227846 Diagnosing Organization Performance: A Case Study in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

Monday, November 8, 2010

Lynn Huynh, BA, MBA, MPH , Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Ann-Michele Gundlach, EdD , Health, Policy, and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Vivian Go, PhD , Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Background: A multidisciplinary team of researchers based in the United States and Vietnam was assembled to carry out a randomized controlled trial among HIV-positive injected drug users of a behavioral intervention to reduce high risk injecting and sexual behaviors at the Thai Nguyen Center for Preventive Medicine. Performance management toolkits provide a systematic framework for the multidisciplinary team to articulate and develop team-working knowledge and skills that are linked to the goals of the research.

Objective: The objective of this project is to apply research performance measurement models to enhance team knowledge, improve job-specific performance, create transparent organizational structures, and achieve better organizational outcomes.

Methods: The first phase was to identify key stakeholders involved with the research. Key informant interviews were conducted to understand job responsibilities, explore role clarity, examine group dynamics, assess level of satisfaction, and identify key challenges. The second phase was to conduct SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis for the organization.

Results: We performed in-depth interviews with twenty-nine individuals in Vietnam and the United States. We identified key challenges to effective performance encountered by the multidisciplinary team. These challenges included differences in management style and expectations and language barriers. We found that within specific functions, relationships with colleagues were good.

Recommendations: The performance management toolkit established organizational structures and processes for knowledge transfer among stakeholders and helped build communication between individuals in teams and across research institutes. We recommend clarifying roles and responsibilities, creating venues for communications, and implementing a reward system for high performance.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Describe methods used to assess organization’s performance. List the challenges that the organization experiences in achieving its research goals. Identify strategies for managers to improve group-work performance.

Keywords: Leadership, Management

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an abstract Author on the content I am responsible for because I developed the research question, designed the instrument for interview, conducted the interview, collected the data, and analyzed the data.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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