Aged Care Leadership and Management Practices

This assignment delves into the critical aspects of leadership and management within aged care organizations. It seeks to understand the essential leadership skills required in this sector, the type of organizational support available for leadership development, and the challenges hindering effective management practices. Participants will analyze their own experiences, identify key elements of successful leadership, and discuss strategies for enhancing leadership and management capabilities in aged care settings.

Running Head: Enhancing Leadership 1
Enhancing Leadership and management in Aged Care sector

Enhancing Leadership 2
Executive summary
Leadership is an ability to lead the people and employees in the organization. There are
various analyses done by the researchers on the leadership. Some people assume that the
leadership is the point for the followers every time and several others assume that leadership is in
the organization is to motivate its members for doing the best and achieving the goals and
objectives set by the aged care organizations. Basically, leadership is the process in which a
person leads and influences the team and the members of the organization to achieve a common
goal and objectives (Hao & Yazdanifard, 2015). In simple terms, leadership is the act of
inspiring and motivating their employees having common goals. In the healthcare and aged care
sector, there is the need and demands of the efficient, safe, and affordable healthcare practices.
The role of leaders and managers impacts on the changes and are now being asked in the health
care organizations. The nursing managers are now expected to have managerial and leadership
skills to function effectively with their roles and respond to the challenges in the healthcare
system reforms. This study basically analyzes the leadership practices in the aged care
organizations and related outcomes to empower the staff and job satisfaction. Along with this,
this study analyzes the leadership development needs of the nursing managers. Leadership and
job satisfaction of the employees and empowerment are the important elements in the
organizational performance (Wuestman & Casey, 2015).
Leaders are the important parts of any business organization. They are decision makers
and they take decisions for implementing new strategies in the business operations and exclusion
old strategies from the operations. Effective leadership in the organization affects and motivates
the employees of the organizations to achieve the set goals and objectives of the organization.
Leaders should motivate employees by the economic and non-economic rewards and get the
work by an effective manner from the employees. The results and findings will identify the way
of the enhancement of leadership and management within the aged care organizations.
Key words
Leadership, Management, Communication, Development, Patient care

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Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Key words........................................................................................................................................2
List of figures...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Background......................................................................................................................................5
Question...........................................................................................................................................6
Scope................................................................................................................................................7
Objective..........................................................................................................................................8
Methods...........................................................................................................................................9
Limitations.................................................................................................................................10
Participants.................................................................................................................................10
Procedures..................................................................................................................................10
Data analysis..............................................................................................................................11
Literature review............................................................................................................................12
Brief overview of leadership and management..........................................................................12
Leadership and management......................................................................................................14
Leadership in aged care sector...................................................................................................14
Results............................................................................................................................................16
Needs of leadership and management........................................................................................21
Discussion......................................................................................................................................22
Essential leadership skills in aged care organizations...............................................................23
Leadership and management development needs......................................................................24
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................25
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................27
References......................................................................................................................................29
Appendix........................................................................................................................................35
List of figures
Figure 1: number of years in aged acre sector...............................................................................17

Enhancing Leadership 4
Figure 2: Highest qualification......................................................................................................17
Figure 3: leadership skills..............................................................................................................18
Figure 4: Critical elements in the leadership.................................................................................19
Figure 5: Sources of support..........................................................................................................21
Figure 6: Needs of leadership and management............................................................................21

Enhancing Leadership 5
Introduction
Over the last few years, it is observed that most of the aged care sectors are becoming
aware of the need and importance to enhancement of leadership and management within the
organizations. Now, leadership development is listed as the second highest concern in the aged
care industry. Along with this, major corporate initiatives are also outlined i.e. retention,
employee recruitment, leadership development and succession planning program that are
important to improve the organizational performance in the industry. Although, finding and
retaining the health care leaders is a critical task for the organizational success but the
development of these leaders are ignored by the organizations so they are not prepared for the
new roles. This report basically focuses on the development and enhancement of the leadership
and management in the aged care sector at the Australian and global level. It is observed that
there are skill gaps in the healthcare sector that can disrupt the leadership transition in the
management candidates. In this report, the extensive review of the literature on the leadership
and management in the aged care industry is given in order to identify the critical attributes (Tsai
et al, 2015). On the basis of the literature review, report provides various elements to enhance the
process and effective leadership and management within the industry. By enhancing effective
leadership and management process, healthcare organizations would be able implement internal
change in terms of technology and approach. To maximize the value for the patients by obtaining
the best outcomes, proper leadership is crucial for the aged care sector. In the effective
management and by using motivational tools i.e. peer pressure, shared purpose and improving a
patient-centered approach, healthcare organization would be able to achieve the goals (Walsh &
Lynas, 2016).
Background
The topic of the research is enhancing the leadership and management in the aged care
sector. Good leadership is very important for the success of the healthcare organization. In the
healthcare sector, good leadership is more than important as it is critical for the success of the
organization. There are some issues in terms of management in the healthcare organization due
to extreme workload, over competition in the industry, lack of available staff and employees’
necessity of the required technology etc. Due to all these challenges, the work environment in the

