MRKT 412 7980 Marketing Research
Question:
There are four doctors in the clinic, two nurses and two administrative assistants. The administrative assistants schedule appointments and take care of checking in patients. The clinic uses text messaging to remind patients of their appointments and to follow up on any questions. The nurses convey any questions to the doctors and will report back to the administrative assistants on what to tell the patient.
The research question was:
How satisfied are patients with our clinic and what can we do to improve?
Here is a part of the collected data:
Very satisfied Indifferent Not satisfied
How satisfied are you with the technology used to communicate with patients? 42 30 22
How satisfied are you with the ease of scheduling an appointment? 36 22 42
How satisfied are you with the attention given to you by your doctor? 78 9 13
How satisfied are you with the reception when you arrive and the ease of checking in? 32 17 51
How satisfied are you with the facilities (cleanliness, comfort)? 81 11 8
How satisfied are you with the cost of our services? 70 12 18
Based on this information, what are some of the conclusions you can draw?
How would you rate satisfaction? Can you give it a number? How did you calculate a number for the rate of satisfaction?
What would you suggest needs improvement? What is the data that supports this? Give suggestions for improvement.
(There is no wrong or right answer – but try to justify your conclusions based on the data presented)
Please respond to two colleagues, agreeing or disagreeing and explain why.
My classmate answers to the question above
Please respond to two colleagues, agreeing or disagreeing and explain why.
Destiny Carter Jones
Based on the information, it can be concluded that the clinic need to be make a few improvements to make customers 100% satisfied. The data shows patients are most unsatisfied with scheduling appointments. One way the clinic can improve how patients schedule appointments is allowing patients schedule appoints online. This will be easy and more convenient for patients. Another thing patients are unsatisfied with is the reception when they arrive and the ease of checking in. One way to improve this issue is improving the atmosphere and making it more welcoming. Also, when patients check in, the clinic should make it easy and simple; sign in and a short questionnaire about why patient made an appointment. Another issue that may arise in the future is how the clinic follow up on questions patients have. Using text messaging to remind customers of their appointments is great but the clinic should answer patient’s questions over the phone or by email. Although there are things that need to be improved, there are things patients are more satisfied with. Patients are most satisfied with the attention given to by your doctor, cleanliness and comfort of the facilities, and the cost of services. Based on this data, the rate of satisfaction is 57%, I got this by: “Very satisfied” results/ total # of results.
Robyn Morrison
How satisfied are patients with our clinic and what can we do to improve? Overall patients are satisfied with the cleanliness and comfort of the facilities, the attention provided by their doctor, and the cost of services. In this department, they have received a 70-80% satisfaction rating. The numbers are based on 100 total so percentage is the best way to evaluate the responses.
However, there is a clear issue with the ease of scheduling appointments and a lack of satisfaction with the reception and checking in process with a 30-40% satisfaction rating. This all seems to be an issue with the front office staffing. I would suggest a front office investigation and a more open ended questionnaire about front office procedures. There could be a lack of staffing or a lack of properly trained staffing to be at fault. The check in process could be expedited with the aid of mobile check in or by having forms available online to be filed out before appointments. There also appears to be a bit an issue with the technology used to communicate with patients so there is room for improvement in that area with a 42% satisfaction rating perhaps their are in need of updated communications. My dentist is great as using text appointment reminders. I can confirm of cancel my appoints via text.
HRMN 367 7980 Organizational Culture
Activity #1
Question:
Piderit (2000) believes that the definition of the term resistance must incorporate a much broader scope. She states that “a review of past empirical research reveals three different emphases in conceptualizations of resistance: as a cognitive state, as an emotional state, and as a behavior” (p. 784).
What is your understanding of these three types of resistance? Can you give examples?
My classmate answers to the question above
Sandra Wright
As a cognitive state aware of my situation and myself; my state of mind. When at work I have to make sure that i keep a clear mind because sometimes I feel myself getting off focus on my work.
An an emotional state is being aware on how I have self control of my emotions do get to overburden. Couple of weeks ago I let my emotions get to me because I was handling a high case and I as getting very stressful because I was not given the clear instructions on what needed to be done and I was so overburden that my emotions just took over I had to take a walk to calm down.
As behavior is controlling my actions and reactions to certain situation. As a potential leader I need to be aware of my behavior and how I act an react to certain situation as I did above so that’s why I take walks to keep me calm and not show anyone that I am upset or stressful.
