Organizations Power and Empowerment

Collective bargaining is the negotiation process that is done by an employee representative and an employer when specific issues especially those that infringe on the worker’s rights arise. The negotiations often relate to problems regarding issues like working conditions, employee safety, layoffs, training employees and wages (Katz,2010). Shared governance can be viewed as collaboration in activities such as scheduling or educating new staff. It is working in unison to make decisions that directly influence nursing practices and patient care. By using shared governance structure, the outcomes are confident in that the collaboration improves the nursing practice and works with the other disciplines for the good of the patient. Negotiating issues or conditions of employment is critical in an organization set up is very crucial. The employees rely on a union representative to air their views during the bargaining process. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was established in 1935 and has set some standards for U.S labor laws, which guarantee employees specific fundamental rights like engaging in bargaining negotiations and organizing into trade unions (Katz,2010). The act requires elected officials of a union to meet with the employer to discuss conditions. The collective bargaining process has five core phases which are preparation, discussion, proposal, bargaining, and a final agreement. It is during the preparation phase that a negotiation team and representatives of both the union and employer are chosen. The two parties should be equipped with skills in negotiation and labor laws. The two parties then examine information to determine whether they have a strong standing for negotiation. The two parties then meet and set ground rules for the collective bargaining process. In the proposal stage, both representatives make opening statements, trying to come up with solutions by outlining possible options to the issues at hand. After this process is the bargaining stage where the two parties discuss potential compromises to come up with an agreement that is acceptable to both sides. It then becomes a “draft” agreement which is a stepping stone to reaching a collective bargaining agreement that is legally binding(Katz,2010). The final stage is the definitive agreement during which the agreement is put in writing, signed by both parties and put into effect. Shared governance has been shown to elevate job satisfaction, autonomy, control of nursing practice, devotion to the organization, and empowerment (Burkoski,2013). The specifics of shared governance are different from one hospital to another, but usually, nurses and other members on a unit form a council group to assess the status quo and recommend changes that they feel are necessary. These changes can dramatically affect the quality of patient care (Burkoski,2013). Hospitals today are revitalizing the shared governance structure to enhance the nurses’ job satisfaction. However, this organizational model can also aid hospitals to earn Magnet status, an award for excellence in nursing granted by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.   Shared governance can be implemented by promoting control over practice among nurses. One noticeable benefit from this is increased the sense of empowerment. In a descriptive correlational study carried out in one hospital, the investigators reported a positive correlation between perceptions of shared governance and staff nurse perceptions of empowerment. Empowerment shows nurses that they can control their practice, which is consistent with the purpose of shared governance (Burkoski,2013). Empowered work environments usually have a shared governance structure enabling nursing and leadership collaboration along with a decentralized organization structure and participative management style. The shared governance structure also provides nurses with a deeper understanding of hospital policies which promotes organization involvement. In several studies shared governance implantation in addition to increasing employee satisfaction, reduces turnover which is a great benefit to the organization by fostering employee empowerment and involving them more in the organization. When implementing a shared governance model, it is essential to use measurement tools to analyze its effectiveness. It does not suffice to achieve a structure of shared governance without continually reevaluating its efficacy and looking for areas of improvement (Burkoski,2013). Shared governance should be applied in such a way that nurses feel a sense of accountability for their practice. While the benefits for shared governance for nurses are well known, the specific constituents of shared governance that create those benefits are blurry. Entities of shared governance can be defined as the organizational structures and processes through which shared governance and its implementation influence its effectiveness. It is therefore essential to determine the components of shared governance that contribute to better outcomes for nurses; and of these components, to identify the ones that are the most beneficial to nurses.  In conclusion, having an effective collective bargaining agreement in place and implementing governance structures like shared governance, there will be an increase in productivity among staff. This because by using shared governance structure, workers will feel involved in the day to day running of the organization and get to understand and love their work more as they feel that they are in control. An effective collective bargaining agreement will help workers have better working conditions, higher wages, and better benefits packages. The above will lead to overall employee satisfaction and therefore lead to better quality of work.

References

Burkoski, V., & Yoon, J. (2013). Continuous quality improvement: a shared governance model that maximizes agent-specific knowledge. Nurs Leadersh, 7-16. Katz, H. C. (2010). The decentralization of collective bargaining: a literature review and comparative analysis. ILR Review, 47(1), 3-22.