Leader's Role in Change Management for Aged Care Centre Improvement

This essay investigates the critical role of leaders in facilitating change management within the health and social care sector, particularly in the context of improving patient well-being and reducing medication errors and infection rates in Aged Care Centres. It highlights the importance of effective leadership in implementing change, emphasizing the need for visionary leaders who can resolve workplace issues, make timely decisions, and build strong teams. The essay covers various aspects, including the necessity of change plans, the influence of different leadership styles (transactional and transformational), the application of Kotter's change management theory, the significance of benchmarking, and the impact of workplace culture. It also addresses the importance of communication, short-term goals, and continuous improvement in achieving successful change implementation. The analysis underscores the value of leaders in developing strategies, training staff, and fostering a positive work environment to reduce errors and enhance patient care.

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Table of Contents
Topic: Leader's role in Change Management strategy ....................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................9

Topic: Leader's role in Change Management strategy
INTRODUCTION
In health and social care, facilitating the changes is necessary for performance
improvement. This would aid to provide effective care and treatment to patients for their well-
beings when workers perform at their level best. In this regard, changes are incorporating at
workplace most efficiently by effective leadership. Here, the visionary leaders have possessed
capacity to resolve workplace related issues, make accurate and timely decisions for
implementing changes, and provide support to managers in building teams and boost morale of
staff members (Sarros, Cooper and Santora, 2008). This essay begins with requirement for
changes in Health and Social Care sector for well-being of patients. It focuses on identifying the
necessity of adhering to a change plan. Effective change is necessary for a company because it
leader or management able to develop as well as manage effective environment which reduce
infection rate and medication errors. This can be done through various steps or methods such as
maintaining hand hygiene, provide training to employees and many more. For this purpose, The
Aged Care Centre adopt various effective medical practices which help them in reducing
medication error and infection rate. For this their main concern is to develop as well as maintain
effective hand hygiene. Topics covered in this report are role of leader in change process, type of
leadership, change process, its impact and barriers which face by respective place while adopting
change. Along with this it will also include importance of benchmarking and stakeholders in
order to adopt change at a work place.
MAIN BODY
In an organization leaders plays an essential role so that they attain objective as well as
adopt change in effective manner. For which leader needs to conduct analysis of workplace
which help them in understanding issues and requirement (Mhatre and Riggio, 2014). Through
which leader able to develop strategy according to the situation that currently respective centre
is going through. In an organisation there are various role played by leader which help them in
attaining goal as well as objectives. In respect of The Aged Care Centre their leaders plays an
essential role in order to adopt hygiene situation and reduce medication error. For which they
develop as well as adopt various strategies so that their staffs conduct their work in effective
way. In respective place leader also plays various role such as train staffs so that they maintain
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hygiene of workplace as well as hand hygiene. Along with this they also play essential role in
develop strategies or policies so that every one maintain all the rules and regulations of
maintaining health hygiene. They also play important role in communicating all strategies and
policies to all staffs so that they maintain workplace culture and reduce medication errors.
Their are various type of leader style which is based on leader as well as on the situation.
A good leader always understand situation and then adopt its leadership style. Such as
transactional, transformational, cross, team, situational, Coercive, affiliative, democratic,
autocratic and many more (Adaletey, 2015). Most proper and effective leadership style if totally
depend on the function played by a leader, its followers and situation through which currently
company is going through. In respect of The Aged Care Centre, their leader adopt leadership
style according to the situation or issues which they are facing currently. The leader of respective
workplace generally adopt two type of leadership style i.e. transactional leadership style and
transformational leadership style through which they able to maintain effective care centre which
have less infection rate as well as medication error. Transactional leadership style refers to way
in which leader of respective care centre motivate their employees through rewards and
achievement such as they develop a policy that which staffs which always maintain hygiene
workplace will get some rewards. Whereas transformational leadership style refers to the way in
which leader motivate as well as encourage their employees in order to achieve their goal in
effective and appropriate manner. By adopting these leadership style The Aged Care Centre able
to attain their objective to maintain effective workplace which have less infection rate and
medication error. The effective leadership style also help in maintaining effective working
culture which motivate employees as well as encourage them in order to attain their goal by
conducting effective work. By adopting both transactional and transformational leadership style
The Aged Care Centre able to encourage and train their employees so that they conduct proper
work in order to reduce medication error and infection rate (Dawson and Andriopoulos, 2014).
