We Only Wanted to Scare Management Into Making Changes! Case Study Analysis

A small group of nurses, employed at a large community hospital, were unhappy about their work environment and would meet daily during lunch to discuss the situation. There had been a recent change in the hospitals senior management, which caused a high level of uncertainty and anxiety among the nursing staff. The nurses felt overworked due in part to the industrys current nursing shortage. Their wages and benefits had been stagnant with no salary market adjustments for the past two years. The nurses saw the situation as management requiring them to do more work with fewer resources, with no appreciation or recognition of their efforts. Whenever the nurses approached management with their concerns, they perceived them as falling on deaf ears since no changes were made.

Feeling like they had no other choice, the nurses contacted a labor union. The labor union began an organizing effort in the hospital shortly thereafter, holding an aggressive campaign over a six-week period. There was tremendous peer pressure, as some of the well-respected nursing staff became active leaders for unionization, although they were not part of the initial group of nurses who had first contacted the union. The election was held and the union was voted in by two thirds of the nursing staff. In the weeks that followed, the original group of nurses remarked that they were surprised by the unions victory; they had only wanted to scare management into making changes to their work environment.

1. Introduction
   • Identify the key problems and issues in the case study.
   • Formulate and include a thesis statement, summarizing the outcome of your analysis in 12 sentences.
2. Background
   • Set the scene: background information, relevant facts, and the most important issues.
   • Demonstrate that you have researched the problems in this case study.
   • Using Blake and Mouton's Leadership Grid, explain the leadership style displayed by managemtn to the nursing staff
3. Alternatives
   • Outline possible alternatives (not necessarily all of them)
   • Explain why alternatives were rejected
   • Constraints/reasons
   • Why are alternatives not possible at this time?
4. Proposed Solution
   • Provide one specific and realistic solution
   • Explain why this solution was chosen
   • Support this solution with solid evidence
   • Concepts from class (text readings, discussions, lectures)
   • Outside research
   • Personal experience (anecdotes)
5. Recommendations
   • Determine and discuss specific strategies for accomplishing the proposed solution.
   • If applicable, recommend further action to resolve some of the issues
   • What should be done and who should do it?