NEW DAY HOSPICE CASE

NEW DAY HOSPICE CASE

Introduction

New Day Hospice, a nursing organization faced several issues that threatened its existence. The main issue was controlled communication that prevented employees from communicating freely. The Chairman of the organization planned to effect change in the organization in the wrong way by sacking the executive director while providing no explanation to the other employees. The organization had a well-established culture where people interacted freely and shared ideas. Therefore, they enjoyed and valued communication. Any change to the organization that was touching on communication and their relation was likely to elicit tension and instability. To prevent such occurrences, the change should have been communicated in advance and an explanation given, supporting the importance of the change. The other issue that was imminent was the continued intimidation of employees by the chairman if they dared talk about the unpopular change that the director was effecting by sacking the organization’s executive director. Workers were intimidated that they would be sacked if they discussed the sacking of their executive director. The behavior of the organization’s chairman was against the current accepted practices of bringing in change and relating to employees. Therefore, there is need for analyzing the case study to find out the reasons that prompted the chairman to behave the way he did. To gain this understanding, it is important to utilize already established theories, which may provide insights to the behavior of the chairman. Theories represent past assumptions based on research and may act as a basis for analysis of the New Day Hospice case study.

Issues Caused By the Management

Communication is very important in an organization because it articulates the organization’s objectives to the employees and how to meet them. Moreover, communication provides employees with a channel to convey their concerns to the management of the organization. Therefore, effective communication is an indispensable aspect of any organization. Social presence theory of communication asserts that effective communication is achieved when the medium of communication provides the appropriate social presence that is needed for interpersonal involvement among parties in the communication process (Mortensen, 2009). Recognizing the presence of both parties involved in the communication channel and involving them can create an understanding and reduce tension. The actions of the management of the New Day Hospice led to the breakdown of communication between the management and employees and prohibited communication among employees. Therefore, communication was only one way-from the chairman to the employees. Although the communication medium was face-to-face, the chairman used an autocratic leadership style that did not involve employees (Igbal, 2011). Consequently, there was communication breakdown and loss of motivation by employees. Communication in different people has been linked with their personality trait. Introverts may take time before responding in any communication channel because they internalize the information before providing a response. On the other hand, extroverts are mostly spontaneous and may act impulsively and subjectively during communication (Anolli, 2006). The chairman of the Hospice organization acted impulsively and subjectively. He did not consider the consequences of his action on the employees who had worked with the sacked executive director for more than a decade. Prohibiting employees from discussing the issue showed that the chairman thought that only his actions and decisions were important and disregarded employees. The result of the controlled communication was informal communication that took place in a bar. Such communication could only fuel tension since it could not solve any problems. Problem-solving required both the employees and the chairman to be involved. The stalemate that was created killed the motivation and morale of the employees, making them to dread going to work on the week that followed the dismissal of the executive director.  Tami is a good example from the case study of employees who did not have the motivation to go to work.

Communication Problems

Media richness theory assumes that the best medium of communication is that which provides the widest possibility of reproducing information sent through it (Lievrouw and Livingston, 2006). For instance, face-to-face communication is regarded to be the best because the information relayed through it can be expressed through a variety of techniques such as verbal, facial expression and other body gestures. This is evident in the effectiveness of communication among employees when they were prohibited from talking about the dismissal of their director. They were able to use minimal verbal communication and gestures to effectively communicate about their meeting at the bar. The problem with communication at New Day Hospice was that it was one way. Communication was only from the chairman to the workers. The workers were afraid to raise any concerns for fear of being victimized and losing their jobs. Effective communication requires feedback to ensure that the intended meaning was received by those receiving the message (Adair, 2011). However, the chairman of the New Day Hospice was not concerned with feedback from employees since he simply dictated and demanded cooperation from them. The intimidation directed at those who would talk about executive director’s dismissal acted as a communication barrier. Communication between the chairman and the employees could be enhanced by mutual appreciation of each other’s contribution to the success of the organization. However, the chairman called the organization a failing institution, in spite of all the appreciation the organization had received from the society. Employees felt unappreciated and became demoralized and lost incentive to communicate to the chairman. The sudden change of leadership without involving employees also contributed to the breakdown in communication. When employees are not involved or at least informed of changes that affect their work, they may assume that communication to the management has no effect and, therefore, decide to remain silent (Horowitz and  Strack, 2010).

What Employees Should Have Done

By failing to initiate communication with the management, employees remained oppressed and gagged. They could not even raise other concerns about their work because the attitude of the chairman had already discouraged them. Despite the challenges they faced in establishing a formal communication with the management, there are ways through which they should have resolved the problems. First, they should have utilized the unity they had created during the good days before the chairman took over the management of the organization. They should have chosen a spokes person to talk to the chairman on their behalf. Because of the possible disciplinary action against their representative, they should have stood firm and received the disciplinary action as a team. They had bargaining power by acting as a group. Any mistreatment should have led to a go slow to force the chairman to listen to their pleas. Upon being listened to by the management, they should have demanded involvement in the running of the organization through regular updates of all its activities. Another means of resolving the deadlock that existed should have been involving external stakeholders to act as mediators between them and the management. Since it was a communal organization, they could invite people like the mayor of the city and his commissioners who were conversant with the organization.

Recommendations

The main problem was on the leadership style employed by the chairman of the organization. From the information provided in the case study, it seems that the biggest motivation for people to work in this organization was their love to serve their community and not money. Therefore, they should have been treated with respect, the same way volunteers would be treated. New Day Hospice is a service organization, taking care of people who are nearing their death and their families. To provide the best care, it must first experience good treatment from the management. When service employees are treated well, they are able to provide excellent service to those who use their service. To enable the current management to achieve this objective, the previous culture of a closely-knit workforce should be reinstated through dialogue between the management of the organization and the employees. Through mutual respect for each other’s contribution to the organization, each party should have unrestricted access to the other through a two way communication system. The management needs to show appreciation for the achievements that employees have attained through pointing out and rewarding them (Keyton, 2010). When employees feel appreciated, they are motivated to cooperate with the management to attain further achievements. Since cooperation involves effective communication and feedback, barriers of communication are likely to be eliminated in the quest of good cooperation and achievement.

 

Reference List

Adair, J. 2011. Effective Communication: The Most Important Management Skill of All. London: Pan Macmillan.

Anolli, L. 2006. From Communication to Presence: Cognition, Emotion and Culture towards the Ultimate Communicative Experience: Festschrift in Honor of Luigi Anolli.  Dusseldorf: IOS Press.

Horowitz, L.M., & Strack, S. 2010. Handbook of Interpersonal Psychology: Theory, Research, Assessment, and Therapeutic Interventions. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Igbal, T. 2011. The Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Effectiveness: Analytical Study of Selected Organizations in IT Sector in Karachi. New York: GRIN Verlag.

Mortensen, C.D. 2009. Communication Theory. New York: Transaction Publishers.

Keyton, J. 2010. Communication and Organizational Culture: A Key to Understanding Work Experiences. California: SAGE.

Lievrouw, L., & Livingston, S. 2006. Handbook of New Media: Student Edition. California: SAGE.

 

Last Completed Projects

Are you looking for a similar paper or any other quality academic essay? Then look no further. Our research paper writing service is what you require. Our team of experienced writers is on standby to deliver to you an original paper as per your specified instructions with zero plagiarism guaranteed. This is the perfect way you can prepare your own unique academic paper and score the grades you deserve.

Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.

[order_calculator]