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MGNT 220 – Assessment 2 Direct Focus Solutions Samuel Kelly Student Number: 6064619 Direct Focus Solutions (DFS) is a multidisciplinary network that delivers allied health and wellbeing services to the community, that employs 34 people across the organisation (Fane De Salis, 2019). DFS takes a wholistic approach to client’s health and wellbeing providing services such as psychotherapy, neurofeedback, counselling, and occupational therapy (Fane De Salis, 2019). There is also a large emphasis on patients with disabilities as DFS accesses the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The NDIS is a funding scheme that allows people with ‘permanent and significant’ disabilities, the ability to access funds to enable them to pay for supports and treatment (NDIS, 2019). DFS utilizes the NDIS by being a registered provider, which allows them to provide services for NDIS patients. I discovered DFS through my employment for said company. By working for the company I have been able to view, assess and analyse all of the different sectors of the business, including the managerial sector. As it is a relatively small organisation, and that I work directly under the managing director, I have had a large amount of access to key information relating to the management of the business. In this report I will be discussing how DFS utilizes the structural frame, human resource frame, symbolic frame and political frame in unison to create a positive workplace culture, increase revenue and market share, and rapidly expand their organisation within New South Wales. DFS has numerous organisational goals based off of the quality of the services they provide and also their own financial goals. These goals are interconnected with each other to help each of them be achieved. DFS’ main organisational, as all for-profit organizations are, is to increase revenue and to grow shareholder value (Fane De Salis, 2019). However, to achieve this DFS employs a large number of other organizational goals such as increasing the number of NDIS patients to 200 from 103 by the end of 2020, increase customer retention after the first session from 82% to 90% by July 2020, and increase number of clinics from 2 to 4 by the end of 2021 (Fane De Salis, 2019). These goals are implemented and determined by numerous people throughout the organisation. For example, any financial goals will be implemented and determined by the financial team, any goals relating to customer relations will be implemented and determined by the human resources department (Fane De Salis, 2019). All departments report directly to the managing director. This means any goals and strategies to implement them have to be approved by them (fane De Salis).

Board of Directors

Managing Director

Financial Officer

Clinical Director

Human Resources

Practice Manager

Clinical Lead Kingsford

Clinical Lead Wollongong

Clinical Lead NFT

Administration

Psychologist

Psychologist

Technician(s)

Support Coordinator(s)

OT

OT

Speech Therapist

Speech Therapist

Case Manager(s)

Case Manager(s)

Support Workers

Support Workers

(Fane De Salis, 2019) This organisational chart shows that DFS is a horizontally non-complex organisation. The non-complexity of the organisation is shown by the narrowness and flatness of the organisation chart (Bolman and Deal, 2017) in the sense that employees have a low amount of people in between them and the board of directors. DFS’ non-complexity is highly influenced by the low amount of employees within the organisation. Despite their noncomplex nature, DFS, although minimally, is more horizontally differentiated than vertically differentiated. Horizontal differentiation relates to organisational structures that are ‘wider’, meaning there is a large amount of divisions or sector within a business, for example: sales, marketing, public relations (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Vertical differentiation, is the opposite of horizontal differentiation. Instead of having a ‘wide’ organisational structure, a vertical differentiated organisation has a ‘tall’ organisational structure. There is a larger span of control for managers, this means that a manager has more direct control over a larger

amount of employees (Bolman and Deal, 2017). As stated earlier DFS is more horizontally differentiated than vertically differentiated, although this isn’t a clear differentiation due to the lower amount of divisions and specific employee roles resulting from a low amount of employees. Observing DFS’ organisational chart, we are able to see that the organisation has a functional structure. The functional is also know as the ‘U-form’ due to structure looking like a U. A functional structure’s key characteristics are that the different divisions of the organisation are horizontally separated, with the employee positions listed under the relevant division (Bolman and Deal, 2017). As DFS has their financial, human resources, and clinical clearly horizontally separated with roles such as practice manager and clinical lead under their relevant division of clinical director. To be able to control their business activities, organisations need control mechanisms to successfully implement these activities. Control mechanisms relate to the activities and processes that organisations employ to withhold order and the efficient functioning of business processes. These control mechanisms need to be in line with the business structure i.e. vertically differentiated or horizontally differentiated (Bolman and Deal, 2017). DFS use control mechanisms such as weekly meetings for each division and weekly entire staff meetings, as well as the an information system that allows employees to communicate directly with other employees (Fane De Salis, 2019).

