| To
integrate the physician and management team within your practice or network, you must
develop an organizational culture. "Collision of cultures" is a main reason many
start-up organizations fail during their first 2 years. IDENTIFYING
CONFLICTS
The physician and the business manager come from distinct cultures. When they join to
build an eyecare organization, they’re often unprepared for their differences in
viewpoints and the communication gaps that arise from their different backgrounds.
Organizational conflicts can result.
Some potential areas of conflict include:
 | general ophthalmology vs. optometry |
| ophthalmic subspecialists vs. an academic center |
| solo practices vs. group practice |
| primary care doctors vs. specialists |
| hospitals vs. physicians |
| managed care companies vs. providers |
CREATING A BALANCE
You need to create a balance between the priorities of the individual and those of the
organization. Remember: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Four common
stumbling blocks to cultural integration in a network |
include:
| individual vs. group interests |
| current vs. future orientation |
| survival thinking vs. proactive orientation |
| spectator approach (waiting for the future to arrive) vs. active approach (creating the
future). |
RATE YOURSELF
To assess your attitude toward organizational culture, read the following statements
and rate yourself on a scale of 0 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The maximum
score of 40 reflects your strong belief that organizational culture is important and
should be pro-actively managed.
- Culture is real and deeply rooted in human psychology. It’s a necessary part of any
enterprise and visible if I learn how to look for it.
- Culture is homeostatic; it will pull people toward the past.
- Members will bring their former cultures to collaborative ventures, and these cultures
will compete for dominance. This competition will probably undermine, if not destroy, the
new organization. If the venture does survive, the "winning" culture will
dominate, while the "losing" culture will probably become a "shadow
organization," or informal communication network that exerts influence
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outside formal organizational structures.
- Cultures can be consciously created and managed — but not by traditional,
hierarchical, command-and-control methods.
- Attempts to impose a culture will fail; they’ll cause reaction within the shadow
organization. The emergent "counterculture" will defeat management’s
actions.
- To be successful, an organization’s culture must emotionally bind with its
members’ values and basic assumptions. People’s intrinsic motivations are
activated at these emotional levels, which is where voluntary "buy-in" to a new
culture can emerge.
- A strong culture is key to organizational success. It’s a distinguishing
characteristic of multi-generational "visionary organizations."
- Creation of effective culture management will be a core leadership competency in
21st-century organizations.
Leadership and good management are
complementary systems. Good management controls organizational complexity, and effective
leadership produces useful change. As you grow your business, keep these concepts in mind,
and a successful organization will be yours.
For Part II see Changing Your Practice's Culture) |