I/O Psychology in Healthcare Organizations

I/O Psychology in Healthcare Organizations

Discussions are fundamental to shared learning, so please be sure to participate early and often! After you have completed the Reading, and without reviewing your classmates’ responses, post your initial response to the following Discussion. Your post should be at least 350 words in length and should extend the discussion of the group supported by your course materials and/or other appropriate resources. After you have submitted your initial post, take time to review your classmates’ responses and to respond specifically and substantially to at least two of them. Refer to the Discussion Rubric in your Syllabus for specific grading explanation. I/O Psychology in Healthcare Organizations According to your textbook, health care makes up approximately 15% of the U.S. economy. As such, in your career as an I/O Psychologist, you are likely to be called on to work in or consult with a healthcare organization at some point in time. Yet healthcare organizations differ from other organizations in various ways. To be effective in your work as an I/O Psychologist, you need to understand these differences that pertain to healthcare organizations. Below is a list of 14 features unique to healthcare organizations, taken from your textbook, Chapter 23, “Consulting with Healthcare Organizations.” This list of features is not exhaustive; other features may be mentioned in the Chapter, and you are free to consider any of those other features in this unit’s Discussion post. Physicians and other licensed healthcare providers value their autonomy and may not follow orders or rules No one can alter the healthcare recommendations of a licensed healthcare professional, whose license empowers only that individual to make healthcare recommendations for his/her patients Most licensed healthcare providers are loyal to their profession more than to their company There are many different subcultures within one healthcare organization, based on the different professional identities of the healthcare providers There are often different and conflicting goals within the healthcare system arising from the purposes of various organizations — provider groups, insurers, medical supply companies, etc. Healthcare organizations tend to be conflict-avoidant, preferring to maintain collegiality instead Formal authority does not accomplish results in healthcare organizations; informal influence among peers works better Healthcare organizations tend to be reactive and flourish on crisis Long-range planning is often not highly valued in healthcare organizations Meetings are often over-packed with action items, leaving little time for processing Decisions are made by consensus, and one person can often block a decision that could be good for the organization or its staff Healthcare organizations prefer to pilot test changes before broader implementation Healthcare organizations tend to be risk averse and conservative, adopting changes slowly Healthcare providers tend to be humanistic and client-centered, focusing on the health and well-being of patients rather than on bottom-lines or company rules Choose one or two of the above factors, or another factor mentioned in Chapter 23 but not listed here. Then choose one of the situations below, and explain how the 1–2 factor(s) you chose would affect how you, as a Consulting Psychologist in a healthcare organization, would address this situation(s) during your I/O work. You may need to refresh your memory about the various situations from previous Readings in this course. Situations: Assessing a candidate for an administrative leadership position Successfully implementing a new team Assessing individual-level variables in the organization Assessing organization-level variables Executive coaching with a licensed healthcare provider Executive coaching with an administrator in a healthcare organization who is not a licensed healthcare provider Training employees for emotional intelligence in the healthcare organization The ability to use a performance management method, such as Six Sigma, in a healthcare organization The choice of Servant Leadership as a leadership model in a healthcare organization