Typically to motivate low level employees organisations will seek to use monetary bonuses and rewards, as well as bonuses relating to other needs and wants of the employee such as health related bonuses i.e. free gym memberships (Kuvaas, 2007). To encourage their lower level employees DFS offers a range of motivating mechanisms depending on the division that the employee is in as well as mechanisms for employees regardless of their division. For instance, employees within the clinical division are able to gain monetary rewards for each referral they receive from third party medical organisations at the end of a 6 month period. For example if a psychologist receives 15 referrals within a 6 month period they will receive 15 times the amount of the bonus they would receive for each referral (Fane De Salis, 2019). Another motivating factor for employees of DFS is that if employees are seen to be excelling at their current job, there will often be more responsibility and more senior opportunities offered to them. This also comes with the organisations rapid expansion, resulting in a large amount of projects that need to be managed. The management of these projects often leads to pay rises. As mentioned earlier DFS offers motivating mechanisms for employees across the whole business. One of these motivating mechanisms is the offer for employees to request to have relevant courses funded for them to increase their qualifications (Fane De Salis, 2019). This creates a ‘win-win’ situation for the business as they are able to able provide employees with a work environment where they are encouraged to develop and increase the level of their qualifications, whilst also gaining more qualified employees in return. Providing funding for education and development opportunities is a common human resources strategy for the exact reason stated above (Herzberg, 2008).

Due to DFS being a relatively small organisation, it is imperative that all employees, regardless of how high or low ranking they are, efficiently and effectively communicate with each other, as is the same with all small businesses (Kaiser, 2012). Because of this high-level DFS employees, such as the managing director, spend a large amount of time and implement numerous activities to increase chemistry between all employees. These activities include employee-bonding trips designed specifically to help each employee communicate and work effectively with others, and weekly staff meetings for all employees to encourage employees from different divisions, regardless of their level within the organisation, to communicate with each other, which in turn has created a strong workplace bond and a high level of chemistry between each employee to another(Fane De Salis, 2019). As previously stated if employees are seen to be doing well with their current responsibilities, they are often asked to undertake a higher level of responsibility in more senior sections of the organisation. This allows low-level employees to participate in key decision making activities within the organisation and allows them to speak to senior members of the organisation on behalf of the lower-level employees and share their views on how the organisations processes effect them. . DFS’ strong workplace culture allows them to have organisational symbols that are recognised throughout the whole organisation. An organisational symbol relates to basic building blocks of the meaning systems, or culture an organisation inhabits (Bolman and Deal, 2017). As DFS works almost exclusively with people that have disabilities, both through mental, learning and physical disabilities, one of the most potent organisational symbols is the value of acceptance to all and viewing everyone as equals (Fane De Salis, 2019). This ensures that all DFS employees always value their patients as they would with anyone else in public, this represents how DFS approach their services, as being an organisation that acknowledges that everyone has problems of their own and that sometimes we all need help to get through said problems (Fane De Salis, 2019). As DFS is a small organisational, it holds their rituals as a very symbolic and meaningful, as most small organisations do (Lewis, 2013). One ritual that already has been discussed is the weekly staff meetings. These are important for DFS as not only are they important to spread information regarding the organisation from employee to employee, it also allows employees a large group setting where they can socialize with one another. Informal information is often spread in these meetings as well, such as singing happy birthday to any employee(s) that had birthdays within the week and also spreading any successes the employees had in their lives outside of work. This also allows DFS to reinforce their most relevant symbol of acceptance, as employees are celebrated regardless of the standing in the hierarchy in the workplace or social standing. To maintain these symbols and ensure that these rituals remain relevant within the organization, the use of storytelling by managers is commonly used. Storytelling allows highlevel employees within organization to share what their desired view of the organisation’s culture, processes, and values are (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Managers of DFS will commonly use old case notes to instruct lower-level employees on how they should approach

situations. They look to past experiences to see what was successful and what was unsuccessful, and why it was that way. This allows the higher-level DFS employees to shape their organisation to the way they want it. In order for the storytelling within DFS to be successful and cause a positive effect, DFS managers need to perform a degree of impression management (IM) to be able to confidently deliver the messages they are trying to get across to their employees. This is an integral part of IM (Schlenker, 2006). DFS managers need to perform IM regularly when speaking to practitioners about how services should be performed to clients. As each client has a different background, suggesting how to perform services, especially when basing these recommendations of previous case files, requires a high degree of confidence and certainty from the authorizing employee as practitioners can not be in doubt whether they want to perform those specific services or not. As mentioned previously, the main symbol of DFS is acceptance and equality. These symbols are projected profusely to external stakeholders.

This is highlighted through DFS’ logo. The logo depicts a person with their arms open, this symbolizes DFS opening it’s arms to anyone who chooses that they need to acquire the services they provide (Fane De Salis, 2019). DFS’ image to external stakeholders is integral to the business, as due to the of their patients, they need to be seen as an organisation that will be accepting of anyone, regardless of their degree of their problems.

