Work Environment Assessment

Work Environment Assessment

Workplace environmental assessment is an evaluation process of an organization’s health and civility in respect to Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory (Clark, 2019). This concept is an elementary exercise because the findings will stipulate areas required for adjustment to boost workplace civility. My organization barely exhibits a healthy work environment according to the healthy workplace inventory by Clark, as it gets 63/100 from workplace atmosphere assessment results (Clark, 2019). However, I am not completely astonished by the results as we discuss these concerns and problems every day. Even though the incidents were rare and isolated, they made a compelling case for change.

The scores for the remaining inventory questions ranged from 3 to 5. The final score was 63, which I believe is representative of my workplace. I believe that there is a better chance for the workplace to improve that the current position. The main problem is that there aren't any clear channels of communication. Top-down management is the most prevalent management style, in which those in positions of authority are responsible for providing information and instructions to other members in the organization. Lower-rank employees often do not express their grievances often because they fear the accompanying consequences (Heyden et al., 2017). The environment in which feedback is enhanced is not conducive. This is a great obstacle because I trust that everyone in a team has ideas, suggestions, and points of view that can be shared and improve work effectiveness.

Although team building events are held once per year, I believe there could be more. This conclusion was reached due to an event that occurred at work. The general sentiment in the place of work was that older nurses spoke to the newer nurses disrespectfully. The former frequently used derogatory language and publicly chastised the latter for legitimate errors. In my workplace, this level of rudeness had almost become standard. As a result, the newer employees were expected to endure through their first year of work, dubbed "boot camp." This was, however, not only incorrect but also a major source of demotivation and demoralization among the newer employees. During one such incident, an older nurse referred to a newer member of staff as a "moron" for failing to insert an IV into a patient correctly. The patient, who had overheard the degrading remark, demanded to speak with the hospital's administration.

Nonetheless, a personnel meeting was scheduled the next day. Nurses were required to write down their problems, which the management discussed openly. Nurses have been open and honest about their problems because the issues were written down anonymously. The meeting decided that any act of incivility would result in immediate suspension while the offender was investigated. In the long haul, the firm action taken appeared to be effective, as there were no further incidents of incivility reported. The meeting preceded a two-week workplace ethics training program for all staff, outlining the incivility’s harmful repercussions on the morale of the team and patient delivery.Therefore, the Clark Healthy Workplace Merchandise should be used in medical institutions to make the work environment pleasant so that patients get the best possible care from a dedicated team.

Results

The assessment results suggest that my workplace is hardly healthy and hardly civil. I strongly agree with the results as the organization faces high employee turnover and call-outs on any particular workday (Gemeda & Lee, 2020). Although the organization members I work with share a common goal, they often do not follow it. Respect was inadequate, and collaboration and trustworthiness were missing. When interacting with employees, the leadership is polite, direct, and open; the challenge was communication between senior and millennial nurses. The company recognizes and considers its employees to be valuable assets. However, morale, engagement, and contentment among employees are not as high as they should be.

Furthermore, while the organizational culture was examined, it was not done regularly at first, and no steps were taken to enhance the assessment findings. Organization members participate actively in policy formulation, modification, review, and collaborative decision-making. The organization provides adequate resources for development professionally. The management treats the employee with dignity and fairness. The task is also adequately distributed and doable; however, it may be excessive. Conflicts and disputes were not handled amicably until after the occurrence detailed in the previous piece. At first, employees were not given a voice, but the organization encouraged the open expression of opinions and various perspectives. The pay, benefits, and bonuses are all competitive. There are also a good number of prospects for professional improvement and advancement. The company makes an effort to recruit and retain the top employees. However, due to the incivility that lasted before the managers' resolve, the majority of the nursing professionals would not advocate the organization to family members and friends as a fantastic place to work.

Surprising things about the results

I first saw that while management treats employees fairly and politely, the nursing staff does not demonstrate respect for one another. The second point is that, although the organization's culture is seldom examined, the evaluation results were insufficient to enhance it. Finally, I had assumed that management was concerned about the well-being of the employees. Still, as evidenced by the findings, the one component of the environment's psychological safety that management appeared unconcerned with was the emotional security of the workers (Edmondson, 2018). So, although all of the other concerns, such as career growth, were looked at, psychological safety was not, and belligerence was able to establish root in the business. Therefore, workplace Environment Assessment is the topic of this assignment.

Suggestions of the assessment results regarding my workplace's health and civility

On a scale of 100, I can rank the organization's test score to 63. This indicates that the company where I work is relatively in a good place. The management strives to provide the tools and resources necessary to guarantee that care delivery is not jeopardized. As a result, corporate decisions are made rather than ones made by individual employees. As a result, management becomes unconcerned with the psychosocial requirements of employees who are subjected to workplace incivility. As seen in the situation detailed in the initial study, this alienation is harmful to patient care (where a client witnessed two healthcare professionals verbally insult each other).