Enhancing Leadership 6
health care organizations is becoming complicated gradually. Thus, there is the need of effective
way and team work in the healthcare organizations in which managers can create strategic
leadership in the business. Healthcare sector is the subject of change for the development of the
various countries. In the continuous rise of competition, the quality of the health services is
major issue for the patients (Fitzgerald, 2015). For this manner, there is the need of appropriate
management and leadership skills to manage the operations within the healthcare sector.
Basically, leadership is identified as the important role in the healthcare consultant post.
Leadership in the aged care industry is important to implement the dictatorial management style
within the organizations. Leadership in the industry is crucial in which managers have the
responsibility to demonstrate the leadership qualities within the managerial role in the
organization. Aged care organizations must have the leadership expertise to implement the
change based on the decision- making process and patient-centered approach for care (Ganta and
Manukonda, 2014)
The quality of aged care organizations depends upon the effective and efficient use of the
resources. Proper management of the organization improves the efficiency of the operations and
help to ensure best use of the limited resources. The management of healthcare system is
recognized as the profession and people would be attracted by the profession. By the proper
management, organization would be able to have greater voice in the society and would achieve
improved population and patient health results (Swensen, 2015). The aged care organizations
face two main barriers in terms of professional management. The first one is the lack of proper
management and training among the healthcare leaders. Second one is that the role of the
managers and leaders is not recognized as the profession. So, there is the need of development of
effective leadership and management practices in the aged care sector to produce highly
competent managers in the organizations (Gibson & Mumford, 2013).
Question
The objective of this research is to understand the major factors that impact the leadership
in the aged care sector and organizations. Leadership is important for the success and growth of
the business in every industry. In the aged care, the objectives of the aged care organizations are
to provide high level of patients care and quality services to the users. The report is focused on
developing effective leadership and management in the aged care organizations based on the

Enhancing Leadership 7
study of various viewpoints on the past and current business executives, managements and
leaders in the industry. Purpose of this report is to find out the way to improve the leadership
practices in the aged care sector. In this manner, the research questions are as follows:
 How the leadership and management can be improved in aged care organizations at
Australian and international level?
 How can the quality of patient care be improved in the health care organizations?
 How can quality leadership be improved in the healthcare organizations’ operations?
By finding the answers of these questions, the report would be able to provide meaningful
and useful information about the role of leadership in the healthcare organization. Leadership is
important for the effective organizational decision making process. So, the aim of the research
questions is to conduct an effective survey for this manner (Noordegraaf et al, 2016).
Scope
Basic purpose of this study is to explore the leadership and management practices within
the aged care organizations and impact on the organizational outcomes. Objective of the study is
enhancing the leadership practices for the better service management of the patient care. The
study and findings has significance scope for the future. The findings from the study will
contribute to the literature in future in many different ways. The study will explain the
importance of leadership practices for the employees’ empowerment and job satisfaction. The
study will be helpful in identifying the skills necessary for developing leadership in the
organizational context. The discussion section of the study would be very useful and beneficial
for the future research. This research would be significant in various areas i.e.
 Similar study on the practices of leadership and management coming from the various
level of workforce,
 Further investigation on the relationship between patients’ outcome and nursing
leadership and management,
 Further study on the impact of leadership involvement and its effect on the patient
outcomes and staff, and
 Investigation and study on the relationship by using other individual such as extent of
control.

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Along with this, the direction of future research would deal with the role of current health
environment. So this study would be beneficial in the implementations of the methods used in
the study regarding the redesign and review of the role of leaders and managers in the
organizations. There are various further opportunities for the future research. For instance, the
study is focused on transformational leadership development approach. For the further
investigation on the leadership enhancement, this report would be beneficial based on this
specific study.
Objective
The objective of this research is to find out the ways to enhance the leadership and
management practices within the aged care sector. From the above discussion, it is clear that to
improve the performance of the employees and to provide quality services in terms of patient
care, effective leadership and management is crucial in the aged care sector. Aim of this research
is to improve the leadership practices with in the aged care organizations at the national and
global level for achieving the best organizational outcomes for patients. It also includes how
much patients are satisfied with the offered services. Along with this, it also includes the type of
leadership required in the aged care sector. By analyzing and understanding the survey questions,
this research has aim to provide a clear picture of effective leadership and methods of enhancing
the management and leadership practices, types of leadership and services the patients want from
the aged care organizations (Nicol, Mohanna, & Cowpe, 2014).
Aim of the study is to examine the perception of leadership and related factors associated
with the healthcare industry, its environment and related services. The specific research
objectives for this study are as follows:
 Identify the role of leadership and psychological work environment factors in the nursing
homes and aged care organizations,
 Improving leadership and management practices and behavior in the hospitals and other
aged care organizations (Spurgeon, Long, Clark & Daly, 2015) and
 Improving, managing and measuring the organizational performance of the employees by
the effective leadership practices and various factors etc.

