Impact of Autocratic Leadership on Change Implementation in a Hospital

This case study explores the impact of autocratic leadership on the implementation of change in a hospital setting. It highlights the importance of employee involvement and effective communication in change management.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
The impact of the leadership in the modern business context is observed to be
significant and with the increasing complexity in the business environment, the need of
efficient leader is becoming notably high. The paper is focused in the elaboration of the
different aspects of the leadership and the management practices. The selected organization
for the task is one of the hospitals of the SingHealth group, one of the premier organization in
the medical industry of Singapore (Singhealth.com.sg, 2019). The chosen organization was
established in the year 1998 (Cgh.com.sg, 2019). The organization is currently managed By
MOH Holdings Pte. Ltd. and the operations of the organization is monitored by the Ministry
of Health of the national government (Moh.gov.sg, 2019). With the visionary leadership of
the group CEO, Ivy Lim Swee Lian, the organization is seen to develop their business in a
significant manner (Singhealth.com.sg, 2019). The paper is focused in the elaboration of the
leadership practices that is observed in one of the hospital of the group, Changi General
Hospital (Cgh.com.sg, 2019).
Description of the Case:
I was a member of the cardiology department of the Changi General Hospital. We had
a team of 85 individuals responsible for the effective management of the record keeping.
During the preliminary stages, the chosen organization conducted the process of the record
keeping in the conventional pen and paper method. Being an employee of the mentioned
department, I was a part of the process. We had a manager whom we reported for the
effective management of our operations and regarding the progress of our operations. The
entire workforce responsible for the process of the record keeping was observed to be divided
into three different teams. As the medical services is a continuous process and the demand of
the services is seen to increase in rapid manner over the last few years, the formation of the

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teams amongst the employees responsible for the effective management of the record keeping
operations was observed to be much needed. The division of the teams were conducted on the
basis of three shifts for making sure that the services that we provide to the customers, are
continuous. I joined the company in the month of November in 2015. Within 6 months from
the day of joining, the company decided to introduce a new method for the process of the
record keeping. With the improvement in the modern technology, many of the new
organizations of the medical industry are facing the need of incorporating the new
technologies in their process of the business conduction. This had the potential to improve the
business operations of the modern organizations. With a precise focus on this, the senior level
management of the Changi General Hospital introduced a new plan where the chosen
organization shifted their focus from the conventional method of record keeping to the
digitalised portals. The incorporation of the digitalization were much needed for the chosen
organization as the previous method were significantly lacking the desired speed in the
process of the exchanging the information to the relevant stakeholders of the organization.
In addition to this, the previous process of the record keeping was unable to share the
information regarding the sales of the services that the mentioned organization offers to the
customers. In addition to this, the previous method was considered to be inefficient in
providing the much needed speed to the process of decision making of the management and
the relevant stakeholders of the organization. With the a precise focus on the urgency of the
senior level management of the organizations in deciding their actions for the effective
management of the operations, the importance of the speedy exchange of the information is
seen to be notably high. This enabled the organization to keep the record of their operations
specifically the sales along with the consumption of the resources in an efficient manner.
With the introduction of the plan in the month of January of 2016, the senior level
management of the organization expected a better exchange of the information across the

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relevant parties responsible for the effective management of the business operations of the
organization which had the potential to inject a significant speed in the strategic decision
making for the improvement of the operations of the organization.
However, the line managers of the organization were observed to implement the plan
in a significantly inefficient manner. The line managers of the organizations introduced the
plan without any sort of prior training for the employees of the organization. Many of the
employees including me were observed to face significant amount of difficulty in the
effective management of the digitalised process of record keeping. There was not any sort of
communication regarding the need of the change to the employees which created significant
amount of confusion amongst the general employees of the organization. As the process of
decision making regarding the structure or mode of operations is solely dependent on the
senior level management of the organization, the employees of the organization were not
involved in the process of decision making of changing the technique of record keeping. As
an impact of the hierarchical form of leadership which also reflects a significant amount of
autocracy, the employees of the organization were seen to be notably dissatisfied. With the
increment in the number of faulty operations from the part of the employees of the
organization, the level of dissatisfaction was increasing for the employees of the organization.
The case provides significant amount of evidences of the impact of the autocratic leadership
on the organizational effectiveness and the performances of the employees.
Considering the Feeling aspect of Gibbs Reflective Cycle (Howatson-Jones, 2016), I
was notably frustrated with the form of leadership and the process of incorporating the new
technique of record keeping from the part of the managers of the organization. It was
considerably difficult for me to cope up with the lack of knowledge of mine in managing the
digitalised portals and along with that, I was not able perform as per the desired perfection
and quality.

