Management functions and roles in health care - Essay Example

Management Functions and Roles in Health Care Affiliation: Organizations in the health care setting seek to satisfy diverse and dynamic needs in the society. Managing health care organizations requires high level of competitiveness for all the persons involved. There are numerous stakeholders to account for in the health sector, making it one of the most sensitive areas to run. Amid this, the formulation and implementation of functional operational strategies can enhance health care management.

Leadership is one critical area that the management of a health care organization has to focus on (Showalter, 2012).Leadership is the central nerve that influences all other activities undertaken within an organizational setting. Such a setting does not necessarily have to be in the health sector for leadership practices to achieve the desired goals and objectives. However, leadership is fundamental in the health care setting, just like it is in any other setting. The significance of leadership is derived from the fact that it can be transformational, transactional, or both.

Whichever the case, leadership enhances operations in the environment within which it is applied.In the health care setting, leadership exhibits both transformational and transactional properties. There are numerous stakeholders in the health sector, an aspect that makes health care management a cooperative and collaborative effort between these stakeholders (Showalter, 2012). For an organization in the health setting, transformational leadership fosters functional relations between all the parties involved in the running of health care operations.

Inspiration and motivation of health care practitioners constitute the primary objective of transformational leadership in health care. Under transformational leadership, the leadership lowers itself to the position of the employees, thus working together under an environment that can be said to observe no leadership hierarchy.On the other hand, transactional leadership is result-oriented (Afo, Thomason, & Karel, 2006). Here, duties, roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Power and authority rules, and management hierarchy is the order of the day.

This aspect of leadership is designed to prompt the health care organization to perform efficiently and effectively in its operations. Activities are well coordinated for the purpose of meeting the desired results.Leadership oversees the smooth running of operations in the organization. The ultimate practice is to unite the different departments that make up the organization for the purpose of achieving organizational goals and objectives. On the same note, leadership oversees the advocacy for interdepartmental relations.

Technical know-how is fundamental for this process. The leadership also requires team management, time management, communication, motivational, and inspirational skills to fulfill its mandate.Challenges in the leadership practice are inevitable. Working towards the set goals and objectives require that strict deadlines be adhered to, effective and efficient discharge of duties and responsibilities by employees, and cooperation and collaboration between the leadership and the workforce (Showalter, 2012).

Striking a balance between these factors is not a walk in the part. The challenges posed by the aforementioned factors vary form one organization to another, depending on the operational strategies observed by an individual firm.To address above challenges, the organization needs to evaluate and assess the workforce for its strengths and weaknesses. With that information at hand, it is easy to identify what course of action is needed. This gives the workforce an ample time and opportunity to improve its capacity and capability of duty discharge.

Most importantly, the challenges can be addressed by streamlining the interaction and relations between the leadership and the health care workforce.ReferencesAfo, G., Thomason, J. & Karel, S. (2006). Better management for better health services. World Health Forum, 12: 161-167.Showalter, J. S. (2012). The law of healthcare administration (6th ed.). Chicago: Health Administration.