Evaluating Leadership & Change Management at Royal Melbourne Hospital

This essay examines leadership within the context of Royal Melbourne Hospital, focusing on a case study that highlights the challenges faced by leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic and other healthcare crises. It explores the impact of leadership decisions, particularly regarding technology adoption, on staff and patient care. The essay delves into leadership theories such as Situational Leadership and Team-Oriented Leadership, assessing their applicability to the hospital's situation. It also proposes alternative leadership models, like participative leadership, to foster better decision-making and employee engagement. Furthermore, the essay outlines change management strategies, including transparent communication and careful planning, to help the hospital adapt to evolving healthcare demands and improve overall performance and quality of care. Desklib provides access to a wide range of academic resources, including solved assignments and study materials.

Leadership in
Healthcare

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Essay on health care based on the case study..............................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers to the process that used to have social influence which used to
maximize the efforts of the people in order to achieve the goal. The leaders are the very

important part of the organization in order to make the good decisions. This project is based on
the Royal Melbourne Hospital which is located in Australia. This is the public health care system
which used to offer the Australian people to have the best medical arrangements. The essay will
include the case study on this hospital that has occurred in the organization. It will also describe
the leadership theories or model and alternative approaches that has been taken by the leader in
the hospital. At last, this essay will outline the change management strategies for having the
good future for the employees and staff.
MAIN BODY
Essay on health care based on the case study
The case study is based on the situation that the company leaders that used to make the
different strategies related to the COVID- 19 and other health problems in the hospital. The
situation is that the leaders of the company health care facilities were not proper which used to
have a great impact on the staff and patients in the hospital. This is just because of not making
the good decisions in related to the pandemic and other health care facilities. The team has taken
the decision in order to have good implications but the staff and patients were not satisfied with
their decisions. As the hospital is basically famous for providing the surgeries, specialist medical
and mental health services they must have the good technology in order to prove bets facilities to
patients.
From the above case study it is seen that the company is not focusing on the pandemic
situations and not having the good technology which used to have the negative and positive on
the staff of the organization. The company used to have a positive impact that the hospital is
working with the old technology in order to have fast working. As in the time of pandemic the
leaders were not having time in order to make the staff to teach the use of new technology 1. By
having some positive impacts the hospital leaders used to have some negative impact as well.
The negative impact is that the not using the new and innovative technology which used to have
slow process in the managing the work in the hospitals. This makes the staff to have very
difficulty in order to manage the work in the hospital and providing the best health care facilities
to the patients who are in the hospital. The effective leaders used to have focus on the continuous
safety, high quality and to provide the best care opportunities to the staff. The leaders in the
1 Alilyyani, B., Wong, C. A., & Cummings, G. (2018). Antecedents, mediators, and
outcomes of authentic leadership in healthcare: A systematic review. International
journal of nursing studies. 83. 34-64.

hospital used to provide and helps the staff to improve the quality related to the caring of the
patients, safety and having the best experience from the patients2. The effective leaders in the
hospital used to provide the health care services and must listen the patients and take feedback in
order to make the best decisions in the organization. Leaders of the organization should make the
good decisions that make the staff to have good working.
The situation of the leaders in the hospital was very bad which used to have great impact
on the working of the employees. The leaders did not have the technological changes in the
organization and not make their employees to participate in this decision- making 3. This makes
the to have a negative impact on the staff and patients. This used to decreases the profits as the
hospital is not having the adequate technology in order to cope up with the changes in the
external market.
As the leaders of the hospital has not taken the good decisions at the time of pandemic
which has affected the working of the staffs in the hospital. The leaders are basically hired in
order to take the good decisions in the company but due to sudden changes in the market has
affected the staffs and patients in the hospital. By happening of this the employees has suffered a
lot and this effect the quality care on the patients. This can be described by using the theories and
model related to the leadership. The leadership theory that can be used in this case study is the
Situational Leadership theory4. This theory used to suggest the organizational leaders has no
single leadership style. They must have to change according to the changing situation in the
external environment. The leaders in the organization rather than focusing on the strategies as
they must focus on the task which they have to achieve in the future.
According to Jha (2021), it used to state that the effective leaders are those who used to
adopt in every type of situation and have cured of every happening situation and the other factors
which used to have an effect on the organization 5.
2 De Brún, A., O’Donovan, R., & McAuliffe, E. (2019). Interventions to develop
collectivistic leadership in healthcare settings: a systematic review. BMC Health
Services Research. 19(1). 1-22.
3 Belrhiti, Z., Giralt, A. N., & Marchal, B. (2018). Complex leadership in healthcare: a
scoping review. International journal of health policy and management. 7(12). 1073.
4 Leach, L. & et.al., (2021). Distributed leadership in healthcare: leadership dyads and the
promise of improved hospital outcomes. Leadership in Health Services.
5 Jha, M. K. (2021). An integrated framework of leadership for healthcare organizations
to navigate through covid-19 crisis. Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management. 16(3).
16-20.

On the contradictory note Stawicki and Firstenberg, (2018)6, used to suggest that it is
basically the model which is adopted by few leaders in order to manage and adopt the changes in
the organization. It is consisted of the two important variables that are task variable and the
relationship behaviour.
The leadership model is basically the theoretical framework that helps the organization to
manage the employees and make them follow the best decision taken by the leaders. As the
organization has taken the decision to not to adopt the new technology which has affected the
health services of the staff and patients. By not doing this it makes the difficulty to the
employees in order to manage the work in the company. In order to overcome from this, the
leaders must have the Team- Oriented leadership in their organization.
According to Yarow, Jirma and Siringi (2019)7, this will be the best model that can be
used by the hospital in order to manage the work and decisions in the organization. Team-
oriented leadership used to set the best example in order to have and create the best team and
make the best decisions in the organization. This team- oriented leadership is basically the
people- oriented leadership which makes the company to have the most effective on the basis of
efficiency, productivity, satisfaction of employees and the employee engagement. There are
some styles of the leadership that used to fall under this model that are as follows:
Affiliate leadership are the leaders those who used to build up the teams in order to have
good work and increases the productivity and quality of the services in the organization. The
leaders of the company used to support employees by motivating them and strengthen them by
contributing to the success of the company. The organizational leaders of the hospital can
provide the employee's inspiration, team building and enhance the employee morale in order to
have best decisions in the company. But company has not followed this model and this has
affected the organization in order to provide the health care benefits to the patients.
6 Stawicki, S., & Firstenberg, M. S. (2018). Fundamentals of leadership for healthcare
professionals.
7
Yarow, A. A., Jirma, S., & Siringi, E. (2019). Management of Devolved Health
Services, Democratic Leadership Style and Healthcare Service Delivery in Arid and
Semi Arid Lands in Kenya. International Journal of Business and Management. 14(11).

On the other hand Jam, Ng and Aziz (2018) 8, suggest that the participative model of
leadership is best because it is the democratic style leadership which makes the employees to
participate in the decision- making. The company can use this model in order to have good
working and have good impact on the decisions of the leaders. In this, the every team is
participated in the decision-making and used to take the best decisions for the company. As the
organization ha not make their employees to take part in order to not to have the new and
innovative technology. This causes a bad impact on the working of the staff and to provide the
best health car facilities to the patients that are hospitalized. By making the employees
participate in the decision- making it makes the best decision in the working style and helps the
company to get success and attain the planned goal. The leaders used to make their employees to
participate when the organization is taking some important decisions. This makes the company to
have good decisions and make the employees to feel valued in the organization. It makes the
employees to increase its productivity, as in the healthcare units the employees and staff has to
take care of the patients that are hospitalized in the hospital. This makes the leaders to take the
feedback from the employees and focus on that feedback and improve that work. By adopting
this alternative model the company can make the best decision related to the health care facilities
and provide the best services to the patients. The company can make the teams and distribute the
task according to the effectiveness of the employees. This makes the employees to feel motivated
as they are taken in the decision-making of the company. The main characteristic of the
democratic leaders is that they can have feedback and make their employees to participate in the
decision- making that makes the whole team effective. By using this participative model the
leaders can make the good decisions in the hospital and helps to overcome the above situation.
There are some proposed change management strategies that can be used by the leaders
in order to manage and adopt the changes in the organization. As in the today's changing
business environment the company has to make the strategies in order to cope up and adopt the
changes. The leaders of the cited hospital can used the following strategies and adopt the changes
that are as follows:
8 Jam, F. A., Singh, S. K. G., Ng, B., & Aziz, N. (2018). The interactive effect of
uncertainty avoidance cultural values and leadership styles on open service innovation:
A look at malaysian healthcare sector. International Journal of Business and
Administrative Studies. 4(5). 208-223.