Enhancing Leadership 9
Basically, this research program seeks to evaluate the impact leadership and management in
the clinical environment by focusing on the staff, supervisor and team members in the aged care
organizations. It is well known that leaders motive the followers towards the achievements of the
goals by their shared sense and morale. So, for the effective patient care, leadership is crucial in
the Australian aged care sector (Veronesi, Kirkpatrick & Altanlar, 2015).
Methods
The method used in the research is quantitative research as it includes methodology and
design. The method of the study is based on the questionnaire. The rational for the selection of
participants, the distribution of questionnaire, and storage and collection of data are documented.
This is a descriptive study that identifies and observes the leadership practices in the aged care
organizations and hospitals in Australia and impact of leadership behavior on the workplace
outcome. It will also explore various ways to enhance the leadership role in the organizations and
investigates the professional leadership development needs within the organizations (Bresnen et
al, 2015).
In the qualitative method, survey is done based on the questionnaire as it can provide
appropriate and suitable information on the importance of leadership practices, workplace
empowerment and leadership practices and the perception of the employees and nurses who are
working in the aged care organizations. This method is chosen as this is affordable and allows
the questions to be completed that cannot be responded during an interview. The survey is
widely used to gather the useful data to the specific set of questions in terms of leadership and
management practices within the healthcare organizations. There can be one issue in the survey
i.e. low response rate. The response rate of 15% to 30% is common in the survey research. The
administration of the survey is in the form of questionnaire for this study as it has benefit over
the other data collection methods i.e. interviews or telephone survey. The telephone survey was
not considered for this study because of the inconvenience of participants as they could be absent
from the work. According to the Polit & Beck (2006), telephonic surveys sometimes are less
effective method for collecting the information. Further, interview was also not considered for
this study as it involves more time and cost along with unnecessary instruments for the research.
So, questionnaire survey is used as this method provides anonymity and does not provide
interviewer bias.

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Limitations
Although the method of survey questionnaire is the most effective method for gathering
the relevant information in terms of leadership, but there are some limitation of the research that
must be taken into consideration during the analysis. The limitations of the analysis and research
are as follows:
 There is the potential that the employees and nurses may undervalue the ratings of the
study. This can be because of low level of morale in the workplace while questionnaire is
distributed in the healthcare organization during the research.
 There is the possibility that the manager rate themselves higher in the survey than the
observers rate them. This can be the major limitation for the study.
Participants
Participants for this research are the staff and nurses of some hospitals in the Australian
aged care sector. Participants are those people who are working in those hospitals for long time.
There are many aged acre organizations in Australia and it is not possible to collect information
from all the organizations, so sample of the some famous and established organization is taken.
The survey packages are coded to identify the specific ward or department. The respondents are
requested not to put their names on the survey forms. The participants were agreed to participate
in this study of need to improve the leadership and returned the survey questionnaire to the
investigator. People were randomly selected to participate in the study. For the study, the aged
care organizations of Sydney West area (Western zone) are selected. This area has largest
population of staff and nurses and it would be effective to collect the sample of information for
enhancing leadership and management in the organizations. The Sydney western zone have
comprehensive specialty health care services along with this intensive care, neonatal care and
pediatric are unit.
Procedures
The important information and data was collected by using the questionnaire on the
improvement of leadership and management within the organization. The area director of the
organizations and hospitals was provided the questionnaire and survey instruments and his or her
role was to significant support for the study. The support from the facility director of
organizations was also received in this research. Further, the questionnaire survey packets were

Enhancing Leadership 11
sent to all the selected participants. The questionnaire includes 20 questions that focuses on the
general information of participants along with the questions related to the need of leadership in
the organization. The participants were asked to fill the questionnaire completely and to return
them in the self-addressed to the researcher within 14 days. The list of all the participants is
prepared and the survey packets were coded prior for participants to ensure confidentiality. The
participants were instructed not to put their names and other details on the questionnaire. The
literature recommends some strategies to improve the response rate for the survey i.e.
redistribution of the questionnaire thanking to those who gave responses and reminder for the
non-respondents to return the questionnaire (Mascia, Russo, Dello, & Morandi, 2015).
Data analysis
For the process of data analysis, the content analysis is used for analyzing the responses
of the qualitative section of the questionnaire. Content analysis is used for the open-ended
questions which are available in the questionnaire. The qualitative responses in the open-ended
questionnaire are analyzed and categorized. There are following steps in the analysis of the
responses:
 The responses are read again and again in order to provide an understanding and
familiarity with the text,
 The catagories and themes are identified and frequencies are noted, and
 The gathered information and data are reviewed to improve the reliability of the
subjective analysis (Hoption, 2014).
Basically, the method used for this study and research has aim to prepare research design,
data collection, instrumentation and identify methods of data analysis. The objective of this
research with the qualitative analysis is to explore effective leadership and management practices
in the various aged care organizations and the impact of leadership practices on the staff
satisfaction, patient care and workplace empowerment. Along with this, the follow-up is also
taken from the respondents. For this manner, the follow-up letter was sent to all the participants
who did not respond to the questions within 14 days. After the 14 days, one more follow-up was
sent to the non-respondents and provided more 7 days to submit the questionnaire. Further, the
discussion and result of the study is described in the report.

