The Management Issues in World Health Organisation (WHO)
Select an organization that operates internationally but which has had controversy or widely-recognized problems. For example, Wal-Mart has expanded into China only to find that Wal-Mart products were not wanted; Shell Oil continues to battle allegations of benefiting from corrupt political bodies in foreign locations; and the United Nations has been criticized for its ineffectiveness in war-torn countries.
Your Portfolio Project will be a position paper of 8-10 pages, not including the reference and title pages, that includes an examination of the following:
The management issues.
A description of the theories that apply to the international management of the organization and the handling of the specific issues.
A substantiated opinion regarding the organization’s management of the issues. In other words, has the organizational management been effective in its facilitation of the organization’s position in the global landscape? Why or why not?
Given the future of international management, include thoughts on how management can prepare to deal with or conclude the issues.
Your project should adhere to the following standards:
Include at least four academic references (in addition to your text or other required reading materials), preferably from the CSU-Global Library.
Review the grading rubric in the Module 8 folder.
Be sure to follow the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site
The Management Issues in World Health Organisation (WHO)
Introduction
World Health Organisations has been facing crisis especially on the management of its functions. Most of the issues are associated with legitimacy and trust, governance issues, poor leadership and conflict of interest. World Health Organisation has failed at some point in terms of governance and oversight. The organization has been accused of poorly managing the funds poorly and spending most of the money on overhead costs instead of investing in specific issues that solve the real problems facing people. For instance from the article by Prakash and Dolsak (2017), WHO spent close to $200 million on travel as compared to the amount of money spent on the specific programs in 2015. From the report, the organization spent $71 million on fighting AIDS and hepatitis, $59 million on tuberculosis and $61 million on malaria.
Theories
Social cognitive theory is employed in management for the purposes of solving some of the problems that most organizations face and forms the means of sharing knowledge. The social theory involves meeting different people and other organizations with the aim of seeking support and friendship. The theory outlines the attempt in developing a social relationship among the people in a wider community. The behavior of a person or organization is controlled and partially shaped by the social network. Sharing of knowledge or participating in activities that most of the organizations involved in have the importance of social influences. Social cognitive theory has ignored the importance of the social network. It is silent on the resources that are integrated into the network and how it affects the behavior of an individual. The theory proposes organisations to interact in each other through the sharing of ideas and other resources which are aimed at solving most of the problems (Oviatt, and McDougall, 1994).
Social Capital theory is used in the management of international organizations. It constitutes the sum of the actual and potential resources that are embedded within the organization. The theory is important in facilitating resource exchange and production innovation that is found in an organization. The international organization uses the theory in solving most of the managerial issues that are related to resource utilization. Most of the international organizations are faced by issues of conflict of interest and poor utilization of resources.
Emergency management theory is used in strategic planning and changing the nature of the environment in an organization. It is used in monitoring the changing of the external forces and the impact on the operations of the organization. The theory outlines the external forces that bring about change in an organization. The theory outlines the roles of the manager in the emergency management system which includes aligning people and institutions together with technology, processes, and structure. In the process, uncertainties are reduced as well as increasing flexibility (Oviatt, and McDougall, 1994).
Management systems theory and emergency management bring together interrelated and interdependence parts which are organized in a manner that is used in understanding the emergency management processes. System theory is applied in management in most of the organizations. It is based on the idea that everything is part or larger than the interdependent arrangement. It brings together critical concepts which are applied in emergency management. The critical concepts include an open system, holism, boundaries, functionalism, interface, strategic constituencies, and feedback among others. The theory is composed of a number of parts which include local, state, national public, private and non-profit organizations.
The theory outlines on quick measures to solve the emergent issues that might arise during the management. The emergency managers respond to issues by acknowledging the effort and cooperation from the community and other organization. For an effective response to an emergency then there should be mutual cooperation between the local, public agencies, business enterprises and other groups and community in general.
Contingency theory and Approach is also applicable in dealing with some of the issues that most international organizations face. The theory outlines the management principles and practices in a way that they are dependent on the situational appropriateness. The situations that face most of the organizations are unique and therefore require the managerial response which has specific considerations and variables. The theory is applied appropriately in the management concepts and hence it is contingent or dependent on a number of variables that makes the theory applicable in most of the situations. The theory is diverse because it can be extended and applied in intercultural contexts in which various customs and cultures are considered. The theory is important in managing emerging and sensitive issues.
However, the application of managerial theories is influenced by the situation. For instance, the emergency management is dynamic and should be flexible for it to accommodate most of the hazards that the community or the people across the world may face. The managers should use the theory in building organization cultures and hence helps in responding to different levels of disasters by recognizing each disaster as unique. All the theories can be utilized appropriately in the line of helping the organization in designing strong structures that are used in providing the basis of quick and comprehensive methods of making decisions and responding to the issues that affect the organization.
Management Issues
World Health organization has not been effective in dealing with management issues. In my view, it has failed at some point in delivering the services to the community. There are serious issues that have been raised concerning the management of funds and hence put the organization on balance on how it handles the international issues especially on matters of health. The organization management issues have been escalated to the extent of leaders raising concerns on the effectiveness of the organization in dealing with managing diseases and fighting for reducing poverty levels. The most common management issues that affect the organization include the legitimacy and trust issues, the governance issues, conflict of interest and poor leadership. In my opinion, the organization has not been effective in its facilitation in the organization’s position in the global landscape because of the serious issues that are raised concerning how it conducts most of its functions (Bennett, 2017).