Heather Schafer
Cognitive state is also known for “unreadiness” and refers to someone’s beliefs about change. (Piderit, 2000) An example is an organization implements a new sales technique. The employee might believe that the change will do more harm than good or is pointless and resists the change.
The emotional state refers to someone’s feelings in response to change, so when someone has a certain emotion to a certain action, they associate all similar things with the same emotion. (Piderit, 2000) An example is an organization replaces the management team. The employee has had a bad experience in the past when management changed because of new rules, systems, etc. The employee shows anger emotions and resistance to the change.
Behavior refers to someone’s actions and behavior in response to change. An example is an organization shortens the lunch time from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. The employee resists the change, changes their behavior and takes longer breaks.
Activity #2
Question:
In what ways have you been through a personal culture change?
Brittany Nelson
I think for me the biggest culture change I have been through is when we moved to Japan. Having to get used to and learn the host nations culture was vital to me being able to enjoy life here. Not gonna lie, the first few months were hard but you learn and adapt.
I think another personal culture change was when I left home at 18 and joined the navy. Going from a place that I had friends and family everywhere to boot camp and a place that was unfamiliar to me was challenging.
Sandra Wright
My personal culture change is dealing and working with a diverse group of co-workers, because everyone have their own different views on certain issues. Also, I have joined several diversity groups being part of these groups and broaden my knowledge on diversity in the workplace.
Activity #3
Question:
How would you go about changing the culture of your current organization…or your current classes
Alfredo Stokes
There are many things that I am working towards to change the culture in my department. I am focusing on set a schedule for all the volunteers that come into the regional office to give their personal time and efforts. Currently, there is no training provided to the volunteers to ensure that they are aware of what their roles are as volunteers and how they can assist the veterans. Before I arrived and was hired into the position there was no direction for my department. I am implementing new policies and have created a direction/mission for the volunteers.
Anthony Rodriguez
If I had to change the culture in my organization, the first thing I would do is follow up on professor John Kotter’s 8 steps for leading change. Create the urgency, the team to promote change, establish a positive vision that includes everybody in the organization, communicate that vision and discuss obstacles with everybody that would be impacted by this change and how to overcome them, create those short term wins and communicate rewards for achievements, continue to set new goals in favor of the change and implement policies and procedures to prevents straying backwards. Whether its culture change in an organization or a class, implementing any sort of change should begin with a “lead by example” mentality. If I am implementing a change, I have to conduct myself according to the new culture I wish to implement so that others can follow in my footsteps. One thing is to speak about a culture change, another thing is to live and act on a culture change. If you present yourself as a leader, I think others will follow in your footsteps.
Activity #4
Question:
What might happen if an organizational culture doesn’t need to be changed, but a new leader wants to “make a mark” and tries to force change?
Sarah Boltz
If a new leader came into an organization wanted to force change when it isn’t necessary, there would likely be a lot of confusion and resistance. Must people do not like change as it is, so making them change for no reason will really cause tension between employees and leader. This can cause, “lack of competence, bad communication, loss of control, shock an fear of the unknown and loss of support system” (Adenle, 2011). All of these are causes to resistance of change. Communication issues can arise within an organization since the change is not necessary the employees will not understand why the change is occurring. Here the reason is only to “make a mark”, however, this sort of “mark” will not be positive since nothing is wrong with the current culture. This could lead to problems the company has not experienced which is where the loss of control and fear of the unknown comes into play. Every employee has the right to show resistance when the reasons for change are not supported. The leader likely would have answers to “why, how, when, and who and what success will look like or how success is going to be measured, then expect resistance” (Adenle, 2011). If the employees a re not understanding and because the current way works best, employees will not be accepting of the change.
Alfredo Stokes
In the military, I have seen a lot of this. Most times when new leadership comes in they have their ideas and styles of how to run a section. Many come in attempting to force change before the evaluate the current status of the section. The normal reaction of the current staff members of the department is resistance and sometimes resentment. This is where the three stages of resistances coming into play from last week’s lessons. Members develop the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral resistance to change. The “making a mark” way of leadership is a could be a very dangers way to enter an organization and in most cases ends up failing, and the current order of things remains the same.What should happen is a leader should evaluate the current status of the department and implement changes that need to made versus trying to a “make mark”.
