Manager’s Interview
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Manager’s Interview
Background
The interview was conducted on Michael Bachman, a manager in a healthcare facility. He is an Operation Manager of the hospital’s emergency department (ED). Concerning the name of the organization, he asked that the name of the organization to be left out of this paper. This is because he is not allowed to represent the organization in interviews or give opinions about its activities in any capacity. Many things were discovered from the interview with the manager of a health facility. Documentation of the findings has been illustrated below based on the guide questions provided in class.
Interview Findings
Effect of COVID-19 on Manager’s Business/Industry
The manager stated that the health industry was not left behind unscathed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic because some of the organization’s activities were altered. However, the findings of the extent of the impact of the virus on the organization are shocking. Bachman is a manager of the emergency department, and someone would expect that his department is overwhelmed a large number of coronavirus pandemic. On the contrary, the number of cases they are receiving during the pandemic has drastically gone down (Personal Communication, May 18, 2020). Fortunately for the Bachman’s department, business is going on as usual, and his employees are working full-time. This means that the working culture of the ED has not been affected by the pandemic. On the other hand, the culture of the organization as a whole has been affected. It used to hold a meeting of its staff frequently, but the number of meetings has significantly gone down as a measure of preventing the spread of coronavirus. The staff have resolved to the use of emails as a substitution of the meetings. Bachman also manages the department of Quality and Education team. For this department, there have been significant changes in its activities. For example, he noted that since mid-March, all the nine staff members have been working from home with the exclusion of one or two members. The one or two members help in the screening of COVID-19 in the hospital in the newly created Assessment Center. On supplies, the organization focused much of personal protective equipment because they determined the operations of the hospital due to the nature of coronavirus. Bachman noted that there were no bog problems concerning the supply of this vital equipment.
How Bachman is Handling Employees Affected by COVID-19
Bachman stated that almost half of his employees are working from home while the other half is present in the hospital. He explained that his leadership strategies have changed over time, and he has become empathetic on the employees. His wife works from home too, and he has noticed the challenge she faces as she tries to work for the full 8-hour shift while the kids are disturbing her with e-learning. The same case happens to his employees, and therefore he does not pressure them a lot. To ensure productivity for his team, Bachman makes use of the Google Due participation where members of his team report their progress (Personal Communication, May 18, 2020). He ensures they meet every day for at least 15-20 minutes. Apart from checking on the team’s progress, he has noted that the platform gives morale to the team which he had thought would go down due to the distances between the employees. The team also engage I petty jokes among the work-related topics which help to keep them lively and pumped to do their work. The efficiency and effectiveness of the services provided by the remote team are fine since most of their services do not necessarily require a physical presence in the organization.
The Decision Making Process during the Coronavirus Crisis in the Organization
Bachman stated that he is just a manager of a department and therefore, most of the crucial decisions come from above. He mostly co-ordinates the day to day activities in the emergency department and the Quality and Education team. The other aspects of his work were assumed by the organization’s command center which has been in operational in operation since mid-March. The command decides which clinics are going to be open, the personnel to work from home and those working from the office. Although he is always opposed to such distant leadership, he has to come to terms with it because it is the only way to run his department. He claimed that remote leadership had kept the managers of the organization from performing their patch of work since it makes all the critical decisions.
When it comes to communication in Bachman’s team, he applies a mixture of techniques because some of his members are working from home while others are working directly from the organization. In the organization, emails have been the mode of communication among the staff working from remote areas. However, he does not like emails, and therefore he has to apply a different method for his Quality and education team. Consequently, he resolved to the use of daily huddle in Google Duo to make his communication about anything concerning the team members. For the emergency department team, he made use of his two active supervisors and their respective team leaders. They take the message to each staff one-on-one to all the staff members. He stated communication through emails in the organization had proved to be one of the worst forms of communication. The pandemic can prove his claims due to the many setbacks caused by emails delivered to staff who are offline or who failed to read the emails on time.
Preparation for the Unexpected if the Coronavirus Pandemic Continues
Bachman response on his preparation for the unexpected in case the pandemic continues for a long time is far much different from what many people would expect. He states that people should not operate under the notion that the pandemic will go away soon. Instead, they should adapt to the situation and behave as if the virus is there to stay. He states that for him, there is nothing unexpected because people are already familiar with the pandemic. He believes that once the personal protective gear is no longer a concern and ventilators are stacked in the hospitals’ stores; things will be different (Personal Communication, May 18, 2020). This because people would have known how to deal with the virus, and it would become part of our lives.
