Principles of Leadership and Management in Healthcare Organizations

This essay discusses the challenges faced by leaders in healthcare organizations and the qualities they need to overcome them. It covers different leadership theories and their relevance in healthcare. The essay emphasizes the importance of effective healthcare leadership to ensure high-quality care services.

Principles of Leadership and Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................3
Main Body..................................................................................................................................................3
Areas of development..........................................................................................................................3
Theory....................................................................................................................................................5
Challenges.............................................................................................................................................6
Critical Analysis.....................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Over the years it has been evidenced that the term ‘leadership’ is a holistic approach in
every field where leaders are playing an important role to guide and motivate the team
members to perform well and achieve the predefined targets successfully. However,
leadership is all about to inspire others to perform their tasks efficiently with the setting
of some rational and practical strategies and objectives. The leader plays an important
role to direct and guide others by building some practical and futuristic visions and also
motivate his or her subordinates to accomplish their tasks effectively. A good leader
must have the ability to encourage and motivate his followers to accomplish the task
within a given time limit. In this writing, I shall elaborate my own thoughts on the present
leadership scenario and challenges that a leader has to face in their working fields. A
leader must have the capability to take the challenges and risks and I think with the
leadership quality a leader can overcome these problems. I shall mention the ways
through which leaders can overcome the challenges. The present writing is completely
based on my own reflection which will also highlight the effectiveness of those
challenges on the leaders. Characteristics that are needed to become a successful
leader with the ability to overcome all the challenges will be mentioned in this essay.
Main Body
Areas of development
Before proceeding in the further elaboration in this topic, it is important to understand
the meaning of authentic leadership. According to my perception, Authentic leaders are
those who can create a positive environment within the workplace and which further
motivate the employees to accomplish the given tasks in an organized manner. From
my learning experiences I get to know that leaders must create an open and effective
work culture within the team in the health management section to lead the followers
authentically with a positive outlook for the outcomes (Ruggles, 2014). For inheriting the
traits of authentic leadership in the organization, leaders must have the self-awareness
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quality and working skills that may help them to identify the strengths and weaknesses
of themselves. These qualities will directly reflect their leadership efficiency and by
identifying their strengths and weaknesses they can be able to enhance their self
capability to guide the subordinates. My own point of view is health care systems must
have the requirement of authentic and effective leaders who can lead the administrative
team and management team with the hope of positive outcomes and who may have the
ability to bring the changes in the operational strategies for better results (CMOE, 2019).
By maintaining the consistency in the authenticity of compassion, objectives, behavioral
goals leaders can create a good working environment within the organization which is
necessary to serve the duties proficiently. A good leader must be keen to gain
knowledge at any point in life because learning needs no age bars or time phrases. I
feel a leader can get the chance to increase his knowledge in managing the team
effectively. Good leaders are those who are sincere and hardworking and always aware
of the consequences of their actions. It is important to maintain an honest approach in
the workplace for a leader throughout his career to gain respect and positive outcomes
from all his followers and team members. This is also a basic requirement to obscure
the obstacles within the workplace (Now.leadercast.com, 2019).
It is the truth that the aspects of leadership can be different with the change in fields.
For instance, leaders of the sales management team may have to follow the different
perspectives to achieve the organizational goals than those leaders who are working in
the healthcare sectors. The main aim of the leaders in the health care sector is to
achieve success by providing the best services to the patients and their family members
to build a reputation in the community for their prospects. A good leader must have the
ability to set the direction and build an inspiring vision to do the appropriate things by
helping himself and also others. Effective leadership is all about mapping the things and
aspects to win the targets with the help of a dynamic, inspiring and motivating mindset
of the leaders and the team members (Sonnino, 2016).
I have summarized the characteristic traits that a leader needs to acquire for becoming
a good and effective are ability to create the future vision and goals, the sense to
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identify the risks and challenges that may come forward at the time of doing tasks,
should build realistic and effective plans to accomplish the targets and organizational
goals, must have the ability to motivate his followers and engage them to chase the
vision, must be skilled and experienced so that he can train his subordinates to achieve
the predefined targets.
