Running head: A REVIEW OF HAPPY PLACES 1

A Review of Happy Places

Name

Institution Affiliation

Date
A REVIEW OF HAPPY PLACES 2

To: Collin, CEO Happy Places

From:

Subject: A Review of Happy Places

Types of Health Care Organizational Structure

Healthcare organizational structures are the height of management within a health center.

These structures facilitate easy and smooth operation in a health care system. They define the

functioning of every department of the healthcare organizational structure. Organizations in a

healthcare environment can be built using different structures. Daft, Murphy, and Wilmott

(2010) arrange these different structures into groups; functional, divisional, geographical,

horizontal, matrix, and multi-focused. Happy places have a functional structure in CEO and the

center managers as well as the geographic division that reach four places in London Boroughs.

Happy Places have teams that consist of managers, team leaders, disability nurse, support

workers and social workers. The different structures in Happy places allow the workers to report

not only to the functional managers responsible for the operation of the division but also allows

the employees to report to the CEO. Happy places also have spread geographically. Greiner and

Metes refer to this kind of organization as virtual organizations or distributed organizations,

while Daft et al. (2010) refer to the same organizational structure as geographical structure.

Happy places are located in four different places in London Boroughs including Newham,

Lewisham, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets. Happy places use matrix organization structure to

culture creativity among the workers and innovation at the divisions. Rather than just reporting

to one boss, the organization structure at Happy Places allows the employees to report to the

center manager as well as the CEO.

The Effect of Organization Structure on Culture

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To achieve the organizational goals effectively, Happy Places need a formal structure.

Since organizations cannot function without people, organization need to generate environments

that lead to different traits, behavior, and task with a different kind of aptitude. Employees

develop their culture within the element of values, rituals, heroes, motives, identities, beliefs and

comprehension from significant events originating from the shared experience. Organization

culture has value as its main character which defines the intimate relation between moral codes

and ethics. Therefore, values determine what the organizational employee's belief is expected of

them. Besides values determines what the workers the workers like or dislike. For example,

every week, employees at Happy Place hold a meeting to discuss how the organization should

continue to grow and develop. Specifically, this demonstrates how the organization fosters a

sense of teamwork and inclusion. In fact, this allows the employees to feel being part of

something great in the organization. Organization culture also entails people with high prized

traits who are regarded as heroes by other organizational members. For example, Collin acts as a

hero in Happy Places because the organization cannot face a new future without him.

Organization culture also has an element of symbols which are observable acts, gestures, objects,

and words that represent something distinct from other in addition to giving meaning to the

employees and the organization. The name “Happy Places” symbolizes a place of happiness and

self-fulfillment.

Structure of the organization can affect organization culture in that it defines how the

employee interacts and attain the organizational goals. For example, the matrix structure enables

the workers to report to several leaders in the organization. Although the workers may not be

using the resources effectively, matrix structure at Happy places allows for cross professional

communication which is essential to the success of the organization. As such, Happy Places have
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flattened hierarchical structure as an approach towards ensuring their growth and development.

Consequently, employees at this organization can achieve more collaborating as a team than one

the center manager working alone. The difference in dispersed organizations compared to

traditional organizations is that organizational structure spans over geographic distance, which

puts demands on coordination and communication between the dispersed parts. Besides,

geographic organization structure brings the employee together in a geographic division. By

bringing together, workers from different functional specialties allows a geographic division to

respond more quickly and effectively to the division’s needs that would be impossible if some

issues had to be solved from a remote, centralized place. The employee in happy places can

focus on the objective of their division which will increase results.

The performance of the organization under functional structure can be significantly

impacted by the time it takes the flow of communication through various hierarchy making the

business slow in adhering to growth and development. In fact, the functional structure has a

narrow span of control which makes limitations in employees’ freedom and expression, so

leading to job demotivation and dissatisfaction. The level of motivation the employee have at

Happy places may impact their organizational performance. Particularly, the staff may not

perceive Collin’s perception and the importance of individual work. The staff may have poor

perception towards the organizational goal because Collin may not have defined things clearly or

the communication is limited. Consequently, this may lead to an indifferent nature and staff

attitude affecting their motivation, relation, and achievement of organizational growth as well as

development. However, division structure at Happy Places has a high level of flexibility of

because of its low management level. The quick attribute of change makes this structure

competitive, able to adjust to organization growth and avail better performance than a functional
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structure. Effective communication motivates the staff to through initiatives and collaborative

decisions that make them feel self-freedom. However, this relied on the employees’ personalities

and networking with Happy Places. The team works at Happy Place avails a chance for

employees to work with each other and perceive what others are saying. Particularly, this

improves employee relations and the output improving the organizational performance.