As previously stated, DFS is a non-complex organization with only a small amount of employees. This typically results in a singular or set of high-level employees that are the recognised people of power within the organisation (Wilson, 1985). Within DFS, there is one key person of power within the organisation. That is the managing director. Albeit there is a low amount of formal authority, other than that of the high-ranking position. This is due to DFS having a flat structure, resulting in a lower amount formalisation within the organisation (Bolman and Deal, 2017). However, the managing director still remains as the individual with the highest amount of power due to his informal techniques. As mentioned earlier, in weekly staff meetings, staff birthdays and personal achievements are celebrated, this is strongly driven by the managing director. This results in employees viewing him as favourable and gives him a higher social standing within the organisation. DFS’ managing director through IM often appears confident and intelligent to others with makes employees to trust in what he is saying (Lobun, 2012). Although he uses confidence and his social standing to acquire his power within the organisation, there is no evidence that there is an inappropriate use of power. This is likely due to the fact the organisation has a small amount employees and high level of positive workplace culture and any abuse of his power would cause a ‘domino effect’ of backlash with employees. Despite the lack of evidence of prior inappropriate behaviour from any employees within the organisation, there are still polices in place to protect whistle-blowers.

This policy is that employees can submit any information of inappropriate behaviour of employees at every level anonymously (Fane De Salis, 2019). This is to ensure that the whistle-blower doesn’t feel pressured against sharing information of wrongdoing within the organisation at the cost of their social standing within the organisation. To deal with conflict that has been risen either from whistle-blowers or public statements, DFS conducts an incident report and depending on the level of conflict, meditation. Regardless of the level of conflict both parties, and any witnesses must submit their own recount of the events that occurred, this is then assessed by the human resource manager and managing director to decide on what the subsequent actions are to resolve the conflict. At all times DFS looks to resolve the conflict in a positive manner for all parties involved, this is essential due to the close nature of all the employees within the organisation, any deterrent to that nature could result in a less positive workplace culture and lower level of efficiencies within the organisation (Alvesson, 2014). As DFS always want a positive outcome in situations of conflict, there is often bargaining and negotiating from both the parties involved in the conflict, and the management team in deciding the subsequent steps following the resolution of the conflict to ensure that all parties are able to benefit from what the steps are.

All organisations, regardless of the size or successes of the organisation, are co-dependent on all four frames of organisational management. If any of these frames are deficient, there will be an obvious weakness in the management of the organisation (Bolman and Deal, 2017). This can and will cause inverse effects in relation to low-level employee to high-level employee relations, efficiency in the workplace and workplace culture. However, if all four frames are working in unison to provide the best possible outcome to an organisation, then all these outcomes will be positively effected instead of negatively effected. Direct Focus Solutions has shown that they utilize all four frames of organisational management to benefit their organisation. This has had a clear positive effect as the business has seen increases in revenue of $200,000 in the past year, positive client feedback and an incredibly low staff turnover rate of one employee in the last year and a half (Fane De Salis, 2019). Due to these effects, DFS have been able to rapidly expand their organisation and easily meet all of their organisational goals in the past year (Fane De Salis, 2019).

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Bolman, L. and Deal, T. (2017). Reframing Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. 6th ed. (Accessed 4 Oct 2019) Fane De Salis, D. (2019). About Us - Direct Focus Solutions Kingsford. [online] Direct Focus Solutions Kingsford. https://directfocussolutions.com.au/about-us/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019]. Fane De Salis, D. (2019). How We Can Help - Direct Focus Solutions Kingsford. [online] Direct Focus Solutions. https://directfocussolutions.com.au/how-we-can-help/ (Accessed 4 Oct. 2019). Fane De Salis, D. (2019). National Disability Insurance Scheme - Direct Focus Solutions. [online] Direct Focus Solutions. (Accessed 4 Oct 2019) https://directfocussolutions.com.au/services/ndis/ (Accessed 4 Oct 2019) Fane De Salis, D. (2019). Our Team - Direct Focus Solutions. [online] Direct Focus Solutions Kingsford. https://directfocussolutions.com.au/our-team/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019]. Herzberg, F. (2008). One More Time. [online] Harvard Business Review Press. https://books.google.com.au/books? hl=en&lr=&id=2WVZCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=using+courses+to+motivate+e mployees&ots=Zdd6hvMTpf&sig=lgq0MB3PEkSyRwmt3hlvthFfDqk&redir_esc=y#v=o nepage&q=using%20courses%20to%20motivate%20employees&f=false [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019]. Kaiser, M. (2012). Rule of Thumb: A Guide to Communication Basics for Small Business Owners & Managers. Omaha, UNITED STATES: WriteLife Publishing. (Accessed 5 Oct 2019) Kuvaas, B. (2007). Journal of Management Studies. 45th ed. (Accessed 5 Oct 2019) Lewis, K. (2013). The power of interaction rituals: The Student Volunteer Army and the Christchurch earthquakes. [online] SAGE Journals. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0266242613478438 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019]. Lobun, A. (2012). Social Networks and Informal Power In Organizations. University of Groningen (Accessed 8 Oct 2019)

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Mats Alvesson (2014). Understanding Organizational Culture. London: Sage Publications. (Accessed 9 Oct 2019)

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NDIS (2019). What providers do | NDIS. [online] https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/what-providers-do (Accessed 4 Oct 2019) Schlenker, B. (2006). Impression Management. Impression Management, (Accessed 7 Oct 2019) Wilson, G. (1985). Business and Politics: A Comparative Introduction. Macmillan International Higher Education. (Accessed 8 Oct 2019

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