Importance And Challenges Of Communication In A Healthcare Setting
HCAD 701 – Spring 2020
Mid-Term Assignment
Below are your guidelines for your Mid-term assignment.
This assignment will require devoted inquiry, assimilation, reflection, and refinement in order to achieve
the highest possible score. This is only one of your two major grades and your quality of work needs to
reflect the importance of the assignment.
You will have the opportunity to choose from the following topics. HOWEVER, you ONLY PICK and
WRITE about ONE.
This paper will be your unique, scholarly contribution. With each option, I am just giving you a broad
topic. It is up to you to address the topic but support it with empirical facts, theory, and a persuasive
argument that is appropriate for a Master’s level program.
Remember that this paper is a THEORITICAL PAPER. This class is all about theory. If you FAIL TO
GROUND YOUR PAPER IN A THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK – you have not met the goals of this
paper. This paper is supposed to answer one of the questions below – THROUGH THE USE OF
THEORY. I cannot say this enough; it is not enough to address one of the options below. It has to be
substantiated through theory and peer-reviewed resources. Your opinions do not constitute a research
paper.
Option 1:
In Chapter 2, we explored topics of diversity and the challenges of diversity in the healthcare sector. In
this case, you have been asked to join the hospital’s task force for developing a plan to increase the
organization’s workforce diversity from its current 10 percent level to 30 percent over the next five years.
What recommendations would you make as a member of the task force?
Possible Deliverables for Option 1:
– Summarize the existing landscape as it relates to diversity in healthcare and in the US in general
– Explore why healthcare organizations may not be as diverse as they should be
– What is diversity today (i.e. sex, gender, race, ethnicity, education, culture)
– Find some theories to substantiate your work on improving diversity
– Explore some of the challenges and opportunities as it relates to diversity
– These are only ideas – that if I was writing the paper, I may try to address. I am just trying to
give you ideas.
Option 2:
In Chapter 3, we explored topics of attitudes and perceptions. More importantly, we discussed how
attitudes are formed and changed. We then explored through Attribution Theory how we may equate
certain qualities to individuals that may or may not be based in reality. There was recent research from
Harvard about “Exploring the Challenges Facing Women Leaders in Health Care,” that shared some
insights into the discrepancy of women in leadership roles in health care.
In this assignment, you are tasked with helping young women enter into leadership roles in your
healthcare setting. In this paper tell them what the environment looks like for women; what are some of
the biases surrounding female leaders, and using theoretical justification what strategies they can use to
overcome some of these barriers.
Possible Deliverables for Option 2:
HCAD 701 – Spring 2020
Mid-Term Assignment
– What does the healthcare environment look like for women?
– What are some of the bias or attitudes toward women leaders?
– What benefits do women bring to leadership roles?
– Identify strategies to increase women in leadership roles – using established theories
– Address the case inquiries in full, being absolutely certain to do so not as a layperson, but as a
healthcare organizational behavior expert, making sure to reference theory, findings in scholarly
articles, etc. to justify your positions. Merely providing personal opinions which are unsupported
is insufficient and will be grounds for failing this assignment. You must use the tools offered in
your readings, coupled with those acquired by additional research, to address the case
professionally.
Option 3:
Chapter 3, explores general concepts of organizational behavior, including the all-important area of
workplace communication. We all know that communications excellence is essential for productive
institutional operations, so it is fitting for this to serve as the focus of our practitioner application.
Specifically, you are to place yourself in the role of Administrator for a soon-to-be-established primary
care practice. Your CEO has asked you to lay the foundation for successful administrative operations.
Among other things, it has been requested that you direct attention to designing a workplace
communications framework which will facilitate for productive operations. As you are the administrative
expert, specific decisions are your responsibility. Your task is to design and describe in detail this
workplace communications framework.
