Case Study 2 Travers Hospital: The Human Resource Department Secretary

1. Introduction Ethics is a critical part of a cultural system. From an institutional perspective, ethics are the ideas, values and habits that form the institutions shared cultural core or script. (Bainton.R.B., 2012,p.144-133). These ethics emphasized by the organization are physically imprinted in the charter of the organization itself. The Charter is the rules and norms of an institution that are the technically acquired skills, habits, legal norms and ethical commands which are accepted by the members or imposed upon them (Malinowki,1960,p.52) 2. Background of the case Travers Hospital is an organization with a family like atmosphere. The management has appointed Miss Nancy Columbus, a senior staff to a clerical position at the HR department. This appointment was an insight to Miss Nancy a very friendly and jovial staff with her colleagues in the top level management and meetings held. 3. Problem Statement Travers Hospital case looks into the situation where Miss Nancy has misused the trust placed on her by the employers. Other than that this case also looks into the matter as a misconduct of ethics, a serious problem that may jeopardize relations within the organization.

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Case Study 2 Travers Hospital: The Human Resource Department Secretary

4. Three options to solve the problem The hospital needs to focus in providing suitable training for its staff for each position specifically. As mentioned by Verneil.M, Berge.Z, Berge.N, Davis.L. and Smith.D., (2002 p.4361) Learning is now defined as a competitive strategy in a global workplace. Therefore, trainers must engage in defining strategic goals, analyzing organizational processes and providing better systematic performance within the business context. Nancy in this case is taken into the meeting room as a secretary only based on her merit of seniority and friendly behavior which was deemed suitable for the position, but it turned out Miss Nancys lack of understanding of the meeting room ethics misled her to breaking the secrets of the meeting. Training for Miss Nancy is a better good of making use of her seniority and know-about of the organization, but training only for Miss Nancy as a person to be upgraded to an admin staff from a nurse may not be cost effective compared to taking in a trained secretary. Second option on the table of the management would be to recruit a suitable and well trained secretary for the position. This move not only saves cost of training, but also adds on in providing the organization with a high competency staff, a suitable person for the position. As defined my Mirable (1997, p.74) competency as a knowledge, skill, ability or characteristic associated with high performance on a job, such as problem solving, analytical thinking or leadership these traits highlighted my Mirable will definitely be an asset to the organization. Anyhow, the minus factor in hiring an out sider to fill in a position held by Miss Nancy in a work environment which is family-like would stir unhappiness and make the hostile situation in the organization even worst.

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Case Study 2 Travers Hospital: The Human Resource Department Secretary

Third option that the management can consider would be communicating directly to the employees themselves. This is to correct the distorted information provided by Miss Nancy to her colleagues due to her misunderstanding of management procedures, as explained by Maria.B.F in her guidelines for efficient communications, Communication is essential for the efficient coordination of the activities implying such connections; it is a process for the materialization of which it is necessary to build communication channels that may transmit ideas, knowledge and exigencies To communicate the issue well to the employees, the management must be well equipped and plan their script well before confronting the cold crowd. This is because; communication is one of the most difficult tasks of a manager. The source of most communication problems is the difference between the content of the message or its intended impact and the way the other organization members receive it (Maria.B.F) Anyhow option number three will only be a temporary and immediate solution to stop the resistance factor established by the employees to the change which they believe is happening in the hospital. The management will have to choose another option as well together to complete the solution for the problem. 5. Best Option After evaluating the issue and the solutions as mentioned above, the best optioned is to provide Miss Nancy with adequate training. This is to accommodate the factor that she is a senior staff at the hospital, provided of the family like environment at the organization Miss Nancy is an asset to the management.

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Case Study 2 Travers Hospital: The Human Resource Department Secretary

In spite the cost of training born by the management for her training, a well-trained senior staff would mean a good relation with the employees, a person with the know-how of the hospital and also efficient after the training. The management will be able to cover all scopes of the problem. Other than that, training Miss Nancy will also provide the management with direct link to the employees, scoring out the needs of a labour union involvement. Miss Nancy herself with the credibility and image projected will play the role of Industrial Relations personnel. The implementation of this solution may take from 2-3 months as the training may take time for Miss Nancy to adapt to the new environment of her new position. This also means it will take more time for the management to settle the mess created by the distorted information among the employees. 6. Recommendation Future recommendations to the management would be to choose well trained and person who has the know-how in the positions the management intend them to fill. This would save the management time from training time and cost. Apart from that the management can also consider taking in staff with multiple abilities to enable job enlargement to be practiced in the hospital. 7. Conclusion From this case, as mentioned by Mr.Lyon to Mr.Herbert, the information was distorted by Nancy not by purpose but because of her misunderstanding of the meeting room situation also the management side of view. It emphasizes the importance of having the right person at the right position also shows the importance of recruitment, even to give promotions the management

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Case Study 2 Travers Hospital: The Human Resource Department Secretary

needs to train and equip the employee with the necessary skills and abilities to be able to play the role.

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