Introduction
Organizations are in a constantly changing journey due to the change of their external environment. Organization is marked with various aspects including the social, economic and psychological aspect. Organizations executes various functions which are guided by their structure, design and different theories which connect together to bring the overall objective of the organization. Organization theory is also describe as the behavior of the organization and can have direct influence on the performance of the organization in terms of operations and economic potential. The correction application of organizational theory in the decision making process can have immense benefits to the organization and society as well as promote good relations with the stakeholders.
This essay examines the importance of organization theory (OT) and also delineates how the Queenly Community Health Service (QCHS) can use organizational theory to make informed decision on its counseling services
Organizational Theory (OT)
According to Jones (2010), organization theory is focused on identifying the design, patterns and structure of the organization in the decision making process. Indentifying the operational patterns of an organization is important for devising new strategies that will help the organization to boost the level of productivity, efficiency and that will meet the desires of the stakeholders (Cornelissen 2005). Generally, the organization theory provides basis on the best structure that should be used by organization for it to function to its best. Additionally, the organization theory can be used in making new adjustments in the organization, adjustments that are meant to solve a particular inefficiency in the organization. With increase in competition in every industry, it is important for organization to incorporate strategy that will promote effectiveness and efficiency in order to favorably compete with its rivals (Miller et al 2009).
Queenly Community Health Service (QCHS) is faced with a problem in the provision of timely counseling services. Although the medical facility engages in the provision of a wide range of services, the major area that is facing a problem is the counseling department because of the counseling staffs is not sufficient to cater the high number of clients. The clients for counseling services are booked by the practitioners or may self-refer to the counseling services. When the clients visits the facility for counseling services, the client may be forwarded to the general counseling services or to the specialist counseling teams based on the needs of the clients. The problem in the Queenly Community Health Service (QCHS) is that the clients booked for the counseling services are kept in a 3 month wait period, a waiting time that has continued to increase to where clients are required to wait for an extra period of 4-9 months. In addition, the medical facility is facing limited financial resources even with the yearly increase of its workforce cost CPI (consumer price increase).
In order make effective strategic decisions to improve the clients’ accessibility to counseling services, and its model of care delivery and its operations, Queenly Community Health Service should first keenly analyze its operations. From the normal 3 month wait time, it is clear that the organization has a huge client base in the community than other medical facilities. Therefore, the organization should focus on strategies to makes its operations more efficient in order to significantly reduce the time that the clients are required to wait. According to Suddaby (2010), organization theory is highly applicable in strategic planning, operation and human resource management. The Queenly medical facility should focus on strategies that will improve the level of operations, through effective human resources operations.
There are various theories that explain organization and its structure. These theories include administrative theory, bureaucratic approach and scientific management approach. The scientific management theory targets to bring efficiency in the organization through planning, standardization and specialization. Understanding the structure of the organization gives the direction of the area that needs to be improved in the organization. Scientific management is the important in the issues affective the operational efficiency of Queenly medical facility (Hinings & Greenwood 2002). With high number of clients looking for counseling services, the organization should take the opportunity to make its administration of counseling services more accessible.
Bureaucratic approach
The bureaucratic approach principle includes the chain of command, the responsibility of the management and the bounded authority. Basically the bureaucratic approach focuses on the process that is taken in making decisions in the organization (Shafritz et al 2016). In an organization like Queenly hospital, in making the decision, it will require the participation of the executives and managers of the organization. This means that the organization should involves all the member of the staffs in the decision making. Making a decision in an organization should involve the contribution of different ideas by giving other employees an opportunity to participate in the decision making. In order to identify the root cause of the problem, the management should consult with the counseling specialists. The counseling specialists are in good position to identify the root cause of the delay because they have direct relations to the clients.
Contingency theory
In contingency theory, an organization is likely to be faced with diverse constraints, thus the management should focus on reducing the effect of the constraints. Jokipii (2010) explains that the decision making process of an organization should dwell more on countering the internal and external constraints that are likely to face an organization. When making the decision using this theory, the organization should focus on three factors; the size of the organization, the adjustability of the organization to the environment and the difference in resources and operations activities of the organization. These are very important determining factors in the decision making process of the Queenly hospital. Queenly is a large medical facility, thus the decision making process may involve a complex process as compared to small organizations. The internal environment of Queenly includes structure such as the number of employees and internal culture. The organization should ensure that the employees are in a good position to embrace the changes that are made in the organization. In the community health center, the constraint facing the facility is counselor accessibility and the delay in accessing the services in addition to the financial constraints (Foss & Knudsen 2013).
