Leading and Managing Organisational Resources

Introduction 

Home Instead Senior Care is an organisation that provide services of providing care to the people of old age. It was established in the year of 1994 by couple Lori and Paul Hogan with providing services to a small number of families, and now the company has more than 1000 franchises. It has the mission of enhancing the quality of life of old aged people, along with increasing the number of young adults that cares for them.

The main programme of the organisation is the Give65 that is a crowdfunding programme that works in the direction of raising funds along with running awareness campaigns in order to enhance life's quality of old aged people (Home Instead, 2020a). The management of the organisation emphasises on creating a culture that contributes to enhancing the engagement of the employees and directs their efforts towards the direction of its success. Its staff includes more than 200 employees. The culture of the company emphasis on the core value of the organisation that are creativity, fun, risk, professionalism, aggressive growth and transparency (Home Instead, 2020b).

However, the organisation face certain type of problems that hinders the growth and sustainability in the competitive market. The challenges faced by the company are low level of engagement of staff members, high rate of turnover, compliance and problems associated with the zero hour contract. In this regard, the report focuses on evaluating the organisational culture of Home Instead, list challenges and suggest a suitable solution. Moreover, the report also discusses the impact of power and politics, along with discussing operation management and change management.

Analysis of the Organisational Culture and Change Management of Home Instead 

The organisation is working on the principle of respect and dignity, faith and collegial growth and provide service of high quality to other people. The management of the organisation emphasis on creating a family culture in which the employees' works, perform activities of fun and respect feeing of each other. The creation of family-like culture in the organisation contributes to developing a feeling of empowerment in the employees. Its organisational culture is the main element that enforces the behaviour of the employees with the ideal work behaviour. The organisation employed a large number of caregivers on the zero hour contract in order to provide companionship services and non-medical services to the people of old age. The management of the organisation care that the interests of caregivers and the clients coincide in order to build trust and bonds between them, along with providing personalised support to the clients (Home Instead, 2020c).

Increasing the engagement of the employees is one of the prime concern of the management of the organisation. Its emphasis on relationship-based companionship care that helps people of old age to enjoy at their own home. Its management emphasis on enhancing the level of engagement of the employees by providing various facilities to its employees, such as sports facilities and gym membership to all the employees. The leadership of the company care that the employees retain with it and in order to perform this, they conduct meetings with the employees and knows their needs to enhance their level of engagement with the organisation (Best Companies, 2020).

The ways through the organisation may develop a culture that supports the values, beliefs and values of the organisation that is the foundation of health care services. The organisation should take care of its employees and started a feedback and reward system that helps in enhancing the motivation level of the employees and provide gain to it in a competitive environment. In order to manage changes in its working, the organisation should talk to its employees and enhance their level of confidence and generate a feeling that their management care for the employees. The management of the organisation should implement a feedback system that helps in evaluating the performance of the employees and make decisions that are beneficial for the organisation as well as employees.

Theories on culture and impact of change 

As per Schein's theory, the basic assumption that the culture of the organisation originates from the assumptions that shapes value and the values decide the behaviour and practices that have been followed in the organisation. There is three levels that play a key role in deciding its cultures, such as Artifacts, values and basic assumptions. The physical artefact refers to the interior design, physical layout and decoration. Moreover, language, slogans and special expression are also prominent artifacts that shape the culture of an organisation (Duden, 2011).

In his relation, the culture of HISC is also inspired by the language used in official communication. The main slogan that is popular in the organisation is "Changing the Face of Aging" that motivates employees to work in the direction of providing exiting care to the people of old age. Moreover, according to the theory, the values and basic assumptions also plays a key role in deciding the organisation culture (Duden, 2012). In context to HISC, the organisational culture is supported by its values and the assumption of the management that has been made for directing its employees. 

As per the Kurt Lewin's three-stage model, the change in an organisation includes three stages such as unfreezing, changing and refreezing. In the phase of unfreezing the change is implemented and positive environment regarding the implementation of changes is made in order to make it's acceptable by the employees (Sarayreh, Khudair and Barakat, 2013). In relation to the organisation, the change should be implemented in a sequential manner in which first en environment of change is created by raising awareness of the change in the organisation.

