Narrative essay

Whenever I think of the incident that transpired on that particular Thursday afternoon, I get a nasty feeling about the challenges of working as a respiratory therapist. Is it that all the health care practitioners should have a calling to their work or should work as a profession? As a respiratory therapist, I usually work in the intensive care and the operating rooms, but I also engage in the outpatient activities. I am a specialist and an educator in the fields of cardiology and pulmonology. Most of the patients I attend to are in the ICU and the emergency departments struggling for their lives. At times, I manage the pre-hospital and the hospital to hospital patient transport by air or by mobile road ambulance. Most of the patients have illnesses ranging from asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema. Other have a heart attack and sleep disorders. On a certain Thursday afternoon late last year, I had one of the many challenges in my line of service.

I reported to work as usual and said a prayer before the start of my daily chores. I attended to several patients having varying illnesses, and most of them had a hope of getting well in due time. I decided to take a short rest during lunch hour after realizing that there were no more patients to attend. However, after few minutes, I received a call from the hospital superintendent that there was an emergency case I required to attend. The details clarified that I had to travel with several nurses to a nearby village to seek what we could do to save the situation. There was a man in his later forties who lived with asthma for a long time. I looked at him in desperation knowing that I could do my best to save the situation though he was in a life-threatening stage. He could not talk, had flared nostrils, his skin was bluish tint from the mouth region and under the fingernails. The man lacked adequate oxygen circulation in the blood stream.

My professional’s values require that I serve to the best of my ability to save lives and restore health. We teamed up with the nurses to address the condition, but our attempts seemed futile. All our first aid attempts failed to change the situation. I instructed the nurses to lay him in the ambulance and rush to the hospital for further treatment. I think that it was a rough day for me since every other attempt to save the man failed. He lost his life as we worked tirelessly to save it. I felt discouraged, guilty, and emotionally disturbed and could not attend to other patients that day. I questioned my work as a respiratory therapist and whether it was a calling or out of influence to study the particular discipline. According to my understanding, such occurrences were inevitable, but some could be saved regardless of their severity. I did not understand why the man could lose his life in the hands of professionals and experts in the field.

It was sad news to the close family members and very challenging to break the same news to the wife who was also ill of another health condition. In some instances, the experiences of healthcare practitioners are hard to relate with though they form part of the daily life. The work of a respiratory therapist is challenging, but the desire to continue improving the quality of life compels me to serve wholeheartedly.

Holism versus reductionism in healthcare and Athletics Gear Manufacturing Industry

This paper discusses holism and reductionism in health care and athletics gear industries.

Healthcare industry
The primary concept of holism is that its proponents have a common belief that things are better understood in their wholeness rather than when broken into component parts (Freeman, 2005). The body functions as a complete unit. It’s thus not possible to trigger a cell without triggering the whole body. This same concept, when applied to the healthcare industry, could mean that all aspects of healthcare provision are considered more realistic and more gratifying when what is under consideration is treated in its original state rather than in parts. For instance, if a person diagnosed with a certain illness is admitted to a healthcare facility, he is considered wholly in need of medication. In any case, the pain or agony in a particular part of the body affects the whole body (Freeman, 2005). When medication is applied, its carried in the blood to heal the place in pain though this affects the whole body. It’s thus not possible to isolate any part of the human body no matter whether it’s the part/organ most affected by the ailment. When a person suffers mental delusion, the whole body is affected. If he suffers stomach upsets, the whole body is considered sick or unhealthy.

There is one thing that comes out from the above consideration; that healthcare service provision is a large enterprise requiring many and different health care providers including pharmacists, psychologists, dentists, opticians, etc. who are closely interdependent. Their system of work is so much intertwined that if one breaks out of the system, it may crash. If sufficient healthcare is to be accorded to patients, then these departments have to work as a whole and interdependently rather than separately (Ahn et al., 2006)

Reductionism is, however, the complete diversion from holism. For reductionists, the parts are crucial if the whole is to be understood. In the healthcare context, reductionists believe that the patient has to be studied more aggressively though analyzing the organs affected rather than the whole body (Ahn et al., 2006) For them, the symptoms alone cannot be used by a physician to know what really the patient suffers. When a patient is admitted, each organ reported to bring about his/her suffering is looked into independently. Smaller concepts of studying or researching what may be the cause of the problems in the various parts of the body are applied. More so, the medication for the differently affected parts of the body are given and prescribed separately (Ahn et al., 2006).