Review of the Literature

Theories Presented

I looked at Mao et al. (2019), who studied workplace incivility and how it affects the performance and behavior of the employees. According to the authors, employee behavior reactions to workplace incivility are controlled within the social environment, which applies the transactional theory of stress. The researchers noticed a three-way cross-level relationship. These were the differences between individual incivility, group incivility variation, and silence, all associated with supervisor-rated detrimental behaviors, morality, and job performance. According to the findings, when employees are confronted with individual incivility, their civic conduct and productivity are likely to suffer. On the other hand, when a group was confronted with belligerence, it increased counter-productivity, and group members decided to remain silent when incivility was intense. This means that the setting in which a workgroup operates influences how employees evaluate and respond to workplace incivility.

The transactional theory of stress would almost certainly produce similar results in my workplace as it did in this study. Individual employees are less productive and less inclined to engage in citizenship activity when exposed to incivility. When harassed by senior employees, Millennials as a class decided to remain silent, resulting in workplace inefficiency. 

Application of the theory in improving organizational Health

This methodology may be utilized at my workplace to pinpoint certain external pressures and, as a result, develop remedies. Singh et al. (2016) recommends starting a mentorship initiative in the health system, a buddy system in which each Millennial nurse is linked with a senior nurse. Each partner would have to educate each other in their respective areas of weakness. Each partner will learn experience and competencies in their identified shortcomings as a result of this method. In addition, a mentoring program will aid in the development of collaboration among buddies and, as a result, throughout the whole workforce.

Evidence-Based Approaches to Develop High-Performance Interprofessional

Recommendation of strategies to address the shortcomings

Team building is one of the tactics that may be adopted and has been proven effective in the aftermath of the occurrence. Clarke et al. (2015) suggest that team-building exercises should be done more regularly and inside since establishing collaboration is an effective means. For example, executives can organize monthly in-house team-building events at the individual department's unit level and recognize the top-performing teams. When people are inspired to work together and are rewarded for it, participation rises, individual problem-solving abilities improve, and team members form healthy bonds.

The second option is to provide regular training for staff that is tailored to their specific requirements (Swarbrick et al., 2016). Human resource is required to develop a needs-based sheet whereby employees are expected to include their job parts believed to be difficult to fulfill. This will promote a self-improvement mentality and would go a long way toward assisting both Millennials and elder personnel in collaborating harmoniously.

Recommended strategies to bolster successful practices

Open communication between management and employees is one of the most successful strategies in my workplace. The issue was a lack of communication among the employees. Employees must be empowered to talk without fear of penalties if there is any future incivility. The administration should consider developing a confidential reporting mechanism via which a harassed nurse may securely report the incident. The offending staff will then be interrogated once a thorough investigation is completed (Barlow, 2021).

Another cogency is that the organization's management participates actively in policy formulation, modification, and evaluation. According to Jones et al. (2021), this might be addressed by including worker input in policymaking. When management intends to create or update policies, the employees impacted by the policies should be included. 

References

Barlow, M. E. (2021). Understanding Successful Strategies Human Service First-Level Managers Utilize when Addressing Workplace Incivility (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).

Clark, C. M. (2019). Combining cognitive rehearsal, simulation, and evidence-based scripting to address incivility. Nurse Educator, 44(2), 64-68. 10.1097/NNE.0000000000000563

Clark, C. M. (2019). Fostering a culture of civility and respect in nursing. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 10(1), 44-52. Clark, C. M. (2019). Fostering a culture of civility and respect in nursing. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 10(1), 44-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(19)30082-1

Clarke, S., Taylor, G., Lancaster, J., & Remington, B. (2015). Acceptance and commitment therapy-based self-management versus psychoeducation training for staff caring for clients with a personality disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of personality disorders, 29(2), 163-176.

Edmondson, A. C. (2018). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. John Wiley & Sons.

Gemeda, H. K., & Lee, J. (2020). Leadership styles, work engagement and outcomes among information and communications technology professionals: A cross-national study. Heliyon, 6(4), e03699. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03699

Gemeda, H. K., & Lee, J. (2020). Leadership styles, work engagement and outcomes among information and communications technology professionals: A cross-national study. Heliyon, 6(4), e03699.

Heyden, M. L., Fourné, S. P., Koene, B. A., Werkman, R., & Ansari, S. (2017). Rethinking 'top-down’ and 'bottom-up’ roles of top and middle managers in organizational change: Implications for employee support. Journal of management studies, 54(7), 961-985.

Jones, A., Blake, J., Adams, M., Kelly, D., Mannion, R., & Maben, J. (2021). Interventions promoting employee "speaking-up" within healthcare workplaces: A systematic narrative review of the international literature. Health policy, 125(3), 375-384.

Mao, C., Chang, C. H., Johnson, R. E., & Sun, J. (2019). Incivility and employee performance, citizenship, and counterproductive behaviors: Implications of the social context. Journal of occupational health psychology, 24(2), 213.

Singh, S., Goel, P., Mathur, K., Sharma, N., Bothra, V., & Mairembam, D. S. (2016). THE ON-SITE NURSE MENTORING PROGRAMME: A NEEDS-BASED NURSING INNOVATION IN BIHAR, INDIA.

Swarbrick, M., Tunner, T. P., Miller, D. W., Werner, P., & Tiegreen, W. W. (2016). Promoting health and wellness through peer-delivered services: Three innovative state examples. Psychiatric rehabilitation journal, 39(3), 204.