Theory
I have gone through the leadership theories in depth to understand the areas of
personal development of the leader to overcome the challenges. In the present study I
have elaborated the idea of different leadership theories and tried extract the gist from
those theories to build an effective leadership pattern to overcome the present
challenges that every healthcare system has confronted for few years (Mindtools.com,
2019).
The great man theory: this theory was developed in19th century and it is based on the
idea that great leaders are born with the charismatic characteristics and they are born to
lead others. This theory exemplified the great Napoleon to support the thought. The
theory also explains that leaders are identified by their acts and achievements. For
example, Mother Teresa was praised by the world for her love and care to the
thousands of orphans. To achieve big and praised by all it is important for a leader to
have the quality of brave and enthusiastic and should have the determination to fulfill
the dream. Anybody can be able to be a great leader with the help of determination and
the ability to chase the dream (Jameslconsulting.com, 2019).
The trait theory: the trait theory denies the concept of great man theory and it
explained that great leaders are born not made and one needs not to learn or achieve
skills. The theory believes in the traits or genes with the inborn ability to conquer the
respective fields by the leaders (Matthews, 2017).
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Transformational leadership: the model of transformational leadership is born in the
year of 1978 which indicates that the term leadership is a process through which a
leader can interact with his followers effectively and influence them to achieve the goals.
The leader can transform the followers into his way by the effectiveness and ability to
chase the dream and properly direct them. In this leadership style, the followers can
trust their leader by observing his activities and honesty towards the work. The leader
must have the ability to motivate and encourage his followers in such a way so that they
can enhance their attitudes, commitments, and efforts to get achievements (Banks et
al., 2016).
Leader style theory: this theory highlights the ability to make decisions by a leader that
change the fate of the company. With the help of this theory, changes can be achieved
to get new strategies to build a relationship with the clients. This leadership theory
influences subordinates with ideas and innovations to enhance the credibility of work.
Leaders discuss the various ways of changes and how to deal with them efficiently to
get competitive advantages (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2019).
Managerial grid theory: this theory focuses on the concern of needs and requirements
in terms of services by effective team management processes. The leaders provide
flexibility to their followers to achieve creativity and innovation to fulfill the needs of the
patients which may further help to build the hospital’s reputation within the community.
Among all of the above mentioned theories I prefer the transformational and great man
theories for the leaders.
Challenges
Before analyzing the solution, I have emphasized on the current anticipated challenges
of leaders that they encounter in healthcare organizations to understand the problems
(Pdfs.semanticscholar.org, 2019). Few challenges are mentioned below:
Ethical challenges: the healthcare sectors are facing several ethical issues in recent
years that hamper the delivering and compassionate care services to the patients.
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Patient’s confidentiality and patient relationship are the major areas that a leader needs
to handle carefully to achieve effective care services. I have got to know from the
literatures that privacy should be maintained for the medical information of the patients.
Patients and family members may lose their trust in the healthcare services on violation
of this privacy which indirectly hamper the reputation of the organization. I think leaders
should take the responsibility to maintain the relationship with the patients and their
family members to enhance the service quality and organizational reputation (Rohan,
2019).
Malpractice: I have got to know that healthcare organizations are facing the challenges
and risks due to malpractices and negligence. The defective service to the patients may
create lots of problems in terms of legal and ethical issues. If a patient is harmed by the
defective medical services and errors by the physicians and nurses in their care
processes then he can deny paying the remuneration to the hospitals and may take
some legal actions against the healthcare administration (Vojta, 2019).
