Defining a Work Setting Situation

Hospitals are expected to function with a lot of effectiveness and efficiency, resulting in the improved health and wellbeing of the people. However, the efficacy of any health organization is influenced by a number of factors, including organizational culture and leadership style. Besides, the success of a health organization is influenced by its ability to identify the problem and develop an appropriate solution, as well as the successful execution of the change process. Thus, it is important to evaluate the organization, especially based on organizational culture and leadership style and find an effective solution to the problem is facing. 

The Work Situation 

I was lucky to work in one of the largest and the most effective hospitals where I held the position of a supervisor. The hospital had a bed capacity of 220 patients and a number of employees who were accommodated and worked in a 5-storey building. The hospital believed in the provision of high-quality health care services to patients, which was possible through a collaborative approach. Employees in the hospitals were encouraged to collaborate and work together to achieve the set goals and objectives while addressing the specific needs of the patients. Consequently, I was able to develop a friendship with all nurses in the hospital due to a close and beneficial relationship among staff. Nonetheless, the hospital was characterized by many conflicts among employees, even though it never experienced major disputes between workers. 

Evaluation of the Culture of the Organization 

Organizational culture plays an essential role in the success of any organization, including health care facilities. Organizational culture does not only help in defining the internal and external identity of an entity, but it also enhances the company's values, leading to success. The four main types of culture of an organization include clan or collaborative, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy. Based on the analysis of the organization I work for, I can conclude that I practices and embraced clan culture. The clan culture is mainly based on collaboration and employees are encouraged to act as if they are members of a bigger family ( Morley & Cashell, 2017) . Some of the main attributes of the clan culture include teamwork, open communication, and frequent building of consents in the case of a controversial or conflicting issue in the workplace. In addition, unlike hierarchical culture, collaborative culture emphasizes the need for flexibility, especially in the decision-making process ( Tharp, 2009) . Collaboration and teamwork were highly valued in the organization, even though the management also appreciate individual work or contribution. 

Open communication was one of the factors that made it possible for the organization to maintain the clan culture ( Tharp, 2009) . Employees were encouraged to openly and frankly communicate with one another in all the activities they were doing. As a result, there was a high level of trust in the workplace while employees were willing and ready to work with each other. Open communication is essential in the clan culture. Besides, the organization was characterized by the clan culture because of the sharing of ideas and prompt feedback. The top management of the organization and employees believed in the importance of timely and accurate feedback. Consequently, employees across professional fields were able to work together as a team to offer various services to patients who were suffering from various diseases. Thus, the organization relied on the multidisciplinary approach to provide services to its clients due to its collaborative culture. 

Evaluating the Leadership Style 

Like organizational culture, leadership plays a critical role in the success of any organization ( Sfantou et al., 2017) . Leaders are free to use a leadership style of their choices so long as they can achieve the set goals and objectives within the required time. I prefer a democratic leadership style, which I used to accomplish my supervisory roles in the organization. A democratic leadership style that is also known as participative leadership approach is important because it ensures that all employees are involved in the decision-making process and it assists in keeping workers informed about essential information ( Dorgham & Al-Mahmoud, 2013) . As a participative leader, I used to coach and mentor my employees while involving in all the activities in the organization. 

Fortunately, based on the organizational culture, the organization also embraced a democratic leadership style. In order to encourage collaboration in the organization, employees should be given the freedom to make and share thoughts and ideas, which are only possible when an organization is embracing democratic leadership style ( Braithwaite et al., 2017) . Autonomous decision-making is essential in nursing practice. The centralized approach to decision-making, on the other hand, hinders the effectiveness of the nursing practice ( Acar & Acar, 2014) . At the same time, democratic leadership style helped the organization to enjoy high job satisfaction, leading to improved quality of care services ( Khan et al., 2016) . Some of the benefits of a democratic leadership style that was enjoyed by the organization include self-sufficiency, freedom of opinion, and effective integration of both insiders and outsiders ( Khan et al., 2016) . The organization needed a democratic leadership style to create a collaborative working environment. However, a democratic leadership style sometimes led to time wastage in the organization because the decision-making process involved many people and incorporated different ideas and perspectives ( Khan et al., 2016) . Nonetheless, the democratic leadership style was highly beneficial to the organization, especially concerning teamwork. 

