Question

Discuss how you would describe the role of organizational development (OD) in a professional health care environment? What skills are necessary for the OD practitioner in a health care environment? How are these skills similar or different from other professions

Answer 1

• Organizational development (OD) is the aggregate of an organization’s knowledge, strategy and practices, and the use of those to foster members’ behaviors and results. The result is effective change.
• An organization is a system, comprised of individual parts working alone and in concert with others. Rarely can there be a failure or success of one part without a corresponding effect on others and/or the whole system.
• Further, when these “parts” happen to be people, they are inevitably influenced by how the organization lives and behaves: the organization’s structure, personality, practices and processes influence worker behavior, motivation, adaptability, engagement and development.
• For OD to happen in healthcare it is first necessary to establish the identity of the health organization, what it stands for, and what it means to accomplish. Whether in a global company or a small concierge practice, identity matters. Further, if that identity can be developed and groomed collaboratively by multidisciplinary and multi-level colleagues, then the identity will be, among others things, more true, more inspirational, and more engaging.
• Many critical skills that healthcare staffers need today are behavioral, such as teamwork, communication, flexibility, and critical thinking. While organizations must hire people with these inherent behavioral competencies, they also need professional development programs in place to build out these skill sets. Healthcare organizations that are able to successfully adapt to the new paradigm are training staff on population health management, the importance of patient handoffs, discharges, and follow-ups etc.
• In health care OD practioners need people's skills to be able to effectively communicate health policies and designs as well as faciliate trust and improve performance.
• Establishing a positive environment helps an OD practitioner achieve a more effective organizational atmosphere.
• OD practioners need to have knowledge about the diagnosis,evaluation policies as well various health care strategies in order to improve the performance of the organization.This knowledge can also help them to train new people in health care management.