53125 HRMandD in a Global Context
Introduction
Companies without a manager tend to operate in different ways that impact the organisational design and structure. It mainly impacts the division making of the company that further impacts the success rate within the market. In addition to this, the culture of this type of company also seems to be different from others.
In this assignment, Buurtzorg, a community nursing team in Holland will be analysed, as the company consists of no manager. Apart from analysing the background of the company, the structure alongside the design of the company will also be considered that further will help in evaluating the way the company functions within the market.
Besides both strength and weakness of the organisational design of Buurtzorg will also be analysed alongside analysing its organisational culture that impacts their success factors. Finally, the assignment will conclude with a critical analysis of Peter Day’s statement that has been made at the end of the podcast.
Background of the company
Buurtzorg is considered to be a pioneering organisation of healthcare that was founded 12 years back in Holland (Buurtzorg, 2021). At the start of the company, it had a team that consisted of four nurses. In the current scenario, it can be observed that the company has a total of 950 teams that further consist of 10,000 nurses.
The community nursing teams of the company seem to be assisting half or more than that of the Dutch home care (Buurtzorg, 2021). In addition to this, the company tends to support different types of changes in the social care and health providers that further influence the regulatory alongside insurance environment of the health home mental and maternity care.
In the current scenario, the company consists of 14,000 employees that tend to be supporting the demands all over the world (Buurtzorg, 2021). It mainly works with the notion of self-management of the employees and the companies without any particular manager. Other than that, the company has also expanded with the number of countries that includes Ireland alongside Britain. Hence, with the policy of no manager, the company has been operating successfully within the domain of the Netherlands and other countries.
Organisational structure and design and its comparison with the traditional and contemporary organisational structures
The organisational structure of this company mainly believes in teamwork and according to them proper teamwork is the key to success and increasing the value of the company within the community (BBC, 2017). It can also be effective in helping as many people as they can through their initiatives. As per Chen et al. (2017), proper teamwork often results in innovative and proper ideas that further promote the benefits of the people in the company in the long run.
The decisions of the companies, in general, are made by practice members or managers; however, in Buurtzorg, the decisions are solely made by the team members (Buurtzorg, 2021). In addition to this, they often share responsibilities among others based on the skills that are being possessed by them and the things the members are expert at. For instance, a member of the team is good at making decisions, and then she will be provided with the responsibility of making decisions and so on.
Figure 1: Traditional organisational design
(Source: Influenced by Stachová and Stacho, 2017)
The structure and design of the company deal with building a team within a particular area of choice. It proceeds with the building of proper relationships with the different hospitals within the area (BBC, 2017). The structure and design that are being adopted by Buurtzorg can be highly compared with the contemporary organisational design rather than traditional business structure or designs.
It is because, as per the thought of Stachová and Stacho (2017), traditional organisational design mainly consists of simple, functional and divisional design.
However, the simple organisational design of traditional structure mainly consists of the notion of low departmentalisation, little amount of work specialisation, centralised authority, high control and little following of rules and regulations. Besides, functional organisational structure mainly consists of group-based structure depending on the skills and knowledge that are being possessed by the employees. Each of the departments within the organisational structure is characterised by roles and responsibilities based on the capabilities.
Additionally, divisional organisational structure, on the other hand, is highly characterised by different divisions with all the required resources to function. As per Loonam et al. (2018), different divisions of the company including different departments consist of necessary humans alongside physical resources that help to comply with the organisational needs within the domain.
This also helps in satisfying the operations of the company further satisfying the customers within the domain. However, as opined by Wan et al. (2019), all the traditional structure of the company is controlled by a manager or the CEO of the company.
This includes a low amount of autonomy within the organisation as compared to the current company that is Buurtzorg. Henceforth, compared to the structure of Buurtzorg, the traditional organisational structure represents high control over the employees and creates a proper management structure that is bound to be followed by the employees.
On the other hand, as per Okanović et al. (2020), the contemporary structure of the organisation mainly consists of a matrix structure, team alongside network organisational design. Based on the contemporary organisational structures, network structure mainly represents fewer hierarchies, that is flat structure that is considered to be more flexible alongside more decentralised with less authority over the members within the domain.
However, the members within this structure seem to be controlling alongside managing the relationships of the employees within the domain. Besides, as illustrated from the thoughts of Vargas-Hernández (2021), matrix organisational structure depicts reporting of the employees to two managers within the domain rather than one manager.
