Organizational Culture Critical Analysis
Organizational culture refers to the kind of environment created by interaction of the employees of an organization at the workplace. It is determined by the employees’ past experiences, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes and so on and it is represent an intricate pattern of individual attitudes, beliefs, views and ideas held by the members of an organization. Although the organization leaders are not involved in creating the organizational culture, they serve the role of defining it through their actions.
Organizational culture includes several issues such as the beliefs and norms shared by the majority, core values of the organization, the philosophy which serves as a guideline for the organization’s policies, the language, signs and signals using for communication in the organization, the rules and regulations which have to be followed for one to be successful in the organization and finally, the environment portrayed by the interaction of the employees, their employers and the society at large (Kim and Robert, 2005).
In this essay, the culture of my organization, Ottawa Hospital, is examined and discussed in detail. This analysis concentrates on the culture of the entire organization. Ottawa Hospital is a large teaching hospital affiliated to the University of Ottawa in Canada. It is provides high quality, comprehensive, primary, secondary and tertiary services to the residents of Eastern and North-Eastern Ontario. The hospital operates in both English and French and is governed by a Board of Governors who are volunteers from the affiliate university and other sectors of the surrounding community.
Apart from the normal hospital services offered at the Civic, River side and General campuses, the hospital further consists of two regional centers which specifically deal with cancer patients and a well established rehabilitation center. The motto of my organization is ‘Building a better hospital for the community’ and its future vision is to be recognized as the Academic Health Sciences Teaching center nationally.
The hospital has a mission of providing quality patient-centered health services for the residents of Eastern Ontario, providing many academic opportunities in fields related to medicine in affiliation with University of Ottawa and other community training organizations, partnering with research centers both locally and internationally in order to share knowledge on delivery of patient care facilities and finally, providing services in both English and French in order to meet the diverse needs of the entire community.
The Ottawa hospital has basic core values which are geared towards being compassionate, committed to offering quality services, working as a team and respecting every one in the community. The hospital puts into practice all these values in order to ensure that all the patients who seek their medical advice are given the best services possible. At this hospital, most of the workers are volunteers from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds who work hard to fulfill the core values put forward by the hospital and focus on offering quality care to the patients and the community at large.
For one to work in this organization, a lot of willingness, selflessness, self commitment and a genuine desire to help people is necessary. Volunteers acquire valuable experience which they can apply in real life or in other job in future. In addition, they are eligible to get various complementary benefits from the organization such as free parking, free shuttle services to and from the hospital, participation at the special events and a recommendation letter from the hospital on completion of the voluntary term.
Apart from voluntary opportunities, the hospital also offers many employment opportunities with various benefits. For new employees, there are formal orientation programs, training and career advancement opportunities, an enticing compensation package and an over whole allowance and benefits program. This helps to motivate the employees to work harder add it also helps the hospital to maintain its quality standards. It demands all the employees to have a caring and commitment attitude when handling people and ensure their well being.
In return for this, the hospital offers a challenging and motivating working environment for all its employees and in addition, it rewards them with good benefits. The best performing employees are rewarded financially and psychologically through the employee award program As a requirement by the hospital, all new employees are required to produce a criminal record obtained from the Ottawa police unit. This is because the hospital only seeks to employ morally and ethically upright people in order to maintain the strong ethical culture of the organization.
The organizational culture advocates for commitment, a sense of responsibility, strong team-work among all the employees and giving quality services with respect to all the employees, patients and the entire community. Any behavior which goes against this culture is considered to be deviant because it can be detrimental to the reputation and the organizational goals. The value of a strong team-work is strongly upheld in the hospital and this gets things done very fast especially in emergency cases.
My organization is faced with many challenges and crises ranging from mental health crisis, rape cases, emergency cases as well as other work related crisis. To address this, the hospital has a 24hr working system which ensures that the patients get attention whenever the need arises. The employees are also given accommodation nearby and free transport facilities for convenience purposes. In addition, the hospital has guidance and counseling facilities which offer help to the victims of rape, patients suffering from chronic diseases and so forth.
When faced by crisis such as shortage of workers, the employees work hard as a team to cover up the gaps and ensure that all the patients get the necessary attention. Other crisis such as financial problems and drug shortages encountered are solved through fundings from well wishers and the affiliate university. The hospital is highly dependent on well wishers, volunteers, donors and fund raisers who support it through time and money resources.
According to my organization’s culture, these people are recognized as the hospital’s heroes and they are honored annually through community based special events and through the Ottawa Hospital Foundation. The employees in my organization are aware of the importance of obeying the organization’s core values and cooperating with each other in their work because any negative attitude or disobeying any of the values may cost somebody’s life. This strong culture has enabled my organization to earn a good reputation nationally as well as internationally and it continues to give hope to the sick and the suffering.