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Literature review
The aged care industry is facing some challenges in the managerial activities and
operations so, it is crucial to enhance the leadership and management practices at the national
and international level of aged care organizations. The aged care organizations must manage the
safety and quality issues along with improving the productivity and efficiency for achieving
patient access and right treatment. The quality and process of leadership and management in the
aged care system impact on the quality of patient care directly and indirectly (Avolio, Bruce &
Yammarino, 2013). Leadership is important factor for supporting best practices in the
organization. In the health care industry, leadership exist at the different level i.e. governance,
management and clinical care. Based on the various researches, it is observed that the quality of
leadership impact people, their satisfaction level, trust in management individual and team
effectiveness and commitment, culture of the organizations and individual and collective
performance. Some other factors i.e. political agendas, economic stability, individual differences,
history of organization and industry are affected by the organizational outcome but leadership
plays an important role in motivating people to achieve the common organizational goal
(Berghman, 2012).
The importance of the effective leadership can be understood by an example. In the
healthcare system, it is noted that that there are 1300 hospitals in all over United States and
Europe and it is found that those hospitals are well managed with the qualified leaders and are
producing higher standard of patient care. Next evidence of leadership comes from the workforce
survey in UK (Kyratsis, Armit, Zyada & Lees, 2016).The survey reveals that higher leadership
quality of the senior managers’ leads higher organization rates in the performance and lower the
number of the patients complaints. According to the Roebuck (2011), leaders can motivate and
encourage the employees to get engaged and improve the performance up to 57%. He also found
that leaders are capable to motivate the employees for achieving the corporate objectives.
Further, effective leadership and its development are also important in the current Australian
context of healthcare change (Hunter, Cassidy & Ligon, 2011).
Brief overview of leadership and management
To understand the nature of leadership, it is important to understand the elements of the
leadership in the behavioral science. There are more than 90 variables identified as the elements

Enhancing Leadership 13
of leadership. There are some common attributes and behaviors which contribute to the positive
leadership practices on the basis of leadership theory and research. In recent time, many attempts
are done by the researchers to observe and explain the concept of leadership. There are various
theories focused on the behavior, personality, context and relationship in the leadership concept.
The most effective theories of leadership are trait theories, behavior theories, situational theories
and contemporary theories (Riggio, 2014).
Trait theories-
In starting, the leadership researchers was interested in the characteristics or traits that
di9ffrentiate the leaders from each other. Most of the researchers are focused on identifying the
leadership traits. Under this theory, wide range of individual characteristics was identified such
as height, gender, intelligence, personality, physical energy, need for power and need for
achievement. But, these searches for the leadership traits proved pointless and researchers turned
to the behaviors of the leaders. There are number of trait related leadership theories that are
founded during the investigation i.e. achievement motivation theory’ and ‘leader motive profile’.
Behavior theories-
After the failure of trait theories, researchers turned to the behaviors of leaders as role of
leadership and relationship effectiveness and behaviors. Based on these theories, there are four
leadership styles i.e. authoritarian (low relationship skills with high task), team leader (high
relationship with high task), country club (high relationship skills with low task) and
impoverished leadership (low relationship skills with low task). These dimensions provide the
situations that could influence the leaders’ behavior.
Situational theories-
These theories stated that the specific situation defines behaviors and personal traits
within a leader. According to the situational leadership, there are four leadership styles that
include various levels and combination of tasks and relationship behaviors i.e. motivating,
training delegating and structure. There are various situational factors i.e. motivation and
competence that determine most suitable leadership style based on situation. One of the situation
theories is ‘path-goal theory’ that identifies four leadership styles that impact on the followers

Enhancing Leadership 14
differently i.e. supportive, participative, directive and achievement-oriented styles. Each of the
leadership style has different context within the organizations (Suwaryo, Daryanto, Maulana,
2016).
Contemporary theories-
These theories provide more sophisticated view on the leadership within the
organizations. There is ‘leader-member exchange’ theory that reveals the relationship between
the leaders and followers that impact the leaders’ behavior. The theory suggests that rather the
similar style of leadership, leaders should develop various types of exchange with every
employee. Further, there is ‘transformational leadership’ that addresses the actions of leaders that
are required to implement the change in terms of goals, values, aspirations and needs. The
leadership behavior needs to motivate the employees based on the situations (Samad. 2012).
Leadership and management
Based on various researches, it is observed that the term ‘leadership’ and ‘management’
are interchangeable. The objective of leadership is to bring the constructive change within the
organization. On the other hand, the role of management is to provide efficiency, order,
consistency and stability to the employees within the organization. These two processes have
important role in the organizational functions. Basically, management is considered as the
important part to keep the organization ‘running’ i.e. to keep the activities on track and to meet
the organizational objectives effectively (McSherry & Pearce, 2016). Further, leadership is
essential for providing a vision for the future; motivate the employees to achieve the
organizational goals, and drive organizational change. Skills qualities and attributes are required
to become good manager or leader. According to Zaleznik (2004), leaders must be selected based
some factors such as goal attitudes, personality, and work conceptions. Further, according to
Lavy and Carroll (2008), leadership happens when the leaders and followers set higher level of
motivation, creativity, achievement and drive.
Leadership in aged care sector
In the aged care, leadership roles are important for managing and overcoming from wide
range of challenges. Basically, the leadership roles in the health sector have a common goal i.e.
attaining the best outcome for the patients. The health care organizations have inverted power
structure where the staff and employees in the practical activities of patient care. So, frontline

