Argumentative Essay On Rhetorical Analysis: ‘managerial Strategies For Creating An Effective Work Environment,’ By Kimberly Luse

Introduction

The healthcare industry is perhaps the most challenging and difficult industry to manage. Among the major issues that managers face are employee satisfaction, effective leadership and employee retention. Managers struggle to address these various issues that arise out of the healthcare environment and most would agree that it takes a lot of skill and effort to steer the organization towards success. In her article entitled ‘Managerial Strategies for Creating an Effective Work Environment,’ Kimberly Luse provides an action plan that aims to guide managers on how to effectively manage their organizations. With her 25 years’ experience in healthcare, Luse is one of the experts in her field and an authority when it comes to healthcare management issues. Luse has a degree in Radiologic Technology with expertise in human resource management and education. According to her profile, “Dr. Luse initiated and launched the MRI program at the University of Cincinnati in 1999, and then served in administrative roles in higher education including Executive Assistant to the President/Secretary to the Board of Regents at Northern Kentucky University and National Dean of Radiologic Technology Studies at Remington College”. The purpose of this paper is to provide a rhetorical analysis on Luse’s article with general healthcare setting in perspective. In developing her essay, Luse have broken down her article on seven major points. These are 1) Assessing Employee Performance and Satisfaction, 2) Effective Leadership, 3) Professional Development, 4) Employee Recruitment, 5) Supervision and Personnel Matters, 6) Leading Teams and 7) Managing for Employee Retention. In order to understand the author’s rhetoric, it is desirable to discuss the sub-topics in the order that they are presented in the paper.

Luce’s Argument on the Nature of Employee Performance and Satisfaction

Under the sub-topic ‘Assessing Employee Performance and Satisfaction,’ Luse is using logos in discussing how employee performance is affected by their satisfaction at work. Luce believes that a satisfied employee is more productive while an unsatisfied employee is not only unproductive but could also lead to the degradation of the morale of his fellow employees. In the aspect of employee satisfaction, Luse presented conflicting views on what makes employees satisfied. At this point, it is obvious that she is trying to compare and contrast the conflicting views on what most employees consider as important. Accordingly, most managers believe that salary and time off from work were most important to their employees. On the other hand, this belief that are commonly held by most managers are somehow refuted by a survey from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists’ (ASRT) Environmental Scan of the Radiographer’s Workplace whose study showed that “technologists rank their job, organization, coworkers, and quality of patient care as their top priorities when choosing an employer”. By presenting two conflicting views, Luse implies the notion of being unbiased. In academic writing, being unbiased and neutral shows professionalism and open-mindedness. It further implies that the topic is researched thoroughly and that all sides are being considered. However, it is quite evident that on this part of her essay, the author is trying to emphasize what motivates employees to make them more productive as well as conditions that would make them satisfied. While compensation or economic considerations are considered as very important, personal and social satisfaction are also equally important, which makes Luse’s argument very much agreeable. Not only does Luse emphasized the importance of employee satisfaction in her essay, she also believe that knowing whether an employee is satisfied or not is equally important. In order to gauge employee performance and evaluation, Luse believe that it is best practice to establish a system of evaluation. Her suggestion is for employees to evaluate themselves as well as for other employees to evaluate another employee, which she refers as 360˚ is not a new concept. In fact, most organizations have their own performance appraisal programs, which, according to Lawrence, coincide with the organization’s bottom line or objectives. The use of the term 360˚ here is quite obvious. Evidently, the author would like to emphasize the holistic approach of the evaluation process and so the figure 360˚ is very much appropriate. Aside from ordinary employees, Luse believe that managers should also undergo the 360˚ evaluation process.

On Leadership

One of Luse’s major topics in her article is about effective leadership. Again, the author uses logic or logos as her mode of persuasion. The author believes that there is a strong relationship between effective leadership and employee motivation, which is also in line with the observation of other scholars who believe that leadership “makes a business organization successful”. As observed by Luse, “Effective leadership has been identified as a key component to the level of employee satisfaction in the allied health professions”. On the other hand, Luse did not elaborate on leadership or on how one can become an effective leader. Rather, the Luse focused more on the process of evaluation and how a leader should conduct such processes. In this regards, she is using ‘reporting’ as her rhetorical mode in this particular topic. While Luse’s approach on leadership is obviously a continuation of the 360˚ evaluation process that she was suggesting on her previous topic, there seemed to be a gap on this part of the essay because it appears that concepts regarding effective leadership seemed to have been skipped or has not been discussed. Luse should have explained the value of leadership and on how one can be an effective leader as part of her topic. Perhaps Luse does not want to lose her focus on evaluation in discussing leadership and though she did not discuss the topic of leadership as expected, her take compliments perfectly with her previous argument about the importance of employee evaluation.