1. Plan Carefully: Before bringing the change and making the team aware, the
company's leaders must be sure about that proposed change and have the full
planning9. The organization must outline the responsibilities in order to have
change and make the employees to know about that change.
2. Be transparent as possible: This is the main strategy that the company's leaders
must follow in order to adopt the changes. By having transparency in the
organization and making the employees aware about the changes it makes the
staff to work in an effective manner.
3. Communicate: The leaders and employees of the organization must have the open
communication between them. This makes the employees to feel motivated by
communicating with them in the change management process. As company has to
provide the health care services to the patients they must have the good
communication among them. By having the short meetings the company can have
the good decisions and adopt changes easily.
4. Provide training: When there is change in the technologies the company has to
provide the training to their employees. As the company has to bring new
technologies and make the good working and health care facilities, they must
provide training to their employees. It makes them to use those machines and
recover the patients faster.
5. Monitor and measure: After adopting the change management and using the new
technology and machines the leaders must monitor the implementation done by
them (The 10 Best organizational change management strategies, 2022)10. If there
is any issue arising they must find the solution in order to have smooth
functioning in the health services.
6. Create roadmap: By creating the roadmap the employees can easily understand
that what changes that organization as to brought in order to have effective work.
9 Perez, J. (2021). Leadership in healthcare: transitioning from clinical professional to
healthcare leader. Journal of Healthcare Management. 66(4). 280-302.
10 The 10 Best organizational change management strategies. 2022. [Online]. Available
through: <https://online.champlain.edu/blog/best-organizational-change-management-
strategies>

They must make their employees to know about the strategies and make them
aware about the new responsibilities related to the change management in order to
provide the health care facilities.
The leaders of the company can use the change management model as well in order to
propose the change management related to the health of the patients in the hospital. By using the
Lewin's change management model it will be easy for the company to adopt the change which
used to describe the following steps:
1. Unfreeze: It is the preparing stage to have the change management in the
organization. The company must analyse that what health care services are going
and what activities are intended to change. By communicating with the staff the
leaders can make the changes and prepare the staff to have the further changes.
2. Change: In this stage the change is implemented so it is called the implementation
phase. The leaders must keep the change into the practice and should use to
communicate with the staff. By supporting the employees in order to adopt the
changes it makes them to feel motivated and feel valued in order to provide the
healthcare facilities.
3. Refreeze: This makes the company to adopt changes and refreeze in those adopted
changes rather than focusing on the old ways of doing work. The company can
develop the strategy and manage the changes adopted by them. By changing the
heath care services they must ensure that those services are better and the patients
are having the faster recovery as compare to earlier.
There are some professional development options that are given to the organization in
order to adopt the change and make the good impact on the staff of the organization. The
professional development refers to the system that used to improve the practice by providing the
continuous training and coaching to the employees to have changes11. By having the professional
development options to the staff as they are aware of their responsibilities in providing the
services. By having the SMART goals the leaders can have the many development in the
organization. The SMART goals make the leaders to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic
and be on time. The organization can have the machines and new equipments which used to
measure that the staff are coming on time, this makes the leaders to have time- management in
11 Stanley, D. (2019). Values-based leadership in healthcare: Congruent leadership
explored. Sage.

the firm. They must take the feedback from the patients about their staff if they are providing the
proper health care facilities the employees or not. The staff having the experience in the nursing
life and in the personal life which makes the staff to easily adopt the changes and makes the
patients to recover faster. By having the SMART goals in the comapny this makes to have the
highest performance and increases the skills of the staff in the hospital. By using this
development plans the leaders can have the good planning and decision-making in the company
in order to provide best health services.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay based on the case study on this hospital which used to face lots of
leadership problems and decisions make by the leaders. Further this essay has evaluated the
leadership theories or model and alternative approaches that has been taken by the leader in the
hospital in order to have the best leadership decisions taken by the leaders and improve the
quality care for the staff and patients. At last, this essay has evaluated the change management
strategies for having the good future for the employees and staff and provide the best health care
services in the hospital.