Organizational culture and ethics
Write a strategic change management plan
Imagine that you are a department manager in a mid-size health care organization that is in the process of undergoing a major change (perhaps a merger, buy-out, or restructuring). Your director has called a meeting of all department managers to develop a strategy for taking the organization successfully through the change. A major component of managing this change is safeguarding the organizational culture, which is currently very positive and based on ethical principles and practices. In addition, the organization has quality ratings in both patient safety and organizational integrity.
At the end of the meeting, the director asks each manager to draft a strategic change management plan to help them guide their department through the change. To help you get started, the director has provided a statement to be used in each plan. Each plan must consider the role of ethics and ethical management in organizational culture. You must bring your plan to the next strategy meeting in two weeks.
Use the following statement as your opening statement for this assessment:
Creating and maintaining a positive organizational culture requires exceptional awareness, communication, and management skills on the part of leaders in any organization in any industry. When a shared identity is created and acceptance of the overall goals and mission of an organization is strong, ethical issues can more easily be prevented and resolved. This is vitally important in the health care industry as every aspect of management faces crucial ethical elements.
Then, in the rest of your assessment, complete the following:
Explain how organizational culture can affect ethical health care management practices. Be sure you consider this from the perspective of both a negative organizational culture as well as a positive one. (Hint: think about other aspects that may be affected by organizational culture.)
Describe possible ethical issues related to organizational change that could affect the existing organizational culture, patient safety, and organizational integrity.
Explain the role of personal moral integrity in effectively leading change and maintaining a positive organizational culture.
Describe evidence-based strategies health care leaders can use to prevent or resolve ethical challenges related to changes in organizational culture.
