Why is Transparency Important for the Effective Management and Leadership of Healthcare Organizations - Assignment Example

Transparency in Healthcare Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Why is transparency important for the effective management and leadership of health care organizations? How achievable is transparency in health care leadership? Introduction The concept of transparency has been widely used in diverse fields ranging from business, science and healthcare among others. In the context of this paper, transparency will be perceived to infer to the necessary conditions which are imperative in facilitating open and free exchange whereby the rules and rationales underpinning regulatory measures are endowed with fairness and clarity to all the participants. In the management and leadership practices in the realms of healthcare, transparency has been perceived as being integral in attaining effectiveness and efficiency. The imperative niche of transparency in this field is related to cultivating good governance, effectiveness in leadership, strategic decision making, enhancing organizational performance and reputation, facilitating community engagement and fostering a positive organizational culture. All these have been perceived to be fundamental in promoting effectiveness in service delivery. In healthcare, it is important to be cognizant that transparency has extensive applicability in both private and public healthcare facilities in a country. Against this background, this paper is a profound effort to explore why transparency is important for the effective management and leadership of health care organizations as well as analyzing the achievability of transparency in health care leadership. In addition, the constraints on health care leaders that may affect their willingness or ability to be transparent in their approach to strategic management of the organization will also be analyzed. Transparency in healthcare Kordas and Taber (2009) cited that transparency has evolved into becoming one of the most hotly discussed to topics in the realms of healthcare. This concept is widespread among hospitals, pharmaceutical/medical device companies, government healthcare agencies, consumer advocacy groups and medical schools among others. This fact is also supported by Audet et. al (2008) who determined that transparency has evolved to become a central pillar of quality and safety infrastructure, ensuring accountability and culture change in organizations. The history of increased prominence of transparency can be traced back in the recent decades. Nonetheless, it has evolved into becoming core to most promoting diverse tenets in the healthcare management. Some of these elements are explored in the subsequent section. Transparency in promoting good governance Diverse scholars have tied transparency as being chiefly embedded in the practices of good governance in any organization in their conceptualization of the concept of good governance. This is best epitomized by Parigi et. al (2004) who outlined the rudimentary characteristics of good governance as being evidenced by participation, transparency, rule of law, equity and inclusiveness, responsiveness and accountability among others. Thus, Nuseirat (2009) determined that transparency is the principle on which the obligation of the managers, trustees and civil servants to act in a visible, understandable and predictable manner is founded upon and that those who are either directly or indirectly affected by decisions from the administration ought to be comprehensively informed of the process and the decisions which have been taken. Transparency is therefore central to the practice of good governance in healthcare. This is best exemplified whereby the managers in the health facilities ought to treat the employees under them with utmost respect and dignity. In case of any managerial decision affecting them, for instance, retrenchments, the employees ought to be informed in good time and the process be undertaken in an open manner free of any favorism or corruption acts. In addition, the management structure in a healthcare organization ought to take in consideration the issues of the disadvantaged in the society, for instance, the disabled and the marginalized communities. For instance, Duckett (2008) noted that the health expenditure for the indigenous people in Australia shows limited or no similarity with that of the non-indigenous people. Moreover, differences in healthcare access are prevalent between the low and the high income societal strata and between the employed and the non-employed in the country. Thus, the management of the healthcare organizations ought to be cognizant of these issues and formulate policies aimed at curtailing these discrepancies in service delivery in an open manner. Lastly, the management structure ought to be responsive to the needs of the society, both in the present and in the future resource use as well as balancing between growth and distribution (Nuseirat, 2009). In this regard, the management structures of the various healthcare organizations ought to give higher preference to societal needs as opposed to more intensive pursuit of profits. This entails accurate communication to the members of the public in relation to the healthcare policies addressing their needs which is key to the effectiveness of their management practices. Transparency and strategic decision making Transparency is robustly embedded in the strategic decision making processes in the healthcare sector. This can be perceived in the