7411MED Leadership in Management: Interview Report on Health Services

This report presents an analysis of leadership in healthcare management based on an interview with a healthcare leader. The interview explores the leader's role, leadership styles, and challenges in a healthcare organization. Different leadership theories like transformational, collaborative, and ethical leadership are discussed in the context of healthcare settings. The report highlights the importance of adapting leadership styles to specific situations and the role of personal experience in developing effective leadership. The leader's insights on dealing with staff ego and fostering teamwork are also examined. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of integrity and equal treatment in healthcare leadership. Desklib offers solved assignments for students.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN MANAGEMENT
Leadership in Management
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review:...........................................................................................................................2
Methodology:...................................................................................................................................5
Results:............................................................................................................................................6
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References:....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
“Leadership has been described as the behaviour of a particular individual at the time of
directing the activities of a group towards a shared goal”. The major features of the leadership
role involve the influence of the group activities and the means of coping with change. A sort of
difficulty which is encountered at the time of considering the leadership of health-care
professionals is the fact that majority of the theories which were not considered within the health
care context but actually in case of business context and were later applied to health-care. There
is very little evidence from researches or published articles which mentions about the leadership
initiatives related to the improvements in patient care or that of organisational outcomes which
are applicable in the healthcare settings (Goodwin, 2013).
Good leadership is imperative for the success of any particular organisation. In a
healthcare organisation, proper leadership is more than just significant and it is extremely
decisive to the success of the organisation. There are several questions which are need to be
answered with respect to the health care organisations. The perceptions regarding the health care
organisations need to be changed and the changing perceptions need to be accepted (Street, Gold
& Manning, 2013).
Literature Review:
Healthcare systems are formulated with the help of several professional groups,
departments and specialities with the intricate, non-linear interactions between each of the
sources. These systems are often complex and unparalleled as a result of constraints relating to
several areas related to those of disease, multi-directional goals and multi-disciplinary staff.

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Within the large organisations namely the healthcare systems, there are several groups with
related subcultures that might support each other or be in conflicting interests with each other.
The importance of leadership in this context is in the sense that it can be used to capitalize on the
diversity within the organisations and use different resources efficiently at the time of designing
the management procedure. This also involves encouragement of personnel in working towards
common goals. There are several “leadership approaches that can be adopted to the health care
setting”. This needs to be achieved in order to optimize management in a highly difficult
scenario (Barr & Dowding, 2015).
There are different leadership theories which are available regarding the relevant
healthcare genre. These leadership theories include “transformational leadership, collaborative
leadership, conflict management, shared leadership, distributed leadership and finally ethical
leadership”.
The “transformational leadership style” is something which goes further than the mere
style of “transactional leadership” which actually “focuses on the supervision, organisation and
group performance”. The transformational leadership style basically focuses on the leaders and
their communication of vision in a meaningful and exciting manner (Munir et al., 2012). The
managers who follow this style are considered to be committed and capable of empowering
others. These leaders are such that performance can be motivated beyond the expectations of a
person to influence their attitudes (Doody & Doody, 2012).
Collaborative leadership is basically a cooperative and more so an assertive procedure
which takes place when the individuals work towards the goals of mutual benefit or symbiosis.
The concept of collaborative leadership involves the communication of the information to the co-

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workers and the associated organisations (VanVactor, 2012). These type of collaborative
communication strategies assist in the enhancement of the healthcare management by the
encouragement of dialogue between a plethora of stakeholders. For collaborative healthcare
leadership to prosper, there is the requirement of a “synergistic work environment” where
numerous parties are encouraged to perform together and in tandem for the achievement of
common goals (Porter-O'Grady, Porter-O’grady & Malloch, 2014).
There is the recognised importance of collaborative leadership in the working practices
but only a small time portion is spent in actual collaboration. In this connection it can be stated
that conflict is quite a pervasive force within the healthcare organisations and there can be
chances of failures occurring in the working practices which need to be avoided. The healthcare
leader must employ strategies which help in the resolution of conflict. This can include strategies
of competition, avoidance compromise, accommodation, collaboration and so on (Brach et al.,
2012).
Shared leadership is an important type of leadership practice which helps the staff
members be empowered within the procedure of decision making. This type of leadership leads
to an opportunity for all the team members to work towards the improvement of the work
environment and increased levels of job satisfaction. There can also be barriers to the shared
leadership techniques which need to be prevented (Ginter, 2018).
Distributed leadership is actually applied in case of hierarchical and comparatively more
collaborative organisations. This particular approach of leadership focuses on the characteristics
of sense-making, relating, visioning and finally that of inventing (West et al., 2014).

