Workplace Environment Assessment Assignment
Workplace Environment Assessment Assignment
Civility in the workplace generally refers to how employees relate to each other and entails politeness, courtesy, consideration of others, and respect. Civil behaviors play a crucial role in building work relationships. Civility is associated with multiple benefits, including increased employee productivity, reduced absenteeism, improved morale, employee satisfaction and engagement, organizational success, and enhanced organizational reputation. On the other hand, incivility is associated with high staff turnover, low motivation, poor productivity, frequent absenteeism, a decline in an organization’s values and culture, and employee stress (Clark, 2015). The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the result of the Work Environment Assessment in our organization and review the literature on civility and evidence-based approaches for high-performance inter-professional teams.
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Part 1: Work Environment Assessment
Our organization scored 58/100 on the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, which indicates that the workplace environment is unhealthy. The elements with the lowest scores (2 points) were: The organizational culture is continuously assessed, and measures are implemented to improve it based on assessment results and Members of the organization being actively engaged in shared governance, joint decision-making, and policy development, review, and revision (Clark, 2015). Four elements had the highest scores (4 points): Transparent, direct, and respectful communication at all organization levels; Teamwork and collaboration are promoted and evident; Availability of a comprehensive mentoring program for all employees; Fair and respectful treatment of employees.
[elementor-template id="165244"]I was surprised that the organization scored neutral (3 points) in most of the elements, meaning that the organization has not taken any key interventions to improve the working environment for the employees. Besides, I was surprised to learn that our organization’s culture is not continuously assessed, and as a result, the leadership team hardly implements any interventions to improve the organization’s culture. Organizational culture comprises the values, expectations, and practices that guide and inform employees’ actions. Before conducting the assessment, I believed that a great organizational culture illustrates positive traits that result in improved employee performance. A dysfunctional organizational culture exposes qualities that can hold back even the most successful organizations. The workplace environment assessment confirmed this idea since I have established that the lack of efforts to improve the organizational culture has hindered attaining the best outcomes and staff productivity.
The workplace environment assessment results show that there is incivility in our workplace. The incivility can be attributed to the lack of shared vision, values, and team norms in the organization and limited trust between and among formal leadership and other members of the workplace. In addition, the incivility is contributed by the lack of a strong emphasis on staff wellness and self-care and the allocation of limited resources to promote employees’ professional growth and development (Clark, 2015). Employees in the organization do not completely feel they are perceived as assets and valued partners. This can be attributed to the limited celebration of individual and collective achievements of employees and the lack of equitable publicization. This has contributed to low staff satisfaction, engagement, and morale.
Part 2: Reviewing the Literature
Griffin & Clark (2014) presents the Oppression Theory that hypothesizes that nurses lack influence and control in their workplaces due to health care shifting into a physician-controlled hospital setting. Consequently, the theory proposes to link nurses to other oppressed groups as per their similar expected interrelationship behaviors related to how they treat each other. The term used to define the conflict and communication style within oppressed groups has time and again been employed to nurses. Oppressed group behavior negatively affects nurses in the workplace, and the deed of not speaking up (silencing) is one of the most commonly described oppressed group behaviors in nursing. Horizontal and lateral violence terminologies developed from Oppression theory (Griffin & Clark, 2014). They are often exhibited and defined as bullying-type behaviors that members of the oppressed group display toward each other because they are members of a powerless group.
The Oppression Theory relates to the Work Environment Assessment results since nurses in our organization appear to have less power and control. This can be evidenced by poor scores in the element of employees being actively engaged in shared governance, joint decision-making, and policy development, review, and revision (Griffin & Clark, 2014). Besides, the organization scored an average in encouraging employees to express their diverse and opposing ideas and perspectives freely. The fact that nurses are not involved in decision-making in the organization shows that they may have been silenced, and their opinions are not considered. The lack of frequent assessment of the organization’s culture may have hindered recognition that nurses could be an oppressed group in the workplace. As a result, the organization has developed a culture of incivility since no interventions have been implemented to improve this culture.