Enhancing Leadership 15
leaders have greater impact over the decision making and the quality of patient care. Sometimes,
leaders are champions in managing the quality in terms of care at the service level. It is observed
lack of leadership in the clinical environment is one of the main weaknesses in the health service
(Braithwaite, 2014). So, the development of effective leadership is considered as important for
the healthcare reform and change. In fact, the growing body of literature reveals that the
leadership should be placed in the clinical environment for implementing effective change. The
managerial leadership is basically focused on the basic needs of the organizations i.e. planning,
analyzing, macro-level budgeting and controlling (Ionescu, 2014). In this manner, leadership in
the aged care sector would be focused on implementing best practices meeting service needs and
providing quality for the best patient outcomes. Leadership in the aged care can be described as
the set of tasks for the improvement in terms of safety and quality of healthcare and required
attributes to achieve the organizational goals. Basically, it is an ongoing process for improving
the engagement between healthcare professionals and support staff and service providers for
providing high-quality patient care at the individual level (Almog-Bareket, 2012).
Safety and quality in the aged care depends upon various factors i.e. culture including
quality and safety, availability of resources like financial, human. Physical, and information to
provide care, sufficient number of staff and care providers and ongoing performance evaluation.
Leaders in the healthcare organization have all the resources and control to provide for these
factors. Leaders in the aged care promote the mission, vision, and goals of the organization.
Leaders are helpful in strategic planning for the effective services, acquire and allocate the
resources and decide the priorities for improving the performance (Sarto & Veronesi, 2016).
Along with this, leaders establish the culture of the organization by their words, effective use of
resources, ethical behavior and community service and culture to achieve the goals of the
organizations. In the aged care sectors, it is quite difficult for the leaders to achieve the goals of
the hospital system i.e. high-quality care, safety and security, community services, financial
sustainability and ethical behavior (Parris & Peachey, 2013). For this manner, there is the need of
collaboration among the groups of leaders within in the organization. So, leaders are the one who
are pioneer of the plans and innovative ideas and managers are those who implement plans
within the organization. Leadership development is similar as the strategic development in the
aged care organizations. While establishing short terms and long terms goals, the healthcare
organizations must calculate the initiatives carefully. By selecting right and appropriate

Enhancing Leadership 16
individuals, aged care organizations would be able to get organizational success. Further,
measuring and managing performance of the employees in the aged care sector is very complex.
So, leaders in the health systems need to develop a clear methodology and system along with the
organizational strategies to measure and manage the performance of the staff in their job role
(Kristensen et al, 2016). By the transformational leadership, healthcare organizations would be
able to change the manager’s leadership behavior. Along with this, transformational leadership
impact on the financial performance of the organization significantly. The effective manner of
leadership would surely have a positive impact on the performance of the organizations in terms
of quality of patient care. Further, it is observed that out of 81 respondents, 91% of respondents
were female and ages ranged from 23 to 60 years.
There was the question related to the work experience of the participants. It is observed
by the responses that people are working for at least 5 years who can be effective leader in the
organization. Some people are working more than 10 years within the organization.
Results
The survey results are based on the responses of the participants in the questionnaire. The
result for the leadership practices and responses is based on open-ended questions. The study
population included of the staff employed in the various hospitals in the Sydney south west area.
The sample of 42 nursing managers and 200 registered nurses were invited to get participation in
this study. Around 81 completed surveys were returned with the answers. There was one of the
survey question i.e. have you attended ant workshop, training and seminars related to leadership
and management. This question was not completed by 60% of the participants. Those who have
attended this question provided incomplete responses. By their responses, it is clear that there is
the lack of effective leadership training programs for the employees (Puccio, Mance & Murdock,
2011).

Enhancing Leadership 17
Figure 1: number of years in aged acre sector
1<2 years,
5%
2<3
years,
5%
3<5
years,
5%
5<7
years,
5%
7-10 years
30%
More than 10 years
50%
Chart Title
The data of qualification is also gathered from the respondents. The highest nursing
qualification was either bachelor degree of nursing or certificate of graduate. It is estimated that
around 39% people had master degree in nursing and 47% had basic qualification. 17% of
respondents had certificate as the highest qualification (Gill, 2011).
Figure 2: Highest qualification

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Undergraduate Diploma
7%
Hospital certificate
29%
Bachelor of nursing
17%
Master degree in
nursing
47%
Further, there were descriptive questions whose answers were given based on the
understanding and need for the development of the leadership and management practices. The
questionnaire gathered qualitative information in terms of required and essential leadership skills
for the leaders. There was the question in the questionnaire i.e. what do you think to be essential
leadership skills for the nursing managers. Participants revealed a large number of leadership
skills that are important for the role of a leader. In the rough data, respondents identified around
185 separate essential leadership skills. The leadership skills were categorized in the different
catagories. Although, a large number of skills were identified but there was strong agreement on
some essential leadership skills i.e. communication skills, strategic skills, personal characteristics
and relationship with the staff are essential leadership skills (Voegtlin, Patzer & Scherer, 2012).
Figure 3: leadership skills

Enhancing Leadership 19
communicatio
n skills
15%
strategic skills
15%
personal
characteristics
33%
relationship with the
staff
38%
Further, the respondents were asked to identify the critical elements in the leadership
roles. Amongst all the responses include supporting staff, management skills, motivating staff,
communication skills, and keeping ward together. Majority of the respondents give responses
towards the managing staff, good management practices, conflict resolution skills, and staff
retention. The responsibility towards motivating and supporting the staff were also identified as
important for leaders’ role. Patient safety and quality initiatives are the part of leadership role.
Figure 4: Critical elements in the leadership
management skills
50%
supporting staff
11%
promoting quality care
26%
com
muni
catio
n
13%

Enhancing Leadership 20
Further, role of the nursing managers is challenging according to the participants in the
healthcare environment. The responses were not connected with the technical skills with the
leadership role. They were basically connected with the psychological factors such as being
diverse, difficult and demanding, and need for the clarification. Some comments from the
respondents were like its demanding and busy role, changeable role, and there are the high
expectations to become skilled from clinical resources. There were also some other views on the
leadership i.e. leaders is one who is willing to take the step ahead from his or her comfort zone to
improve the benefits for the staff and patient in the changing environment. In the question of
positive aspect of the leadership role, the answer of most the participants was some kind of
motivation. The question was what positive aspect you consider in the role of leaders in the
health care environment. In most of the answers, positive response was ‘provision of good
outcomes’ (Malloch & Melnyk, 2013). Other responses of the participants were described below:
 To be able to achieve the organizational goals and objectives, and
 Seeing good results and outcomes for the success of the staff and good outcomes for the
patients and clients.
The respondents were asked to identify the sources of support from the organization for the
development of leadership. Sometimes, leaders believe that they received organizational support
by the formal training. According to the respondents, they indicated that they got minimal
support from the organization and they seek support from the line mangers and by their
colleagues (Van Der Voet, 2014). According to 47% respondents, training should be provided in
the training in terms of educational program. There would be an opportunity for the frontline
management. Participants clearly stated that there is minimal support from the organization in
terms of leadership development due to the lack of resources. In the questions of facilitators and
barriers to fulfill the role of leaders, the participants were asked to identify the potential barriers
in the role of leaders. They basically identify some specific barriers such as reduced autonomy,
human resources, increased workload, role identity, competing demands and evolving healthcare
as the big challenges affecting the roles of the leaders (Mullins, 2010).

Enhancing Leadership 21
Figure 5: Sources of support
role identity
23%
fiscal and human
resources
28%
incrased
workload
18%
evolving
healthcare
8%
reduce
autonomy
23%
Needs of leadership and management
Participants identified the important skills for the leadership and management
development that are currently being addressed by the healthcare organizations. There were four
basic management and leadership needs identified by the respondents i.e. leadership skills, role
clarification, executive feedback, and management program.
Figure 6: Needs of leadership and management
leadership skills
26%
role clarification
39%
executive feedback
13%
manageme
nt
program
23%

Enhancing Leadership 22
Based on the above analysis, the result is analyzed based on the questionnaire. The result was
analyzed based on the self-observed leadership practices in organizations and the relationship
with the organizational outcome in terms of quality services of patient care. The study provides
insight into the barriers which can be issues in the leadership role enhancement. The result of the
study provides information on the leadership development needs that should be address
significantly. The key findings are as follows:
 There are five leadership practices that are important for achieving organizational goals,
 Communication and management skills are important leadership skills identified by the
respondents,
 There is conflicting notion among the staff in terms f organizational support for
developing nursing leaders. Some of the participants feel that they are receiving
inadequate support,
 Participants described that their current role is difficult, demanding, diverse and
challenging (Van Wart, 2014),
 There is the lack of autonomy and role identity which is a potential barrier in the
leadership practices,
 Many respondents identified that leadership training is required and essential and needs
to be addressed for the employees within the organization and
 There is the significant and positive relationship between the empowerment and
leadership practices (Checkland, 2014).
Discussion
The purpose of the discussion part is to develop the deep knowledge and understanding
on developing leadership practices in the various aged care sector. Objective of this study is to
identify the leadership practices in the aged care sector, analyzing the impact of leadership
practices and impact on the employee outcome such as empowerment, quality of services and job
satisfaction and the required factors for developing leaders in the organization and identifying
the leadership development needs. The study found that leadership and effective management is
crucial for the job satisfaction and quality of patient care in the aged care industry. The
limitations associated with the study are identified and discussed.

