Leadership & Communication in Health Care Service Organizations - Essay Example

?Leadership and Communication in Health Care Service Organizations Introduction Leadership may be viewed as both science and art but in general its significance depends on how it is employed within different contexts or situations. For instance, an organization definitely consists of a complex environment but this complexity can be addressed by a well-defined strategy that at some point may be highly related with leadership activities. This means that leadership has different level of implementation depending on a given situation. However, the most important point about it is its general importance in an organization. On the other hand, since an organization involves human beings, communication is definitely an integral part of every activity. Without communication, an organization will not be able to function well. Eventually, this will lead to underachievement of organizational goals considering that the success of an organization is highly influenced by the entire communication process involved. It is in line with this that this paper includes the discussion about leadership, motivation and communication in an organization. The proponent tries to apply the information in line with leadership functions and activities of managers and their influence on the successful performance particularly in health services organizations. Thus, some theories, concepts and terms related with leadership are included based on their association with a successful performance and goal attainment of the health care service organizations. Leadership There are many existing theories about leadership and these primarily include great man, trait, contingency, situational, behavioral, participative, management, and relationship (Cherry par. 1-8). All of these theories have important contribution in understanding the success of health care service organizations. These organizations are definitely trying to promote quality service through high value or even innovative and strategic approach and implementation of leadership activities. For instance, most of the health service organizations in the United States are trying to be the leader in their respective industry when it comes to providing the best customer satisfaction. In short, each of these organizations is trying to be a cut above the other by formulating and employing specific competitive strategies. Thus, they usually end up differentiating their services and product offerings. However, the implementation of this specific approach is not going to be easy. In fact, this highly involves specific leadership approach depending on the type of strategies at hand. Great man theories assume that leadership is innate and that every great leader is born not made and that they will rise above others if it is necessary, while trait theories state that leadership traits are innate among leaders (Cherry par. 1-2). These theories are believed to be very applicable in an organization before but today the fierce competition existing between health service organizations would require competent leaders based on experience and other relevant qualifications. Thus, it is in this reason that in order to have effective leadership activity, a certain health service organization must necessarily understand other modern leadership concepts. Today’s leadership activity requires basic understanding of both external and internal business environment. Thus, the remaining leadership theories are making sense on how exactly organizations are performing when it comes to their ability to apply the leadership concept. Contingency theories of leadership state that leader’s response to leadership is affected by factors in the environment such as leadership style, followers and situational aspects (Cherry par. 3). Thus, there are some health service organizations today that try to give more emphasis on enhancing leadership style and character development of their staffs. Situational theories state that leaders choose the best course of action in situations that requires decision making (Cherry par.4). Today, especially in health service sector, alternative courses of actions are necessary prior to the actual decision-making process. Behavioral theories state that leaders are made not born which means that they are formed not based on mental or internal qualities but through experience (Cherry par. 5). As stated earlier, fierce competition allows health service organizations to choose leaders who have substantial experience for the purpose of achieving their competitive advantage. Participative theories of leadership take into account the importance of others’ contribution for the success of a leader (Cherry par. 6). This is a specific case among health service organizations that try to solicit important feedbacks or information not only among their leaders but with their subordinates especially on finding suggestions and addressing job satisfaction. Management theories of leadership focus on a system of rewards and punishment (Cherry par. 7). Reward and punishment system is common approach today and this is one of the best ways to motivate workers within health service sector. Relationship theories of leadership involve the issue of relationship among leaders and their followers (Cherry par. 8). These include how to motivate and inspire the team in general. Inspiring and motivating the team are among of the most important concerns of health service organizations. Motivation There are five general categories of motivation theories and these include need-based, cognitive process, behavioral approach, self determination and job based (Phillips and Tush 235). The need-based theories discuss about work motivation in relation with employee’s satisfaction of their needs in the workplace. Based on these theories, health service organizations must necessarily understand the needs of their employees. Managers must be able to formulate specific activities such as gathering feedbacks from employees in order to know more about their needs. Not only that, it is also important to understand customers’ feedbacks in order to have some basis on how to enhance staffs’ productivity or efficiency. One of the most renowned theories of motivation is Maslow’s need hierarchy which states that the general types of needs such as physiological, survival, safety, love and esteem have to be satisfied from lower factors before higher needs are satisfied. This means that before survival needs are satisfied, physiological needs must first be satisfied. The cognitive process theories include employees’ decisions and choices when it comes to the level of efforts they exert. These specific theories are essentially effective when it comes to staffs’ performance evaluation. Managers from time to time especially in health service organization need to know the level of their staffs’ productivity and the level of their efforts exerted. The information about this can be clearly generated from quality assurance department team or from customers themselves. The behavioral approach includes the application of principles of learning to the work environment. Since every day life is a matter of experience, then learning has become an essential part of daily activities. Managers in health service organization therefore must be able to understand that their staff productivity develops over time as they are continuously expose to different experiences. Thus, it is necessary that a working environment must be conducive for learning and growth activities. Self-determination theories of motivation include understanding the extrinsic and intrinsic factors respectively and which primarily include approval, money, work interest and more. Managers therefore must be able to understand the fact that there are important needs of their staffs. These needs must be addressed accordingly and some of them can be granted through incentives, rewards or appreciations. These are all intrinsic and extrinsic values but their significance depends on an individual’s perception of things. Job-based theories of motivation place strong emphasis of employees’ motivation within their respective jobs. This means that people who are gaining constant satisfaction with their jobs are most likely to perform well because of a high level of motivation in doing their part. Thus, this means that leaders or managers must be able to evaluate their staffs based on their general motivation of working jobs that are in line with providing health service activities. There are different major and minor health service activities and it is important that these must be categorized accordingly in order to have substantial understanding of staff’s motivation. Communication Communication is composed of two general types: verbal and non-verbal. In either way, effective communication may be hindered by human relations and perceptual barriers which are considered to be potential noise sources. For instance, jobs in line with health services can become so stressful at some point considering that there are different problems or situations with varying degrees of difficulties which are encountered daily. This can be so challenging among health service providers especially those who are in the frontline. At some point, this can become a barrier to effective communication process and it must be addressed accordingly from time to time. Thus, in some other companies, employees are taking stress management program or even have to enjoy outings and other incentives programs. Based on illustration 1, it is therefore clear that effective communication is a way to achieve specific level of productivity in an organization. Illustration 1. Schematic diagram of a general communication system (Martin and Fellenz 261) Conclusion It is important to understand that in leadership, motivating staffs and improving communication process and activity within health service organizations are all integral parts in the achievement of corporate objectives. It is therefore clear that health service organizations are not different from other organizations when it comes to leadership implementation. It is applicable in every area and therefore it is important to consider it as an important field for exploration among managers in health service industry. References Cherry, Kendra. 2011. Leadership Theories – 8 Major Leadership Theories. [online]. Available from: http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/p/leadtheories.htm, 2011. [Accessed: 12th April 2008]. Martin, John, and Martin Fellenz. Organizational Behaviour & Management. Hamphsire: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2010. Phillips, Jack J., and Wendi Friedman Tush. Communication and Implementation: Sustaining the Practice. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Read More