Physician-assisted suicide: based on the literature analysis, I feel it is a major issue
for any health organization when physician advice to chronic patients to die to get relief
from the pain. According to the research, approximately 50% of the doctor support
assisted suicide worldwide to their patients who are suffering from the critical and
devastating illness for several years and they claim that it causes less harm to the
patients and their family members. Doctors think that critically ill patients are occupying
the hospital beds for so many days or sometimes months without any positive results. It
is better to let them die peacefully to help the patients and their family members as well
as help the nursing home (Mba-healthcare-management.com, 2019). Based on my
literature survey there are several examples of legal and ethical issues due to the
assisted suicide and I think it is a leader’s responsibility to handle this matter very
carefully.
There are several other challenges that a leader has to handle efficiently. These are:
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Structural complexity, Staff distribution and empowerment, Communication and
relationship building, Economic issues
Critical Analysis
In my perception, an authentic leader should have quality to motivate his workers and
appreciate their efforts to build interpersonal relationships and enhance the quality of
the working environment. Good working culture always helps to influence the
employees to increase their creativity and innovation at the time of strategy making
processes (Ghiasipour et al., 2017).
Based on the leadership theory analysis, I prefer the following qualities that a leader
must have to overcome the challenges:
Self-awareness: self-awareness reflects self strengths and weakness without any
biases. The result of effective practice of self-awareness is maximum in terms of
enhancing the leadership power and positively motivating others. It also helps to
overcome the fears and increase the ability to fight with the challenges (de Zulueta,
2015).
Integrity and honesty: integrity and honesty reflect the strengths of the dignity of
a leader. I feel, a leader must have the ability to maintain his own words and keep
promises and this is how he can earn respect from others. Honesty and integrity are the
biggest behavioral traits that a leader should adapt to overcome the challenges and
handle the team successfully (Edisciplinas.usp.br, 2019).
The vision of the future: a leader needs to have a clear vision for prospects. A
leader must provide the speech that always adds value to the employees to achieve
their professional goals and help them in raising the capacity of excellence and I think it
is not possible without a clear vision and proper mission of goals (McCurdy, 2019).
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Focus on long term results: in my understanding a good leader should not waste his
time to resolve the temporary, unrealistic and ordinary problems rather he needs to fix
their eyes on achieving the long term goals and targets; because, to achieve the long
term goals, patience and perseverance are the two valuable factors for him.
Lead with heart: an authentic leader will lead his subordinates with full of heart and
empathy to ensure the effectiveness of work.
Consistency and transparency: these are the two most valuable factors that a
leader must consider in account to achieve the long term goals and pursue the dream of
success (Barr and Dowding, 2019).
Effective communication: I think effective communication skills may have the power to
resolve all the internal problems within any health organization. A leader must have the
ability to communicate with his workers effectively and clearly to convey his messages
to them. Effective communication also reduces the contradiction and confusion within
the organization (Riggio, 2019).
Based on my knowledge on leadership, I understand that effective governess is crucial
to maximizing the management system in the health organization to overcome the
workforce challenges that are confronted by most of the healthcare units. After
surveying various reports and literatures I have got to know that, healthcare
organizations usually have the complex administrative system where the CEO is not the
only part of the leadership who is answerable for the governing bodies but the roles are
divided between other leaders with similar power in accordance and they are also liable
to answer the governing bodies for any case of negligence (Belrhiti, Nebot Giralt and
Marchal, 2018).
Conclusion
Based on the learning outcomes I can conclude that the effective healthcare leadership
is necessary for any health organization to ensure high-quality care services. It is the
leader’s responsibility to provide the safety and security to the patients and the
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employees by making correct decisions at the right time. Thus, I prefer an effective
health care leadership to overcome several challenges and build relationship with the
communities. Leaders should monitor the system performances, on-time care service
delivery, administrative integrity and efficiency, effective training programs for the staff,
workforce challenges, and etc. After completing the leadership learning methods now I
understand that a health care system needs authentic leaders who can make the proper
decisions based on the situations with the ability to visualize the futuristic benefits. A
good leader has the quality to reduce the risk factors by taking some unique and
advantageous strategies. These also help health institutes to reduce the challenges
efficiently.
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