Direction

For this weeks discussion question, we will explore the impact of the culture on an organizations resources. You have recently taken over the Food Services Department at General Hospital in Smallville, VA. The hospital is a 350-bed facility that serves a town of approximately 50,000 and a county of 130,000. The administration team is composed of young and aggressive individuals. The unit is not functioning well. There are 48 full-time and 20 part-time employees. The unit is currently overstaffed by 5 FTEs (Full-time equivalent); has excessive food and supply costs, has low morale, displeased internal and external customers, pays more overtime than any other department, and has not real system in place to order needed supplies or adhere to dietary needs of patients. To add to this, there has been no improvements or changes in management philosophy in over 25 years. Some comments from staff and employees include:

1. We are supervisors in name only (supervisor);
2. The morning shift does everything wrong. There is no standardized procedures (supervisor);
3. This place is a zoo. No one knows what they are supposed to do (supervisor);
4. We never have enough food to cook what is on the menu (supervisor);
5. We are always running out of food and get blamed for it (supervisor)
6. We run out of food halfway through lunch. No one knows what is going on (employee);
7. They want us to clean kitchen. We dont have the supplies to do it (employee);
8. The patients dont get what they ordered. Trays are late (customer);
9. We are supposed to clean cafeteria at night. Food service is supposed to clean during day (housekeeping supervisor);
10. No one wants us here (manager);
11. Our budget is unrealistic (manager);
12. The place is filthy (manager); and
13. The whole hospital hates the department.

As the new director, it is your job to turn the department around. You are to prepare a detailed action plan and submit to senior management within 90 days. In your plan, be sure to comment on:

1. Current culture (how will you change the negative aspects of it and reward the positive)
2. Current issues and the impact (include the lack of money and processes)
3. Resources needed to make the changes
4. Procedures and policies needed to improve operations
5. Ways to improve image within the department, organization, and community
6. Potential barriers from staff, supervisors, and management
7. How you will monitor changes to determine success

The initial posting action plan should be prepared as a Microsoft Word document, and then attached to the unit discussion thread. There is no minimum or maximum in terms of the word count; however, the response should explicitly address all required components of this discussion assignment. The document should be prepared as a practical business deliverable (single-spaced) and reflect higher-level cognitive processing (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation).