Effective Leadership Styles in Healthcare

The study examines the role of leadership styles in the healthcare sector, focusing on the transformational style. It analyzes how this style improves the quality of services by supporting employees, developing innovation strategies, and addressing trust and reliability issues in a diverse workforce.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Executive summary
The purpose of the assignment is to develop an understanding of the concepts of leadership
and management from the academic context. The literature that will be analysed form the
sources will help in developing and establishing the two themes. Leadership and management
are two terms which are used in the academic forum often, there are several studies
developing a correlation in between the two concepts. The first two articles are chosen to
develop the understanding of the core concepts of leadership and the ways in which it
impacts the operations of an organisation. However, the next two are more specific to the
health care sector as the leaders in the health care sectors need to have certain skills and
emotions which are industry specific.

2INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Theme 1
Leadership in business management
“Algahtani, A., 2014. Are leadership and management different? A review. Journal of
management policies and practices, 2(3), pp.71-82.”
In this paper Algahtani (2014), has explained the concepts of leadership and
management. In the process has discussed the similarities and differences in the two concepts
which are most of the time interpreted as synonymous in nature. The aim of the research is to
discover that the two concepts are similar or different. Over the years several scholars have
developed the definitions of management and leadership and it has been observed that with
time the definitions have seen some major changes in the concept. Algahtani (2014), states
that management is the process by which organisational goals are accomplished. On the other
hand, he explains leadership as the skills which are required in an individual to motivate a
team or a group of people in accomplishing the objectives as well as create a vision.
The author has used secondary data in order to conclude the aim of the research as
well as answer the research question. The author has chosen to concentrate the data collection
on the e-documents which are available on the EBSCO, EMBASE and Google Scholar
platforms. Authentic Academic journal articles are used by the author to conduct the study. In
order to perform the searches are leadership, management, skills and differences. Out of the
number of articles that had shown up 37 were chosen to study by the author as these met all
the criterions for the research. Apart from relevance to the topic of research and similar
variables, the authenticity and peer reviewed aspects are also important while conducting an
academic research.
According to the findings from the data that is analysed by the writer, the skills of a
manger revolve around achieving the mission of the organisation. This includes planning,

3INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
development and directing operational process to achieve the objectives which are set by the
management. On the other hand, he explains the skills of a leader are to bring about changes
and determine the potential changes. The leaders ensure the changes by developing a focus,
bringing together like minded and skilled people. Motivation and inspiration play an
important role in leadership (Algahtani 2014). There are major differences in the two
concepts pointed out by the author. Leaders are associated with transformation, values,
innovation and motivation; management deals with more technical aspect of operating with a
group of people such as planning, organisation, standardisation, development of policies and
regulations, looking after administration etc.
The conclusion of the findings that the writer has arrived explains the two are very
different concepts with few overlapping aspects. However the author agrees that any
organisation requires both managerial as well as leadership skills, he says that the two aspects
should complement each other. The performance of an organisation depends upon the equal
contribution of both the aspects. Changes are constant and in order to deal with these changes
leaders are important to motivate and inspire people to develop a dynamic outlook and
embrace the change. This can only be implemented by strategic management decisions so
that there is a smooth flow of operation among the people.
“Chuang, S.F., 2013. Essential skills for leadership effectiveness in diverse workplace
development. Essential skills for leadership effectiveness in diverse workplace
development, 2(1).”
With more and more organisations aspiring to operate on an international scale the
nature of the Human Resource is also changing. According Zhu et al. (2013), Companies are
appointing local people to help in the operations of the business and thereby developing a

4INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
need to deal with a diverse workforce. Since the cultural and ethnic background of the people
reflect in their performance and their way of thinking, companies have to help the Human
resource to utilise their unique skills and outlook to achieve the objectives of the business. In
lieu of this concept there has been a number of research and studies which are helped on the
global leadership and the ways in which diverse human resource can be managed. Zhu et al.
(2013), also states that the focus of the management is to develop competitiveness and
improve the performance of the people in order to ensure organisational development. The
aim of the research is to determine the effective leadership skills which are required in cross-
cultural management. Determine the barriers and challenges that are faced by the global
leaders.
The research has been based on secondary data; this information is collected from
various Academic journal articles to back up the statements that have been used to develop
the literature. Form the data collected the author has achieved the aim of the study. The
analysis of the information that is gathered is qualitative in nature. Various themes are drawn
from the literature and are explained with personal inputs.
Chuang (2013), discusses about the concepts of cultural intelligence or cultural
quotient, which is managing the culturally diverse population efficiently. He adds that in
order to manage a diverse culture the first step that is required to appreciate the culture and to
develop understanding of the positive aspects of the culture. Any kind of discrimination in a
blended culture can lead to a loss of talent.
The research indicates that group dynamics play an important role in the process of
establishing an inclusive culture. In order to deal with the dynamic nature of the group the
skills should be situational in nature. Some of the challenges in the path of global leadership
as discussed in the paper are: development of a sense of trust and loyalty among the leaders

5INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
and subordinates is hard to create, especially if the leader and the followers are form different
cultural or ethnic background. Where on one hand technology has enabled a number of
opportunities for a global leader, it has also decreased the value of human relations by
creating distance.
The skills that are indicated by the author are:
 Create self-awareness and self assurance
 Understand the stereotypes associated with the culture
 Be visionary and broad minded
 Create a global perspective
 Support the subordinates and get motivation whenever required
 Effective communication
 Optimal utilisation of the resources
 Develop motivational techniques and focus on social responsibility
It can be concluded for the discussion that global leaders have to have a wider
perspective of matters in order to manage a diverse team. And appreciation and making
efforts of understanding the cultural setting is important.

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Theme 2
Effective leadership process and alignment with health care and the nursing process
“Kantanen, K., Kaunonen, M., Helminen, M. and Suominen, T., 2017. Leadership and
management competencies of head nurses and directors of nursing in Finnish social and
health care. Journal of Research in Nursing, 22(3), pp.228-244.”
Leadership not only is guiding a group of people towards a collective goal it is about
encouraging, motivating and initiating changes in the process of operation. However in the
health care industry the attributes of a leader are similar but not same (Kantanen et al. 2017).
Emotions, values and principles along with sense of responsibility and duty towards the
people are also important for a leader in the health care sector. In aim of the research is to
develop understanding of the competencies which are required in the management and
leadership of individuals who are working in the health care sector, especially head nurses
and directors of nursing.
The process of data collection that has been undertaken by the authors of the study is
primary. This means that new information from various sources has been accumulated in
order to reach a conclusion. The data collection tool that has been used is electronic
questionnaire, a survey had been conducted and the questionnaire was circulated with the
help of e-mail. Head nurses and directors of nursing who were selected on a random sampling
basis. The data was analysed following the quantitative principles, statistics was used to
derive a conclusion and to determine the competencies of leadership and management in the
health care sector. Response rate of the survey was 34.4% which amounted to 1025
respondents. . 814 respondents were head nurses and 211 were director of nursing.
The data was analyzed with the help of the SPSS 21-software

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In order to study the leadership and management competences, the authors divided
them among two categories, general and special. The general category consisted of 8
segments reliability and professional skills, developing and maintaining relationships,
effective communication and motivational skills, energetic and composure, ethical and value
oriented, change and innovation driven, ensuring evidence based decision making, and
understanding of personal responsibility. On the other hand, the special competencies are:
specific knowledge and skills, managing the human resource and the operations, encouraging
research (Kantanen et al. 2017). The results of the data collection showcase that the majority
of the respondents feel that they have high degree of leadership and management
competences. In general competences professional competence and reliability is the factor
that the head nurse are ahead of the directors of nursing and in the special category the
specific knowledge and skill is the aspect that the head nurses are ahead of the directors of
nursing. More and more emphasis on the development of human and conceptual skills among
the directors has gained precedence. This is the aspect that makes leadership in the healthcare
sector to be different than any other business organisation.
Therefore it can be concluded that the leadership and management competencies
which are required for head nurses and directors of nursing differs in the level of impact
depending on the nature of the work. The general competences are more based on the
leadership qualities and the special ones are more technical and managerial in nature.
“Mah’d Alloubani, A., Almatari, M. and Almukhtar, M.M., 2014. Effects of leadership
styles on quality of services in healthcare. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10(18).”
In the service sector the management has to pay close attention to the customers as
they usually directly deal with the customers. Health care is a sector that deals with clients
who need help not only physically but sometimes also mentally, therefore it is important to

8INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
have leaders in the organisation who can not only help the employees in improving their
performance but also deal with the customers as well (Alloubani et al. 2014). According to
Holloway and Galvin (2016), the quality of the service also depends upon the style of
leadership that is observed in an organisation. The aim of the study is to analyze the nature
of leadership among the managers of hospital; this will help in determining the role, skill and
training requirement of the managers who work in a hospital. Furthermore, the barriers in the
process of operation in the healthcare sector are discussed in the research.
The process of data collection that has been undertaken in order to reach the
conclusion of the study is secondary in nature. This is the process where no new information
is gathered rather the information that is available is synthesized base on the variables of the
study and a conclusion is reached. The author has used several online data base like
ProQuest, PubMed and Emerald to collect the journal articles from where information is
collated. In order to analyse the data the process that has been used is qualitative in nature, in
this process the author uses integrative reviews in order to connect the variables.
The results of the analysis show that nursing practices, education and healthcare
policies are directly impacted by the leadership styles. A skillful leader leads nurses and
directs the subordinates to accomplish the objectives and goals of the nation. The leadership
style that has been observed to be the most effective is the transformational style (Doody and
Doody 2012). In this style of leadership the leaders encourage change in the process of
operation in order to improve the overall performance of the organisation. This is done by
supporting and motivating the employees and developing an innovation strategy in the
organisation (Doody and Doody 2012). One of the major barriers that the leaders face in the
process of operation is that the leaders in the healthcare sector have to deal with a large group
of people. This group is diverse in nature and shares a very formal relation with most of the

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people. This has given rise to the issue of trust and reliability which is very important while
working in the hospitality sector.
It can be concluded that the transformational leadership style is observed to be the
most effective in the health care sector in order to improve the quality of the services. This
mostly depends on the dynamic nature of the industry and the introduction of new and
innovative technology and solutions in the process.

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References
Algahtani, A., 2014. Are leadership and management different? A review. Journal of
management policies and practices, 2(3), pp.71-82.
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Chuang, S.F., 2013. Essential skills for leadership effectiveness in diverse workplace
development.
Day, C., Gu, Q. and Sammons, P., 2016. The impact of leadership on student outcomes: How
successful school leaders use transformational and instructional strategies to make a
difference. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(2), pp.221-258.
Doody, O. and Doody, C.M., 2012. Transformational leadership in nursing practice. British
Journal of Nursing, 21(20), pp.1212-1218.
Holloway, I. and Galvin, K., 2016. Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John
Wiley & Sons.
Kantanen, K., Kaunonen, M., Helminen, M. and Suominen, T., 2017. Leadership and
management competencies of head nurses and directors of nursing in Finnish social and
health care. Journal of Research in Nursing, 22(3), pp.228-244.
Mah’d Alloubani, A., Almatari, M. and Almukhtar, M.M., 2014. Effects of leadership styles
on quality of services in healthcare. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10(18).
Munir, F., Nielsen, K., Garde, A.H., Albertsen, K. and Carneiro, I.G., 2012. Mediating the
effects of work–life conflict between transformational leadership and health‐care workers’
job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. Journal of nursing management, 20(4), pp.512-
521.

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Zhu, W., Newman, A., Miao, Q. and Hooke, A., 2013. Revisiting the mediating role of trust
in transformational leadership effects: Do different types of trust make a difference?. The
Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), pp.94-105.