Resource dependence – internal environment

The main issue here is that all the parties involved have “heterogeneous goals” and there is “competitive interdependence” between all of them (Pfeffer 68-69). There is a relatively limited amount of resources (money) and yet all members need a balloon pump that does a different function. If one group gets the pump it wants it means that the other groups will not get what they want. Therefore, “power is virtually the only way to resolve the decision” as there is no one, “agreed upon goal” (Pfeffer 70 & 77).

The “cardiologists and nurses on the coronary care unit” needed a pump that could track the patients’ heart rhythm (Eddy 2). The thoracic intensive care unit needed a pump that could work with patients’ that had pacemakers inside of them. In the “cath lab” pumps were needed in case of emergencies. And in the operating room pumps were used after heart-lung bypass to wean people’s hearts back to work. All four of these groups had different uses for the pumps, and so needed pumps with different capabilities.

Another important factor in determining which pump to buy was how easily the pump could be operated. This was described by the acronym KISS, which meant “Keep It Simple, Stupid” (Eddy 16). Because the hospital had to deal with high-tension situations it needed a pump that could be easily operated under stress. Though the available pumps often satisfied more than one group’s requirements they did so to varying degrees and some groups requirements could not be satisfied. There were varying goals that people wanted to achieve, but there was scarcity of money that could be allocated to these goals and so a competitive interdependence existed. This was the main reason that a power struggle emerged in the hospital.

The issue was...

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