Using Mintzberg's Configuration Model To Review The ...

Using Mintzberg’s Configuration Model To Review The Development Of Home Treatment Teams In Shropshire.

Gemma Styles and Julia Jones

Critical organisational theory Critical organisational theory is concerned with how organisations function (Tsoukas, Knudsen 2003). The analysis of potential problems (Thompson, McHugh 2009).

The concerns There will be no coherence in the service offered across the four areas covered by the community dementia teams That a broad strategy passed down from the commissioners may result in the expectations not being met That increased complexity and hence input/hours with individual clients may adversely affect activity recording, this data is used by the commissioners to allocate funding resources

The professional organisation The professional organisation: professionalism is key and strategy requires individual or group learning

Professional teams are characterised by being led by highly trained professionals, who provide largely standardised work. These professionals can work independently, show loyalty to their profession and strategy tends to be that of an emergent kind, as group or individual learning is the preferred method of strategy formation.

The diversified organisation This is a large collection of individual professional teams bound together by shared administration, training and leadership teams. the majority of the people at the operating core would be described as health professionals

The political organisation The political organisation. An organisation that has to respond to conflicts, forces (political or business) and forms its strategy based in the power school (Mintzberg 2011a).The commissioning body can be described in this way.

The first concern That there will be no coherence in the service offered across the four areas covered by the community dementia teams. The differences are predominately pertaining to geography, commissioning and resources rather than ethos.

What is home treatment Medication management Positive risk taking Support with attending appointments Promoting social inclusion Arranging and completing parts of physical health checks Liaising with family members, other professionals and other agencies Relieving carer stress Education Signposting Flexible Working

How the team behaved used words such as ‘evolved’ and ‘intuition’ in order to describe the development of the service. This demonstrates that they have all developed an emergent strategy. The Teams are learning from themselves and other professionals around them by reading up on current evidence and benchmarking against other teams (Guven-Uslu 2005). Mintzberg describes professional teams as being more loyal to their profession than to the company

The second concern That a broad strategy passed down from the commissioners may result in expectations not being met. “Are we doing it right”

How the commissioners behaved a political organisation that provides broad overarching deliberate strategy that the expectation of emergent strategy is not communicated. However what could be seen as lack of guidance from commissioners could alternatively be described as professional respect. a Foundation NHS trust has the ability to decide on its own strategy (Davies 2012)

confidence The Teams display a lack of confidence in their own abilities to make strategic decisions All showed a sense of relief to learn others had developed similar services This indicates the issue of leadership

Leadership Mintzberg states that management and leadership should not be separate (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand et al. 2010 the Francis report recommends that leadership is taught at every level of the Trust from the operating core upwards (Francis 2013).

The third concern That increased complexity and hence input/hours with individual clients may adversely affect activity recording, this data is used by the commissioners to allocate funding resources Recording activity in terms of contacts with patients made by staff originates with the Department Of Health. The NHS as a whole records contact with one million patients every 36 hours in England alone (Davies 2012).

Outside the model Mintzberg collected data on what managers do with their time first in 1973 and later, in ‘managing’ (Mintzberg 2011a). He recorded that managers worked at an unrelenting pace and that time is spent doing a number of brief, varied activities in an environment where they are constantly interrupted. This description could also apply to the case load work of home treatment staff (Jarvis 2005).

Further learning How can The Trust develop a stronger corporate image so that the members of the different professional teams show loyalty to the Trust as well as to their own professional bodies? How can The Trust and the Commissioners communicate that emergent strategy is what they require and promote this as positive? How can Team management support staff and allow them to grow in confidence in the area of developing strategy and services?

More Details

gemmastyles73.blogspot.com

references • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

CLEMMER, J., 2010. Change Management is a Oxymoron. In: H. MINTZBERG, B. AHLSTRAND and J. LAMPEL, eds, Management? Its not what you think. Harlow: Prentice Hall, pp. 99. CRISP, N., 2011. 24:Hours to save the NHS. The chief executives Account of reform 2000-2006. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DAVIES, P., 2012. The NHS Handbook 2012/13. the essential guide to the new NHS. thirteenth edn. London: NHS Confederation. DRAGO, W., 1998. Mintzberg's 'pentagon' and organisation Positioning. Management Research News, 21(4/5), pp. 30-40. FRAHM, J. and BROWN, K., 2006. Developing communicative competencies for a learning organisation. Journal of management development., 25(3), pp. 201-212. FRANCIS, R., 2013. Report Of The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry:Exectutive Summary. London: The Stationary Office. GUVEN-USLU, P., 2005. Benchmarking in health services. Benchmarking, an international Journal, 12(4), pp. 293-309. HIGGS, M. and ROWLAND, D., 2005. All Changes Great and Small. Explaining Approaches to Change and its Leadership. Journal of Change Management, 5(2), pp. 121151. ILES, V., 1997. Really Managing Health Care. Buckingham: Open University Press. JARVIS, A., 2005. District Nurses perceptions of their workload ,time management and job satisfaction. a pilot study. final Report. Edinburg: Queens Nursing Institute Scotland. KURKE, L.B. and ALDRICH, H.E., 1983. Mintzberg was Right!: A Replication and Extension of the Nature of Managerial Work. Management Science, 29(8), pp. 975-984. MATHESON, C., 2009. Understanding the Policy Process: The Work of Henry Mintzberg. Public administration review, 69(6), pp. 1148-1161. MCDONALD, R., CHECKLAND, K. and HARRISON, S., 2009. The new GP contract in English primary health care: an ethnographic study. International Journal Of Public Sector Management, 22(1), pp. 21-34. MILLS, A., SIMMONS, T. and HELMS MILLS, J., 2010. Reading Organisational Theory. A critical approach to the study of organisational behaviour and Structure. third edn. Ontario: University of Toronto Press. MINTZBERG, H., 2011a. Managing. London: Prentice Hall. MINTZBERG, H., 2007. Tracking Startegies:toward a general Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. MINTZBERG, H., 1989. Mintzberg on Management. Inside our strange world of organisations. New York: The Free Press. MINTZBERG, H., 2012b. Managing The Myths of Health Care. World Hospitals and Health Services, 48(3), pp. 4-7. MINTZBERG, H., October, 2011c-last update, To fix health care ask the right questions. Available: www.hbr.org [third February, 2013]. MINTZBERG, H., AHLSTRAND, B. and LAMPEL, J., 2010. Management? Its not what you think. London: Prentice Hall. MINTZBERG, H., AHLSTRAND, B. and LAMPEL, J., 2009. Strategy Safari. Your Complete Guide Through The Wilds Of Strategic Management. second edn. Harlow: Prentice Hall. MOOR, K., 2011. Porter or Mintzberg, whose view of strategy is the most relevant today? www.forbes.com: . NEELEY. and BOURNE, 2000. Why Measurement Initiatives Fail. Measuring Business Excellence, 4(4), pp. 3-7. PERRI 6. and BELLAMY, C., 2012. Principles of Methodology. Research Design in Social Science. London: Sage. TEN HAVE, S., TEN HAVE, W. and STEVENS, F., 2003. Key Management Models. The management tools and practices that will improve your business. London: Prentice Hall. THOMPSON, P. and MCHUGH, D., 2009. Work Organisations. A critical Introduction. Fourth edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave. TRUST BUSINESS PLAN (ANON), 2010. Business Plan 2010-2011. Anon: Anon. TSOUKAS, H. and KNUDSEN, C., eds, 2003. The Oxford Handbook of Organisational Theory. Meta Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.