Enhancing Leadership 23
Essential leadership skills in aged care organizations
Effective leadership is the key of success of any organization. In this study, the
participants of aged care organizations were asked to identify the required and necessary skills
for the effective leadership in the organization. The participants then identified some important
skills for the role of leadership in the organizations (Martin, Beech, MacIntosh & Bushfield,
2015). Some of the respondents mentioned some leadership skills i.e. effective working
relationship with staff, good communication skills, having strategic vision, forward thinking
skills, being a role model and having some personal characteristics such as being transparent,
honest, fair and approachable. In case of effective management, the respondents classified five
basic skills i.e. human skills, technical skills, leadership, conceptual and finance. So, then most
frequently skills for the leadership are related to the human like communication skills and
personal characteristics and leadership skills like strategic thinking (Roe, 2014). This research
highlights the significance of the relationship between the leadership and staff of the
organizations. The effective relationship is basically built by the positive experiences, mutual
respect, loyalty, and high performance from the staff. Majority of the necessary leadership skills
are identified by this research i.e. transformational leadership including interpersonal skills and
good communication and some personal characteristics i.e. being fair, transparent and honest can
be developed in the aged care sector for the patients care services. Participants identified similar
leadership skills in this research that are described in the hospital research done by various
researchers earlier.
By the study and research, it is observed that for the effective leadership in the
organization, leaders must have organizing and planning skills, strategic vision for the effective
management in the specific ward or department. There is the need to develop strong relationship
with all the staff and employees. Finally, for the aged care organizations to be effective leaders
there should be ward leadership including various functions such as patient flow management,
clinical leadership and operational management for the ward. The skills identified in the study by
the participants are the most essential leadership skills needed in the current healthcare
environment (Reiss, 2012).

Enhancing Leadership 24
Leadership and management development needs
This study is focused on the research question i.e. what are the most essential
management and leadership development needs in aged care organizations that are still not being
addressed by the health service organizations. By the study, it is observed that there is the
development needs in the responses of the participants i.e. need for the effective leadership and
management programs and significance of feedback from the leaders and managers. Further,
from the practice perspective, aged care organization would be able to get benefit by clarifying
the role of leaders (Freifeld, 2013). For this manner, proper attention can be given to effective
management and leadership training. By the responses, it seems that there is the lack of
preparation for the effective leadership in the organizations. Aged care organizations do not have
proper opportunity to develop the leadership roles due to lack of proper trainings, support or lack
of proper resources (Northouse, 2013). There are evidences regarding the lack of support of
training by the literature in this study but still there are no clear plans to address the issues. By
the leadership development plans, organizations would be able to get benefits and necessities to
enhance effective leadership in the organizational context. Resources are necessary for the
ongoing development of management and leadership skills to improve leadership effectiveness
in the health care organizations. It is also observed that the environments sometimes are no
longer sufficient for the leadership development. Leaders need to develop new skills, support and
knowledge in terms of patient safety and staff satisfaction which are benchmark of the effective
healthcare organization. Role clarification, leadership development and executive feedback are
important to improve the effectiveness of the organization (Pan, Sun & Chow, 2012).
The findings of the study reveal that with the continuous changing environment of the
aged care sector, the role of the leaders is still unclear. Due to the continuous shift and change to
meet the organizational goals of the aged care system, clarity of the role of the leaders is very
difficult and due to the consequences, leaders have to struggle to provide effective leadership.
The result of this supported that managers found a degree of confusion about their role as they
receive conflicting information about their roles. Based on the responses of the participants, it is
clear that leadership behavior is connected with the challenging process i.e. seeking innovations
and mountainously seeking for the opportunities etc (Hurwitz & Hurwitz, 2015). The result of
the study demonstrates that there are no significant differences in terms of age, gender, and
experience and education level for being leader within the organization. Based on the responses,

Enhancing Leadership 25
it is reported that leadership behavior is connected with the challenging processes that encourage
the leaders. So, findings of this study highlight the roles of leaders and importance of the
leadership behaviors in improving the quality of patients care in the healthcare organizations.
There is the significant relationship between staff empowerment and the leadership and
management practices in the organizations. The study suggests that there is not only need to
place the structural practices within the organization but also important to develop strong
leadership for the effective services. The study found that the staff nurses in the aged care
organizations feel higher level of empowerment by the positive behavior of leaders or managers
towards the work and business objectives (Ulrich, Lavandero & Early, 2014).
Conclusion
Aged care and healthcare organizations are facing challenges and changes that can impact
on the ability and performance in the roles of the staff. The challenges in the health care services
are deciding the role of leaders within the organizations. For leading the staff effectively with the
healthcare challenges, organizations must define the role of leaders. Senior healthcare executives
should develop the position of leaders and managers with the comprehensive specification of
roles and responsibilities in the leadership. There is the need to define the role nursing managers
as this is the crucial concern in the aged care organizations. For the management and patient
care, role of nursing managers impacts on the success of an organization.
The findings and result of the study shows that with the effective leadership behaviors,
the nurses are generally empowered and satisfied with their jobs. The overall empowerment and
job satisfaction is increased when there are the appropriate leadership practices. The result is
limited because of the sample size. According to the results, there is the evidence to support the
relationship between the effective leadership practices and service outcome. So, it is important
for all the managers to be trained for incorporating effective leadership behaviors in the
management practices. Proper use of the leadership practices is more important for enhancing the
performance of the employees in the aged care organizations. Along with this, there is the need
of interventions and resources for the leadership development programs so that the staff
empowerment and patient care services can be improved significantly. Empowered managers can
act as the role models for the staff. So, positive work environment is not only important for the