Identification of the Problem 

Employees in the organization were involved in frequent minor conflicts. The problem of frequent conflicts in the organization was mainly based on its culture, which embraced collaboration and teamwork. One of the main disadvantages of the collaborative culture is personality is frequent personality clashes among employees, leading to interpersonal conflicts in the workplace ( Acarv & Acar, 2014) . People always have different personalities and employees who work in a team are likely to experience personality clashes. Personality clashes were the main cause of the conflict in the organization ( Overton & Lowry, 2013) . Besides, the multidisciplinary approach to offering services to clients misunderstanding of professional identities, as well as the blurring of roles and responsibilities, resulting in frequent conflicts in the organization. Personality clashes and professional misunderstandings can adversely affect services that are offered by any organization. Also, the organization was forced to spend a lot of time addressing various conflicts involving employees, which ended up affecting the quality of health care services. Frequent conflict is a problem that the organization should address. 

A Solution to the Problem 

The best solution to the problem is to encourage employees to embrace a culture of mutual respect and accepting the diversity of thoughts and personalities. Importantly, employees should be made to understand that they are not likely to agree with all ideas and processes. As a result, they should use mutual respect to build a beneficial consensus on controversial issues ( Steihaug et al., 2016) . Acceptance is the best strategy that can be used to reduce or eliminate personality conflicts or clashes. Specifically, employees should be trained on how to understand and accept personality differences to reduce defensive responses that care lead to conflicts in the workplace. Also, employees should undergo diversity training programs to be able to cope with their differences. Also, the culture of mutual respect can be developed in the organization by motivating employees to maintain professionalism in all the activities that they are involved in. 

Suggestion for Implementing the Best Solution 

Introducing a change in an organization is not an easy process because a lot of challenges and complexities characterizes it. Therefore, to successfully implement the best solution, the organization will first have to identify the core problem to determine areas that need to be improved. Secondly, the organization should involve all employees in the change process. Effective communication techniques should be used to ensure that employees understand and appreciate the need for change, which may not be complicated because the organization already encourages collaboration. According to van Marrewijk (2018), employee involvement in the change process reduces resistance significantly. 

Thus, the main strategic plan to successfully execute the best solution would involve training employees about the need for mutual respect and embracing diversity. The training process should be facilitated by employees who already know the challenges they are going through in the organization. However, external facilitators and trainers will also be improved in the training process to enhance the chances of success ( Lessard et al., 2015) . External trainers with an in-depth understanding of diversity issues should be part of the training. Training is essential because it helps in changing the behaviors and attitudes of employees. 

Conclusion 

Organizational culture and leadership play a critical role in the success of organizations. Organizations should use appropriate culture and leadership styles to enhance their success. However, any leadership style or culture has advantages and disadvantages that the organization should be aware of to reduce the risk of failure. Even though collaborative culture has many advantages, it can result in many conflicts in an organization, which may end up affecting the productivity of employees. Leaders and top managers should find effective ways or strategies for reducing the negative effects of organizational cultures. Importantly, employees should always be part of the solution or the change process. 

References 

Acar, A. Z., & Acar, P. (2014). Organizational culture types and their effects on organizational performance in Turkish hospitals. EMAJ: Emerging Markets Journal , 3 (3), 18-31. 

Braithwaite, J., Herkes, J., Ludlow, K., Testa, L., & Lamprell, G. (2017). Association between organizational and workplace cultures, and patient outcomes: A systematic review. BMJ Open , 7 (11), e017708. 

Dorgham, S. R., & Al-Mahmoud, S. A. (2013). Leadership styles and clinical decision-making autonomy among critical care nurses: A comparative study. IOSR Journal of Nursing and Health Science , 1 (4), 71-83. 

Khan, M. S., Khan, I., Qureshi, Q. A., Ismail, H. M., Rauf, H., Latif, A., & Tahir, M. (2015). The styles of leadership: A critical review. Public Policy and Administration Research , 5 (3), 87-92. 

Lessard, S., Bareil, C., Lalonde, L., Duhamel, F., Hudon, E., Goudreau, J., & Lévesque, L. (2015). External facilitators and interprofessional facilitation teams: a qualitative study of their roles in supporting practice change. Implementation Science , 11 (1). 

Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in health care. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences , 48 (2), 207-216. 

Overton, A. R., & Lowry, A. C. (2013). Conflict management: difficult conversations with difficult people. Clinics in colon and rectal surgery , 26 (04), 259-264. 

Sfantou, D., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017, October). Importance of leadership style towards the quality of care measures in healthcare settings: a systematic review. In Healthcare (Vol. 5, No. 4, p. 73). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. 

Steihaug, S., Johannessen, A. K., Ådnanes, M., Paulsen, B., & Mannion, R. (2016). Challenges in achieving collaboration in clinical practice: the case of Norwegian health care. International journal of integrated care , 16 (3). 

Tharp, B. M. (2009). Four organizational culture types . Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b0e2/fd342fcf402920e264f15070276b79be1e25.pdf 

van Marrewijk, A. (2018). Digging for change: Change and resistance in inter-organizational projects in the utilities sector. Project management journal , 49 (3), 34-45.