Midwestern Medical Group's Integration Journey Communication Plan

The communication plan is one of the critical success factors when implementing any project plan. It is common for projects to fail because of poor communication either amongst the project team or with communication with internal or external stakeholders. In the succession planning project, the communication plan will have to include continual communication with the project team, the two merged organizational members, as well as communication with the other stakeholders. MMG apparently has many obstacles to overcome, however it is still deemed to have significant value to the overall organization as well as potential to increase its financial position in the future. New leadership could definitely work to increase the level of collaboration between the two organizations. With Olsen stepping down as interim president, she must work diligently to prepare the organization for the transition.

The succession project and communication plan needs to be well-developed before it is transmitted to the stakeholder's at the appropriate time. The political atmosphere within the organization is definitely one in which great preparation is necessary to avoid disrupting the organization. Although the break-even plan is controversial, if MMG is able to reach this point then the organization will stand on firmer ground and have more autonomy to run its operations. Even with the leadership transition, the plan should remain a top priority for MMG.

The break-even project should communicate its progress and report to at all the internal stakeholders at the various project's milestones that are identified in the project's scope. The entire group of internal stakeholders should also be notified of any significant deviations from the original project plan. If they are notified continuously of the status, then there will be more employee buy-in and contributions to keeping the project on track. One example of such a significant deviation could be any instances of scope creep or any significant activities that are over-budget and will require additional financial resources. The project team should have regular formal meetings at more frequent intervals so that they can exchange information and keep the team members abreast of any significant developments. Midwestern also needs to be regularly informed, however they do not need the level of detail that should be given to the internal organization. It may be a good idea to keep the information that is provided to Midwestern to a minimum to ensure that there is no meddling. If the organization can reach its break-even target, then it will have significantly more options and more autonomy in the future.

Management Review and Strategy

There was a movement in the 1990s to begin to reduce the increasing costs that were associated with healthcare middle management in organizations. The role of middle management in health care has been studied carefully by academic researchers since the 1990's when the trend emerged that worked to try to eliminate this level of bureaucracy from healthcare organizations (Embertson, 2006). However, many research projects have indicate that the role of the middle managers can be an important asset to a healthcare organization and that they make important contributions to their teams; some of these contributions that have been identified are that of an entrepreneur, communicator, therapist, and stabilizer. The organizational structure of the MMG organization seems to be effective as evident in the results produced by consulting firms. However, to ensure the organization reaches their goal, it will have to review its organizational structure to find potential for any improvements.

Furthermore, middle management has been identified as a key success factor in a periods of volatility; potentially one of the greatest factors (Steensma & Gould, 1999). Middle management can help facilitate the strategy transfer from top management into an operational context. It has also been identified that when middle management is involved early in the planning process then the probability of success is also increased. The new leadership will need to incorporate all of the management members into the communication plan to have the greatest effectiveness. These level of management is the closest to the actual operations of the company and can have a significant impact. Furthermore, since there case states that the actual physicians and staff were largely devoid of leadership, this level could compensate on an organizational level. Furthermore, if the upper management should find facilitators at all levels of the organization and involve them more in the planning stages.

When two cultures clash in a

Furthermore, this resistance between the organizations may not always be easy to detect on some levels. It seems clearly evident at the top level, but lower levels may be more hidden. For example, some employees will attempt to hide any contempt in order to protect their job security. Yet, many employees may consciously, or even subconsciously, subvert the intentions of management or even in some cases be seeking new positions with other organizations. This seems like it could be a responsible assumption with the high level of turn over at MMG. Since the middle management is the first line to this resistance, there understanding of such instances could be paramount to first identifying and then rectifying such situations.
The style of leadership that is introduced to the organization will be important as well. One style of leadership, transformational leadership, is especially said to be more effective among leadership theories in dealing with change (Judge & Bono, 2000), it has been the research focus since last two decades for many researchers. Transformational leaders act motivate their followers to reach their maximum potential, set more challenging expectations and achieve higher performances (Bass, 1998). Such a leadership style would be ideal for the MMG organization and could help to transform many of the barriers that have been preventing the organization from achieving higher performances; especially financially.

For example, a transformational leader might be able to take on the Midwestern management team to gain a more fair and accurate accounting for the organizations. The case study notes that Midwestern is allocating more than a fair share of overhead to MMG. This was identified on one of the consulting analysis and explains why MMG scores favorably on nearly everything except for its financial performance. However, if a new leader could get Midwestern to give the accounting system an overhaul and ensure that overhead is properly allocated then this could make MMG's goal of reaching the break-even point much easier. It is not fair to MMG that they have to carry an unfair portion of the overhead in the financial statements and a transformational leader might be able to address this point with the existing management.

There are also many other barriers to success that a transformational leader could help MMG to overcome. During the period in which the case study covers, the medical industry in general has to cope with constant regulatory pressures and the potential for these requirements to change quickly. The same can be said about the laws that govern the medical industry in general. The MMG management will have to stay abreast of any potential changes in laws and regulations because these could significantly impact the organization's operations. This case was written before the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), however the medical industry has seen a volatile environment for most of the late twentieth century and the most flexible organizations have been the ones that have survived the volatility.

Change Management and Implementing the Communication Plan

Lewin's Change Management Model:

One model that is commonly used to manage organizational change is the Lewin Change Management Model. This model is based on the assumption that most are resistant to change and would prefer to remain in the existing system. Based on this assumption, the model recognizes three stages of change (Floyd, 2002).

The three stages are:

Unfreeze: The change process often meets resistance from the employees who are generally uncomfortable with change. To unfreeze the organization, the leader must address this resistance and begin to institute an organizational change that essentially thaws or unfreezes a situation. The change agent can slowly but surely build a sense of change in the organization (Green, 2007). Transformational leaders are thought to be the most adept in guiding organizational changes.

Transition: after the employees have been enrolled in the organizational change, this is the period in which the actual change in operations will occur. The change agent will guide the organization through the change process and devote the needed resources to that end (Floyd, 2002).

Refreeze: After the change has been instituted, the company "refreezes" or builds new patterns and new habits within the new system. The organization will freeze again until the next needed change emerges.

It is recommended that a change management plan be designed in addition to the communication plan. This would make the organizational strategy easier to management and also offer a space to create a risk management plan which would be vital in such a volatile environment. It is also recommended that the communication plan be differentiated between different sets of stakeholders. For example,…