By Carlina Hansen, California Health Care Foundation, October 15, 2019
Before joining CHCF, I spent almost 20 years as executive director of the Women’s Community Clinic in San Francisco. In my time there, we forged some valuable partnerships to serve our clients and community, including our merger with another community health center, HealthRIGHT 360. It was during the merger process that I learned first-hand one of the biggest challenges to forging such partnerships — and it wasn’t what I was expecting.
As the closing date for the merger approached, unanticipated challenges arose. Despite our shared values and the clear financial and operational advantages to combining the health centers, the process revealed that our organizational cultures were different from one another. It became clear that we hadn’t adequately accounted for those differences.
Organizational culture includes your group’s values, beliefs, and behaviors. This can be about how the health center makes decisions, handles conflicts, or their philosophies about patient care. For example, the Women’s Community Clinic had only 40 employees, and staff members at all levels participated in organizational decisions. Everyone had frequent contact with senior leadership. As a larger statewide organization, HealthRIGHT360 operated differently, which was a big adjustment for the Women’s Community Clinic staff. Another striking difference showed up during one of the first joint staff meetings. HealthRIGHT360’s culture was to dive right into the business of a meeting, a big change for the Women’s Community Clinic staff who expected more up-front relational time before moving through the meeting agenda.
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