Home care services case study.
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Introduction.
Organizational culture comprises the values, expectations, and practices that guide all the team members and inform the actions of each individual. The success of any organization is the culture that has strong and widely spread beliefs supported by structures and strategies. A strong
culture informs each employee of how the top management will want them to respond to a
particular situation. The employees also are assured the response will be the best one, and they
will be rewarded when they demonstrate the values, practices, expectations, and beliefs of the
organization. The employer has to perpetuate a strong culture in an organization from the hiring
and recruiting process, training, orientation development and performance management
programs to ensure the success of the organization. For example, in our case study, the home care
service is illuminating the co-existence of many cultures within the organization. The many
cultures are referred to as the subcultures. This paper discusses the subcultures that co-exist within the home care service, the usefulness of Bloor and Dawson’s characterization of the
different types of subculture and the management of cultural change within an organization.
How many subcultures co-exist within Home Care Service, and how do they compare and
contrast?
Many cultures co-exist within the home care service organization. The organization was established in the early 70s due to the societal hospitals concerns on the caring of the elders. The
organization’s history, the early founders and members' vision, the expectations from
professions, and the link with the central metropolitan hospital are the driving influencers of the local perception andand attitude. The home care service organization is a good illustration of the
growing importance of the professional subcultures within an organization. The organization
follows a pattern of behaviors and practices of its operation to accompanied with rules and
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legitimate relationship with the authority to shape the cultural change at work. This patterns
create and sustain the cultural system where a high premium is placed on the professional
provision of services to the geriatric customers. The main cultural system of the organization supports an operating system that is integrated with medical services provided at the major
metropolitan hospital.
The subcultures that co-exist with the home care services are five and they include,
enhancing subculture, orthogonal subculture, dissenting subculture, deferential subculture, and counter-culture subculture. The subcultures are subdivided into professional subcultures and the
organizational subcultures. In enhancing subculture, the team members adhere to the primary
organizational culture value. The home care service enhancing subculture does not allow the
junior staff speak in meetings and allied chiefs in health will often defer to the wishes of
geriatricians despite their poor decision making. Orthogonal subculture members embrace the
dominant culture of an organization holding their own distinct values but not conflicting values.
The occupational therapists and the physiotherapists of the home care service form the
orthogonal subculture. The therapist and are not happy with their powerlessness at the home care service, and they are disinclined to speak out against the dominant subculture since they don't see
themselves in the organization for long.
Dissenting subculture allows members to have disagreement thoughts as they try to come up with the truth. Social workers of the home care service form the dissenting culture. They are more outspoken and value high professionalism and they are committed to the rehabilitation of the client. They are able to interpret different concepts to other professionals in the organization. The social workers also have an important source of proposals thus making them to lie between
counter-culture and orthogonal subculture. In addition to the three professional subcultures, the
organizational subculture consists of an administrative staff which form the orthogonal
subculture and paramedical aides which form the deferential subculture for deferring to health
professions. The other culture is the counter-culture subculture whose values and norms of
behavior differ from those of the mainstream and sometimes opposed to the organizational
culture. The five subcultures shape the primary culture of an organization in different ways. The
deferential and enhancing subcultures are compatible with the primary culture of the
organization. Dissenting subculture challenge the existing dominant culture and the orthogonal
subculture acts as the midway point between the dissenting and the enhancing subculture.
How useful is Bloor and Dawson’s characterization of the different types of subcultures?
The Bloor and Dawson’s characterization of the dissenting subculture are not opposed to the culture of health care. The characterization represents a professional subculture with diverse
patterns of sharing values and practices which modify the already existing medical service
philosophies. The dissenting subculture is mainly comprised of the social workers. Bloor and
Dawson define that organizational culture informs the employees on the appropriate way of
behaving as the organization is able to create a strong culture with clear values. Subcultures are very important within an organization as they help the organization achieve the greatest success
and so the sub cultures can emerge from an organizational culture.
Is there a broader organizational culture? What is it, and how does it differ from the
professional subcultures that exist within HCS?
