Change and the Learning Organization
Assessment Description
In the health care industry, change may come in the form of demographic change, regulatory change, or other some other form. For a health care organization to be sustainable, health care leaders must embrace a lifestyle of change to create the culture of a learning organization that is amenable to and supportive of innovation, adaptation, and change. In this assignment, you will draw on knowledge from prior course as well as this course to explore the relationship of sustainability and change in the health care industry.
General Requirements:
Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
EdD Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Health Care Administration
12.1: Analyze the governance and structure of healthcare institutions.
12.3: Analyze strategies of fiscally sound staff development.
12.4: Evaluate approaches to inter-professional teaming and collaboration
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.
Refer to Chapters 2-4 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) for specific guidelines related to doctoral level writing. These chapters contain essential information on manuscript structure and content, clear and concise writing, and academic grammar and usage.
This assignment requires that at least 8 additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and at least one in-text citation from each source be included.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Directions:
Write a paper (1,000-1,250 words) that describes the relationship between sustainability and change in the health care industry. Include the following in your paper:
A research-based discussion of the arguments for creating governance and structures of a health care organization based on the concept of a learning organization. Why is a learning organization a sound structure for a health care organization? (Benchmarks C12.1: Analyze the governance and structure of healthcare institutions.)
A research-based discussion of which theories may best guide a health care organization in the creation of the culture of a learning organization. To what extent might theories such as Roger's Diffusion of Innovation be meaningful in the process of becoming a learning organization?
A research-based discussion of how creating the culture of a learning organization allows health care organizations to structure and maintain fiscally sound staff development. (Benchmarks C12.3: Analyze strategies of fiscally sound staff development.)
A research-based discussion of how creating the culture of a learning organization allows health care organizations to promote inter-professional teaming and collaboration. (Benchmarks C12.4: Evaluate approaches to inter-professional teaming and collaboration.)
Change and the Learning Organization
Student’s Name
Institution
Change and the Learning Organization
Healthcare organizations exist in an ever-changing environment. This requires healthcare organizations to constantly adapt through change to ensure sustainability. Healthcare organizations have to become learning organizations because, through learning, they can keep up with changes in the environment and enhance their survival. According to Evans et al. (2017), a learning organization creates a climate that allows members of the organization to identify problems, suggest solutions, and create the needed change to address the problems. This paper explores the relationship between sustainability and change by focusing on the concept of a learning organization in the healthcare industry.
Learning Organization as a Sound Structure for a Healthcare Organization
A learning organization forms a sound structure for healthcare organizations because learning allows organizations to embrace change, thus enhancing sustainability. According to Alonazi (2021), a learning organization is an organization that facilitates continuous learning such that employees can constantly gain, create, and share knowledge within the organization. A learning organization provides systems and structures that facilitate organizational learning.
Healthcare organizations are forced to constantly change how they operate and function because the healthcare industry is not only characterized by demographic changes, such as an aging population but also changes in the prevalence of infectious diseases (Alonazi, 2021). The recent COVID-19 pandemic is proof of how drastically the healthcare environment can change and call for equally drastic changes in how healthcare organizations function. To adapt to such changes, learning is important. As Wells (2021) reveals, change, especially in healthcare, is a continuous realignment of processes and procedures to either respond to or anticipate a changing environment. In the presence of a learning climate within the organization, it becomes easy to create or embrace change as a proactive or reactive approach to a constantly changing organization. Healthcare organizations can use the learning organization concept as an approach to change because learning empowers healthcare professionals to adapt to internal and external pressure (Wells, 2021). They can even thrive under such pressures, which makes learning an important recipe for organizational sustainability.
More importantly, healthcare organizations, despite existing in an ever-changing environment, are expected to provide high-quality care and maintain patient safety. This requires creating and implementing evidence-based innovations and technologies. According to Dearing and Cox (2018), healthcare organizations need to have a certain degree of readiness to change or innovativeness to adopt/ implement evidence-based innovations. A learning organization can facilitate this because it prepares employees for change and enhances their level of innovativeness.
Role of Theories in Creating a Learning Organization
Theories of change play a fundamental role in guiding organizations on how to create and implement change. Healthcare organizations can benefit from organizational theories of change such as Roger’s theory of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) when it comes to creating a culture of a learning organization. DOI theory describes how information about innovation or new ideas is communicated within a given organization or social system (Dearing & Cox, 2018; Batras et al., 2016). It deals with how messages about new ideas spread over time.
This theory, as well as others that focus on organizational change, can help create a culture of learning in healthcare organizations because it involves the acquisition and distribution of knowledge or information about an innovation. As Dearing and Cox (2018) reveal, when an individual within an organization or social system learns about a new idea/innovation that can help improve the organization and its activities, they seek more information about the innovation because they are uncertain of how to proceed. Through further research, they gain more knowledge about innovation, which essentially is part of learning. Such information includes, but is not limited to, the cost, simplicity, and effectiveness of the innovation. As Akhnif et al. (2017) indicate, research is considered a significant source of knowledge in a learning organization. The theory DOI instills the need for further research before innovation can be fully diffused and can thus help create a learning organization.
In addition, the DOI theory describes the spread of innovation. This requires the dissemination of information about the innovation within the organization (Dearing & Cox, 2018). By sharing the information about the innovation, these individuals are basically sharing knowledge. Akhnif et al. (2017) reveal that acquiring and sharing knowledge is also an important characteristic of a learning organization. This can be done at ...