Filipino Medical Technology Dean’s Strategies to Overcome Organizational Challenges: A Phenomenological Inquiry

This qualitative research aims to unravel the challenges encountered by the Filipino medical technology deans when performing their functions and to describe their ways to overcome them.

The deans disclosed that the most common dilemma they encountered rested on people, resources, workload, and personal. People related challenges, for instance, were obviously displayed by the faculty members and staffs’ resistance to certain policies and plans laid out by the university. At times, conflict among them arises which eventually gave rise to informal leaders. The deans, however, agreed that problem along this facet could be resolved by appropriate communication. Moreover, they encountered problems on resources during the operation- facilities, budget, manpower, and time management were among them. They were able to manage to go through by prioritizing the purchase of the needed resources and proportionally allocating them to the units of the department. Some deans were resourceful and creative enough to innovate the resources available to suit these to their present requirements. Along with workload-related strategies. Some deans got a hard time in class scheduling and giving teaching assignments because of their doing some administrative roles, they ran short of time to do these. To resolve, faculty restructuring was done so that some academic tasks could be delegated. Finally, the deans did face personal-related challenges. They became enemies to themselves as indicated by their feelings of isolation, self-adjustment to keep even to the stakeholders they dealt with, and exhaustion. To combat, they set time for self-reflection and adapt ways to reach out the people around them.

In spite of the efforts of the deans and despite of the available resources they have, they were still facing some challenges in managing the department. Their unresolved problems will hamper the program operation. Their disclosures implied the need for the top management and other stakeholders to revisit the organization to identify the resources the deans needed for an efficient and effective program operation.