Possible Deliverables for Option 3:
– Explore the importance and challenges of communication in a healthcare setting
– Describe the process of communication using a theoretical basis
– Find unique ways that communication could be improved (i.e. if you only write about memo’s
you will not do well on this paper)
– Explore barriers to communication and how you will address and overcome these issues
– Address the case inquiries in full, being absolutely certain to do so not as a layperson, but as a
healthcare organizational behavior expert, making sure to reference theory, findings in scholarly
articles, etc. to justify your positions. Merely providing personal opinions which are unsupported
is insufficient and will be grounds for failing this assignment. You must use the tools offered in
your readings, coupled with those acquired by additional research, to address the case
professionally.
Option 4:Chapter 4, we explored various theories of motivation (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Alderfer’s ERG
theory, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory, McClelland’s Three Needs Model), which is something that’s
important for you to understand as a healthcare executive. We also explored job design and employee
satisfaction. In this option, you are Chief Operating Officer of a local not-for profit hospital. The tension
in your facility is at an all-time high due to pressures to discharge patients early, lack of professional staff,
financial constraints, and an upcoming accreditation. With all this going on, you notice that one of your
super-star employees who has always been great is starting to slip. Over the past three months, you have
noticed that this employee is not as productive; is auguring with the treating physicians, and they are
audibly complaining that “no one listens to me” or “I don’t get paid enough to deal with this *&^%.”
HCAD 701 – Spring 2020
Mid-Term Assignment
This employee was once a highly motivated, productive member of your staff. The environment is more
stressful than it has ever been but what can be done to motivate this employee to their prior “self” Within
the principles of the content theories of Maslow, Herzberg, and Alderfer, develop a motivation plan.
Possible Deliverables for Option 4:
– Address the case inquiries in full, being absolutely certain to do so not as a layperson, but as a
healthcare organizational behavior expert, making sure to reference theory, findings in scholarly
articles, etc. to justify your positions. Merely providing personal opinions which are unsupported
is insufficient and will be grounds for failing this assignment. You must use the tools offered in
your readings, coupled with those acquired by additional research, to address the case
professionally.
Option 5:
Chapter 6, we discussed Expectancy Theory and how it can impact an individual’s level of motivation.
We also explored Equity Theory in conjunction with Satisfaction-Performance Theory. Lastly, GoalSetting Theory and Reinforcement Theory were introduced to show motivate and change behavior.
In this case, you are the administrator of a local hospital. You are trying to implement a new process in
the hospital and for the most part everyone has accepted the change EXCEPT for this small group of
doctors. This group of doctors don’t seem willing to understand the importance of your change. When
you have spoken with them, they often state that they will try harder to be compliant, but ultimately don’t
change their behavior. Frustrated by the lack of cooperation, you are exploring theories on motivation
and behavior change. Develop recommendations (based on a sound theoretical understanding) to
motivate these physicians to improve their compliance.
– Address the case inquiries in full, being absolutely certain to do so not as a layperson, but as a
healthcare organizational behavior expert, making sure to reference theory, findings in scholarly
articles, etc. to justify your positions. Merely providing personal opinions which are unsupported
is insufficient and will be grounds for failing this assignment. You must use the tools offered in
your readings, coupled with those acquired by additional research, to address the case
professionally.
Option 6:
Finally, Chapter 7. In this chapter we introduced attribution theory and attribution styles as it related to
motivating employees. In this case, you are hired into a department and one of your first assignments is
to conducted performance reviews. When you review your predecessor’s work – all employees had
relatively strong evaluations (so there were no low performers and no superstars). You have decided to
allocate the raises equally to among all your employees. These raises will probably be disappointingly
small. You are deciding to break the news to your staff in the least demotivational way possible and you
have the following options:
1) Explain to the staff that they deserve larger raises but based on the budget – this was the best
you could do
2) Explain to the staff that you could have gotten them larger raises is their performance levels
had been higher
3) Explain to the staff that they deserve larger raises but that their previous manager had failed
them by rating them all equally
HCAD 701 – Spring 2020
Mid-Term Assignment
4) Explain to the staff that these small raises are fair, given the equal performance raises
In this paper, you have to explain what attributions are being communicated in each of these explanations.
