ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, SYSTEMS THEORY, AND LEADERSHIP

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, SYSTEMS THEORY, AND LEADERSHIP

Embedded within the AONE (2015) competencies for nursing leaders are various components of systems thinking and systems leadership. Nursing leaders need to perform a historical review of organizational theories because it helps them understand the effect of structures and theories that are relevant to health care organizational systems. This understanding leads to knowledge on how these systems affect the role and scope of nursing practice.
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Systems theory came into use within the business sector following a publication on the subject by Peter Senge. As time progressed, health care leaders adapted principles from systems theory and applied them to health care organizations and systems. Systems theory maintains that the parts of the whole affect each other in many ways, with interactions so complex that any event or action may have multiple consequences across the entire whole (Senge, 1990).
Effective Communication

Communication is a key competency for nurse executives. It may involve verbal, nonverbal, written, electronic, and other communication modalities. Communication among members of teams, between departments and service lines, within large networks, with strategic business partners, and with patients, families, or support persons requires awareness of various facets of effective communication.
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the heath care community.
What is the relationship between an organization\’s structure, mission, vision, philosophy, values, and policies and procedures?
What strategies does your health care organization (or one that you are familiar with) use when making changes within the organization?
How do you see nurse leaders participating in the process of organizational change?
How are changes made in organizational structure, and when are they typically made?
How do transformational and transparent nursing leadership fit in the organization\’s power structure?
Preparation

Use the Suggested Resources for this assessment to study systems theory, SWOT analysis, and shared governance teams, as background for an Impact Report to Senior Leadership. The report includes a SWOT analysis. The SWOT Analysis Template is linked in Required Resources.

Study a facility in your area and examine its Web site and any available public documents to aid you in completing this assessment. You may wish to examine an organization where you work, where you have worked in the past, or where you did your clinical work.
Do not name the organization in your report; instead, identify the type of facility and location. Example: A rehabilitation center in a mid-size Midwestern city.
Use the following scenario as the basis for your report:

Scenario

The unit-based Shared Governance Council of the organization where you work has identified a major nursing-related challenge (patient/staff safety, confidentiality, management/staff conflict, poor patient satisfaction survey scores, or nursing staff shortages) within your health care organization.

In an unusual move, your system administrator is considering creating a new nurse leadership position that would have the responsibility and authority to address this specific issue. As a member of the shared governance council\’s subcommittee, you have been asked to write the committee\’s final report.

Deliverable: Impact Report to Senior Leadership

Write a 4–5-page Impact Report to senior leadership that identifies the challenge, analyzes how it affects the organization from a nursing perspective, and details the new position.

Use systems thinking and leadership theory as tools to approach this problem.
Construct the report with the following headings:

The Nursing Challenge:

Identify the nursing challenge and its impact from a nursing perspective. Choose from:
Patient/staff safety, confidentiality, management/staff conflict, poor patient satisfaction survey scores, or nursing staff shortages.
The System/Organization:

Explain how the nursing challenge creates a gap or conflict between the organization\’s statements and practice.
Identify the organization type, that is, specialty hospital, teaching hospital, major health care system, et cetera, and summarize the organizational structure, its mission, vision, and philosophy statements.
Use systems theory and systems thinking to explain the gap or conflict.
SWOT Analysis:

Use the SWOT Analysis Template linked in Required Resources and include the SWOT analysis table in your paper.

Identify organizational factors that impact the situation using a SWOT analysis.
For example, a budget cut may cause short staffing, which relates directly to the problem.
What factors within the system may facilitate a solution for this problem?
The Position:

Assess how the new nurse leader position will have power and influence and impact patient outcomes.
How will this position affect change within the organization?
Identify key leadership skills, knowledge, or abilities required for the position.
Additional Requirements

Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Resources and in-text citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
Length: The report should be 4–5 pages in content length. Include a separate title page and a separate reference page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point, double-spaced.
Number of resources: Use a minimum of three peer-reviewed resources.

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Relationship between Organization Structure, System Theory, and the Healthcare Community
Report to Senior Leadership
This report reviews the alarming state of a rehabilitation center in Boston that has led poor operations and fatalities due to staff shortage. In the last three years, the rehabilitation center has been closed several times due to lack of sufficient staffing. In the last summer, the facility faced unusual human resource challenges in nursing, psychiatric unit, and subordinate staff. In such cases, the patients are left in crisis and the most liberal escape from the facility posing a danger to them and the society. One of the worst things that can happen to a clinician, nurse, physician or any other healthcare provider is to have a client disappear from the facility. It is not only demotivating but…