My Management Experience

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My ability to work with people has improved through the years. As I mentioned earlier, my management style has transitioned from an autocratic to a more democratic type of leadership. I have become a better coach and have empowered my subordinates to work independently. I have also learned to listen and communicate with my people and to be more concerned with their well-being. This is very important in a small organization like ours where top management has a direct relationship with the rank and file because we are able to harness better productivity and teamwork.

As physicians, we are the direct service providers in our industry. Given this scenario, we must be proficient and technically adept in our specialty for us to give excellent service to our patients. Our employees only serve as support staff in our services because we are the ones who have the technical skills to treat to our patients. My role as a manager therefore is unique because I must possess all the management skills to perform effectively in my work.

Of the ten roles of a manager, being a leader, an entrepreneur, and resource allocator are the most important in my work. As President and CEO, I must guide, train and supervise my people. I am the one who gives over-all direction to the attainment of our organizational goals. In our corporation, my partners usually defer to me when decisions are to be made especially on how to make our practice more profitable which is the bottom-line in all business endeavors. I am also the resource allocator in our corporation because I am the one responsible in assigning people, deciding where and how resources are used and when programs are implemented. The decision when and where to buy a new medical equipment or who attends a particular conference are examples of my role as resource allocator.

Describing my working environment against the concepts of a learning organization, there are three important questions that need to be answered. First, does my organization support a learning environment? Second, do we have concrete learning processes and practices? Lastly, does top leadership reinforce learning?

In our organization, I believe that we support a learning environment because our employees are encouraged to speak out and give their opinions as well as ask questions. We encourage free discourse and opposing ideas especially on how to improve their work and our services to our patients. We also value their suggestions and encourage them to innovate and try new approaches in their work. We also make sure that we evaluate what is effective and ineffective in our processes so we can improve and learn from our mistakes.

Our organization is weak on the aspect of having concrete learning processes and practices. Although we experiment with our processes to learn new ways of doing things, we do not have the proper evaluation tools if one system is better than the other. Our employees also do not get periodic training updates aside from the training that they get as new-hires. It is seldom that we send our employees to outside conferences and other educational endeavors. Aside from our clinic manager who we send to a yearly ophthalmic assistant course and sponsoring him to enroll in an MBA program, we do not have a program for the professional improvement of our rank and file. Information collection and transfer is also lacking in our organization as we do not make market study or research on our competitors and customers.

Lastly, I believe our corporate leadership reinforces learning in our organization. We conduct regular staff meeting to create an atmosphere of dialogue and healthy exchange of ideas with our employees. During these regular discussions, we ask them to identify organizational problems as well as to offer possible solutions. All these activities help in our development as a learning organization.

References:

Daft, RL. (2016). New Era Management. 11th Edition.

Garvin, DA. (2008). “Is Yours a Learning Organization?” Harvard Business Review, April 2008, pp 2-9.