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Ethical leadership and its implementation can comprise a noteworthy impact on the
“working lives of the healthcare staff, patient outcomes and even on the overall fate of an
organisation”. There can be the need for a leader to create enthusiasm for strategies which are
risky and also for the need for change in the underlying beliefs and values. Therefore it is
desirable that a proper leader possesses the intentions, values and behaviours which are not
aimed at any sort of harm and respect the rights of all the parties.
Methodology:
The role in the interview was to find out the prerequisites for becoming a successful and
an effective leader. The most important issue before undertaking any sort of assignment of such
nature is to be aware of the topic or the area of research connected to the interview, the idea
behind the interview which is to be conducted is also to be understood in a particular case. The
background of the manager or the person who is to be interviewed also needs to be kept in mind
at the time of conducting the interview. “The aim of the interview with the health care leader was
to understand what his or her role was in the daily operations of the health institution. There were
certain objectives and these included to find a person who had a hand in several projects within a
health organisation”. The leader needs to be someone who implements ideas and is also involved
with the evaluation of different health outcomes. It was desired that the person had different staff
members working under them.
Keeping all these considerations in mind the manager of a health care organisation
(identity undisclosed) was interviewed. The leader was interviewed with the help of an open
ended interview questionnaire which helped in understanding the role of the leader in the health
care organisation and the difference between the relevant literature and the factors which were

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obtained as a result of conducting the interview with the respective manager. The leader was
extremely accommodative and the interview was immensely helpful in obtaining an idea about
the actual proceedings in the healthcare organisations.
Results:
The leader was asked as to who is actually a leader and what the significance of a leader
is. His answer helped understand that leaders are those individuals who are capable of doing
anything which helps a company prosper. It is desirable that the leaders take decisions which
help in the benefit of their organisation and helps their organisation to prosper. Careful
observation revealed that listening to the ideas of other people and providing solutions helps in
the improvement of patients care and outcomes which is the hallmark of an effective leader.
Expecting the feedback from the staff members is another noteworthy characteristic of a suitable
leader. Leaders always ask for opinions on people’s opinions.
True leaders are not only concerned about the proper running of their organisation but
also the health of the patients who pay for their healthcare facilities. The manager who was
interviewed mentioned that he ensured that all the health service professionals from all
departments where asked what their suggestions regarding a particular situation were. The
manager also set deadlines for the tasks which needed to be delivered daily. Other crucial
qualities of a leader includes the discussion of important facts, the prologue of ideas,
construction of new policies and processes, help with the altering existing policies and assists the
“implementation and evaluation of outcomes” in a specific wellbeing care setting.
It is usually noticed that different people view leadership differently. An individual’s idea
regarding the concept of the factors which make a great leader can be different from others. This

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led to the second most important question regarding the ideas or the concepts of leadership of the
particular manager who was interviewed. The questions which were asked were related to the
role of the leaders in ensuring that the tasks are completed in an effective manner, institution
policies and procedures are followed among others.
The leader stated that he believes in using different leadership styles based on different
situations. In this connection it was mentioned by him that he uses a democratic style of
leadership at times when he wants other members of staff to take an active part in the decisions
related to the completion of a specific task. The transformational style of leadership is used at
times complex issues crop up and there is the need for more inclusion of inspiration from a
specific leader. The leader mentioned that he became one over the course of his tenure as a part
of the organisation and learned through his mistakes and ultimately became a leader through the
course of his mistakes.
The challenges of being a leader which was mentioned in the present situation was the
challenge of dealing with the ego of the workers in the workplace. There are bound to be people
who do not agree to the norms and conditions which are mentioned or set by a particular leader.
This is due to the issues of their ego. No matter the level to which a leader is cordial, there are
bound to be professionals who will reject their constructive ideas and suggestions which they put
forward. Often leaders face problems in getting staff adhere to the rules and regulations which
they enforce keeping the present scenario in mind. Therefore the challenge of managers also
includes getting different people to provide ideas. These ideas help in managers in getting people
to follow their plans. This also helps in the communication of the leader with the staff members
and helps them to work together s a team.