Based on the organizational theory, the management of Queenly Community Health Service (QCHS) should mainly concentrate on reducing the time taken by the clients to meet counseling specialists. From the contingency theory it is clear that Queenly community health should look for strategies to counter the long delay in accessing counseling services (Snowden & Boone 2007). The first strategy that organization can use to reduce the delay is reducing the time taken by the specialist to counsel a single client. The next strategy is hiring counselor to help reduce the workload from the current team of counselors. Additionally, the community health facility should new avenue for funding the new strategy of hiring new employees. Hiring new employees is an expensive process because of the additional cost from the new competition budget. Embracing the new strategies will not only help the community heath center from reducing the delay but will also improve the customers attendant which will translate into good returns (Eisenhardt & Graebner 2007).
The structure of the organization is based on there factors the culture of the organization, the social structure, physical structure and the technology factor. In Queenly health facility, the technology factor can be improved to make the counseling services more accessible. With the growth of technology, it is very easy to access counseling services from every location. The internet has made its easy to pass services beyond geographical boundaries. The management should look for ways on how technology can be incorporated so that some of the clients will not have to book for direct sessions with the counselors. Clients with minor problems can be counseled right from their home thus reducing the workload on counselor thus reduce the delay of services. According to management science theory, it is very important to rally a strong team that will help the organization to achieve the desired goals. This is why it is important to have a powerful organizational culture that will guide the behaviors of the employees in the organization (Laffont & Martimort 2009).
Conclusion
Organization theory has become a necessity in the decision making process in an organization. Organization theory incorporates the issues affecting the organization. Organization theory encompasses other competing theories including rational system perspective, modernization theory and bureaucratic theory. The rational system perspective focuses on the goal and formalization. This includes the objectives that the organization is aiming to achieve and the strategy of streamlining the operations of the organization to a give culture. The modernization theory includes the alignment of the organization based on the changes in the change in the industry. To make effective decision, the management of Queenly medical facility should involve the stakeholders of the organization. This may include the frontline employees such as counseling specialist and the financers of the organization. Since the main problem facing the organization is from the counseling department, the management should devise methods that will help reduce the time taken to deal with a single client. Additionally, the organization should consider increasing the number of counselor so that the clients will have an easy access of counselors.
References
Cornelissen, J. P. (2005). Beyond compare: Metaphor in organization theory. Academy of Management Review, 30(4), 751-764.
Eisenhardt, K. M., & Graebner, M. E. (2007). Theory building from cases: Opportunities and challenges. Academy of management journal, 50(1), 25-32.
Foss, N. J., & Knudsen, C. (2013). Towards a competence theory of the firm (Vol. 2). Routledge.
Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2013). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press.
Hinings, C. R., & Greenwood, R. (2002). Disconnects and consequences in organization theory?. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(3), 411-421.
Jones, T. M., Felps, W., & Bigley, G. A. (2007). Ethical theory and stakeholder-related decisions: The role of stakeholder culture. Academy of Management Review, 32(1), 137-155.
Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Jokipii, A. (2010). Determinants and consequences of internal control in firms: a contingency theory based analysis. Journal of Management & Governance, 14(2), 115-144.
Laffont, J. J., & Martimort, D. (2009). The theory of incentives: the principal-agent model. Princeton university press.
Miller, D., Greenwood, R., & Prakash, R. (2009). What happened to organization theory?. Journal of Management Inquiry, 18(4), 273-279.
Snowden, D. J., & Boone, M. E. (2007). A leader’s framework for decision making. Harvard business review, 85(11), 68.
Shafritz, J. M., Ott, J. S., & Jang, Y. S. (2015). Classics of organization theory. Cengage Learning.
Suddaby, R. (2010). Challenges for institutional theory. Journal of Management Inquiry, 19(1), 14-20.
