MMP - Manager Interview

I interviewed Doctor Rohani Saptu, who is the sole-proprietor and owner of Usrah Medical Clinic, located at Blk 510 Bedok North St 3 #01-25 S(460510). She graduated from NUS in 1992. Usrah Medical Clinic is a family-orientated clinic, situated in the HDB-heartland. It started operating in 2000. The aim of the clinic is to help every member of the community to maintain health and to prevent illness from starting or spreading in the community.


In all honesty, I decided to interview her because I felt that it will be different. Every doctor has to take the Hippocratic Oath. The main goal of every doctor is to help others, while other managers would be just to earn money. Afterall, it is just business. 

Besides her duties as a doctor, she is also the manager of her clinic. She has to allocate the work hours for the clinic staff. When I asked her what her style of management was, she was quick to reply with "authoritarian", adding a laugh. Her main role as a manager is to get 

the staff to work together as a team and explain directives to any new staff.

I concluded that her style of management is administrative. One of the Fayol's Principles is authority and responsibility, which she stressed on greatly.

I stayed at the clinic for a few hours to watch how she and the staff work. She worked independently with little input from the rest of the group. In addition, she upheld  stringent control over the staff by directly regulating rules and actions. She constructed gaps and built distance between herself and her staff with the intention of stressing role distinctions. This means there is a fine line between her as the boss and manager, and with the workers.

In my opinion, there are positives and negatives in every theory. For her style of management, it is a lot easier for her to forecast and plan, control and organise things such as division of labour and unity of command. However, there is much absence of attention seen so the management will probably not be able to cope with any rapid and drastic changes made to the company.

Doctor Rohani said that a good manager is someone who is a team-player and is able to lead the team. She added that she was never interested in managing, but she got used to managing her clinic as it was "an everyday routine".

Every company has its strengths and weaknesses. She highlighted the fact that her clinic is "people oriented". Patients are allowed to pay via cash, nets or through government approved schemes like Medisave and the pioneer card (CHAS). However, there were a couple of instances where patients have pointed out about time management, or more specifically, time given for each patient and medicine preparation. I work at Usrah every term break and I can say for a fact that this is true. It is very difficult to attend to patients, key in particulars and prepare medication consecutively.

I introduced a few theories of management to her, which includes Theory Y and The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. She stated that she will strive to work towards those ideal styles but for now, she is comfortable with the way she manages as her clinic is still flourishing.