The organization can apply the Oppression theory highlighted in Griffin & Clark (2014) to improve organizational health and create stronger work teams by equilibrating the power gradient. The leaders and employees can create and maintain respectful, professional communication in the working environment, which contributes to strong inter-professional healthcare teams and better patient outcomes. Besides, the leadership team can involve employees in decision-making to make them feel that their opinions are important and that they are perceived as assets and valued partners in the organization. When employees are involved in decision-making, they gain a professional and personal share in the organization and its overall success (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020). The commitment contributes to increased productivity as the staff actively participate in various aspects of the organization individually and collectively and wish to see their efforts succeed.
Part 3: Evidence-Based Strategies to Create High-Performance Inter-professional Teams
Training on workplace civility entails educating employees on how to recognize uncivil behavior in the workplace and build, model, and implement a new standard of behavior. This promotes respect and dignity among employees. The organization can have comprehensive workplace civility training that entails engaging employees in discussions about respectful behavior at work, expounding the norms for acceptable workplace behavior, and building skills for positive interpersonal communication and conflict resolution (Clark et al., 2011). Furthermore, cognitive rehearsal can be applied in training employees to deal with incivility incidents in the workplace. Griffin & Clark (2014) discusses the use of cognitive rehearsal, where nurses can learn pre-rehearsed statements designed to deal with and stop bullying behaviors. Employing cognitive rehearsal to practice intervention strategies is highly effective in preparing employees to handle incivility in the workplace.
Creating a shared organizational vision requires that leaders establish a strong foundation and framework. Conducting joint meetings with employees can help to develop a shared vision and a culture of civility in our organization. During the meetings, leaders and employees can review the workplace culture and employees’ relationships and interactions with others to identify how to improve the organizational culture. This will be a crucial step toward creating effective interprofessional teams. Clark (2015) explains that healthy work environments require shared organizational vision, values, and team norms and the creation and maintenance of a high civility level at the individual, team, and organizational levels. In light of this, the leaders will be required to value the cultivation and sharing of new ideas and encourage teamwork in implementing the interventions.
The lack of a strong emphasis on staff wellness and self-care was identified as a shortcoming in the work environment assessment. This can be addressed by having employee wellness programs that seek to provide psychological support to the staff (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020). The wellness program can include workplace outreach, counseling services, and promotion of wellness activities. This can improve employees’ productivity, increase morale, recruitment, and retention, reduce absenteeism, and build camaraderie among employees resulting in high-performance teams.
The employees in our organization do not also completely feel they are perceived as assets and valued partners. This can be addressed by empowering employees with autonomy, decision-making, and motivation. Moloney et al. (2020) explain that increasing employees’ autonomy increases feelings of vitality and improves work satisfaction by enabling them to master their work in unique ways. Besides, it benefits the employee and organization because it fosters creativity, reduces turnover intention, and improves job satisfaction. Active participation in decision-making and organizational matters among employees helps them to create new skills, improves learning and vitality, and enables them to thrive at work (Moloney et al., 2020). Furthermore, the organization can motivate employees by providing continuous education and growth. This will motivate and enable them to experience an increase in energy and learning, which they will give back through work commitment and obligation.
Conclusion
Our organization has an unhealthy workplace environment, as evidenced by a score of 58/100 on the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory. There is also incivility due to the lack of an emphasis on staff wellness and self-care and employees feeling they are not perceived as assets and valued partners. The Oppression Theory asserts that nurses lack influence and control in their workplaces, which leads to silencing and incivility. Evidence-based approaches to creating high-performance inter-professional teams include workplace civility training and having joint meetings to develop a shared vision and a culture of civility.
References
Buljac-Samardzic, M., Doekhie, K. D., & van Wijngaarden, J. D. (2020). Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: a systematic review of the past decade. Human Resources for Health, 18(1), 1-42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-019-0411-3
Clark, C. M. (2015). Conversations to inspire and promote a more civil workplace. American Nurse Today, 10(11), 18–23.
Clark, C. M., Olender, L., Cardoni, C., & Kenski, D. (2011). Fostering civility in nursing education and practice: Nurse leader perspectives. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 41(7/8), 324-330. Doi: 10.1097/NNA.0b013e31822509c4
Griffin, M., & Clark, C. M. (2014). Revisiting cognitive rehearsal as an intervention against incivility and lateral violence in nursing: 10 years later. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 45(12), 535–542. http://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20141122-02
Moloney, W., Fieldes, J., & Jacobs, S. (2020). An Integrative Review of How Healthcare Organizations Can Support Hospital Nurses to Thrive at Work. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(23), 8757. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238757
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