There is a broader organizational culture comprising of expectations, values, and
practices that guide the team members as well as informing them of the actions. The best culture
of an organization promotes positive traits that lead to good performance of the organization. The
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culture of an organization affects all areas of the organization, including the tone and the
punctuality of the employees as well as the contract term. The alignment of the workplace
culture with the employees makes them feel comfortable, valued and supported. Any
organization that prioritizes culture can easily manage its cultural change in case of difficult times. The organizational culture plays a vital role in outperforming the competitors as well as attracting the talent. Some of the qualities of the best organizational culture include alignment,
trust, appreciation, performance, teamwork and resilience among many other qualities. The
dominant culture is that which expresses the core values within an organization. In-home care service organization, the professional sub culture includes, orthogonal subculture, dissenting
subculture and enhancing subculture.
These professional subculture differs from the organizational cultural system. The social
workers of the home care service illustrate the dissenting subculture where they control their
organizational destinies. Using their particular skills, the social workers demonstrates that they
are knowledgeable and experts in area where other professions in the group do not have. This
makes them to legitimately dominate many aspects of the organization. The enhancing
subculture of the home care service tells that the are some unfair practices in the organization but
the staff are not taking steps to challengee status quo. Despite medical staff disputing that they
are the dominators, they still emphasis on maintaining practices that support the medical
authority. The orthogonal subculture which requires members to accept the primary cultural
system of the organization shows that the professional subculture of the home care service differs
with organizational culture.
How is it possible to manage cultural change in such an organization? What are the
problems and issues that you are likely to encounter?
The management of the culture change within an organization requires an understanding
of the current culture of the organization. After understanding the current culture of the
organization, you need to determine which values of the organization align with your strategy and the structure you want to change. Then, the following steps will help manage your cultural
change within an organization. The first step is to quantitatively measure the current
organizational culture values. This includes determining the employees that believes the cultural value of your organization. The next step will be intentionally aligning the culture, structure and
strategy with the organization systems. This can involve reconsidering formal reporting
relationships, selecting and recruiting process, rewards and compensation structures. The third step is to ensure staff and stakeholder participation. This may include getting ideas, solutions, concepts and reactions from each individual and using a balanced approach that can generate
motivation, excitement, and change. Also, in the management of cultural change in an
organization, there is need to communicate and demonstrate the change again and again.
During the cultural change process in an organization, problems and issues are very
common encounters. Amongst the problems encountered, resistance the change is very common because of the fixed mind of people in the organization. Not communicating the cultural change is another problem that may result to the resistance of the cultural change. Some organizations have rigid structures especially in controlling the flow of information to and from the frontline. The managers are too busy to ears the views of the junior staff and this will input a mentality in the employees that they're not important hence low motivation in the cultural change process.
Another issue that arises in the cultural change process within an organization is the lack of
commitment and reinforcement within the organization.
Conclusion.
The organizational culture is very important as it plays the role of ensuring the success of
the organization. The professional subculture within an organization includes the enhancing
subculture, dissenting subculture and orthogonal subculture. These professional subculture works
hand in hand with the organizational culture to foster the success of the organization. The
organizational culture which includes the counter culture and the deferential subculture are also very important within an organization. The Bloor and Dawson's subculture characterization is
very useful in an organization because it lays the basis of culture formulation within an
organization. The organizational culture may differ from the professional culture but they all
work together for the success of the organization. The cultural change process begins with the understanding of the current culture of the organization and then laying down a new culture that aligns with the goals and values of the organization. In the process of cultural change, you will
encounter very many problems which can be avoided if an early communication is made.
References.
Chang, C. L. H., & Lin, T. C. (2015). The role of organizational culture in the knowledge
management process. Journal of Knowledge management.
Martinez, E. A., Beaulieu, N., Gibbons, R., Pronovost, P., & Wang, T. (2015). Organizational
culture and performance. American economic review, 105(5), 331-35.
Muscalu, E. (2014). Organizational culture change in the organization. Land Forces Academy
Review, 19(4), 392.
Lok, P., Westwood, R., & Crawford, J. (2005). Perceptions of organisational subculture and their
significance for organisational commitment. Applied Psychology, 54(4), 490-514.
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