Management

How organisational cultures affect the achievement of organisational objectives: Cultural Profiles of National Health Service and Siemens AG

Organisational culture encompasses fundamental values, assumptions and beliefs that are held in common by members of an organization. Culture is an important variable that defines an organization and has significant implications on its ability to be effective and efficient. Culture can be a critical barrier to leveraging new knowledge and implementing technical innovation.

This paper will first provide an overview and analysis of the cultures of a healthcare organization - NHS Trust, Basildon Hospital in UK and Siemens AG Company in the context of a partnership that involves the installation of a new diagnostic imaging centre. The paper will then examine the cultural differences and the capability of the two organizations to be more effective, efficient and patient focused; as the introduction of new technology is likely to disrupt the present culture of the NHS Trust, Basildon Hospital by creating barriers to change efforts. Finally, the paper will judge the impact of inter-cultural cooperation on the Basildon Hospital project.

Cultural profile of the National Health Service

In examining the culture of an organization, one must consider both the concrete manifestations of culture and the more unconscious assumptions and values. The mission statements of the National Health Service could be viewed as the plan to create and drive a high performing organization. Basildon Hospital shares the cultural values of excellence, diversity & leadership. The hospital has a reputation in the community for delivering safe, quality and patient centred hospital care, directly and through partnerships. The UK based hospital has additional values of teamwork, learning & integrity (Young 2000, pp. 66- 81).

The health institute fosters a culture of learning and capacity building for leadership. Basildon Hospital has multiple in-house learning programmes for staff with no defined budget for education. Moreover, the management has introduced seven organizational development programs available to staff with a focus on leadership development.

Subcultures are important to analyze in the assessment of cultural profile of any organisation, including Basildon Hospital. Subcultures often emerge between different occupational or professional groups and vary by their power and influence in the organization as well as their receptiveness to change. It is understood that subcultures influence nurse and patient outcomes and that collaboration and teamwork within subcultures, lead to improved patient outcomes. Subcultures are more likely than the broader organization to adopt innovations and change procedures, and to have the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of an innovation and to ultimately be convinced of its merit (Strebel 1996, pp.86-92).

It is important to understand that a high performance culture is prevalent in the Basildon Hospital. High performance culture is defined as the true identification of the needs of key customers, its investors and employees. Some of the features which are implemented in Basildon Hospital are an effective communication development program and implementation of organisational practices, such as employee involvement programs which enables employee to mould their skills to the requirement of the problem (Schein 1996, ...