For this they may adopt process of hand hygiene. Through transactional leadership style
employees fell motivated because their performance get rewarded and appraised whereas
through transformational leadership style employees also able to enhance their skills which help
them in adopting proper method in order to maintain hand hygiene effectively. In respect of The
Aged Care Centre their leader may adopt transformational leadership because through this their
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employees able to increase their skills and ability which help them in conducting work in proper
manner.
By identifying the necessity of Change process, leaders of The Aged Care Centre
generally used to build an appropriate plan for improving performance of workers in order to
reduce medication errors and infection rate. It is essential for respective place to reduce
medication error so that they able to treat their patients in effective way (Brown and Osborne,
2012). For this they adopt various type of methods such as developing and maintaining hand
hygiene among doctors and other staffs. Therefore, developing the performance improvement
plan aid leaders and authorities of this respective care centre to bring collaboration among
workers. This will result in reducing the medication errors as well as infection rate especially in
medical ward which may cause due to conducting improper health activities such as not
maintaining hand hygiene like doctor treat another patients without changing gloves, not use of
proper sanitized gloves, tool and many more. In this regard, for implementing changes at
workplace at The Aged Care Centre, leaders decide to adopt the concept of Kotter's change
management theory which concerns on a key principle for how to respond towards change. This
theory provides eight step model that helps leaders in incorporating changes and develop their
vision for improving the performance of staff members, so that errors related to medication can
be reduced. It includes -
 Increase urgency – This is an initial stage of changes where leaders of The Aged Care
Centre used to create a sense of urgency among team members, so that they can analyse
why changes are necessary for accomplishment of an objective. As main goal of this care
centre is to provide best care to patients especially aged-people and reduce medication
errors in their treatment process (Graves and Luciano, 2013). Therefore, for achievement
of this goal, through increasing urgency among staff members, leaders can motivate them
to work in collaboration and cooperate each other for delivering best care.
 Build the team – It is second stage of change management where leaders of The Aged
Care Centre build the team by dividing staff members into different-different teams, on
the basis of skills and level of knowledge of each professionals. Further, they provide
effective vision to each team and allocate roles and responsibilities according to their job
position. This would help in building a strong team and when workers are forced to work
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in group, then it leads to reduce gap skills between them which arise due to different
cultural background.
 Get the vision correct – In order to develop creativity, emotional connection and sharing
skills among workers after formation of team. leaders are hereby provided the correct
vision to workers. In respect of The Aged Care Centre, they develop appropriate vision
which help staffs in maintaining proper hygiene at workplace. For which they provide
effective training so that employees able to maintain hand hygiene in order to reduce
medication error as well as infection rate (Bøe and Hognestad, 2017). By developing
vision correctly respective company able to treat their patients properly.
 Communicate – Since for performance improvement changes are necessary to
incorporate at workplace, therefore, for this purpose, leaders need to make proper
communication with workers regarding changes. This would help in getting support of
staff workers to adopt changes which are mainly incorporated for their performance
management. In respect of The Aged Care Centre, their leader develop strategy and
communicate it to their employees so that they can adopt it properly which leads to
maintaining proper hand hygiene. Through this employees also able to create hygiene
place which have less or no infection rate and medication error. Along with this leader
also communicate the way through which they maintain it in effective way.
 Get things moving – For empowering actions, leaders also used to reduce factors that
create barriers in improving the performance of workers by implementing changes. It
includes organising learning program for staff members, where they can learn how to
respond when emergency situation is arise at workplace for well-being of patients. At this
stage leader of The Aged Care Centre will develop strategy and monitor that every staffs
it in proper manner so that they can attain their objective properly. That is maintaining
hygiene workplace in order to reduce infection rate and medication error (Bens, 2017).
For monitoring this leader of respective care centre develop standard so that employees
conduct work accordingly in proper manner.
 Focus on short term goals – By focusing on short term goals, leaders build strategies for
how to reduce work pressure and achieve the success systematically. In respect of The
Aged Care Centre their leader will develop short term goal in order to maintain
workplace which have less or no inflation rate and medication error. In order to this they
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will develop short objective such as train employees that how they can adopt hand
hygiene, monitor that every employees is adopting process which they create in order to
maintain hygiene. Along with this, during this process they focuses on a particular task so
that it will conduct properly.
