Organisational Culture and Management

• • Organisational culture
  • - definitions of organisational culture
  • - types of organisational culture
  • - theories of organisational culture
  • - relationship between the individual and the organisation’s culture
  • Organisational culture and safety
  • - concepts of safety culture
  • - safety culture in a health care organisation
  • - the impact of organisational culture on safety and quality
  • - safety, culture and whistle-blowing
  • Management of the cultural aspects of an organisation
  • - approaches to the management of staff within an organisational culture
  • - culture and change management
  • - managing staff for practice improvement within an organisational culture
  • - creating supportive workplace cultures

In order to enrol in this subject, you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Health professional demographics show an ageing workforce. Health professionals who are quite new in their careers will increasingly be offered higher level duties in terms of health leadership and management positions. These management positions will be within an environment that is both complex and dynamic, but where quality and safety are paramount. One aspect of the complexity of health service organisations is organisational culture.

This subject is important for students, who are positioned in, or aspiring to, health leadership or management roles and who will need specialised knowledge and skill in evaluating solutions to complex problems associated with the dynamics of organisational culture. In this subject, students will critically analyse healthcare organisations and the management of healthcare staff from within the context of organisational culture. This aspect of health administration will be considered from within a framework of safety and quality and with the notion of a safety-culture being highlighted. Strategies to create safe and supportive workplace cultures will be considered. 

The aim of this subject is to provide students with a sound understanding of theories of organisational culture and the dynamic inter-relationship between the structure of health services and the agency of the health practitioner in order to enable them to implement effective management strategies that are both safe and conducive to quality healthcare. 

In order to pass this unit, students are expected to submit three graded assessment tasks. In addition, students must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 50% across all assessments. The assessment strategy used allows for the progressive development of knowledge and skills necessary for the student to be able to consider management approaches that are necessary for the student to be able to demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes. To become effective at improving management approaches that take organisational culture into account, the student must first develop comprehensive knowledge of organisational culture in a health care environment. This will be facilitated through online collaboration with peers and lecturer feedback via an online environment. Student knowledge will be further extended to synthesise research related to the impact of organisational culture on patient safety and/or evaluate management strategies aimed at creating safe and supportive healthcare environments. Students will then apply their knowledge in critically analysing different approaches to staff management in providing safe, quality care.

• Student Seminar / Online Discussion Forum - Enables students to collaborate with peers in an online environment to critically appraise organisational culture. (20%)
• Annotated Bibiliography / Case Study - Enables students to choose to synthesise research articles in an annotated bibliography/evaluative summary or develop a case study on the impact of organisational culture on a safe healthcare environment. (30%)
• Essay/Proposal/Report - Enables students to demonstrate application of different approaches to staff management in providing safe, quality care. (50%)

For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).