The employees often resist change as they are not ready to work in the changing environment. In order to remove this challenge, the management should communicate with the employees and aware them with the benefits of implementing change and its necessities. The next step is of change in which the change is implemented in the working procedures. The employees also face a challenge in working with the new system as they are not familiar with working in a new situation (Kaminski, 2011).

The management of HISC should provide proper training regarding the changing system of the organisation and monitor work in order to detect information and do proper planning to overcome that challenges. The last step in the model is of refreezing in which the employees become familiar with working in the new system and start working in a new environment. This step is beneficial for HISC as the change is successfully implemented in the work culture, and employees work comfortably in the new system. 

Challenges faced by healthcare

Home Instead Senior Care (HISC) faces various challenges such as premium branding, regulatory compliance, staff retention, zero-hour contracts and staff engagements. The first challenge for HISC is lack of premium branding, clients and care-givers or staff refuses to relate with them or be a part of them as they are not provided with best features and qualities in return.

The second challenged faced by HISC is regulatory compliance, its main motive is to make sure that all the other corporations associated with them act responsibly (HISC, 2020b). Due to the cutback of the standards of other franchises, HSIC faces difficulties with the satisfaction of the clients and staffs. The third challenge is staff retention, in HISC staffs are not motivated enough to be loyal to the organization.

As HISC is facing poor financial management, it recruits every 3 or 5 caregivers out of 12 interviews which decreases their staff retention rate as they are not motivated for the cause by the organization. The Forth challenge faced is zero-hour contracts, in order to be more flexible HISC followed the zero-hour contracts for the staff, which in turn became a loss for the organization.

The staff choose to change their shifts continuously, which resulted into lack of motivation among them, availability of the staff at the required time period and minimizing the efforts for work in the organization. This context affected the staff management of the organization, by creating a fifth challenge for them. Considering that there is no fixed timings for the staff to work, the staff engagement limits to be decent (HISC, 2020c).

Thus, due to these challenges, the staff of HISC feels demotivated, which results in the lack of performances, desire and the work efficiency towards the organization.

The solution to the challenges faced by Home Instead

As per the Hankinson’s theory, the brand is equivalent to the value enhancers. It states that the brand is the manifested trademark which calls the consumers to entitle with them. In other words, the brand always needs its own positioning and the reality in the market (Zhu, 2017). With the use of the same theory, HISC can focus on premium branding in addition to the assurance of quality in return to the client and staffs. HISC can enhance the idea of introductions in their organization to gain the trust of clients and staff as a solution to the premium branding.  

The theory of regulatory compliance correlates the satisfaction of the rules and regulations for the organization. This theory specifies the right amount of balance of rules regulating the organization (Fiene, 2016). The challenge of the compliance in HISC can be resolved using this theory, the organization can relate to the basic laws or rules for enhancing the standards of other franchises. This will create a warm environment between the staff and clients, being satisfied with the organization.

As defined by McClelland’s need theory, goals are achieved if there is a desire for creating a friendly and motivative relationship among the employees by the organization (Ramlall, 2004). Despite being financially poor, HISC can improve the staff retention rate by using the above theory, they can motivate and be friendly with the recruited staff, and provide rewards in order to achieve the best performances. This theory can also be utilized in the factor of staff engagements, it can be resolved if the staffs are motivated to be time-oriented in the organization.

 As stated by the Finnish Ministry of employment and economy, the zero-hour contracts are not outlined specifically in the terms of the law (Lavery, 2014), they can be occasional or permanent. HISC can resolve these issue by hiring the staff for a fixed term so that it results in the major availability of the staffs for clients for a longer time period.

