Prelims LabMan blog

LABORATORY MANAGEMENT

Management is an art and science that requires skills and it is a systemic body of knowledge. It directs group efforts. Managing a laboratory is not an easy task as well as to maintain its proper organization. Management skills are important for science careers of all types. Whether you work at the bench or away, the ability to organize your work and supervise those under you is critical. Laboratory Management is responsible for providing advice and information to scientists on health and safety, particularly on how to carry out risk assessments and on appropriate control measures. A further major function of Laboratory Management is the overseeing of shared equipment servicing, replacement and the purchase of new equipment to facilitate the needs of researchers.

It has many functions, one of them is planning wherein you attempt to anticipate the future. You are thinking of what would you do for the future. Planning is where you think and analyze. Next is organizing, knowing your tasks and able to organize everything accordingly. Directing and controlling is also a function of managing a laboratory. It is also important to know how the system works to be able to cope up with your environment in the laboratory. It is also important to know the roles of each member of the system. The roles of managers may be interpersonal, informational and decisional. 

To be a good manager, you should look for the personality style, if he/she is suitable and deserving to be a manager and a leader. A good manager should have an ambition, like planning and setting an objectives on how to improve the laboratory as well as their relationship with other members or staffs. Management requires skills such as financial management skills, technical skills and others. In planning, there are steps you should take, first is to determine your goals then collect information and evaluate current situation, establish time frame then set objectives. Forecast the needs and use of resources, determine steps necessary to implement goals and lastly, provide feedback mechanism.

There are different types of management planning:

• Strategic plan
• Tactical plan
• Contingency plan
• Operational plan

For organizing and staffing, you should have a primary task and that is to organize the clinical laboratory so that the staffs can work together to carry out the objectives of organization. There should be an input-process-output. For a system to be organized, it should have a purposeful activity, with hierarchy system and is self-regulating. There are principles of organizational structure and authority, this includes departmentalization, decentralization, unity of command and a scalar principle. 

In a clinical laboratory, it is also important to know the types of personnel needed. It may depend on technological and analytical complexity of the procedures being formed and testing volume or workload. In job scheduling, it depends on size and kind of institution, no. of patients served and services offered. The traditional work schedules, 8 or 80 hour rule which is 2 weeks span and a 40-hour rule.

For directing and supervising the laboratory, it involves leading and motivating people and influence people to work hard. For controlling, first step is to establish performance standard, measure actual performance, compare measured performance against established standards and take corrective actions.It monitors the activities, change plans for new development and resolves conflicts and taking corrective actions.

Laboratory management requires a technical background, so you have a common language and can earn the respect of your co-workers, but also requires significant interpersonal or people skills. While lab members need technical skills to complete individual experiments, it is the lab manager’s job to ensure that all experiments are aimed toward a common goal. Managing a laboratory is not an easy task to do, you should start from planning and setting your objectives, organize everything and determine what needs to be done then direct, lead and motivate people to do better and to work hard. Lastly, control and monitor all the activities done and change plans for new development of a better system.

"Being able to stand back and truly assess your effectiveness is hard, but it is the only way to make every day count.”