Organisational Cultural Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organisational Cultural Case Study - Essay Example ..(organization's) own limitations; valuing diversity; and managing the potential dynamics of systemic bias, racism, prejudice, and exclusion within client-health provider relationship† (Srivastava, 2007, p.20). Organisational cultural competence in a health care scenario is also described as â€Å"the ability to provide care with a client-centered orientation that both reflects the client’s cultural values and beliefs and recognizes the impact of marginalization in health care interactions and responses† (Srivastava, 2007, p.20). Rationale for the study What everyone forgets often is that disease has a social context. Cockerham (2007) has shown this by saying that â€Å"income and occupational status join education as the major components of social class† in how people select their health life styles (p.53). WHO has defined that â€Å"health is not only the absence of disease, but also complete physical, mental, and social wellness† (qtd. in Laverac k, 2004, P.14). It is also a known fact that stress, poverty, low socioeconomic status, unhealthy lifestyles, and unpleasant living and working conditions† can cause ill health (Cockerham, 2007, p.1). ... ir opinions, act in real life situations and hold attitudes to their practice are dependent on their culture, which again includes their social class, race, gender, and many similar factors. But a problem arises when these people have an interface with a culturally diverse group of clients. In such a context, there can be a clash of interests, attitudes and values which are culture-specific. For the smooth existence of a service provider-client interface, such conflicts have to be prevented from happening, and this is the realm in which discussions on cultural competency gain relevance. The concept of cultural competence is more than the actions and behavior of one or two individual practitioners but it has to work across the individual, organizational and systemic levels of an organization (Srivastava, 2007, p.20). As far as the people within an organization are concerned, cultural competence has to be ensured from policy and administration levels, through management and to service and support staff. Cultural competence is important in the health care context also because in a health care situation, there is a power relation involved which puts the client in a disadvantageous position in the hierarchy of that power equation. Power being â€Å"perceived as an authority and to engender willing compliance is, clearly, to exercise power,† the service provider can be understood to have power over the client (Fulford, Dickenson and Muray, 2002, p.280). And the exercise of this power has a possibility to be biased by the cultural values and prejudices of the service-provider. In this backdrop, gaining cultural competence through training, awareness and systemic measures can only ensure that non-discriminatory and ethical care is given to all in a health organization. An ideal