Midterm Case Study: Motivating Employees

Imagine that you have been appointed the Director of Health at the Kaluyu Memorial Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya - a for-profit hospital. The facility is also a referral hospital and receives severe cases of accidents, chronicle / communicable diseases and houses an HIV / AIDS ward. As you settle into your position, you realize that the employees always act scared as they approach their superiors. Some of the employees even deliver files and leave your office in a hurry.

As you make your routine departmental visits, you realize that there are tensions between nurses and doctors, and there is a sentiment that the nurses tend to do the majority of the work within patient care but the doctors get all the credit. You realize that the employees are always looking forward to the end of their shifts to go home. Some employees even come back to work wearing the same unwashed clothes as the previous day. Too many employees are calling in sick, and many of them give weak reasons for their tardiness.

There is also a sense that employees and nurses dominate other employees in similar positions. In meetings and conference calls some employees are always quiet and never participate. You notice that people with families tend to gather and talk quietly on breaks. The new mothers working for the hospital have to use bathrooms to pump breast milk for their infants and the refrigerators do not work well. Looking at the financial statements of the hospital, you realize that the hospital expenses are higher than the industry standard, and it makes losses year after year.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

1. Investigate the major de-motivational factors at Kaluyu Memorial Hospital. Assess the level of impact that the identified factors could have on specific areas of service and business if the administration does not address the situation. Support your response with at least two (2) examples of the potential negative impact of the identified demotivational factors on the hospital.

2. Choose Maslow's, Herzberg's, or McClelland's model of motivation, and argue the primary reasons why it is applicable to the Kaluyu Memorial Hospital scenario.

3. Formulate a communication system that will have the greatest impact on improving the situation, and specify the major reasons why your system will influence the employee behaviors for the better. Justify your response.

4. Use four (4) recent (within the last five [5] years) quality academic resources in this assignment.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Propose methodologies that have been proven to increase value in health care delivery systems.
• Examine the impact of motivation on quality, safety, and legal risks associated with health care organizations.
• Assess how politics in a health care organization motivates and demotivates employees and recommend strategies to mitigate the challenges presented with each aspect.
• Create a communication strategy to address an ethical dilemma within a health care organization regarding the quality of service and cost.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in health care management.
• Write clearly and concisely about health care management using proper writing mechanics.