Assignment: Organizational Theory and Structure in Action

In an environment of rapid change, it is important that health care administrators are prepared to plan for and assess organizational effectiveness. By applying theories of organizational design, administrators can help shape the structure and culture of an organization, and ultimately, influence its success. For this Assignment, examine the following scenario and consider the organizational structure of the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.

Scenario: You are a health care consultant with a thriving practice working with Boston-area hospitals. Your expertise is in organizational design and organizational behavior. One of your clients, Gary Gottlieb, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, has accepted your proposal to work with his organization on the opening of the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.

In your consulting experience, you have found that reviewing the history of organizational theory helps management teams creatively approach the challenges they face. In addition, it is important to be able to analyze management's contribution to organizational effectiveness and consider how strategy shapes organizational structure.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the provided scenario, as well as the "Brigham and Women's Hospital: Shapiro Cardiovascular Center" case study.

• Begin developing a presentation on organizational theory and structure for the senior executive team of the cardiovascular center.

The Assignment

In a 20- to 25-slide presentation, your team will address the following:

• Evaluate theories of organizational design.

o Describe at least three of the most important contributions to organizational theory.

o Explain how those contributions influence organizational structure and summarize the most relevant learnings for the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.

• Analyze unique aspects of Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization (BWPO) organizational structure and the design of the physical space.

• Analyze at least two ways management has been both effective and ineffective. Recommend at least three best practices that Brigham and Women's management can refer to when working on other projects.

• Using organizational theory as a framework, identify at least four challenges that the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center management team is faced with in aligning strategy and organizational culture. Include the potential impact on key stakeholders.

Note: The presentation should be 20-25 slides, not including the title and reference slides. Include presenter notes (no more than 1/2 page per slide) and use tables and/or diagrams where appropriate. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week's Learning Resources and at least three additional scholarly sources.