Athletics gear manufacturing industry
This industry deals with the manufacturing of athletics protective aids for athletes and related apparel. Such industries produce athletics goods such as sailboards, skates, exercise machines and other playground equipment. They also manufacture protective goods for athletes such h as helmets, athletics pads, snowshoes, shin guards among other protective gear.

Holism and reductionism apply in this industry in various dimensions. In the dimension of production, holism occurs in the notion that athletics gear industry is incomplete if it produces or manufactures a particular set of apparel. For instance, this industry must produce all focal goods required by athletes for it to be termed so. Reductionism would not coincide with that. For it, the industry may warrant the term ‘athletics gear manufacturing industry’ even if it produces one nature or line of the above goods (Freeman, 2005). The second area of consideration that may bring in the concept of holism and reductionism with respect to the industry is production process of the apparel. If the principles holism is considered, an all-inclusive design perspective is used. As such, the criteria for producing athletics apparel might be the same. The price determination criteria (Wu, 2012) for the same system of items (protective athletics items for instance) might be the same. More so, the raw materials might also be the same for a system of items so that similar items can match in many, if not all aspects. Holism as far as this industry is considered is a considerable notion that all things, methodology of their production and price processing are connected in such a mutual manner that none is stand-alone (Benci et al., 2003).

If reductionism concept is used, however, the contrary of the above among other things is possible. In reductionism, the manner of treating even a system of related goods in terms of pricing criteria, production process, branding and other levels of good handling might not be equal. Since reductionist believes every part of the system is a stand-alone facet, every unit of the production process in the manufacturing process of the athletics apparel will be treated independently. As such, every item that will be produced might possess different attributes from the other even though the same department produces the items. In that case, every item deserves its own handling since quality might not be the same. In short, reductionism when applied in any manufacturing industry or production process means that every bit of the process is independent of the preceding or succeeding stages.

Chapter 11 and Chapter 12

Chapter 11 Questions
Define a stockholder and stakeholder. What is the difference between the two?

A stockholder is an individual with the claim over owning part of the company in such a way that he/she has ownership of the stock and has an influence on the finance of the corporation. A stockholder can at the time be referred to as the shareholder. A stakeholder, on the other hand, is an individual with the interests of the organization or corporation. And for this case, the stakeholders has some other interests other than the stock appreciation of the Corporation (Lindsay, 2016).

A stockholder is an individually that will take part in the electing the directors of the company and another small number of additional issues that he/she can handle. At the same time, a stockholder is entitled to dividends. A stockholder can be part of the stakeholders group, but a stakeholder is not regarded as stockholders. The positions outlined that stockholding is within stakeholding.

A stakeholder is any individually that represents a wide group of the persons with the interest in the operations (success or failure) of the company. The group has a big impact on the general operations of the company as it is wide and it includes the stockholders (shareholders), the creditors, customers, the local community, employees and the government. A stakeholder takes greatly part in the management of the corporations as their influence brings about the loss or the decline in the organization performance. They have a high impact on the decisions undertaken within the business.

What process does a company go through to respond to stakeholder concerns? What are the steps of this process?

In the operations and general management of an organization, the stakeholders play a crucial role as they take part in the decision-making process. To get the stakeholders concerns responded to by the managers, different methods can be applied. However, based on the role they play engagement is the most reliable principle to go about the task. Once they are engaged, the creation and the maintenance of the business value are upheld. The stakeholders’ engagements strategy is defined by the social business relationship (BSR) background. The strategy can be implemented through five distinctive steps of engagement strategy (set), stakeholder mapping (Define), Preparation (Focus), Engagement (Conduct), and Action Plan (Identify).

The engagement strategy comes before understanding that engaging stakeholders mean taking and treating the issues and opinions of the stakeholders as the outside concerns.

Stakeholders mapping stage defines the collaborative undertaking of research and conducting a discussion to have the identification of the key list of the company stakeholders. The mapping is done through the steps of identifying, analyzing, mapping and prioritizing. The success of the stakeholders’ identification will depend on the knowledge of the participants in the research and discussion.

The preparation stage once more defines the examination of the identified organization stakeholders to have a good understanding of their concerns, positions, and interests. The follow-up step of identifying is the determination of the best method of incorporating the concerns within eh company with the best understanding of the risks associated with the engagement. This defines the action plan which upholds to the system of the participant (managers) that goes by the engagement, communicating and informing. Engaging defines the stakeholders, communication, on the other hand, defines the stakeholders with the highest level of willingness to engage and inform defines the seeking of the information than conversations (Morris & Baddache, 2012).