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Looking back to the case and considering the evaluation aspect (Oluwatoyin, 2015), I
was able to understand the fact that there was a significant absence of the intervention from
the part of the senior level management of the organization. However the idea of the
management was pretty effective for the change, the implementation was significantly
inappropriate and led them down. The effectiveness of the change was not achieved by the
company as the major section of the workforce was unable to meet the necessary
requirements for the effective management of the record keeping through the digitalised
portals.
With a precise focus on the analysis aspect of the model (Bulman & Schutz, 2013), it
was pretty evident that the senior level management of the organization failed to implement
the change in an effective manner. The absence of the communication regarding the need of
the change to the employees of the organization was observed to be a major drawback of the
implementation plan of the change. In addition to this, the senior level management of the
organization completely ignored the training and the developmental needs of the employees
responsible for operations of the record keeping in the organization.
Considering the conclusion (Bassot, 2016), the senior level management of the
organization was in significant need of communicating the needs of the change to the
employees of the organization for the effective management of the changes. This had the
possibility to reduce the confusion of the employees regarding the change in the organization
and along with that, had the potential to manage the impact of the increasing conflict in the
organization. As a result, the organization was would have gained the capability of the
implementing the change in a significantly better manner. In addition to this, the employees
of the organization were seen to face the need of intensive training for achieving the
competency for the effective management of the digitalised portals. An effective training had
the potential to provide the required knowledge to the employees of the organization which

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was much needed for a major section of the workforces in the effective management of the
record keeping operations. With a precise focus on the Herzberg’s two factor theory, the
frustration or the increasing level of dissatisfaction of the employees could have been easily
managed by the senior level management of the organization through providing the chance to
the employees of meeting the developmental needs of them (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl &
Maude, 2017). The production of the scope for participating in the training and the
developmental activities could have acted as the “motivators” for the employees of the
organization. Apart from this, an application of the problem-centred approach of training
could have notably improved the skills and competencies of the employees, responsible for
the operations of the record keeping (Black et al., 2015).
My action plan for the case will be to understand the need of the change and then act
accordingly. On the other hand, if I be the manager responsible for the implementation of the
change, then I will certainly communicate the need of the change to the employees to reduce
the detrimental impact of the conflict. In addition, I will make sure that I apply the
participative management for involving the employees in the decision making regarding the
operational activities for the effective management of the change. Apart from this, I will
make sure that the developmental needs of the employees are met in the best way possible to
provide them sufficient knowledge and skills to overcome the huge barriers in implementing
the change.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, the impact of the autocratic leadership in implementing the
change from the part of the senior level management of the hospital was the major reason of
significant decline in the performances of the organization and the employee of the
organization. With a precise focus on the case, it is pretty evident that the management of the

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organization missed the important trick of involving the employees in the implementation of
the change. With the effective management of the developmental needs of the employees and
by establishing an effective communication amongst the employees regarding the change, the
organization could have implemented the change in a more effective manner.

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References:
Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L., & Maude, P. (2017). Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life
Science Journal, 14(5), 12-16.
Bassot, B. (2016). The reflective journal. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Black, A. T., Balneaves, L. G., Garossino, C., Puyat, J. H., & Qian, H. (2015). Promoting
evidence-based practice through a research training program for point-of-care
clinicians. The Journal of nursing administration, 45(1), 14.
Bulman, C., & Schutz, S. (Eds.). (2013). Reflective practice in nursing. John Wiley & Sons.
Cgh.com.sg (2019). Home. Retrieved from https://www.cgh.com.sg/pages/home.aspx
Howatson-Jones, L. (2016). Reflective practice in nursing. Learning Matters.
Moh.gov.sg (2019). Ministry of Health. Retrieved from https://www.moh.gov.sg/
Oluwatoyin, F. E. (2015). Reflective practice: Implication for nurses. Journal of nursing and
health science, 4(4), 28-33.
Singhealth.com.sg (2019). Singapore Health Services - Singapore Hospitals and Doctors -
www.singhealth.com.sg. Retrieved from http://www.singhealth.com.sg/

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Appendix:
Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle