Leadership and Management for Health and Social Care - Essay

Running Head: ESSAY 0
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Essay

ESSAY 1
Efficient management plays a vital role in the growth and progress of the company as it
works as the backbone. Well-organized management and leadership qualities are major
factors that are being looked in a manager which can take any organization or business to
great heights of success. Management and leadership qualities are required to create healthy
and honest relationship with clients and customers of the organization. Managers strive to
bring out best and serve the customers with the best of what the company or organization can
offer by balancing the market competition, finances, and available resources.1 It is been stated
by the social psychologist, Kurt Lewin that there can be nothing so practical than a good
theory.2 Hence, to justify this there are several theories which give a more applied approach
to leadership qualities and personalities. Parallelly, leadership challenges in health and social
sector is discussed. Further, analyzing the relevance of motivational theories and its impact
on performance and management of the health and social care organization.
Majorly, there are five types of leadership theories on which the fundamentals and basics of
the management and leadership learnings and practices revolve. These theories qualify and
gives the platform as to provide justifications for the arguments.
The Great Man Theory3 evolved near around 1840 and was proposed by Thomas Carlyle who
was a teacher and a writer too. The theory states that the great leaders are born with
leadership qualities and the leadership quality is completely intrinsic which means that the
person is born with leadership qualities rather than acquiring them later in their life. It
believes that an individual during their life, simply furnishes and exposes their leadership
trait.
The Trait Theory4 was proposed between 1930 to 1940. This theory believed that anyone
with specific qualities such as adherence, intelligence and responsible behavior can become
upright and good leader and can manage the system efficiently. This theory focused on
learning the characteristics of leaders that are physical traits as well as psychological traits
and are common among all the leaders.
The Behavioral Theory5 was presented between 1940-1950 and it focuses exclusively on the
behavior of the leaders. The behavioral theory states that the leaders are made with their
1 Operations Manual for Staff at Primary Health care Centres, "Leadership And Managment," in Operations
Manual For Staff At Primary Health Care Centres, 2020.
2 L. C. Craig, "Is there really nothing so practical as a good Theory?" Business Horizons (2004).
3 J. B. Miner, Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Theories, and Analyses, Oxford University Press, 2002.
4 ibid
5 ibid

ESSAY 2
efforts and reflected out due to circumstances or when they are required to lead a group or
team during their career or professional life. Further, this theory is divided into two categories
based on the type of attribute focused by the leaders i.e. if they are focused on either task or
the people around them.
The Contingency Theory6 was introduced around 1960, and it argues about the fact that the
screening of leadership quality within an individual should not be checked only through a
single parameter or situation as there are several kinds of people who work at their maximum
potential in a specific domain and gets dull in weaker domain. It is also believed under this
theory that a person expresses their leadership traits and qualities only when they feel that
they followed by others.
The Transactional Theory7 was proposed around 1970, It is also called as exchange theory of
leadership as it proposes the idea of the exchange of ideas, thoughts and hence, results in
mutually benefitted relation between the leader and the follower while synchronizing their
individual goals as in case of doctors and nurses, stakeholders and social care workers.
The Transformational leadership8 Theory was also proposed around 1970 or late 20th century
and it involves the budding of trust and empathetic between leader and their followers. The
charismatic and influencing personality of the leaders helps to achieve trust and appreciation
from their followers and building a stronger relationship.
Effective leadership is an important aspect in healthcare and involves various responsibilities
and duties. Following this there are several kinds of challenges that are faced by leaders and
mangers in the health and social care sector or system. In reference to the case study carried
out at Iranian hospitals we can present these reported challenges. For the better understanding
and handling of these challenges they are diversified on the basis of their appearance such as
human resource related, organization related, work nature related, and leaders related
challenges. The study shows that socioeconomic, political, gender-biasness are other
challenges that the leaders face9. The operational and structural factors along with the
6 ibid
7 ibid
8 ibid
9 M. Ghiasipour, A. M. Mosadeghrad, M. Arab and E. Jaafaripooyan, "Leadership challenges in health care
organizations: The case of Iranian hospitals," Medical Journal of The Islamic Republic of Iran, 2017