These explanations need to delve into whether they were internal or external, stable or unstable, ect.
From a motivational standpoint, you have to explain the pros and cons of each of these explanations.
Finally, you have to justify which response or combination of responses would be the least
demotivational for the staff.
END OF CHOICES
In order to successfully complete this assignment, you will have had to take the ONE of the scenarios
listed above and address it in full, and submit your work in accordance with the instructions contained
herein.
Importantly, this is an independent assignment to be completed by you and you alone. Sharing work with
fellow students, supplying advice to your student peers, gaining assistance from outside parties, and
similar actions will constitute violations of the academic code of conduct and will carry significant
penalties in accordance with University policy. Also, we will be using Turnitin. If you work is the same
as someone else’s – you will not get a passing grade.
The Submission Requirement
Your submission in its entirety must be between 2500-3,000 words – this EXCLUDES the reference, title,
and abstract. The 2,500 to 3,000 words is only the body of the work.
It is to be typed (or pasted) directly into Turn-It In. Given the length of the submission, it is advised that
students prepare it in a word processing program, and when finalized, copy and paste the text into the
Turnitin.
When you submit your work – you need to name your paper as your name (last name, first name) and the
title. For example, my submission would be “Lord, Justin – Sample Paper.”
Your submission will be assessed for originality. Your paper cannot exceed the 20% limit for as the
guidelines set-up in Turnitin. You are citing scholarly work but even with quotes – your work will not be
accepted if it is above the Turnitin threshold. If your work does exceed that threshold, I highly
recommend that you retract your paper and refine it before the resubmission date.
However, if your paper does not exceed the 20% limit, I highly recommend that you only submit in your
assignment ONCE. Once you submit your paper it will be added to the database that Turnitin reviews. If
you resubmit your paper, if it is not necessary – your original paper will already be included in the
database – your similarity score will increase dramatically (close to 100%).
If you resubmit your paper – you need to take a screen shot of your first submission and your second
submission and send that along with a copy of the original and revised paper to your academic coach.
If you have problems with formatting your submission, consider using Windows Notepad, as it is very
effective for transferring distortion-free text into the Moodle posting window, after which you can add
formatting directly in Moodle.
HCAD 701 – Spring 2020
Mid-Term Assignment
You are writing a research paper in the context of your case. As such, it should be a scholarly work.
Your work should demonstrate a competency of the material that you are writing about. This work
should also demonstrate the fact that you are in a Master’s program. Typos, poor grammar, punctuation,
failure to follow direction, and obvious errors will be penalized. You have plenty of time to work on this
paper so it should reflect your level of effort. Unlike a proctored exam – YOU HAVE FULL CONTROL
OVER YOUR GRADE for this assignment.
Your submission must be supported by 10 (minimum) scholarly references. The max number of
references is 40 (maximum). What is a scholarly reference – it is a resource that has undergone the peer
review process. Newspapers, websites, personal experiences ARE NOT SCHOLARLY REFERENCES.
Scholarly references come from academic peer-reviewed journals. If you cannot ascertain whether a
journal does or does not qualify as scholarly academic, please contact the Noel Library and request
assistance.
Citations are to be prepared in accordance with the standards set forth in the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association (APA). Be sure to consult the style guide itself, as database listings
often contain formatting errors which are not compliant and can hurt your grade.
If you are writing about the current healthcare environment (i.e. competition, market structure, patient
demographics), I would find the most recent literature. However, for some of the theories or the
theoretical based literature – often we will have to cite “seminal” research that can be decades old. It is
not recommended best practice to have all older literature as the field is constantly growing and
changing. However, if there are some works that you believe are the cornerstones of your theory(s) than I
would use them regardless of the age. I would not include more than five articles that are older than 15
years.
