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Chapter 40 - Cultural Change in a Castle of Secrets

Jean Grow

Synopsis

Grace is admissions director at a two-year-old supported living facility. Before being known as Bavarian View, the facility was a lavish hotel that reminded everyone of a castle. The organization has staffing problems that have caused two directors to leave after only one year. Everyone is passionate about giving residents the right treatment, but gossip flows through the halls. Two directors complain about a new nursing assistant that keeps forgetting equipment in the rooms. The nursing director does not want to help train the new employee. Grace decides it’s not her job to intervene. Then the interim executive director gives abrupt news that there will be a new executive director. On her first day, after only two weeks of observation, the new director sends out an email insisting the staff is only focused on individualistic goals; everyone needs to become flexible and focus on team results or leave the team.

Keywords: Employee morale, Gossip, Individualistic behavior, Organizational change, Leadership style.

Key Takeaways and Take a Stand Form

Key Takeaways

  1. A positive workplace environment cannot thrive without a focus on employee initiative and the collective outcome of employee actions.
  2. Gossip is a dysfunctional process that can undermine leadership and the values of an organization.
  3. A positive workplace does not always equal a functioning staff. Sometimes cultural change needs to occur in order to fix damaging habits throughout all levels of workplace hierarchy.
  4. A lack of honest communication flow between employees and administration can lead to a destructive communication gap concerning organization happenings.
  5. The staying power of memories from a building’s history can be as powerful as the history of an organization itself.

Take a Stand Form