Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit Fall 2010
Organizational Behavior Case Assignment
Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit Fall 2010
1. What are the key issues that Barbara Norris faces at the GSU? Why are they important to the organization?
Barbara faces a bewildering array of obstacles to success in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital. Based on reputation alone, it was clear that her new unit had serious issues long before she took her position as Nurse Manager of its 33 member nursing staff. Having held an informal, off site meeting with her nurses, she has identified 9 of their chief complaints. These complaints can be mostly categorized under three of the most common stressors: incivility, work overload, and lack of task control.
Incivility is manifested in complaints of a lack of collaboration, contribution acknowledgement, and advocation on the staff’s behalf. Occasionally, staff interactions are punctuated with bursts of frustration and anger. Work overload is evident in that older nurses tend to overlook their responsibilities as mentor in favor of getting their own work done as fast as possible, resulting in feelings of stagnation and isolation among the younger staff members. Lack of task control is apparent in the belief that assignments are random and unearned, the perception of favoritism, the secretive performance review process, and the inescapable shift from traditional nursing duties to perceived excessive administrative responsibilities.
With her team having gone from the more beneficial form of stress known as eustress to outright and long-term distress, it is no longer capable of functioning at peak efficiency. Symptoms of this include job-dissatisfaction, angry and negative emotions, impatience with younger co-workers, and lowered organizational commitment resulting in excessive staff loss during a hiring freeze. Barbara must get a handle on this situation before GSU suffers from even lower levels of job
Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit Fall 2010
1. What are the key issues that Barbara Norris faces at the GSU? Why are they important to the organization?
Barbara faces a bewildering array of obstacles to success in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital. Based on reputation alone, it was clear that her new unit had serious issues long before she took her position as Nurse Manager of its 33 member nursing staff. Having held an informal, off site meeting with her nurses, she has identified 9 of their chief complaints. These complaints can be mostly categorized under three of the most common stressors: incivility, work overload, and lack of task control.
Incivility is manifested in complaints of a lack of collaboration, contribution acknowledgement, and advocation on the staff’s behalf. Occasionally, staff interactions are punctuated with bursts of frustration and anger. Work overload is evident in that older nurses tend to overlook their responsibilities as mentor in favor of getting their own work done as fast as possible, resulting in feelings of stagnation and isolation among the younger staff members. Lack of task control is apparent in the belief that assignments are random and unearned, the perception of favoritism, the secretive performance review process, and the inescapable shift from traditional nursing duties to perceived excessive administrative responsibilities.
With her team having gone from the more beneficial form of stress known as eustress to outright and long-term distress, it is no longer capable of functioning at peak efficiency. Symptoms of this include job-dissatisfaction, angry and negative emotions, impatience with younger co-workers, and lowered organizational commitment resulting in excessive staff loss during a hiring freeze. Barbara must get a handle on this situation before GSU suffers from even lower levels of job