 Don't give up – Since for performance improvement, changes are necessary to be done
therefore, this stage force to do not give up while dealing with emergency situation.
According to this stage leader of The Aged Care Centre will motivate their employees
and encourage them that they can adopt changes in order to maintain effective hygiene at
workplace (Kerry, 2015). Along with this they will also develop strategics and polices
that those staffs who will maintain hygiene in most effective way they will get
appreciation and rewards.
 Incorporate change – Instead for managing changes, leaders concerns first how to
reinforce the same so that performance of workers can be improved. For this purpose, by
creating effective culture at workplace where workers are free to talk about their needs,
aid in reducing conflicts between them and help in improving their productivity as well.
At this stage leader of The Aged Care Centre will monitor and control the operation in
order to ensure that their staffs are adopting hand hygiene process properly. There are
various ways of it such as using hygiene gloves and other tools.
Workplace culture refers to the character as well as personality of an organization. This
will help a leader in making their business unique and successful. It is also consider as sum of
values, practice, beliefs, interactions, behaviours and attitudes of a company. Along with this if a
company adopt positive workplace culture then they able to attracts talent, drives engagement,
impacts happiness, satisfaction and many more (Steers and Lee, 2017). In respect of The Aged
Care Centre, their leader will develop effective work culture so that their employees feel
motivated and encouraged to conduct the work in effective way. Through this they also able to
adopt activities or strategies which help them reducing medication errors and infection rate so
that patients able to treat in effective way. Through proper working culture leader of The Aged
Care Centre able to retain their employees for a long time and operate their survive users
properly.
In respect of The Aged Care Centre when they adopt changes in order to improve their
working situation by improving hygiene so that every one fell at particular place, while this
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respective care centre face various issues or barriers like one way communication. This situation
arise when leader not convey about changes or strategies to everyone but implement the change.
In this situation all staff not able to perform effectively which impact on their service quality.
Next barrier can be poor workforce planning, this condition will arise when a leader will not plan
things appropriately and adopt change due to this quality of work get decreased that will leads to
suffering to service users (Thomas, 2017). The respective hospital may also face barrier related
to improper working culture due to which productivity of employees get reduced. This will also
negatively impact on staff motivation due to which they not able to serve their patients properly.
Along with this, The Aged Care Centre also face barrier related to confusing strategy, this is so
because if strategy or plan which is adopted by them are confusing then not all employees able to
perform properly and effectively. So it is necessary for leaders of respective company to develop
strategies and policies so that they can avoid these barriers which can impact them negatively.
Along with this leader of The Aged Care Centre can adopt Lewin's theory of change which help
in adopting change properly. This model is generally adopted by a company when they decide to
adopt changes at their culture, there are major three model in respective theory i.e. unfreeze,
change and freeze (Casali and Day, 2010). At the stage of Unfreeze stage respective care centre
will ensure that their employees are ready for adopting change and they will help them in
attaining goal. Whereas at the stage of Change leader of The Aged Care Centre will execute the
change in order to attain their objective of maintaining hygiene working place. At last stage that
is refreeze the leader of respective change centre will ensure that change which they adopt in
order to maintain hand hygiene is for long time duration or permanent. By adopting Lewin's
theory of change respective company able to adopt change and maintain hygiene at workplace in
effective way. This will also help them in attaining their objective of serving service users
effectively and appropriately.
Along with this in order to avoid barrier leaders of The Aged Care Centre must develop
benchmark. Which refers to the procedure which is adopted by an organization in order to
identify best standard on which they can perform to attain goal and objective (Parpart, 2013). It
is important for respective care centre because through this their leader able to develop clear and
proper goal as well strategy which help them in motivating employees so that they treat patients
properly as well as maintain hygiene environment. Along with this, through benchmarking they
also able to build improper infrastructure which help them in performing effectively by adopting
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proper procedure of reducing infection and medication error such as process of maintaining hand
hygiene. Through this they able to adopt change properly and effectively which help them in
treating their staffs as well as patients appropriately according to their need in order to maintain
hand hygiene. Through maintaining or develop benchmarking leaders of The Aged Care Centre
able to develop proper communication which help them in improving staffs performance as well
as maintaining hygiene environment (Jacobs and et.al. 2013). So it is essential for leader of The
Aged Care Centre to develop proper benchmarking so that they can adopt changes in effectively
as well as efficiently and able to maintain proper hand hygiene.
