Discussion: Write an analysis of the culture of the organization that you selected. Explain how you think this particular culture contributes to or detracts from the organization's ability to meet goals. Explain how you, as a nurse leader-manager, could utilize your knowledge of this culture to facilitate quality improvement initiatives within this organization.

PROJECT: Section 1: Organizational Systems and Structures Evaluation

As you continue your evaluation of a health care organization, it is essential to pay attention to culture. Organizational culture provides the context in which all interactions and processes occur, and is therefore central to any effort to enact change.

To prepare:

· Continue to analyze your selected organization, as indicated (Section 1 of the Course Project).

· In addition, consider the ideas and information exchanged in this week's Discussion. Continue to analyze essential elements of organizational culture and evaluate the influence of culture on the ability to achieve goals within your selected organization.

To complete:

Write a 3- to 5-page paper in which you:

· Provide a description of the organization you selected

· Present your analysis of the organization with attention to:

o Its mission, vision, values

o Strategic plan, goals, and objectives

o Key operational processes and patterns

o Information technology use

o Organizational priorities and investments, as indicated by financial data

o The essential elements of the organization's culture

o The influence of culture on meeting organizational goals

As Edgar Schein points out in his seminal work Organizational Culture and Leadership, both the Egyptians and the Mayans built pyramids. It would be easy to make the assumption that the building of pyramids must have similar meaning. However, in some cultures, pyramids housed tombs, while in others, they were temples. Within each culture, the meaning of the pyramid was likely evident, but to an outsider's eye, incorrect assumptions could be made rather easily.

You began to analyze an organization's systems and structures as groundwork for promoting patient safety and health care quality. The culture of an organization is also critically important. Leader-managers must understand the nuances of an organization's culture to effectively address organizational issues.

You examine the influence of culture on the organization, and on efforts to promote positive systems-level change.

In addition, you continue your evaluation of a health care organization and identify a quality improvement issue to inform development of your Course Project.

Objectives

Students will:

· Analyze essential elements of organizational culture

· Evaluate the influence of organizational culture on achieving organizational goals

· Analyze strategies for aligning organizational culture with quality improvement initiatives

· Identify a quality improvement issue in a health care setting.

To prepare:

· Review the information in Learning Resources, including the first chapter in Pascale, Sternin, and Sternin book and the Bradley, Curry, Ramanadhan, Rowe, Nembhard, and Krumholz article.

· Reflect on health care quality problems or issues that warrant systems-level change. Consider the significance of each problem/issue. Identify one, in particular, that you would like to focus on for this Discussion. Note: You may use the quality improvement issue that you selected for your Course Project, if appropriate.

· With this problem or issue in mind:

o How would you apply the principles of positive deviance to address this problem/issue? What specific steps would you take to move from identification of the problem/issue through evaluation of outliers to implementation of a larger scale change to improve quality?

o What examples of positive deviance, if any, are you aware of related to this problem/issue? Conduct research as necessary to see if you can locate one or more instances of positive deviance.

Write a brief description of the health care quality problem or issue you selected and explain how it could be addressed using the principles of positive deviance.

PROJECT: Reminder: Section 2: Quality Improvement Issue: You will need to integrate Instructor feedback on your proposed quality improvement issue before proceeding with subsequent sections of the Course Project.