On Professional Development and Employee Recruitment

Logos is again a decisive mode used by the author in discussing the topic of professional development and recruitment; although her rhetorical approach is more of ‘cause and effect’ rather than reporting on what professional development and recruitment is. In connection with the factors that determine employee satisfaction, professional development, for Luse, is also an important aspect to consider. Aside from earning competitive salaries and other benefits, it is also important that employees see a chance for career advancement. For the same reason, the author believes that managers and executives must find a way to provide employees with opportunities wherein they can improve their skills. Professional development is not only restricted to promotions although it is also important that employees should be given the chance to rise up of the corporate ladder. Equally important in professional development may involve further trainings and seminars as well as engagement of ordinary employees in the organization’s decision making business strategies. This type of management creates a perception that ordinary employees are not outsiders or inferior that their ideas does deserve consideration. It should be noted that ordinary employees are a great source of valuable information which is crucial to management decisions. As frontliners, they know exactly what goes on in the operational level of the organization and have deeper understanding of the customer responses to an organization’s strategy or initiative. Perhaps the logic behind engaging employees is to better prepare them for higher positions. As observed by Luse, “Assumptions and lack of training or preparation for technologists promoted to management positions too often lead to their contributing to department dysfunction and perhaps failing at their first managerial position”. In discussing employee recruitment, it is only logical that Luse should imply that employee satisfaction starts with finding the right people for the job. Evidently, some people may not be the right fit for the job or may have other expectations that is not inline with the actual expectations of the job. As a result, new employees may become overwhelmed or may feel unchallenged under such circumstances. To avoid such scenarios, Luse suggests that managers should have close coordination with the Human Resources Department and must “allot adequate time and attention to this important task”.

On Supervision and Personnel Matters

There is a hint of emotional appeal or pathos in the author’s discussion of supervision and personnel matter while her rhetorical approach is focused on cause and effect as well. As observed, Luse believe that a disenchanted employee could lead to the disenchantment of other employees as well. For the same reason, Luse suggests that managers should keep be very much aware of these employees and make necessary intervention the soonest time possible. Demotivated employees also post risks to the efficiency of the organization’s operation as a whole. Once employees lose interests in their jobs, violent and unruly behavior might become apparent which can disturb the normal operations of an organization . Demotivated employees are most likely to steal from their company while most would miss deadlines, commit negligence, carelessness, increased absenteeism and even sabotage an organization’s operation. Eventually, employees who do not feel motivated with his job would most likely jumpship and look for other opportunities in organizations that would truly value his skills and capabilities. Apparently, there are several reasons why employees become disenchanted. As Luse observed, burnout among U.S. radiographers are quite common and is becoming increasingly alarming. Burnout, on the other hand results in poor performance that has ripple effects in the overall employee satisfaction level.

On Team Leading Strategies

In this particular topic, Luse discusses the importance of being able to effectively manage teams. This part is discussed using logos with reporting as the major rhetorical approach. According to Luse, it is possible that managers would be assigned on a team or will be tasked to organize a team. In such case, must be knowledgeable on team dynamics. Luse’s approach on this topic is quite practical more than theoretical as she uses actual work examples to emphasize her point. Managers are portrayed actively in this topic. From the first team meeting to conducting regular meetings and to the nature of how the meetings are conducted, Luse discussed in details how managers should conduct themselves in a team. There is no question that today’s business environment needs dynamic leadership. Most likely, Luse is referring to her own experience in team dynamics while discussing this topic. By paying attention to small details, the author projects her vast knowledge and experience on the topic. Her take on the topic is also practical since it focuses on actual work scenario of how people work in teams.

On Employee Retention

Luse combined ethos and logos in this discussing employee retention. It is also evident that the author uses cause and effect to emphasize her point. While retention of employees is important, Luse believe that it does not justify the retention of problematic employees. Employee retention is strongly related to employee satisfaction. As observed by Luse, “Addressing negative employee performance and behavior might require eliminating the source of the problem or even employee termination”. However, terminating an employee is not an easy task. The turnover and productivity of ordinary employees is an essential factor to consider which relates to their value when it comes to cost efficiency of an organization. Several studies have been made to determine the cost of retaining employees by providing salary increases and added benefits as compared to hiring and training new ones. According to Lucas, employee turnover is expensive in which “the average cost of replacing an employee amounts to fully 20 percent of the person's annual salary”. For a company whose workforce constitutes a number of ordinary employees, this percentage is large dent to its cost efficiency and profitability. Apart from cost consideration related to retaining ordinary employees, a demotivated workforce would result in decreased productivity which equates to lost profits. In the U.S., companies spend an estimated $44 billion in training purposes alone; all these expenses going to waste every time an employee leaves . Although the actual cost of attrition is difficult to estimate, there is a consensus among scholars that the effect of employee attrition is incremental that can exceed any conservative estimates. Problems on employee retention can be a cyclic process if not properly intervened. First, the employee becomes unsatisfied with his job and eventually leaves. After leaving, the workload of remaining employees increases making them susceptible to burnout and stress. Employees who are stressed and over-worked become poor performing employees thereby affecting the organization’s service quality. Poor service quality would result to unsatisfied clients, which has ripple effects on the organization’s financial stability and morale. This results to employees becoming unsatisfied and the cycle of employee turnover repeats.

Conclusion

The paper is meant for academic and professional audience and so it is only rational that the paper is largely based on logos or logic. On the other hand, Luse’s rhetorical approach is a combination of comparing and contrasting, reporting and cause and effect, which were used appropriately in her essay. Also, Luse’s article is logical as much as it is ethical. By highlighting the strategies on how leaders can manage their work environment, it is obvious that Luse would like to draw attention among industry leaders towards her strategic suggestions. It could not be denied that Luse has the necessary credentials (pertaining to ethos or author’s credibility) to back up her claims. In fact, Luse’s observation that managing the healthcare environment is challenging could never be more accurate. As observed, the healthcare industry is one of the industries where employees are prone to work related stress and burnout. For the same reason, healthcare employees are more prone to quitting their jobs as compared to employees from other industries. Also, the interconnectedness of her topics and how she discussed each in practical terms added to the academic appeal of the article as well. Overall, Luse’s article, ‘Managerial Strategies for Creating an Effective Work Environment’ is informative and satisfactory.

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