Keep in mind that this is a formal research paper. As such, it needs to be written in third person.
APA –Citation of References
If you do not know how to cite your references correctly, I highly recommend that you utilize the resources at your disposal:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_for
mat.html
http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-book
These are auto-citation websites/ resources
EndNote
http://www.citethisforme.com/
If you do not know how to find scholarly articles than please look at LibGuides, entitled “Distance
Learners/Dual Enrolled Students: Getting Started.” This LibGuide will illustrated how to search for
books, journals, Interlibrary Loan requests.
HCAD 701 – Spring 2020
Mid-Term Assignment
The LibGuides List is on the right-hand side of the page under Library Quick Quick Links. See the link
below.
http://libguides.lsus.edu/distance_learners_dual_enrolled/online_and_dual_enrolled_students
If you are struggling to find appropriate journal articles, I may suggest checking the back of each Chapter
in the Organizational Behavior in Health Care (if you have a copy of the book). Dr. Borkowski lists out
the articles that she referenced when discussing each theory.
Another suggestion is that you take one of the seminal journal articles about a particular theory and you
put it into Google Scholar and see all the other journal articles that reference it. You can then search for
healthcare related articles from that one resource.
APA Format
Couple of little tidbits of info regarding APA if you’re interested….
APA doesn’t require a heading for the Introduction. A paper would generally begin with the title,
unbolded, centered at the top of the page. Then your “main headings” will be centered and bolded, each
main word being capitalized, and then subheadings within these mainheadings will be left aligned, bold
and each main word capitalized.
EX.:
This is the Title of My Fake Paper
This would be where I would write out my introduction, being sure to summarize the rest of
my paper and explaining the purpose of my paper.
(BOLD) Main Heading
This may be where I discuss a certain topic, maybe theoretical assumptions, but if I am going to
break down these theoretical assumptions, it is helpful to divide even further with second level headings
as below.
(BOLD) Heading for Second Level
Here I would get even more in depth and subheadings can be broken down further and further. I
use Purdue Owl as a reference to remember how to break these down when needed.
Link: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_h
eadings_and_seriation.html
Other Paper Important Info
In presenting your work, identify the title, your name, student ID number, and submission date in the title
slide of your work. It is recommended that you include the following sections in your paper:
– Title (Name, Id Number, Date, Title)
– Abstract (200 word synopsis/summary of your paper…think of it as a paper movie trailer)
– Keyword: List your Option Selection
– Introduction (one-two paragraphs)
HCAD 701 – Spring 2020
Mid-Term Assignment
– Case Inquiries Addressed Introduction (body of paper; use sub-sections as you deem necessary)
– Review and Application of Theory (body of paper; use sub-sections as you deem necessary)
o You need to demonstrate a significant degree of knowledge regarding the theory you
choose.
o Support with theories that are appropriate for each case
o Recommend you review the existing literature to further explore that theory and how it
has been applied
– Discussion (Tie the theory back to the case problem)
– Conclusion (one – three paragraphs)
– References (APA style)
Assessment Criteria
Your submission will be assessed based on the following:
Compliance Quality: The degree to which your submission complies with noted guidelines, including
word count (2,500 to 3,000), reference/citation specifications (minimum 10 scholarly references), and
adherence to APA style.
Use of Theory: Your paper has to incorporate theory in a manner that helps you address your topic area.
We expect a robust write-up of the theory(s) that could help others understand the theoretical grounding.
Communication Quality: The degree to which your work meets standards expected in business
communications, including matters concerning the use of proper grammar and punctuation,
Content Quality: The quality of the content presented in your work.
Take care to note the deadline for this assignment.
Please remember that this is a Master’s level course. We want to prepare you to be independent
researchers and practitioners. As such, I will not hold your hand in this process. The ONUS IS ON YOU
to make this paper work.
