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The culture of an organization is known as the foundational values, terms, and vision that function as one entity. However culture defers from the climate of the organization. The climate refers to how an employee views the organization. (Marquis & Huston, 2017) Organizational climate directly results in employee engagement and performance. (Berberoglu, 2018) An effective leader has the ability to assess his/her unit’s culture and climate in order to assess and evaluate the unit’s need for direction. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the findings of my assessment of my organization’s culture and climate and discuss how it relates to the environment, and future implications of the findings.
Organizational Culture and Climate Analysis
My organization strives to provide the best care to their patients while fostering a healthy environment for our caregivers. The mission of my organization is to provide world class care to patients, their families, and investigate into their underlying health problems. (Cleveland Clinic, 2020) The mission and vision are embedded into the organization’s climate with how caregivers perceive the organization. Caregivers view the organization very highly in my region as well as around the world. The mission reflects in the environment of its caregivers and high patient experience reflects in the caregiver’s executing the organization’s mission.
The organization’s power structure reflects in the climate of the organization. Nurses are empowered to contribute to the decentralized model of decision making. This can be reflected through tiered huddles which take place every morning. In tiered huddle, nurses from the units report issues to their manager. Their manager then meets with other managers and the director of nursing.
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After the second tier huddle, the director then meets with the CNO to report the issues and implement an action plan. This organizational structure empowers nurses resulting in an engaged climate reflected in the organization’s culture of being a high reliability organization. Communication through the tiered huddle system is a strength of my organization, contributing to the climate and overall culture. Opportunities of improvement can be to continue to maintain an environment of decentralized decision making. This creates an innovative environment, upholding Magnet standards of an organization that supports shared governance.
Healthy, Safe, Person-Centered Care Environment Capacity
Regarding the physical environment, my organization has a futuristic “white” colored theme to it. This makes it feel as though it is extremely clean, bringing a hospital feel to the environment. The environment is guest friendly. There is a family lounge at the core of the units where families can relax. The lounge is in walking distance for patients who can walk. This creates an environment that supports both family and caregivers through an environment of person centered care. The physical environment help support the climate of putting people first, an idea that revolves around person centered care.
Due to recent world events related to the COVID crisis, we are accepting staff from other regional hospitals that are associated with the enterprise. Visiting staff is bountiful at the moment, leading them to a new culture, climate, and environment than what they are accustomed to at their primary hospital or work location. Caregivers that have floated to my organization have had a positive experience. The positive experience is a direct correlation to the culture and climate. The warm and welcoming climate of the staff lead visitors from outside facilities to want to work here.
The authentic leadership style of the leaders in my organization are displayed through the person centered care qualities that are reflected in how they treat the visitors. This authentic leadership style that applies a person centered care environment promotes a healthy work environment by fostering positive reactions of staff and visitors. (Whitehead, Dittman, & McNulty, 2017) Due to the organization’s support capacity and the healthy work environment, many potential staff recruits are inquiring about permanent positions as we move forward in the pandemic.
The culture and climate is set by the nurse executive leader and carried out through the nurse managers and their staff. The leader’s role in setting culture begins with self awareness of their own ability in establishing the healthy work culture. Furthermore nurse leaders apply an ethical leadership style in order to implement a culture of increased civil behavior of staff thus creating an ethical climate to improve their performance. (Aloustani et al., 2020)
Implications
Organizational culture consists of a mix of subcultures, diversity, and the culture created by its leader. It is essential for a leader to be aware of the cultural strengths and needs to successfully achieve organizational goals. (Roussel, Thomas, & Harris, 2016) Strengths of my organization include the ability to welcome and successfully orient staff from another facility. My organization empowers nurses to reach their full potential and work at the very top of their license. A third strength of my organization lies within its leaders and how they create a healthy work environment to create a culture that is healthy and just. A just culture creates a healthy work environment by fostering growth and development while maintaining accountability, efficiency, and teamwork.
Although my organization has many strengths, weaknesses reside in some subcultures. Particularly in high stress environment such as the ICU, I have witnessed some incivility of veteran nurses towards new nurses. I have seen the “nurses eat their young” stereotype. Workplace incivility is when an employee displays rude or disruptive behavior. It may even go as far as calling it workplace bullying which refers to the mistreatment of one or more persons. Decreasing nurse bullying lowers healthcare costs. (Mennella & Woten, 2018) Abusive behaviors have been reported, even with the overabundance of positive culture that takes place throughout the organization. Due to these reports, my organization has held these individuals accountable for damaging workplace culture and climate. However, my organization could be better in halting incivility before it even begins. Due to the lack of early recognition in a few instances of incivility, my organization has shown a lack of awareness to the subcultures or “clicks” as they begin to form.
The weaknesses of my organization can be addressed through my leadership style of being transformational, authentic, and having the ability to effectively lead a team. I have high task and high relationship personality qualities to provide motivation and coachable opportunities to staff. As a leader, I can create a module for staff to educate them on workplace bullying in order to create awareness at the micro-system level. The increased awareness will halt the incivility before it even begins by increasing awareness of the staff and their responsibility to upholding expectations of positive climate and culture. As a team leader, I can also lead an organizational effort across all disciplines to combat incivility at an organizational level that is developed through a person centered care model and the effects of positive interpersonal interactions. Evidence of the effectiveness of this initiative can be correlated through the level of employee engagement, organizational climate, and retention rates of nurse recruitment.
Conclusion
An organization’s culture is known as the foundational values, terms, and vision that function as one entity. Organizational climate directly results in employee engagement and performance. The mission, vision, and goals are embedded into the organization’s climate with how caregivers perceive the organization. The physical environment of an organization can help support the culture and climate of its employees. My organization stresses the importance of empowering nurses to work at the top of their professional license. Although there are many strengths in my organization, weaknesses lie within its subcultures. As a team leader, I can lead my organization through coaching and education to help shape the climate and culture in a positive way.
References
- Aloustani, S., Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, F., Zagheri-Tafreshi, M., Nasiri, M., Barkhordari-Sharifabad, M., & Skerrett, V. (2020, March 4). Association between ethical leadership,ethical climate and organizationalcitizenship behavior from nurses’perspective: a descriptive correlationalstudy. BMC Nursing. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=e15bd751-7127-4dea-b270-d015bfc0ffa6%40pdc-v-sessmgr03
- Berberoglu, A. (2018). Impact of organizational climate on organizational commitment and perceived organizational performance: empirical evidence from public hospitals. BioMed Central Health Services Research, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3149-z
- Cleveland Clinic. (2020). Mission Vision & Values. Retrieved from http://my.clevelandclinic.org/about-cleveland-clinic/overview/who-we-are/mission-vision-values
- Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
- Mennella, H., & Woten, M. (2018, July 6). Bullying in nursing. CINAHL Nursing Guide. Retrieved from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=1fcfcc71-efc2-4a6c-87ee-4faa02a91521%40sessionmgr4008
- Roussel, L., Thomas, P. L., & Harris, J. L. (2016). Management and Leadership forNurse Administrators (7th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
- Whitehead, D. K., Dittman, P. W., & McNulty, D. (2017). Leadership and the advanced practice nurse: The future of a changing health-care environment. Philadelphia, PA: A. Davis Company.