For getting high commitment of stakeholders and getting their engagement at each stage
of performance management, leaders of The Aged Care Centre have also formulated the strategic
planning. It includes making clarity in goals and clearly describe the necessity of performance
improvement to staff members and other stakeholders, measuring progress towards achievement
of goals, develop an atmosphere of trusts and more. All these strategies help in getting high
commitment of stakeholders and staff members for improving the performance of workplace.
This would help in ensuring that patients will get appropriate and timely service for their well-
beings, without occurrence of medication errors. Through this leader of The Aged Care Centre
also able to motivate their employees which help them in attaining their goal as well as
maintaining health hygiene environment (Stanley, 2011). For this they also engage their
stakeholder by providing them effective training through which they able to maintain proper
hygiene surrounding which leads to reduction in infection rate and medication error. They also
able to improve performance of their staffs which help them in attaining goal of maintaining
proper hygiene environment which attract as well as satisfy patients. For motivating them
respective company develop various other strategies such as developing standard, train
employees, taking feedback for improvement and many more.
CONCLUSION
From above discussed point it can be concluded as well as analysis that for an
organisation change is essential because by it they able to done performance management in
effective manner. Performance management is also essential for a company because through it
they able to develop and maintain effective performance of staffs at a workplace by adopting
change and innovation. In an organization leader plays an essentials role by conducting various
activities such as developing decision, motivating employees to conduct work effectively, adopt
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changes, develop objective and many more. There are various type of leadership style which is
used by a leader in order to understand as well as develop decision according to the situation.
Along with this leader of a firm can adopt various theories so that they can adopt changes in
effective manner in order to improve working condition of a firm. Effective leadership of a
company will ensures visionary change, optimal capability constructing outcomes, motivating as
well as developing flexible workforce. While adopting changes company may face various
barriers which may impact on their working process as well as culture. So in order to avoid it
they develop several strategies such as developing standard or benchmark, identifying
effectiveness of stakeholder and many more.
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REFRENCES
Books and journals
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transformational leadership and organizational culture. Journal of Leadership &
Organizational Studies, 15(2), 145-158.
Mhatre, K. H., & Riggio, R. E. (2014). Charismatic and transformational leadership: Past,
present, and future. The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations. 221-240.
Adaletey, D. L. (2015). Organizational Capacity Building for Sustainable Health Information
Systems: A Case Study from Ghana. Journal of Health Informatics in Africa. 3(2).
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Brown, K., & Osborne, S. P. (2012). Managing change and innovation in public service
organizations. Routledge.
Graves, L. M., & Luciano, M. M. (2013). Self-determination at work: Understanding the role of
leader-member exchange. Motivation and Emotion. 37(3). 518-536.
Bøe, M., & Hognestad, K. (2017). Directing and facilitating distributed pedagogical leadership:
Best practices in early childhood education. International Journal of Leadership in
Education. 20(2). 133-148.
Bens, I. (2017). Facilitating with Ease!: core skills for facilitators, team leaders and members,
managers, consultants, and trainers. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerry, T. (Ed.). (2015). Cross-curricular teaching in the primary school: Planning and
facilitating imaginative lessons. Routledge.
Steers, R. M., & Lee, T. W. (2017). Facilitating effective performance appraisals: The role of
employee commitment and organizational climate. In Performance measurement and
theory (pp. 75-93). Routledge.
Thomas, P. (2017). Integrating Primary Healthcare: leading, managing, facilitating. CRC Press.
Parpart, J. L. (2013). Choosing silence: Rethinking voice, agency and women’s empowerment.
In Secrecy and silence in the research process (pp. 34-48). Routledge.
Jacobs, R., & et.al. (2013). The relationship between organizational culture and performance in
acute hospitals. Social science & medicine. 76. 115-125.
Casali, G. L., & Day, G. E. (2010). Treating an unhealthy organisational culture: the implications
of the Bundaberg Hospital Inquiry for managerial ethical decision making. Australian
Health Review. 34(1). 73-79.
Stanley, 2011
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