Food-Service-Manual-for-Health-Care-Institutions

Food Service Manual for Health Care Institutions
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initiative even if the desired outcome is not reached. Tolerance of minor “failures” and mistakes
encourages employees to try again without fear of being punished or losing their job.
Obstacle Removal
In a participative environment, the department manager must anticipate potential obstacles to
employee advancement and seek to remove them. For example, policies and procedures that
prevent employees from making appropriate decisions to satisfy customers may jeopardize
employee morale, the customer base, and productivity. Appropriate decisions are those that fall
within an employee’s job scope and capabilities. Although policies and procedures provide
adequate structure, efficiency, and safety of operations, procedure overload can result in avoidable
delay while stifling employee spirit. Another obstacle is an employee who refuses to participate
or support team efforts. It is the manager’s responsibility to identify such persons,
coach them toward involvement, or apply the established disciplinary steps to remove them.
Other obstacles include budget constraints, productivity and labor demands, unrealistic
demands and expectations from other departments, lack of understanding or cooperation (or
both) from other organization members, insufficient employee knowledge or expertise, and
time constraints for meetings and problem solving.
Communication
Effective communication in a participative work climate includes (among other methods) conducting
meetings for the purposes of identifying strategic plans for the organization and updating
employees on the status of organizational goals. Employees also should be informed of how
department goals fit into the larger organization’s vision, how the employees contribute to accomplishing
department goals, and what future planning efforts will include. Good communication
in a participative setting moves in two directions—“downward” from managers and “upward”
from employees—which means that managers must sharpen their listening skills. Chapter 7 is
devoted to the skillful use of communication techniques.
By bridging communication gaps with other departments, managers become more aware of
conditions faced by others in the organization. Thus, they can sensitize their staff and improve
relations throughout the facility. By opening communication across departmental lines, managers
learn what is considered politically correct in an organization’s cultural climate, thereby
better protecting their staff against uncomfortable situations.
Employee Involvement
A participative or high-involvement manager understands the values and beliefs that motivate
employee involvement through empowerment. This section explores theories on motivation
and their application in a collaborative work environment. Also, the levels of empowerment
and its application to health care food service are described.
Motivating Employees
Motivation is the process by which individuals are stimulated to act on their innermost needs,
desires, and drives. Motivation is a repetitive, circular process: An individual’s needs cause him
or her to behave in a way that fulfills, or promises to fulfill, those needs. Once needs have been
met (either partially or fully), the individual feels satisfaction. The feeling of satisfaction reinforces
the need, and the need–fulfillment–satisfaction cycle of motivation is repeated.
One of the most important managerial responsibilities is to motivate employees to work
toward organizational and departmental goals and objectives. To accomplish this task, the
manager must find a way to make those aims fit each employee’s needs. Of course, motivation
is only part of work performance; individual ability and the work environment also bear on
performance level. In other words, employees need to know how to do their work well (ability);
they need to want to do their work well (motivation); and they need adequate equipment,
supplies, facilities, and authority to do their work well (environment). The absence of any one