Organizational Culture

Case 2.1: Organizational Culture: Life or Death

Summary

According to our textbook, “Organizational culture is a pattern of assumptions and values that are invented, discovered, or developed to cope with organizational life.” Within the case study in chapter 2, many employees with the medical field, tend to work with other employees where there is repetitive activities, strategies and rituals appearing on the job. You have to really understand and know what you are doing when dealing with life or death situations. Many lives are at the hands of these doctors, nurses, administrators, etc. It is studied that for employees to have success in the workplace is how closely an individual’s work habits match the culture in which he or she is employed. In this case, success is based on the productivity and longevity. A research study was conducted on eleven top notch hospitals to see what the success of the hospitals were involving a life and death aspect. The rapid, efficient, and top quality treatment of heart attacks for survival. These eleven hospitals consistently delivered therapy to restore blood flow to heart attack patients in 90 minutes or less, so researchers wanted to study how staff at these hospitals, regularly delivered such speedy treatment that saved lives. The results the researchers found was that success was involved much more than skilled doctors and nurses. What set these hospitals apart was how well organized they were, how well the teams worked together, how the culture rewarded quality improvement and also how they dealt with setbacks. One senior author stated that, “All of these top hospitals shared eight common characteristics that drove their ability to deliver fast, effective treatment to patients with STEMI.” There is a supportive organizational climate shown through these eleven hospitals. All the support from senior management on down allows each doctor or nurse the ability to successfully perform their job.

What values...