or unit. Medical facilities are a kaleidoscope or a microcosm of many subcultures under the roof of the main culture of being a place for the care and healing of the sick or injured. Without that organizational culture giving instruction to all of the subcultures involved in this humani tarian career field, the death rate for minor injuries and diseases would compound exponentially.