Claudia Steinke

Evaluating building performance in healthcare facilities: an organizational perspective.

Purpose: Using the environment as a strategic tool is one of the most cost-effective and enduring approaches for improving public health; however, it is one that requires multiple perspectives. The purpose of this article is to highlight an innovative methodology that has been developed for conducting comprehensive performance evaluations in public sector health facilities in Canada. Background: The building performance evaluation methodology described in this paper is a government initiative. The project team developed a comprehensive building evaluation process for all new capital health projects that would respond to the aforementioned need for stakeholders to be more accountable and to better integrate the larger organizational strategy of facilities. Theoretical Framework: The Balanced Scorecard, which is a multiparadigmatic, performance-based business framework, serves as the underlying theoretical framework for this initiative. It was applied in the development of the conceptual model entitled the Building Performance Evaluation Scorecard, which provides the following benefits: (1) It illustrates a process to link facilities more effectively to the overall mission and goals of an organization; (2) It is both a measurement and a management system that has the ability to link regional facilities to measures of success and larger business goals; (3) It provides a standardized methodology that ensures consistency in assessing building performance; and (4) It is more comprehensive than traditional building evaluations. Conclusion: The methodology presented in this paper is both a measurement and management system that integrates the principles of evidence-based design with the practices of pre- and post-occupancy evaluation. It promotes accountability and continues throughout the life cycle of a project. The advantage of applying this framework is that it engages health organizations in clarifying a vision and strategy for their facilities and helps translate those strategies into action and measurable performance outcomes.

Assessing the physical service setting: a look at emergency departments.

Objective: To determine the attributes of the physical setting that are important for developing a positive service climate within emergency departments and to validate a measure for assessing physical service design. Background: The design of the physical setting is an important and contributing factor for creating a service climate in organizations. Service climate is defined as employee perceptions of the practices, procedures, and behaviors that get rewarded, supported, and expected with regard to customer service and customer service quality. There has been research conducted which identifies antecedents within organization that promotes a positive service climate which in turn creates service-oriented behaviors by employees toward clients. The antecedent of the physical setting and its impact on perceptions of service climate has been less commonly explored. Methods: Using the concept of the physical service setting (which may be defined as aspects of the physical, built environment that facilitate the delivery of quality service), attributes of the physical setting and their relationship with service climate were explored by means of a quantitative paper survey distributed to emergency nurses (n = 180) throughout a province in Canada. Results: The results highlight the validity and reliability of six scales measuring the physical setting and its relation to service. Respondents gave low ratings to the physical setting of their departments, in addition to low ratings of service climate. Conclusions: Respondents feel that the design of the physical setting in the emergency departments where they work is not conducive to providing quality service to clients. Certain attributes of the physical setting were found to be significant in influencing perceptions of service climate, hence service quality, within the emergency department setting.

Organisational climate and human resources: exploring a new construct in a cross-national context

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study which identifies aspects of organisational climate that relate to human resource management. A novel data analysis technique was employed to analyse qualitative data from interviews with 50 human resource managers in Australia, Canada and Turkey. The results identify four organisational climate dimensions that focus on HR issues and work environments. Based on the suggestions of the competing values framework and also on the literature concerning studies of societal culture, we labelled these climate dimensions as: 1) collaboration; 2) competition; 3) control; and 4) family-orientation. These dimensions are seen to offer a path for future research on organisational climate and human resource management, and how employees perceptions of the HR policies, practices and procedures may influence the efficacy of the HR function. Implications for studying these phenomena across different societies are addressed.

Exploring aspects of workplace climates in Canada: implications for the human resources of health‐care

Recently, researchers on organizational climate have focused on the ‘issue-specific’ nature of climate, such as the climate for safety or service, or, in this case, the climate for human resources. This has resulted in a clearer connection between specific climates and relevant outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from an exploratory study that was conducted in Canada that served to help us understand the aspects of workplace climate with a focus on human resources (HR). In this study, interview data was collected from 14 HR managers from across western Canada, some of which were from healthcare organizations. The benefit of this research is to better understand the current climate within organisations and to develop a construct for HR climates that can be used to build capacity in the research, training, and practice of HR within health-care (and other industries) in Canada.

Organizational Change Strategies within Healthcare

This study explores ways in which healthcare organizations can improve their organizational fitness for change using Beer and Nohrias framework of Theory E (concentrating on the economic value of change) and Theory O (concentrating on the organizations long-term capabilities for change). Data were collected from senior leaders/medical directors from health regions in Alberta. The results show that even though there is a tendency for reliance on Theory E change strategies, the respondents demonstrated other preferred approaches to change.

High-Performance HR Practices in Healthcare in Canada

The purpose of the chapter is to present the empirical findings from a study that assessed “what works at work” across three different industries but with focus on healthcare. In this chapter, the authors describe the conditions under which particular HR practices translate into effective performance and the desired performance outcomes. This is important given the role of human resource (HR) practices and policies on performance measures and work outcomes established in the literature and the need for meaningful HR measures in healthcare organizations. Specifically, the study (i) examined the role of HR climate as an intervening variable, moderating the relationship between HR practices and HR outcomes in organizations, and (ii) examined the degree to which the links between HR practices, the climate in which they are introduced, and outcomes for organizations and employees can be universally identified or vary significantly between organizations.

Developing a measure for “connectorship” as a component of engaged leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a mixed methods study that explored how active community engaged and connected managers were in their local and broader communities (engaged leadership, EL). The paper specifically investigates an under researched aspect of EL – “connectorship” – with focus on developing a measure for connectorship. The authors present the conceptual framework for EL, followed by the operationalization of “connectorship” construct. Design/methodology/approach – The paper focusses on developing a measure for connectorship using data from a qualitative study of 18 senior managers followed by a survey of 458 managers in Canada. Findings – Content analyses of qualitative data led to the generation of 93 items measuring connectorship. Based on these items, quantitative analyses of survey data from 453 respondents yielded a final measure of connectorship, which consisted of 28 items explored under eight dimensions. Research limitations/implications – An organizati...

Designing for Well-Being: The Role of the Physical Work Environment

The physical work environment has a significant and often unrealised impact on the experience of work and on employee/personal well-being, which in turn has implications for organisations, including the recruitment and retention of staff. With staff absenteeism and turnover representing leading challenges among today’s healthcare organisations, this chapter argues that the design of the physical work environment needs to be considered in attempts to address some of the human resource issues in healthcare.