Analyzing Leadership and Change Management in NHS Healthcare Sector

This report examines change management within the NHS, focusing on leadership theories and their practical application in the health and social care sector. It explores the changing landscape of healthcare delivery in the 21st century, highlighting issues related to change management and their impact on organizations like the NHS. The analysis covers factors influencing change, stakeholder involvement, and the implications for staff, service users, and the organization. It critically assesses beliefs and perceptions of change, examining how change should be introduced and the potential barriers to its implementation. The report also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of leadership and management theories, such as transformational leadership, Lewin’s model, and Tuckman’s stages of group development, and provides solutions for overcoming barriers to change. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

Leadership and
Management

Introduction
In the present scenario, to bring changes in the organisation time to time is highly
important as per the changing needs of customers. Today, the business environment is
dynamic as well as in every sector, competition is increasing at a fast pace. Therefore, in
health and social care sector also, to bring changes in the organisation to survive with
sustainability is vital. For the same, effective leadership and management are required. In
the present report, the firm NHS is selected with reference to which various concepts
related change management as well as leadership and management will be studied.

Change scenario related to health and
social care delivery in the 21st Century
 In 21st century, the scenario related to deliver health and social care is changed to a high
extent.
 Earlier, it was just to deliver the treatment with required services and charging
particular fees for the same.
 However, in today’s era, main focus of care homes like NHS is completely on the
patient.
 Now-a-days, main emphasis is on rendering safest and highest quality care and
ensuring that the patient will get recovered soon.

Issues related to change management and its
application to Health and Social Care
At the time of bringing changes and applying the same in health social care entity
like NHS, number of issues occur among which some are like:
 Rigidness of workforce to not accept the changes
 Lack of change and health care professionals
 Lack of expertise needed to undertake professional tasks
 Lack of knowledge among employees regarding the importance and need of change
 No desire of losing comfort zone

Chosen change scenario within health and
social care
 NHS is planning to bring changes for delivering effective and high quality treatment to
the patients.
 In NHS, the change scenario within health and social care that care workers may have
experienced is that for providing safest and highest quality services, many new and
advanced techniques are brought in the organization.
 For the same, health and social care workers may experience the issue in using those
techniques.
 It may have created an unhealthy working environment.
 Also, stress may have occurred to them that have reduced their efficiency.
 Confidence and motivational level may have reduced.

Factors influencing the change as well as
the type of change introduced
Major factors that influence the change as well as type of change introduced by
NHS are:
 Organizational culture
 Resistance
 Teamwork
 Degree of leadership support for the change
 Communication in the firm
 Organizational systems and processes
 Structure of organization

Thorough and critical examination related to the
beliefs and perceptions of change within organizations
and the service users
 According to the organisation, that is, NHS, changes prove to be both positive as well
as negative for the business.
 NHS believes that without bringing changes, to sustain for longer span of time is not
possible however, managing the same is highly difficult.
 It is having a positive and negative perception both regarding bringing change within
organisation.
 As per service user’s point of view, changes are important in order to get their needs
and desires fulfilled.
 To avail the services of NHS for a long period, users highly demand the changes.

Way in which change was or should be
introduced
 In NHS, the change should be introduced in such a way that health and social care
workers would not have any difficulty due to the same as well as they will get satisfied.
 To introduce the same effectually, it is important to first make workforce understand the
reason and importance of bringing change.
 They must be aware with the benefits of bringing change for organisation as well as for
them at individual level.
 Experts should be appointed who can train and make them understand the need of
change in a detailed manner.
 Proper training sessions should be organised so that to apply change will not be
difficult for care workers.

Implications for staff, service users and the
organization
Bringing changes in NHS will lead to put some implications on the staff, service users as
well as on the organisation. Major impacts on them are:
 For staff – Operational and employee policies will get changed as well as new
opportunities will be there to grow
 For service users – High quality and safe service will be gained by them along with
value for what they spend on rendering treatment
 For organisation – Encouraging innovation, increased efficiency of employees with their
improved attitudes and high goodwill are the major implications of change on NHS.

Stakeholders needed or would need to be
consulted/involved
In NHS, for bringing changes in organisation, stakeholders that would be needed
to get involved are:
 Government
 Service users
 Trainers
 All health and social care workers
 Supervisors/Managers
 Top authority, i.e., HODs (Head of Departments)
 Staff of administration and HR department

Importance of involving people
 It is important to involve the stakeholders like line manager, government, service users,
etc. so that effective management of change and team working within organisation can
be ensured for which these are the only people who can make it possible.
 Without them, bringing changes in the organisation is not possible.

Impact of change upon managers and their ability to
implement effective and successful change in the
chosen scenario
Implementing effective and successful change in NHS will have a high impact on the
managers as well as on their ability to execute the same. This impact can be understood in the
following ways:
 Increased knowledge and abilities
 Improved leadership
 Enhanced skills
 Rise in the motivation and confidence level
 Increase in stress as well

Strengths and weaknesses of appropriate theories and
models for the effective leadership/management of
change and team work
Appropriate theories and models for effective leadership and management of change as
well as team work are:
 Transformational theory of leadership - It major strength is to make a healthy and strong
relationship with followers and the weakness is overemphasis on some individuals.
 Lewin’s model for change management – It is useful to understand changes in relatively stable
conditions but it is too simplistic and mechanistic.
 Tuckman’s stages of group development – Main benefit of this model is that people learn to
effectually work with high team spirit. However, the major limitation is that the process if very
long and time consuming.

Applying theories to assess the way in which proposal
for change was or will be introduced and implemented
Theories and models given below need to be applied in NHS so that it can come
into practice and firm will gain advantages from the same.
 Transformational theory of leadership
 Lewin’s model for change management
 Tuckman’s stages of group development

Process of planning, implementation and
evaluation of the change
In order to bring change in NHS, the process of planning, implementation and
evaluation needs to be followed step by step as follow:
 Assessment
 Planning
 Implementation
 Evaluation

Potential barriers to the introduction of
change
Some of the potential barriers that NHS may have to face while introducing
change in the firm are like:
 Lack of effective communication strategy
 Poor organisational culture
 Fear of the unknown or unfamiliar
 Ineffective leadership
 Employee resistance

Solutions introduced (or which would need
to be introduced) in order to overcome them
Most effective solutions to over the barriers to introduction of change in NHS are
given as below:
 Effective communication
 Employee involvement
 Good leadership
 Negotiation

Conclusion: Importance of effective
change management
It can be concluded that for maintaining a quality provision at NHS, it is highly
important for the organization to bring, introduce and implement changes required for
making the firm run for longer span of time. It has been assessed that to thrive in ever
changing world, bringing suitable changes in organization time to time is very important.
Also, for delivering quality services to users or patients, NHS is required to update and
modify its methods or techniques used for treatment.

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