Building community in the healthcare workplace, Part 3: Belonging and satisfaction at work

Squeezed between mounting budget pressures and staffing demands, healthcare managers have little room to maneuver as they are buffeted by incessant new strategies. So what is the constant that they can use to keep a steady course through all the chaos? We suggest the overarching constant is "community in the workplace." Although community building may have both short- and long-term benefits, it is not a strategy but a career-long philosophy to help managers tie together all the facets of their daily work into a more meaningful and satisfying purpose. This article, part 3 in a 4-part series, describes methods for building community in the entire organization or in a single unit. Options for implementing change in complex adaptive systems such as hospitals are discussed, along with remedies for the most common obstacles managers will encounter. Part 1 (July/August) described the negative dynamics that obstruct sustainable change and reasons for moving to community at work. Part 2 (September) discussed the basic characteristics and principles of community building. The final article (November) will present a case study and will discuss how community can be built in a unionized environment.