According to Prakash and Dolsak (2017), WHO has been criticized of overspending on facilitating the leaders on external trips and accommodation. Management issues are also evident as the leaders have been accused of using the resources of the organization in serving the mission of the organization instead of solving the realities that ordinary people face. International organizations such as WHO are portrayed as pillars of solving the emerging issues but instead, they engage in activities which are not aimed at uplifting the standards of the people. The accusations of mismanagement and hypocrisy paint a bad picture in the organizations. Therefore when the legitimacy of the organization is compromised, it raises questions on the ability for the organization to solve the global problems.
World Health Organisation has been facing been battling with issues of conflict of interest. According to Prakash and Dolsak (2017), conflict of interest was evident when WHO made a decision of declaring H1N1 as a pandemic. The declaration was said to have been associated with the financial ties with the pharmaceutical companies that manufactured H1N1 drugs. On the other hand, the World Health Organisation has been experiencing issues of poor leadership. Poor leadership came as a result of questionable credentials from the elected leaders.
On the other hand, according to the article by Oliver Bennett (2017) WHO is not fit to serve the purpose in which it was formed to serve. It has been criticized for responding slowly to the situation and therefore needs reforms. According to the article WHO is said to have cumbersome structure and the organization is not omnipotent anymore and its beliefs of being powerful has reduced drastically. In addition, there is a claim that WHO has lost authority and it is even worse. The issues are directly related to the management of the organization and hence might tear the organization apart. Some of the serious issues are its poor response to the outbreak of Ebola in the year in April 2014. WHO delayed until in the year 2009 where it declared Ebola as a pandemic. The declaration also resulted in a conflict of interest between the organization and the company that supplied to H1N1 drugs (Legge et al, 2017).
In addition, the article outlines that the outbreak of tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea was as a result of the slow response by WHO to the crisis. The slow response by WHO to most of the issues that affect the people has resulted in the spread of fear among the people. The issues that are raised are directly linked to poor management. In addition, WHO has been facing issues of communication breakdown (Legge et al, 2017). There has been confusion in communication between the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The confusion resulted in mixed messages between the two organizations and hence leading to the ineffectiveness of the organization in delivering its functions.
Interventions
Future international management requires quick intervention measures to save the WHO on management issues. The management should adopt measures of restoring the image and reputation that existed in the organization. Some of the interventions are outsourcing some of the key duties, especially that are related to the management. Outsourcing will introduce new methods and ways of managing the organization. WHO is in dire need of quick reforms and therefore outsourcing methods are most preferred (Negin and Dhillon, 2016). There is a need for fundamental extensive forms that will ensure the World Health Organisation (WHO) gain its original status. Most of the previous mistakes should not be repeated as they have a devastating effect on the general wellbeing of the people.
The management reforms will increase the funding and hence strengthening the general operation of the business. Most of the funding organizations are likely to withdraw the funding because of the embezzlement of funds. Proper management of the organization will attract more donors who will be willing to fund the organization. The response by the organization to an urgent crisis such as Ebola has been slow. For this reason, a radical change is required to be implemented in the organization for the purpose of changing the operation of WHO. WHO should consider on outsourcing some of the functions to other key players in the global medical areas such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, other organizations such as global funds for AIDS and Organisations that fight Malaria (Negin and Dhillon, 2016).
The organization is overstretched in carrying out most of the functions. By outsourcing the services to other organization, World Health Organisation shall be relieved from some of the functions. In addition, outsourcing will enable WHO to focus on a small number of core functions which are easy to manage (Abimbola, 2017).
On the other hand WHO should consider hiring more experts whose mandate will be responding to emergencies. The organization needs urgent reforms in dealing with emergencies. In addition to the reforms, there is a need for technical mandates and more operations in the field matters. There are rising cases of crisis which needs quick response and hence ready and equipped team is necessary. WHO should aim at building a strong and effective emergencies response team to facilitate its operations (Negin and Dhillon, 2016).
Conclusion
In conclusion, WHO should consider reforming the management issues as soon as they can for the purposes of encouraging other donors who are willing to fund the organization (Abimbola, 2017). Failure to undertake the reforms will draw away the donors who will divert funds to other organizations. The theories of management can be used in solving some of the crisis that the organizations face. The problems that are facing most of the international organizations are becoming more complex and therefore require a long lasting solution. International organizations should serve effective instruments for ensuring that proper global governance is achieved.
References
Negin, J., & Dhillon, R. S. (2016). Outsourcing: how to reform WHO for the 21st century. BMJ global health, 1(2), e000047.
Abimbola, S. (2017). Introduction to comments on’Outsourcing: how to reform WHO for the 21st century’. BMJ global health, 2(Suppl 1), i1-i1.
Legge, D. G., Schuftan, C., Baum, F. E., van de Pas, R., Sanders, D., Hanson, L., … & Sengupta, A. (2017). Comment—WHO’s weakness is not technical, but due to lack of accountability. BMJ global health, 2(Suppl 1), i2-i3.
Oviatt, B. M., & McDougall, P. P. (1994). Toward a theory of international new ventures. Journal of international business studies, 25(1), 45-64.
Bennett, O. (2017). The end is nigh for the World Health Organisation. www.independent.co.uk, retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/obamacare-trump-health-ebola-flu-pandemic-who-reforms-cancer-tb-a7622416.html. Accessed on 25 March 2019.
Prakash, A, Dolsak, N (2017). International Organisations and the crisis of legitimacy. www.openglobalrights.org, from https://www.openglobalrights.org/international-organizations-and-crisis-of-legitimacy/.Accessed on 25 march 2019.
