Reflection 6 – Organizational Culture

Although I wrote about my association’s organizational culture for my week one reflection, I find it appropriate to reflect upon the dynamics of the office as we have shifted work priorities.  Within the first half of my internship, the focus of all staff members has been on the budget campaign for the upcoming fiscal year.  Last week, the budget was finalized and signed by Governor Wolfe, thus ending our budget campaign.  Our leadership, specifically looking to our CEO/President, is now embracing a “thank you” campaign for our state legislators.  This new objective leads to a culture of gratitude and humility, which has shown through meetings, attitudes, and communication within the office.

As I mentioned before, PHCA is a nonprofit association with a Board of Directors to serve as their governing body and check the actions of the association.  To adapt to the conditions of the pandemic, PHCA leadership hosts weekly board meeting calls to keep the membership informed through the volatile guidelines for the long-term care industry.  This Wednesday was our last weekly board call because of additional stability in long-term care facilities and support from the budget monies.  The tone of the meeting was distinguishable from previous meetings.  Our CEO/President expressed gratitude to all the work done by PHCA staff, but he also thanked individual members of the board for their dedication to the industry throughout the past year and a half.  

This was a show of significant leadership to me, as he adjusted the way he communicated with others to reflect the values behind the association’s work.  Not only have these weekly calls shown adaptable leadership within a high-stress situation, but they also created a direct line for board members to see into the attitudes and expectations of the association.  Now that we have moved on from the budget campaign, the association has embraced a new attitude to complement the “thank you” campaign to legislators and great appreciation to leadership for the association.  While this is likely to change with the next large objective for the association’s advocacy work, it shows that the culture of the organization is fluid and complementary to the focus of their work.  This is reflected in their communications, values, expectations, and focus of leadership.