Smith County Community Hospital Employee Satisfaction

Allison leads the Marketing & Public Relations Team for Smith County Community Hospital (SCCH). The hospital is a 175 bed hospital in a rural area that has been losing market share to urban medical centers within a 2-hour drive of Smith County. The hospital launched a new marketing outreach campaign three months ago to emphasize the friendly, hometown feel of the hospital in an attempt to keep local residents more closely connected to SCCH.

Allison leads a small staff of 4 persons -- Gary does analytical market research to advise Allison about marketing strategies that would be successful based on current and projected utilization patterns, as well as competitor analyses. Leah is responsible for community outreach and engagement with local agencies and community groups, encouraging them to include SCCH in their events and activities. Part of her job is to maintain current knowledge of all community activities so SCHH can show its engagement with the local community. Jacob handles advertising for SCCH, sometimes writing their own ads and sometimes using an outside firm for the bigger ad campaigns on radio, TV and print outlets like newspapers and locally produced publications. Monica is a part-time employee and focuses on internal audiences -- writing newsletters and employee updates to keep employees informed of new policies and initiatives of SCCH. Monica interfaces closely with Human Resources and the executive team in writing effective messaging to keep the SCCH employees well-informed.

Allison is proud of the light, creative and upbeat atmosphere in her office. The staff all get along well, often spending time together outside of the office, going to lunch together or attending high school football games on Friday nights. She brings doughnuts or pastries into the office every week for their weekly staff meetings. At these staff meetings, each person gives an update on their activities for the week, but there is seldom time left to talk about how each person’s work contributes to the new marketing campaign or the success of the department as a whole. Allison gives her staff very high annual performance evaluations that has earned them raises at the top of the range of pay increases offered each year at SCCH. There has been no turnover in the office for five years. While Allison is proud of this, she realizes that it means there is little opportunity for job advancement in the office. Gary’s and Leah’s positions are considered the more senior positions and Jacob and Monica are in the entry-level jobs. Allison loves her job and she certainly is not planning to leave anytime soon.

Allison was hoping that this new marketing/outreach campaign would re-energize her staff. She is sensing that they have become a bit complacent in their work and she knows that SCCH senior leadership is very worried about the loss of market share, to the point that some lay-offs might occur if the organization can’t improve its revenue situation. After three months of the new campaign, Allison is also beginning to worry. She reflects on a text message exchange with Leah about why SCCH wasn’t represented at the local community college’s job fair, and she was very concerned when Leah responded that she didn’t know anything about the event. Allison is somewhat frustrated that Leah continues to focus only on the events sponsored by community groups that she is familiar with, rather than reaching out to new audiences.

Monica has been a superstar in the past -- she is a great writer and always comes up with creative and interesting employee newsletters. The newsletters have been sent out monthly by email to every employee in the organization. Allison asked Monica to come up with something different than the usual monthly email newsletter, but she hasn’t seen anything yet from her. The senior leadership of SCCH asked Monica to work on presentations that the CEO or COO would deliver in every department about the new marketing campaign. Presentations are just not Monica’s strong suit, and the COO was not pleased with what she produced. Monica didn’t understand why she couldn’t just put the presentation information into the next employee newsletter -- why did the COO want to spend her valuable time going to every department staff meeting? Allison had to re-work the presentation to meet the COO’s expectations.

Some of Jacob’s recent advertising has also seemed to miss the mark. The entire team had brainstormed some advertisements based on the market research that Gary produced, but what appeared in print was different than what Allison expected. She sent an email to Jacob asking about this, and he replied by email that he really didn’t trust the analysis that Gary had provided, so he made his own decision regarding what was best. Allison sighed, more evidence of this undercurrent of tension between Gary and Jacob. Allison wonders if Jacob is trying to undermine Gary in hopes of moving up to the market analyst position. While there hasn’t been open hostility between the two, Jacob always seems to put his own opinions and aims ahead of the team’s, even last month arranging a live radio segment without letting anyone else in the office know in advance. Leah was especially upset about this, since she usually is the key contact for any community communication.

As Allison reflects on her staff, she concludes that each of them are competent in their own individual roles, but how to get them to work together and be motivated to work as a team? Allison thinks about the recent Employee Engagement survey results from her staff which surprised her. Her staff reported that they feel Allison doesn’t listen to them, as she is often on her laptop or checking email on her phone during their conversations and the weekly staff meetings. She also got low scores about being open to input from the team -- they feel that she often cuts off conversations and pushes her opinions on the team. As to her leadership style, Allison’s staff report that she gives vague instructions and then she is upset when they don’t perform to her expectations because they don’t know what she expects of them. They say she seldom gives compliments or encouragement, but is quick to criticize. They also wonder if she is being open and honest with them.

The COO has just shared some 2d quarter financial performance data with Allison, and it appears that SCCH’s market share and revenue hasn’t changed much since the launch of the campaign. So now Allison is really worried -- is her job secure?

Your report should address the following:

What factors might be influencing the motivation and the sense of empowerment of this team? Use Herzberg’s two-factor theory to describe hygiene and motivating factors. Is there evidence of any hygiene and motivating factors in Allison’s department? What suggestions can you make to Allison for how she might improve her staff’s satisfaction, motivation and job empowerment, based on Herzberg’s two-factor theory and the elements of empowerment? (Provide good background explanation of the concepts to communicate your understanding of it as well as how to apply it in this scenario) Chapter 8

What kinds of communication channels are being used and are these appropriate? How might Allison change the way she communicates with her staff to become a better ‘communication champion’? Assess the elements of strategic communications from the case and provide some specific recommendations to Allison for improving strategic communications within her team. Chapter 9

What kind of team is the Marketing/Public Relations staff? Explain how well Allison has used any of the five elements required to lead a high performing team; what about team cohesiveness, norms, team competencies, and handling of team conflict? What specific recommendations can you make to Allison to improve the work of her staff members toward better performance as a team? Chapter 10

As always, your report will be also graded on professional appearance (free from grammar, spelling and punctuation errors); good writing style with logical organization and clear discussion; and correct citation of references, if applicable.