What is the agency problem? What are the governance mechanisms that can be put in place to defend from this problem?

An agency problem can be defined as the conflict of interest that may exist between the management of the organization and the stockholders of the company. In this case, the managers within the management bracket define the agents who have the official task of making sound decisions that will get to maximize the profits (dividends) to the stockholders.

The corporate governance comes in to provide the balance through the sharing of powers amongst the directors, management and the stockholders with the aim to maximize the shareholder value and protect the stakeholder’s interest. The way to go about the agency problem is to ensure that the company complies with local, state and federal statutes. Establish some standards that should comply. Thirdly, implement best practices as suggested by the professional organizations.

Describe internal controls and strategies that can be implemented to ensure ethical behavior within a company.

The development of an ethics program within the organization will get the ethical behavior implemented. The program should get done through the establishing, communicating and the monitoring of the ethical values. The values are expected to characterize the company history, culture, and the operating system. The program should accommodate the codes of conduct to the employees.

Develop ethical standards and take the employees through the training about the standards. Also, ensure that the employees comply with the ethics, and this can be measured through the comparison of the ethical employee performance.

Chapter 12 Questions
How can organizational design contribute to competitive advantage?
There are so many ways in which an organization can be structured based on the objectives of the organization. An organization is usually referred to as a group of entities which operate to achieve the same common goal or goals. The structure of any organization influences the performance of the organization. Organizational structures offer the capability to specify responsibilities for assorted functions and processes to entities including workgroup, individuals, branch, and department. People who operate as individuals are often hired for specified time periods in organizational structures to carry out contracts of work, orders for work, permanent contract employment or even under program orders. Constantly increasing competitive pressure correlates with changing organizational structures and the involved processes to improve the competitive advantage of the organizations. The existence of skills and resources that are better outside the organization increased application of the use of alliances, down scoping or outsourcing by firms tend to cause the firms to draw in the narrow scope of activities.

Describe how a strong organizational culture leads to transparency, ethics, and to competitive advantage within a company.

Effective organizational structures make better the relations of work among the several entities that exist within the organizations. This will improve the efficiency of carrying out activities within the organizational units and hence enables an organization to develop an order and control, which is important for the monitoring of various processes that exist in the firm. The organization, therefore, supports command for carrying on with a variety of orders and changes in the conditions for performance of work. The organization incorporates the use of skills from individuals to introduce ease of change and application of creativities. With the expansion of business, the chain of command becomes longer and hence expands the span of control. With age, the flexibility of the organization will reduce with the creativity fatiguing. This makes it necessary for the organizational structures to be often changed to accommodate recovery.

How does the implementation of functional structures lead to more organizational control and more effective strategic planning?

Organizational culture influences the way in which specialists in the organization think and carry out their responsibilities. It is influenced positively by important reconfiguration of the part played by human resources in the development of the organization. As a result of organizational culture, there is improved performance within organizations and increased flexibility in the demand of the market. A strong corporate culture is known as an imperative driver of innovation to forces from the outside.

The culture of a company is derived from the values, structures, assumptions which are essential for the survival of an organization in a given industry. Organizational culture is transparent to workers in the firm, investors, and customers. It sets the picture of the organization at present and in the future. The organizational culture creates a strong relationship with the group that is difficult to break. The culture can either be the strongest asset or the biggest liability to the organization. Its impact is more than talents present in an organization and apparently possesses significant influence on the goals of the organization.

Organizational culture assists in the development of ethics that are expected in an organization. This is because it outlines what each and every individual in the organization is expected. If well incorporated into the culture of the organization, the ethics are easily followed by the stakeholders in the firm as well as its employees and management. It also encourages transparency since all the individuals surrounding the organization can observe what the organization stands. This increases trust by customers and even investors since the organization becomes very easy to understand regarding operations and policies.

Organizational structure outlines how activities in an organization are directed to the achievement of the organizational goals through the allocation of tasks, supervision, and coordination. The organizational structure, therefore, serves as a way through which people see their organization and the environment of the organization. It influences the activities of the organization in ways such as the provision of the foundation on which the accepted standards of operation and procedure routines. This makes it a very important tool in the strategic planning. It also determines which members of the organization are given the role of making decisions which determine the extent to which their opinions affects the line of action to be taken by the organization.