Impact of power and politics

Power and politics in an organisation have long been associated with the linking of being observed and appreciated by specific people in the organisation. Power has the capability to help an individual in gaining promotions or influencing capacity at the required time. Power has been defined as the potential in controlling and managing the people and things in the organisation. In an organisation, the people that have the highest power is considered successful with their objective of ensuring that they focus on fulfilling the organisational goals or objectives.

On the other hand, politics is defined as a process or actions through which power is utilised in the organisation. In addition, power and politics have also been negatively associated with the work culture as leads to dominating workplace culture in the organisation (Somoye, 2016). The individual ability to survive in the organisation has been termed as a political activity, which utilises tactical ability to sustain or retain power. Power is capable of influencing people, and the extent to which people are influenced depends on the people perception towards power in the organisation.

The acquisition of power is always associated with fulfilling certain purpose, while continue to remain to achieve goals and objectives. An organisation that has adopted a hierarchical system of power may face difficulty if a member at top position leaves the organisation. The abdication of the said member has consequences throughout the organisational power system. Despite the abdication and its legal restraints, if other members try to utilise the power of the said abdicated member, it can lead to conflict in the organisation (Omisore and Nweke, 2014).

In an organisation, it has been observed that favouritism due to politics leads to conflicts and affects the regular organisational process. An organisation can succeed f they have developed the supporting culture at the workplace that leads to efficient work culture. In gaining improved work productivity, work culture needs to be developed so that harmony can be developed in such a way that issues are resolved without the intervention of the third party.

Organisational culture has the potential to interlink the individual work performance with organisational productivity. However, organisational culture is affected by the power and politics and acts as a hindrance in fulfilling the organisational goals and objectives. Internal politics plays a crucial role in affecting the organisational culture as sometimes there is an unequal distribution of powers between the organisational members (Alsalamah, 2015).

Further, power being dynamic in behaviour is successful in changing the individual perception towards their work performance in an organisation. The power and politics influence the decision making capability and efficiency of an organisation due to its perception towards varied opinions (Arora and Rao, 2018).

Operation Management and Change Management

An organisation that is operating its business in a highly dynamic environment has to ensure that its resources are in abundant quantity, considering the fact that there is various uncertainty in the market opportunities. In the market, high standards have been set for the organisation, failing to comply with such standards leads to marginalisation. In this context, operations management is helpful in developing a plan related to the business process by identifying and collecting all the resources related to the same.

Further, operations management is highly effective in the process of incorporating best practices for organisational business performance (Battistoni et al., 2013). In this context, the theory of Six Sigma states that analysis and statistics can be utilised in improving the business operation in the organisation by focusing on product and service quality. The main motive of this theory is to improve the financial performance of an organisation using the six principles that are, “define, measure, analyse, improve and control” (Nair, Malhotra and Ahire, 2011).

On the other hand, change management is associated with the applicability of the necessary changes that is beneficial in mitigating the impact of barriers in the organisation. The barriers in the organisation may be associated with the leadership styles, business standards or technology adoption. In an organisation, some changes have lead to stress and anxiety for the people that are employed in the organisation.

It is, therefore, crucial for the change management to ensure that strategies are revised and updated as per the organisational ability to absorb the relevant changes (Slattery, 2013). In relevance to the change management, John Kotter’s change management theory states that changes in the organisation are necessary so that its business continues to grow while remaining ahead in the competition race.

There are eight steps in the Kotter’s change management theory that are, “creating urgency, forming a powerful coalition, developing vision for incorporating change, communicating the vision, mitigating the obstacles, creating short term wins, building on the incorporated change and lastly adopting the changes in the organisational culture” (Appelbaum et al., 2012). In relevance to the findings of this theory, Home Instead has the potential to incorporate Kotter’s theory so that necessary changes can be brought to its health care services.

Corporate Social Responsibilities and Ethics

As Home Instead is a health care organisation, it has the responsibility to ensure that its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and ethics are in accordance technological, scientific and economic changes that are related to the customers’ welfare. A health care organisation must associate with human rights under the context of social responsibility. In fulfilling the social responsibility, the organisation has to also ensure that they continue increasing the profits for its shareholders. CSR has also been linked with focusing on environmental concerns so that they can be mitigated.

In the age of globalisation, every organisation is focusing on increasing its presence in the global market. It, therefore, becomes a necessity for the organisation to present itself as a socially responsible organisation so that customers’ are attracted towards utilising their services leading to increase in the market share of the organisation (Brandão et al., 2013). CSR has been linked with the business practices that help the organisation to improve and manage their social, environmental and economic relations in the market (Babor and Robaina, 2013). A negative perception has been developed in the minds of people that a health care organisation charges extra cost for health care services. The public reaction compels the health care organisation to manage their reputation in such a way that its relation with stakeholder does not hamper (Bear, Rahman and Post, 2010).

In health care organisation, ethics has been identified as a crucial aspect for delivering health care services. However, health care professionals face a dilemma in ensuring that health care services are in compliance with human rights, along with its stakeholders being satisfied. Further, ethics in an organisation is also linked with the proper utilisation of resources. Nowadays, special focus is being given to the delivery of health care services in accordance with the ethical principles by respecting the fundamental rights of an individual.

The main motive of CSR and ethics is to ensure that a common goal of providing excellent services is accepted by the health care professionals and stakeholders to the said organisation (Murray, 2010). In a health care organisation such as Home Instead, ethical issues is likely to arise, which has the potential to affect day-to-day activities. Ethical issues is more likely to occur in the process of resource allocation and providing excellent service quality to the concerned individuals in the health care organisation (Aitamaa et al., 2010).

Recommendation

The main problem faced by the company is related to the high rate of turnover and low level of engagement of employees with the organisation. The organisation should take appropriate measures to increase the level of engagement of the employees. In this relation, the organisation should adopt the strategy of providing rewards and bonus to the employees. The strategy of providing special rewards on completing on year helps in motivating them to work in the company. It should be imminently applied in the organisation by the management. Moreover, it should also include an emphasis on employing full-time employees instead of zero-hour contracts (Terera and Ngirande, 2014). 

The management should create a proper channel of communication between the employees and the management. This strategy provides two benefits to the organisation one it leads to creating a feeling in the employees that their management cares for them and another benefit is that the management is able to take proper actions as per the needs of the employees (Sandhya and Kumar, 2011). A channel of communication should be created by the manager buy conducting meetings; it does not cost high as the meetings can be conducted at working hours of the organisation.

The management of the company should conduct exit interviews with the employees that want to leave the organisation. This strategy helps the management to know the actual reason of the employees to leave the organisation, and they are able to make a strategy that contributes to eliminating that problem that will help in reducing the turnover rate in it in the near future (Iqbal, 2010). This will not cost extra resources as the interview will be conducted in working hours with the employees that resigned from their post.

Conclusion 

It can be concluded from the above findings that Home Instead is an organisation that is engaged in offering health care services to the people belonging to the old aged group. The organisation has the mission to ensure that the life quality of old aged people is improved. In addition, the organisation is also focusing on improving the organisational culture in such a way that all its employees’ contribute effectively in terms of improving organisational business performance.

The organisational culture of Home Instead is focused on providing high-quality health care services to the people by remaining in compliance with the dignity and faith in terms of service offering. Improving employee engagement is the primary concerns of organisational management. The foundation of health care services lies on the employees’ support values and beliefs by incorporating reward and feedback system so that the motivation level among the employees’ is improved.

Schein’s theory mentions that artefacts, values and basic assumptions are helpful in deciding the organisational culture. Further, according to Kurt Lewin’s three-stage model, there are three stages such as unfreezing, changing and refreezing that is incorporated to bring changes in the organisation. However, there are some challenges that are faced by Home Instead such as premium branding, regulatory compliance, staff retention, zero-hour contracts and staff engagement.

In mitigating the effect of these challenges on the Home Instead, the findings of  Hankinson’s theory, McClelland’s need theory and theory of regulatory compliance can be utilised in its business process. Further, the theory of Six Sigma and Kotter’s theory can be implemented to address operations and change management.

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