Question

An essay type -Explain which of Mintzberg’s management roles Ms. Thurmond should use to implement policies and procedures for accreditation.

Casestudy: Hospice Goes Hollywood
Hollywood Hospice is a not-for-profit, 85-bed hospice facility located in the small, but populous, town of Hollywood, California. Like all other hospices, its mission is to provide
high-quality palliative care to the terminally ill. Because it is located in a competitive environment that receives much media coverage, Hollywood Hospice is extremely conscious
of its image. Hollywood Hospice, therefore, maintains top clinicians and administrative staff, has an attractive facility, and recently attempted to make adjustments to apply for
JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) accreditation. The administrative staff worked for several months revising policies and procedures
and determining areas in which work practices should change to comply with JCAHO standards. The staff believed that improving standards for compliance would improve the
quality of care and bring prestige to the facility, even though it already has approval from the National Hospice Organization. The administration of Hollywood Hospice knew that the changes were vital to achieving accreditation and had to be made quickly. The director, Ms. Cynthia Thurmond, distributed to each clinical and administrative department two-inch binders that contain details about the implementation procedures for accreditation. Shortly after distributing the binders and sending a reminder e-mail to all staff about the urgency
of the implementation, Ms. Thurmond began to receive complaints from the administrative staff; the staff complained that most of the changes were not being followed
by the clinicians. Ms. Thurmond expressed her frustrations to her assistant Glenn: “I don’t understand why the clinicians aren’t following the new protocols we gave them.
Without full compliance with the new protocols, we have no chance for accreditation or for increased quality care.” “I know, but some of the changes are proving harder to implement than others; I’m not sure which ones we should have them focus on,” Glenn responded. “I don’t believe the clinicians understand that all of the new protocols have to be followed strictly. They just don’t seem to care! Maybe we should create an incentive system so they’ll do what we want,” he suggested. Meanwhile, down the hall, the medical director, Dr. George Frank, became very aggravated after reading the documents. “I can’t believe they want us to make changes this quickly without giving our staff adequate training, and without even asking for our input!” he complained to a nurse. The nurse agreed, “All of these new policies and procedures are just more useless bureaucracy; who needs accreditation when we know we provide good quality healthcare? We have enough work as it is and we don’t need more non-clinicians telling us what to do or how to do it.”
Hollywood Hospice’s compliance efforts appear to have reached a stalemate. Although its administration is ready to implement new policies and procedures for accreditation, the
implementation lacks clinician support.

Answer 1

There are ten different roles given by Mintzberg that can be assumed by a manager in different work situations. They can be broadly classified into interpersonal contact, information processing and decision making.

In the above case, in my opinion Ms. Thurmond should use the following management role to solve the work crisis:

• Disturbance handler: The initial step to be taken by Ms. Thurmond is to take charge and mediate to settle disputes within the firm. Taking strict action or imposing new rules and regulations won't be of any help. Instead she should try to understand the problem faced by the clinicians and inform them about the need for such haste decision.
• Negotiator: Ms. Thurmond will have to take part in direct negotiations between the policy making department and the clinicians and come up with a solution that benefits all - meaning the new policies are also followed and the staff also doesn't feel that they are being forced to follow the procedures. Changes can be made to the new policies after taking up the suggestions by the clinicians.
• Monitor: To see if the renewed procedures are followed in an effective manner or not
• Leader: One of the pillars of a successful organisation are motivated employees. Ms Thurmond must take up the role of a leader to manage the firm in an efficient manner.