sahr2001 - Health Systems Trust

11 • Voices of Facility Managers
Staff management issues
◆ Establishing a facility management team, team-building and teamwork
were highlighted as making a significant contribution to improving
how managers and staff experience the job. In one district these include
regular team-building activities, including social gatherings, fundraising
activities, and even joining the local private hospital in a drum
majorette competition.
◆ The improvement of staff satisfaction and morale is another major
achievement mentioned by several facility managers. This was done
through encouragement and affirmation of staff, through conflict
resolution and through building the leadership of others.
A facility manager who took on the challenge of working at a clinic with a
difficult history, reflects:
“ I really think that I did lift the morale of the clinic definitely, because previously
people said to me ‘Sister, this is Robben Island’ and I said ‘why?’ ‘Because all
the outcasts are being sent here’. So I said ‘I’ve also been sent here, so let’s
work from here.’”
Community participation
A few managers took pride in their efforts to build relationships with the
community through participation in the community health forum and through
other forms of contact, and this was seen by some as a motivating factor:
“... my vision was that I would get to have all the committees in the community
and to formulate the friendship within the community, which now I have achieved
... and after this ... I am going to help the community to understand what primary
health care are...”
Enabling factors
External
There are a number of positive factors that support, motivate and develop
facility managers, enabling them to perform their duties even under difficult
circumstances. Both external and internal factors emerge as important in
these achievements and in how well the managers cope.
External enabling factors refer to organisational resources that help make
the job easier, such as physical infrastructure, finances, management systems
and skills, policies etc.
Supportive and effective management at district and region
Support, in various forms, was highlighted as a key factor that enables facility
managers to do a good job.
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