Health Care Organizational structure, culture and leadership Analysis

Assignment 3

(title page + 6 pages maximum + reference page + appendices)

Each nurse demonstrates his/her leadership by providing, facilitating and promoting the best possible care/service to the public
(College of Nurses of Ontario (2002). Professional standards, revised)

This paper is a windshield survey of the organization and the unit that the learner is placed in for their clinical placement this term. Reflect on your socialization into this organization.

a) Organizational Theory Section

The purpose of this part of the paper is to briefly describe the organization through application of one or more of the classical organizational theories (i.e., the theories developed from Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory, Henri Fayol’s Administrative Theory, and Max Weber’s Bureaucracy Theory). Use your chosen theory to briefly describe the clinical organization with consideration of factors such as duty, chain of command, span of control, decision making, attitudes, morale, behaviors, roles, and personality. It is important to be aware of these factors as they will shape the approval process for your change project. Finish this section with a description of how this theory is a good fit for your organization.

b) Organizational Culture

The purpose of this part of the paper is to analyze the culture of your clinical setting. It is important to be aware of the culture of your setting because evidence suggests culture is a major factor that shapes nurses’ roles in organizations. Culture is not overt. It is not palpable or tangible. Data that will indicate the culture of your organizational setting can be accessed by communicating with those who work in this setting, accessing the organization’s website, and interviewing your leader/coworkers. These assessments will be useful to know when trying to create a change in your clinical setting. In this section of the paper, you will use two tools to assess and describe the organizational culture of your setting:

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership. (4th ed.). (Chapter 2, pp. 23- 33). San Francisco: Jossey Bass

Cameron, K. S., & Freeman, S. J. (1991). Cultural congruence, strength, and type: Relationships to effectiveness. Research in Organizational Change and Development, 5, 23-58

This section should consist of an integration of the following elements:
• Using Schein’s framework, assess the organizational culture and climate of the organization/practice setting.
• In this section of your paper, you must demonstrate an understanding of the 3 levels of organizational culture and how these factors apply to your placement setting.
• Pay particular attention to understanding the espoused beliefs vs. enacted assumptions of the organization/practice setting (i.e., examine the degree to which the organization’s mission, vision and values [espoused values] are or are not reflected in the daily functioning and cultural norms demonstrated on your unit [enacted values/assumptions]. Are there practice assumptions that you see in the subculture of the unit?)
• It will be helpful to spend time and effort interviewing, assessing for, and observing the assumptions on the unit that shape nursing practice. In an appendix to your paper, you must provide evidence of your assessment using the Schein framework (include the table here).

Organizational Level
Referenced Definition
Actual Data
Source of Data
Artifacts
Espoused beliefs and values
Basic assumptions/ enacted values

• Following the Schein framework description of the organizational and unit culture, ask yourself the question “so what?” Are the artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and basic assumptions/enacted valued consistent with each other or inconsistent? What are the implications of this? How is this information useful for your purposes?
• Using the Cameron & Freeman Competing Values Framework, assess your practice setting using the assessment questions in Table 2 of their paper to collect supporting information from your leader and/or coworkers. Employ the findings to describe and interpret the type of culture(s) that is/are prominent in this setting. In an appendix, provide evidence of this assessment employing the scoring approach to identify the cultural type(s) that best describes your organization/unit.
• Is there ‘lens congruency’ as described by Cameron and Freeman? Why or why not? What are the implications of congruency (or lack of congruency)? How is this useful for your purposes?
• Is there symmetry between the findings of your Schein and Cameron & Freeman analyses? What does this mean?

c) Leadership

In this section of your paper, provide a brief review of the literature describing various leadership styles and then use at least one leadership style to analyze someone at your placement site who functions in a formal or informal leadership role in order to understand leadership in-action. In this assignment you must complete an interview with the selected leader. Prior to the interview, you will develop an interview guide (this means a conversation guided by some main questions) pertaining to formal or informal leadership roles and responsibilities, power, and/or mentorship. Based on this data collection, you will direct the focus of your paper to analyzing the leadership style(s) and characteristics of the selected leader. It is important to realize that rarely does one
person ‘fit’ the ideals of one particular leadership style. It is expected that you will
identify both ‘fit’ and ‘non-fit’ between the leader and the applied leadership style, and comment on this ‘theory-practice gap’. The interview guide and responses must be included as an appendix to the paper.

This section of the paper should include an integration of the following elements:

• A concise synthesis of the literature exploring key elements of leadership styles and theory; and
• Critical analysis of your chosen leader using one or more leadership style, effects on performance on the unit, and suggestions of optional approaches that would be beneficial to the unit

Marking guideline:

Organizational Theory — The inclusion and quality of content for the following:
Literature evidence and application of classical organizational theory
aligned with your organization

3 marks
Fit between theory and organization 2 marks
Organizational Culture — The inclusion and quality of content for the following:
Description and analysis using Schein (including appendix with 3 level
assessment completed)

5 marks
Schein – “so what” 2 marks
Description and analysis using Cameron and Freeman (including
appendix with scored framework completed)
5 marks
Congruency within Cameron and Freeman factors 2 marks
Symmetry between the findings of Schein and Cameron & Freeman analyses 2 marks
Leadership — The inclusion and quality of content for the following:
Synthesis of nursing leadership styles literature
3 marks
Critical analysis of chosen leader using one or more leadership style, effects on performance on the unit, and suggestions of optional approaches that would be beneficial to the unit. The interview guide
must be included in an appendix to the paper.

10 marks
Explain how the formal and informal leaders on your unit work within the culture and structure of the unit.
1 mark
Mark /35
Deductions
Writing competency & APA formatting Writing presentation in accordance with APA standards and with accurate spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation and format.
Up to 25% of the value of this assignment may be deducted for poor writing competency and/or poor APA formatting (see Writing competency & APA marking rubric)
Paper length Title page + 6 pages + reference page + appendices
Up to 10% of the assignment value deducted for every 10% or part thereof the submission exceeds 6-page allowable maximum
Late submission Submission on or before assignment due date
10% deducted for each day past the submission due date (see Laurentian
late submission policy for specific penalty criteria). Zero (O) grade for submissions made more than five (5) days after the due date/time.