Introduction
In recent years, organizational culture has been receiving increased attention from the business research community. According to Valmohammadi and Roshanzamir (2015), healthy organizational cultures contribute to increased innovation, responsibility, quality, and performance in personnel. At the same time, an organizational culture enables individuals to succeed on a personal level. Manojlovich and Katefian (2016) indicate that acting in line with a healthy organizational culture is a pathway to success. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the key components of culture in healthcare organizations and their contributions to career growth.
Communication
Communication is a primary skill among nurses and physicians. Being capable of listening, offering compassion, showing empathy, and staying calm under pressure is required at all times during routine communication with patients and fellow workers alike. Showing good communication skills helps avoid many misunderstandings and potential conflicts, contributing to a safer workplace culture (Manojlovich & Katefian, 2016). In addition, an individual with good communication skills may be considered a fitting candidate for a managerial position.
Flexibility
Flexibility is a broad term that constitutes a variety of personal qualities that enable a nurse to adapt to a myriad of situations without experiencing any signs of panic or stress. It is a key quality in individuals who are faced with difficult and unusual situations on a daily basis. Surgeons, emergency department workers, and healthcare managers are expected to be flexible in order to address numerous challenges awaiting them (Manojlovich & Katefian, 2016). Flexibility is another quality that helps improve workplace culture, as it removes many points of contention between individuals. An employee seeking to occupy the position of a chief nurse is expected to be flexible.
Integrity
Integrity is the cornerstone of any organization, as without integrity the employees cannot trust their employers to do their part, the employees cannot be sure that their subordinates are performing adequately, and the customers cannot trust either of them to get their money’s worth. Showing integrity in business and healthcare makes up for the perceived disadvantages with improved quality of care, customer trust, and a clean brand name (Valmohammadi & Roshanzamir, 2015). In order to get a promotion, it is recommended to show integrity in work and earn the trust of fellow workers and employers alike.
Ethical Behavior
Ethics constitutes a set of rules and frameworks to be implemented to determine a moral course of action (Shanks, 2016). They are important in healthcare due to the holistic and caring nature of the trade. The primary value in medicine is the patient and not the profitability of a particular course of action. Nurses face ethical challenges on a daily basis, as the organization needs to balance its limited time, resources, and personnel in service of the patients. Behaving ethically provides a framework for individual and group behavior in the context of organizational culture. It also makes getting along with individuals who share the ethical framework easier, making them perceive the person in question as a moral leader.
Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking skills constitute the ability to analyze the available information and evidence in order to produce an informed opinion about a practice or a situation (Valmohammadi & Roshanzamir, 2015). Nursing practice is evidence-based, which requires a constant re-evaluation of existing knowledge and the promotion of best possible solutions to healthcare issues. Without critical thinking, a nurse cannot function effectively. Senior nurses require superior skills in order to conduct research and promote novel evidence-based practices into the mainstream medical community. Thus, they are necessary not only for improving the organizational culture but also for reaching towards better career opportunities.
Conclusions
Organizational culture and personal success are interconnected. Communication, flexibility, integrity, ethical behavior, and critical thinking skills are necessary to ascend from the position of a regular nurse towards a role of influence and leadership. Specialists also require these skills in order to provide the highest quality of care to patients. A hospital’s workplace culture should be aimed at promoting these qualities in individuals in order to facilitate personal growth.
References
Manojlovich, M., & Ketefian, S. (2016). The effects of organizational culture on nursing professionalism: Implications for health resource planning. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 33(4), 15-34.
Shanks, N. H. (Ed.). (2016). Introduction to health care management. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Valmohammadi, C., & Roshanzamir, S. (2015). The guidelines of improvement: Relations among organizational culture, TQM and performance. International Journal of Production Economics, 164, 167-178.