Enhancing Leadership 26
nursing managers but also appropriate for the nursing leadership in future (Scott & Yoder-Wise,
2013).
Finally, by the qualitative findings from the above study of leadership and management
practices, current role and need of development, it is observed that there is the need to design the
leadership development program to deal with the various challenges in the healthcare system and
generate an effective position of nursing leader. Based on the study of the leadership
development should include the leadership skills i.e. transformational leadership, strong vision
and thinking on financial and budgeting skills, human resource management skills and
organizational skills along with the communication skills (Peterson, 2013).
Next, the focus of the study is to develop the new paradigm of the health company.
According to the Duffield (2008), managers are occupied with the various needs of the staff,
management and patients. To improve the organizational effectiveness, appropriate leadership
and management programs are important within the organizations. Leadership development in
the organization is not only focuses on improving the leadership in one person but is important
component for the development of whole organization. The result of this study reveals the
effective leadership is able to develop an environment by which the job satisfaction, quality of
patients care and empowering the employees. This also has impact on the retention of the staff
and safety and quality of the patient care (Bhugra, Till, Deakin & Ruiz, 2013).
This study is focused on the leadership role, practices, leadership development needs and
employee outcomes. By designing the leadership development based on the findings from the
study, the nursing mangers are able for the empowerment and job satisfaction. Incorporating the
findings and research result, the thesis provides the theoretical framework on the leadership
behavior and importance of the leadership in the healthcare sector. The study suggests that the
leadership development programs need to be structured in such way that enables the individuals
to learn the complex skills and the opportunity to apply those skills. The leadership program
should provide training, multiple methods such as learning and reflection, mentoring and
coaching and monitors the progress the set training plan (Lega, Prenestini & Spurgeon, 2013).
This research strongly supports the role of leadership and the characteristics in developing
improved organizational outcomes in the health industries. On the basis of organizational results,
no strong conclusion can be drawn regarding the impact of leadership development in the health

Enhancing Leadership 27
care. The study basically examines the relationship between health managers and staff and
indicates that managers are positively connected with the inspired and transformational behavior
on the part of stakeholders. It is analyzed that the democratic leadership styles are adopted by the
health professionals for the quality services. There are many strong empirically based models of
leadership that can be adopted in the modern health systems and those are the best way to deliver
the leadership development within the organizations (Kirkpatrick, Bullinger, Dent & Lega,
2012). It is also observed that for the aged care organizations, transformational leadership is the
most effective leadership style. Transformational leadership has been widely accepted as the
most suitable style of leadership in the health organizations based on four factors i.e. charisma,
inspiration, individual consideration and intellectual stimulation. Within the health organization,
leaders must have some engaging styles i.e. enabling, valuing individuals, achieving and
networking, being accessible and decisive and acting with integrity. So, leadership and
management in the aged care organization is crucial for the improve quality of patients care
(Numerato, Salvatore & Fattore, 2012).
Recommendations
The study confirms that the role of the leaders and managers in the aged care is not
defined clearly and changing and expanding gradually. The role of the health managers and
leaders is affected by the personal conception role and expectations from the senior authority and
staff. The challenge for the health organizations is to define the core functions, roles and
responsibilities of the leaders. Leaders need clarification in their functions and responsibilities
and to be given resources and time, authority and support to complete the managerial and clinical
responsibilities. Based on the results and findings, the study supports the importance of
management and leadership and its potential impact on the quality services and patient
satisfaction.
 The findings confirm the need for the development and enhancement of mechanism for
the nursing managers to become effective nursing leaders. For this manner, there should
be commitment for designing and implementing leadership development programs and
management trainings so that accurate leadership styles i.e. transformational leadership
style for the organizations.

Enhancing Leadership 28
 Further, for the professional organizations it would be beneficial to build up the
partnership with the universities to identify the gaps in terms of nursing leadership at the
undergraduate and postgraduate levels. There should be new approach to the leadership
development for the future of nursing profession and health care.

Enhancing Leadership 29
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Enhancing Leadership 35
Appendix
1. Where is your current place of work?
2. What is your gender?
 Male
 Female
3. What is your age?
4. Total number of years in aged acre sector
 1<2 years,

Enhancing Leadership 36
 2<3 years,
 3<5 years,
 5<7 years,
 7-10 years
 More than 10 years
5. Total number of years been a nursing manager
 1 year,
 1<2 years,
 2<3 years,
 3<5 years,
 5<7 years,
 7-10 years
 More than 10 years
6. What is your highest qualification?
 Undergraduate Diploma,
 Hospital certificate,
 Bachelor of nursing,
 Master degree in nursing
7. Based on your thought and opinion, what are the essential leadership skills for the
aged care organization?
8. Do you have attended any leadership and management workshops, training courses
and seminars? If yes, then list the titles and description of training. Please tell the
training was valuable or not valuable.
9. How would you describe the role of nursing leader in current health care
environment?
10. What are the five most important elements in the leadership role in the aged care
organizations?
11. What kind of organizational support is there in your organization for the
development of leadership and management practices?
12. List the barriers and challenges to enhancing the leadership practices and
management activities in aged care organization?

Enhancing Leadership 37
13. List out the positive aspect of the role of leaders in the healthcare environment.
14. In your opinion, what are the most important management and leadership
development needs that are required in the health service organizations?