Therefore, there is need to recruit employee that fit the organizational culture as well as those

who are excellent in work relationship.

The typical dimensions of matrix organization at Happy Place are the CEO, center

manages and team leaders. The student social worker and the support workers at Happy Places

report to team leader, the deputy manager, the central manager and the CEO. There are informal

relations with the various employee and the center manager in the various division can exchange

information and report to each other about the status of the business without formally being

obligated to do so. The use of matrix structure at Happy Places is a bit different from other

structures. Rather than clustering the workers at Happy place exclusively in terms of

departments, the matrix organizational structure has allowed the workers to develop group

around the organizational objective. Particularly, this allows the employees to contribute their

skill to a cross-functional team developed towards social activities for 15 youths who have

Cerebral palsy. Each worker reports both to the center manager and the CEO. The CEO is

responsible for managing workflow while the central manager oversees aspects of the goal itself.

For instance, the registered learning disability nurse with expertise in the intervention of caring

for the patient would report to the functional manager, who is the CEO, who would manage the

employees and the center manager in charge of the implementation of the intervention.
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Therefore, matrix structure allows Happy Places to be flexible in managing functional and health

care service needs.

Role and Responsibility of Centre Manager

A manager working in any organization has roles and functions that should be

implemented to ensure that the business is running smoothly. Lombardi and Schermerhorn

(2007) describe managers as individuals who avail support and has several people that are under

their responsibility. Centre managers have commonly defined as any manager at least two levels

below the CEO and only one level above a practitioner. Centre managers, previously perceived

as agents for the status quo or addition to bureaucracy, have recently been recognized as agents

of change and communication within the healthcare system. Research has revealed that

companies with good managers outperform other companies by decreasing absenteeism and

turnover and by increasing employee satisfaction, productivity, and net profits. Effective

managers are credited with improving patient safety, developing relationships based on fairness

and empathy, and making employees feel valued and respected. Alternatively, bad managers can

cost an organization anywhere from $500,000 to $2.7 million dollars depending on the level of

the manager within the organization. Based on their roles and responsibilities, each center

manager avails the day-to-day activities of order and consistency of Happy Places by applying

the management guidelines of staffing, organizing, directing, planning, directing and controlling

employees to ensure the success to the organization.

One role of the manager is to organize by assigning tasks, arranging and coordinating any

activity of a group to make sure the plan is in order. After signing the task, the manager needs to

have a plan. Specifically, the manager and the staff sit down and plan when the assigned task

should be completed as well as who is responsible for what and how long the tasks should take.
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When a manager is organizing and planning, the manager is in control. Control is also another

function that a manager should be able to account for while working in an organization. The

manager should be able to control the process of work performance by comparing an employee’s

caseload to the results of the organizations objective. The manager should also be able to make

decisions on what type of action should be implemented in the case of workforce problems.

The healthcare environment at Happy Places is consistently changing and staffing the

organization can be a challenge. It is common for the budget projection to be different from the

actual quantity. The center managers should be able to present a budget to the CEO that justifies

the need to fill the full-time equivalent position. During times when there is a low turnout of

activities, the justification should be precise for full-time equivalent requests. Utilizing non-

productive time and productive time for full-time equivalent, the center manager needs to be

accurate when evaluating staff budget. Budgets are essential for any organization, and the center

managers should understand to use all the relevant tools in creating a budget that is relevant,

clear and accurate. In fact, when the tools are incorporated into their daily routines, managers

will be able to make real-time staffing choices that will improve their ability to remain on a

budget by reducing the number of employees when there is a low turnout, thus controlling labor

costs. An individual who has wonderful leadership skills takes into consideration the concerns

that an employee has and will ensure that the employees will know that he or she can come to

that individual for advice on any work in the workplace.