This helps the company to perceive different perspectives and does not make the company dependable on one person. Lastly, the team organisational structure as followed by the current organisation that is Buurtzorg is mainly classified by the formation of different teams with no specific team leaders and managers.
This helps the company to be highly flexible in its operations and helps in creating high autonomy within the employers that further helps in creating a proper workplace environment. Hence, Buurtzorg is effective in complying with the operational instances and creates a high success rate.
Strength and weakness of the organisational design
The organisational design that is being followed by Buurtzorg seems to be having different strengths alongside weaknesses. As per the illustration of Yan et al. (2020), weakness within the operating design of a company can be highly effective in creating a negative impact on the success rate within the market. However, proper strength of the organisational design can also be effective in tackling the drawbacks and prevents the company from risks faced due to weaknesses.
The organisational structure of Buurtzorg deals with no manager policy. The structure of this organisation mainly believes in individuality and effort that further helps them in gaining recognition. The recognition of these types of companies mainly deals with the expertise of the employees working within the domain (BBC, 2017).
It indicates the fact that the people having more ideas, skills, knowledge and expertise in this type of companies are highly recognised and valued. The structure of this organisation has been designed in such a way that it provides equality to all the employees within the domain based on the knowledge and skills possessed by them. In this respect, the people working within Buurtzorg, do not work for promotion as there is no such thing within the company (BBC, 2017). The people in the company mainly work for recognition and increasing the value of helping people around.
However, the team-based organisational structure that is being followed by Buurtzorg consists of different strengths and weaknesses. As per the mentions of Dagdag (2020), the organisational having a team-based organisational structure tends to be highly flexible in its operations. In addition to this, the main strength of this type of workforce deals with empowerment or autonomy within the employees.
It is because the high amount of empowerment or the autonomy that is being provided to the nurses within the domain of Buurtzorg seems to be creating a proper workforce (BBC, 2017). It helps in meeting the goals of the company besides satisfying the customers within the domain.
According to Stewart et al. (2017), the strength of a team-based organisational structure also lies in proper communication among the team members without any conflicts due to equality among them. In addition to this, team members often possessed the high capability of solving any problem. Hence it is also considered to be a strength in this respect.
On the other hand, this organisational structure also possessed some weakness. As opined by Huang et al. (2017), these team members often possessed conflicts with each other due to low management instances. Besides, in some of the situations, it can also be seen that certain team members are not performing well due to low guidance.
As a result of this, the performance of the team as a whole gets affected. It further impacts the operational value of the company. Other than that, as depicted by Meissen and Carpenter (2020), often teamwork hides the members least deserving within the team. This seems to be not an issue where a manager controls and manages all the instances within a team. It is because, through the measurement of performance, the employees that seem to be performing less can be pointed out.
This cannot be identified in a team-based organisational structure as every member within the team has equal rights. Hence, these weaknesses can be effective in hampering the performance value of the organisation.
Critical analysis of the organisational culture and its impact on organisational success
Teams within the company are observed to be supported by the regional coaches. As the company tends to form a team within a particular area, therefore, they need to be highly aware of the cultural instances of that area. As a result of this, high support of the regional coaches alongside a proper IT system helps the nurses to design the work and comply with the cultural needs of that particular area alongside creating high satisfaction among the patients.
Besides, the working style of the company is also characterised by huge autonomy. As per the illustration of Holck (2018), the implementation of autonomy within the working style of a company tends to make itself governing that further helps in other regulatory and decision-making instances within the domain. The culture of self-governance seems to be empowering the nurses within Buurtzorg that further helps in improving the performance level. It also increases the reach of the organisation in helping more people within the desired area.
The cultural value that is being followed by Buurtzorg helps in creating a high value of independence within the domain (BBC, 2017).
As per Neis et al. (2017), a high value of independence within the workplace tends to create high freedom. It also implies low pressure on the employees to follow certain procedures. As a result of this, employees within the domain seem to be performing based on their value that further creates different and creative ways of working. On the other hand, as argued by Gast et al. (2017), it also helps in generating a different perspective that contributes high efficiency to the decision-making process within the domain.
As a result of this, the company can be innovative in its prospect that further can be effective in satisfying the customers and increasing the performance value within the domain. Hence, this culture is effective in gaining organisational success.
Other than that, the organisational culture of the current company also deals with helping others at the time of need through overtime and dividing responsibility in terms of high workload.