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The leader also concluded with a great message to any person who was aspiring for the
purpose of healthcare. The leader mentioned that a person needs to act with integrity in any
particular scenario and this is necessary specifically for the healthcare profession. Staff members
are also bound to work for those managers or leaders who work in an honest way. The leaders
also need to treat every person equally as perception often takes the place of reality in situations
where the staff members think that there is a difference of treatment of different members.
Discussion:
It is clear from the above segments that there is a lot of connection between the relevant
literature on the types and categories of leadership behaviour and leadership styles and those
which are practically applicable in real life situations in the “health care industry”. In case of the
health care industry as was described by the leader, it was mentioned that every situation
demands a certain style and a form of leadership. Because of this the situations need to be
conducive for ensuring that the leadership styles are employed properly. Therefore it can be said
in this particular connection that personal experience plays a better role in stating the importance
as well as the applicability of the concept of leadership.
Conclusion:
The overall experience of carrying an interview with the manager of a health care
organisation was a learning experience as the understanding related to the factors which are
necessary for making a proper leader was attained. All in all, “leadership encompasses a holistic
focus on the shared procedures, structures and culture”. This interview facilitated the
understanding that the phenomenon of being a leader can be satisfying as well an uphill
challenge for public. I came to understand that “being a leader” is not for every individual due to

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the myriad challenges of “physical, social and intellectual requirements which are expected from
a specific healthcare leader”.

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References:
Barr, J., & Dowding, L. (2015). Leadership in health care. Sage.
(retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=hySJCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Barr,+J.,+%26+Dowding,+L.
+(2015).+Leadership+in+health+care.+Sage.&ots=dhGT4qj-
4Z&sig=PGPcrA5ziQw8V4bQT2iUNHR4spw#v=onepage&q=Barr%2C)
Brach, C., Keller, D., Hernandez, L. M., Baur, C., Dreyer, B., Schyve, P., ... & Schillinger, D.
(2012). Ten attributes of health literate health care organizations (pp. 1-26). Washington,
DC: Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
(retrieved from https://cvp.ucsf.edu/docs/bph_ten_hlit_attributes.pdf)
Doody, O., & Doody, C. M. (2012). Transformational leadership in nursing practice. British
Journal of Nursing, 21(20), 1212-1218.
(retrieved from https://ulir.ul.ie/bitstream/handle/10344/2782/Doody_2012_nursing.pdf?
sequence=2)
Ginter, P. M. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley &
Sons.
(retrieved from
http://erl.ucc.edu.gh:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/3016/1/%5BLinda_E._Swayne
%2C_Jack_Duncan%2C_Peter_M._Ginter%5D_St%28BookZZ.org%29.pdf)
Goodwin, N. (2013). Leadership in health care: A European perspective. Routledge.

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(retrieved from content.taylorfrancis.com)
Munir, F., Nielsen, K., Garde, A. H., Albertsen, K., & 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), 512-521.
(retrieved from
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/46463292/Mediating_the_effects_of
_work-life_confl20160614-8954-1stojlj.pdf?
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disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DMediating_the_effects_of_work-life_confl.pdf)
Porter-O'Grady, T., Porter-O’grady, S. P. T., & Malloch, K. (2014). Quantum leadership. Jones
& Bartlett Publishers.
(retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?
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+Porter-O%E2%80%99grady,+S.+P.+T.,+%26+Malloch,+K.+(2014).
+Quantum+leadership.+Jones+
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Radnor, Z. J., Holweg, M., & Waring, J. (2012). Lean in healthcare: the unfilled promise?. Social
science & medicine, 74(3), 364-371.