Contingency Theory Assignment

Contingency Theory Assignment
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Contingency Theory Assignment

Contingency Theory Assignment

Contingency Theory Contingency theory posits that organizational performance can be enhanced by matching an organization’s structure to its environment. The environment is defined as the people, objects,

CHAPTER 2 • DESIGNING ORGANIZATIONS 15

and ideas outside the organization that influence the organization. The environment of a health care organization includes patients and potential patients; third-party payers, including the gov- ernment; regulators; competitors; and suppliers of physical facilities, personnel (such as schools of nursing and medicine), equipment, and pharmaceuticals.

Health care organizations are unique with respect to the kinds of products and services they offer. However, like all other organizations, health care organizations are shaped by external and internal forces. These forces stem from the economic and social environment, the technologies used in patient care, organizational size, and the abilities and limitations of the personnel involved in the delivery of health care, including nurses, physicians, technicians, administrators, and, of course, patients.

Given the variety of health care services and patients served today, it should come as no sur- prise that organizations differ with respect to the environments they face, the levels of training and skills of their caregivers, and the emotional and physical needs of patients. It is naive to think that the form of organization best for one type of patient in one type of environment is appropriate for another type of patient in a completely different environment. Think about the differences in the environment of a substance abuse treatment center compared to a women’s health clinic. Thus, the optimal form of the organization is contingent on the circumstances faced by that organization.Contingency Theory Assignment

Chaos Theory Chaos theory, which was inspired by the finding of quantum mechanics, challenges us to look at organizations and the nature of relationships and proposes that nature’s work does not follow a straight line. The elements of nature often move in a circular, ebbing fashion; a stream destined for the ocean, for example, never takes a straight path. In fact, very little in life operates as a straight line; people’s relationships to each other and to their work certainly do not. This notion challenges traditional thinking regarding the design of organizations. Organizations are living, self-organizing systems that are complex and self-adaptive.Contingency Theory Assignment

The life cycle of an organization is fully dependent on its adaptability and response to changes in its environment. The tendency is for the organization to grow. When it becomes a large entity, it tends to stabilize and develop more formal standards. From that point, however, the organization tends to lose its adaptability and responsiveness to its environment.Contingency Theory Assignment

Chaos theory suggests that the drive to create permanent organizational structures is doomed to fail. The set of rules that guided the industrial notions of organizational function and integrity must be discarded, and newer principles that ensure flexibility, fluidity, speed of adaptability, and cultural sensitivity must emerge. The role of leadership in these changing organizations is to build resilience in the midst of change and to maintain a balance between tension and order, which promotes creativity and prevents instability. This theory requires us to abandon our at- tachment to any particular model of design and to reflect instead on creative and flexible formats that can be quickly adjusted and changed as the organization’s realities shift.