The Healthcare Leadership Alliance model was formed from six healthcare specialties,

including the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), American College of

Physician Executives (ACPE), American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), Healthcare

Financial Management Association (HFMA), Healthcare Information and Management Systems

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Society (HIMSS), and Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), to develop a

competency list for healthcare managers. The format for the knowledge, skills, and abilities

(KSA) needed for managers is based on this multidisciplinary Health Care Leadership Alliance

model. The list, divided into three subgroups, delineates skills required for first-time, mid-level,

and highest-level managers. This competency list is for healthcare managers to use as a resource

for prioritizing the skills needed to be effective in their roles throughout their management

careers.

Essential functions of a manager—communication and relationship management—are listed first

in the ACHE competencies. Managers hired from within an organization may already have

healthy relationships with peers and supervisors; however, these interpersonal relationships will
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inevitably shift and change. Communication is an important tool when navigating this delicate

balance. It is important to identify situations or experiences that may affect interpersonal

relationships within the department since these relationships have been identified as a primary

cause of the derailment.

The second competency, leadership, includes having the skills needed to inspire

individuals and groups and the ability to perform organizational changes to ensure success in

performance measures of an organization. The most significant aspect of this competency is the

ability to “lead through others.” The Center for Creative Leadership described the mindset of

managers as needing to shift from “Me and my abilities” to “It’s not about me; it’s you and me.”

The majority of barriers that first-time managers struggle through relate to the inability to adapt

to this concept.

The third competency, professionalism, as described by the American College of

Healthcare Executives, is “the ability to align personal and organizational conduct with ethical

and professional standards that include a responsibility to the patient and community, a service

orientation, and a commitment to lifelong learning and improvement.” The center managers must

hold themselves and others accountable for professional expectations and outcomes. The ethics

of power within a managerial position, ethical patient and staff dilemmas, and the continued

solicitation of feedback about personal strengths and weaknesses are just a few examples of the

professionalism competency.

The fourth competency is having knowledge of the healthcare environment. The

American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) has described this competency as having

knowledge of the roles and functions of patient care team members, standards of accreditation,

regulatory and quality agencies, patient care delivery models, healthcare economics and policy,
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organizational finances, evidence-based practice outcomes, and risk management issues, to name

a few.

The fifth competency is business skills and knowledge. This type of knowledge or skill

can be acquired by seeking an MBA or Masters in Health Administration (MHA) degree. The

United States (US) Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that the number of

nurses obtaining Master’s and Doctoral degrees increased by 67% between 2007 and 2011. This

increased demand may have been due to hospital organizations seeking practitioners with

business skills. An alternative to the MBA is the Master’s in Health Administration (MHA)

degree, which differs from the MBA by focusing on the uniqueness of the healthcare business.

In conclusion, organizational structures may include units where managers and their

direct reports do not work in the same physical location for a significant period of time. This is

often referred to as geographically dispersed organizations. Another common phenomenon that

is closely related is dynamic organizations where project teams consisting of workers from

different locations are formed to complete a certain task. The latter is often referred to as virtual

teams. Being geographically dispersed or working in teams over distance can be beneficial to

organizations by connecting competent employees regardless of their location, increasing

flexibility, and it may provide more freedom for the employees to decide where and when to

perform their duties. It is demonstrated that organization structure is a skeleton of culture to be

implemented while culture determines how the organization should be structured. However,

cultural difference may cause a significant challenged if Happy Places consist of a multicultural

team. The main challenge may entail communication and organization at the local environment

that is founded on interrelationships between Happy Places and the communal behavior.
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References

Daft, R. L., Murphy, J., & Wilmott, H. (2010). Organization Theory and Design (2 ed.).

Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA.

Gentry W., A. & Shanock L., R. (2008). Views of managerial derailment from above and below:

The importance of a good relationship with upper management and putting people at

ease. J Appl Soc Psychol, 38(10):2469-2494.

Shili S. (2008). Organizational Cultures and Its Themes. Retrieved from

http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/download/760/726

Stefl, M., E. (2008). Common competencies for all healthcare managers: The Healthcare

Leadership Alliance model. J Health Management, 53(6):360-374.

Top Healthcare Schools (2010). Healthcare Manager Job Description. Retrieved from:

http://www.top-healthcare-schools.com/article/healthcaremanager-job-description