However, the team of Buurtzorg do not have any team leader and the jobs that are performed within the company are day to day jobs and are completed within a day no matter how much time it takes. Henceforth, providing high autonomy to the nurses helps increase their motivation value, which further results in proper performance. It is because, as per Maslow Hierarchy of needs theory, motivation is one of the main criteria of proper performance that is gained from high satisfaction levels (Ștefan et al. 2020).
High autonomy provides high satisfaction to the nurses within the current company and hence they perform better. This culture of the company is also effective in mitigating different issues that seem to arise during its daily operations. As per Bolander and Clements (2021), proper mitigation of the issues or risks within the operational domain seems to be effective in executing the current operations and ensures its success rate.
Besides, having the culture of a self-managing team, the company also seems to possess the culture of supporting the team with the back office. It implies assistance to different issues or other instances at the time of needs. It also helps in provoking the required resources that can ensure the success of the targeted operations. Henceforth, it can be stated that the current culture implemented by the company is effective in ensuring organisational success. It is also effective in creating and maintaining a proper workforce.
Critical analysis of Peter Day’s statement
At the end of the podcast, Peter Day highlighted a statement mentioning “most of us are probably imprinted with the idea of hierarchies and departments, and being told what to do, and without them, many of us may well get lost” (BBC, 2017). Through this statement, Peter Day tried to highlight the nature of the thinking process of the employees.
As per the illustration of Annosi et al. (2020), employees within a domain seem to be developing a habit of following the leaders. They even work on the steps that were revealed by the leaders. On the other hand, as argued by Wagner et al. (2017), in many companies, it is considered to be a norm that includes following the instructions of the leaders strictly as they tend to be having a strong knowledge regarding the needs and scope of the company. Nonetheless, in certain cases, employees within an organisation are not allowed to work on their own.
However, as Ridgely et al. (2019) depicted, employees within an organisation are bound to be following the instruction of the hierarchies.
This is reflected in the statement stated by Peter Day, as the employees are pre perceived with the notion of following the instruction of the hierarchies strictly; therefore, they are bound by it. This also indicates the spoon-feeding nature of the companies that restricts the employees from working on their path. As a result of this, the employees within the organisation tend to develop a nature of following what is being told to them and thus they are imprinted with the idea of hierarchy.
Besides, as argued by Gibbs et al. (2017), the culture of some companies that indicates following the leaders blindly often destroys or hampers the inner skills of the employees. This indicates the belief that the employees within the domain are simply an instrument that is used for managing organisational performance and success.
In addition to this, this statement also reflects the notion of proper management of the employees to gain the proper efficiency within the domain. Henceforth, treating the employees as a part of the organisation and not as an instrument for managing can be effective in developing a new notion of business.
As a result of this the skills that are being processed within an employee and not being polished while working in a company further results in low awareness of the employees regarding any official matter. The aspects of low development of employees’ skill further result in improper performance within a domain. As opined by Swanson et al. (2019), improper performance within an organisation due to low development of skills further results in firing the employees as it impacts the success rate of the company.
Hence, through the statement, Peter Day tried to reflect the fact that spoon-feeding the employees and not letting them work as per their ideas often destroys the skills that are being possessed by the employees within a domain. These impacts the performance rate of the company. It further impacts the performance rate and the success factor of the co company in the market. Henceforth, companies not having a manager tend to train the employees in the best possible way that also polished the skills of the employees and develops new skills as per the requirement.
Conclusion
From the overall assignment, it can be concluded that an organisation having no manager tends to be creating a positive alongside the negative impact on the organisational success. In the current assignment, Buurtzorg is a community nursing company with no manager policy further impacting the success rate positively. The organisational structure of the company is highly characterised by a team-based organisational structure that includes 950 teams and over 1400 nurses within the domain.
This can be compared to the contemporary structure of an organisation to the traditional structure as it has no management of managers and there is a high autonomy of nurses within the company. However, the strength of this organisational structure indicates proper communication, high empowerment of the nurses’ further leading to high satisfaction and many others. Besides, there are also high chances of rising conflicts among the team members that can hamper the team value and is considered to be the weakness of this organisational structure.
Other than that, the culture of the company in terms of high autonomy, and helping each other further supporting the nurses or the team of nurses with a back-office also ensures the proper success of the organisation in the long run. However, at the end of the podcast, the statement made by Peter Day in terms of imprinted by the ideas of hierarchies reflected the current scenario and the notion that most of the companies work with. Henceforth, treating employees as an equal part within the organisation rather than an instrument contributing to organisational success may be effective in bringing new notions and contributing to increasing organisational efficiencies.
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