Bachman looks at the situation and sees no reason to prepare for any unexpected scenario since the unexpected has already been experienced, and it is no longer unexpected anymore. Instead of being panicked if the cases continue to increase, he is actually happy about the pandemic concerning his working routine. He agrees that he also does most of his work from home and that working from home comes with some advantages. He gets the luxury of sleeping much longer than when he has to work from the hospital. He can also grab a cup of coffee as he uses his laptop to conduct his activities in the house. Most of the time he has to visit the hospital even after working from home although for just a short time. This has helped him balance work-life experience in many ways. However, he notes that his opinion may not be shared by most people who work in another organization, but he is grateful for his experience.
How Bachman Uses the Management Functions during this Pandemic
As a manager, his functions are planning, organizing, leading, leading and controlling (Wood & Wood, 2002). He performs these duties on his daily actives as he tries to make everything run as usual. For planning, Bachman notes that he is always keen when planning his daily activities. With about half of his staff working remotely, it easy to leave some of them out if the manager is not keen is not careful. Carefulness is paramount, especially when you planning and organizing a new project in your department. For example, Bachman is spearheading an effort to strengthen the utilization of the check-in kiosk in the organization. The check-in kiosk is being ushered in as a substitution to the human-to-human interactions in the organization, which was greatly relied on before the pandemic. This would be a better idea since it would reduce the risks of contracting the virus among the staff members. However, Bachman has to apply his controlling skills to ensure that the concept works for his department. This will require him to incorporate the effort of all his team members and take the leading lane to show them how the system should work.
However, Bachman noted that he is facing challenges in implementing the change because every time one step of the system is completed, he must face a manager who claims that he did not know about such a change happening. He, therefore, has to learn about the protocol in the organization in a different way that he used to know before the pandemic. Organizing his team members to ensure that each one of them has a role to play in the check-in kiosk needs a high level of planning (Wood & Wood, 2002). For example, deciding what a cleaning agent in the organization can be used in the system may be challenging.
Bachman’s effort to remain in control comes to him in the form of ‘kid gloves’ as he called it. This is because none of his team members had any reduction in working hours nag they are all grateful about it considering the current situation. He does not know how he would apply his controlling skills to tell one of his team members that their services are no longer needed in the organization. It would be even more agonizing to tell someone that they will not be receiving their monthly salary when it is almost impossible to find another job. It is even made worse by the fact that the team members know his feeling, and he has witnessed increased productivity even when working from home. Some members are even reaching out to him and asking what extra they can do to help the organization. It is becoming tougher every day to perform his functions as soon he may have to decide on whose services are not much needed.
Business Opportunities Mushrooming from COVID-19 and How the Manager is Capitalizing on the Opportunity
Bachman states that anyone in the health system is thinking the same about the opportunities presented by the coronavirus pandemic. The straight forward opportunity presented by the pandemic is the telemedicine. Many health organizations have been against telemedicine for a long time because health insurance or Medicare have been reluctant to reimburse telemedicine services (Hollander & Carr, 2020). The service providers also were unwilling to admit the reality that the patient will be willing to have a five-minute Zoom rather than waste many hours visiting a hospital in person. However, the scale has been upturned by the pandemic as Bachman notes. Telemedicine is now the best health service that can be provided to the public without putting the client or the physician at risk of contracting the virus. Bachman has advised his colleagues in the organization to tap in this opportunity before it is too late for them.
Plans to Recovering from the Aftermath of COVID-19
Bachman states that the plans about how to recover from the effects of the pandemic should only be answered precisely by someone up in the hierarchy of the organization. Considering departmental levels, Bachman states that his department is doing just fine even during the COVID-19 crisis, and therefore, he does not have to make recovery plans. The reduction in labor in his department has been matched by the decrease in the volume of services needed. But as an organization as a whole, he notes that the financial impact has affected the organization negatively, and it would take years to recover. The steps that may be made by the organization after the pandemic is over is a leaner workforce (Personal Communication, May 18, 2020). This means the people sent home will not be coming back soon. However, he clearly stated that this is not the position of the organization.
How Would Bachman Have Prepared for the Pandemic Three Months Ago?
Bachman response is one of the funniest on such a sensitive issue. He stated that given the gift of hindsight, he would watch less news encourage his team members to refrain from watching news. He claimed that he would have changed nothing about how he and his team responded on the issue and congratulates the medical community for their efforts. For the sake of his mental health, he states that he would turn off all sources of news and even social media and continue with his work. He would then respond to the changes each at a time.
In conclusion, Bachman stated that his views about the organization are based on his understanding and do not reflect the overall opinions of the organization. Therefore, they should not be generalized.
References
Bachman, M. (May 18, 2020). Personal Communication.
Hollander, J. E., & Carr, B. G. (2020). Virtually perfect? Telemedicine for COVID-19. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(18), 1679-1681.
Wood, J. C., & Wood, M. C. (Eds.). (2002). Henri Fayol: Critical evaluations in business and management (Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.