importance of inclusion of all the stakeholders in service delivery in making profound decisions which have both short and long-term implications on the healthcare facilities. This is best epitomized in Australian healthcare whereby one of the key challenges confronting this system is inadequate inclusion of all the stakeholders in the decision making process. This has culminated in detrimental impacts, for instance, the prominence of curative as opposed to preventive approach to health which continues to strain the government expenditure in healthcare. The above fact is revealed by Stamp et. al (1998) who cited that majority of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders are often admitted into hospitals for conditions which do not call for admissions or in situations whereby the preference of that particular condition could otherwise have been minimized with formulation and implementation of quality primary care in the healthcare system. Thus, the transparent inclusion of all stakeholders in the processes of strategic decision making is fundamental in order to ensure that the issues of various groups are addressed which is primary to the effectiveness in service delivery and the overall management structure. At the organizational level, all the personnel in the institution ought to be included in making decisions affecting them, regardless of their rank in the management structure. This is imperative in cultivating transparency in the organization which will in turn ensure compliance of all the people in the particular healthcare organizations to the implementation of the decisions which are arrived at. This translates to the effectiveness of the management system. Transparency and effectiveness in leadership The effectiveness of the leadership structure in diverse healthcare facilities has direct dependency on the level of transparency exhibited by the leadership structure in the healthcare facility. This is exhibited whereby it is important for the leaders in the healthcare facilities to communicate to their employees their expectations regarding the performance of the workforce which ought to be in line with the targets and objectives of the healthcare facilities. In addition, the leaders in the organization ought to be transparent while formulating different policies affecting the employees, for instance, remuneration packages, sick leaves, rewards and recognition among other issues. This is based on the fact that these are imperative in cultivating the commitment of the health personnel to service delivery as well as motivating them towards better performance. Therefore, the leaders should welcome the input from the employees while formulating the above aspects, a fact which is supported by Schyve (2009) who determined that the leadership structure in healthcare facilities ought to act ethically, need to be transparent to the people under it or those that it serves and ask for their input and feedback in regard to various policies affecting them. This will foster acceptance of the developed policies and the legitimacy of the leadership will be enhanced which has both short and long-term positive implications on its effectiveness. Transparency and organizational performance and reputation The performance of the healthcare organizations as well as their reputation has also been linked to the level of transparency cultivated in these organizations. Transparency by the management structure in regard to the utilization of the financial resources, procurement processes and recruiting healthcare practitioners plays a key role in elevating the performance of the healthcare organizations. This fact has been supported by diverse scholars, for instance, Fung et. al (2008), Shea et. al (2007) and Morgan et. al (2008) all of whom cited that transparency in terms of costs, quality, prices and the effectiveness of the medical products and services have been recognized as being central to enhancing outcomes as well as lowering the costs in healthcare facilities. This is based on the fact that inadequate transparency often leads to embezzlement of financial resources by the management which translates to the long-term inability if the healthcare facilities to afford important equipment to enhance the service delivery processes. This culminates in the provision of poor health services to the patients which is detrimental to the reputation of the organization in the public domain. On the other hand, unethical practices like fraud in the procurement processes which nourish under non-transparent environment results in acquisition of facilities characterized by poor standards which also leads to provision of poor services. Lastly, lack of transparency in the recruitment processes of human resource in the healthcare organization often leads to non-competent employees being recruited in the healthcare institutions which usually pose diabolical implications to the performance of these organizations, increased medical errors which erodes the reputation of the medical facilities among members of the population. Thus, all the above issues which are related to organizational transparency have extensive implications both on the performance of the healthcare organizations as well as their reputation. Transparency and organizational culture Audet et. al (2008) cited that healthcare organizations have become increasingly cognizant of the fact that transparency as a guiding code is vital in their efforts to cultivate and organizational culture of safety and quality. This reveals the importance of transparency in molding the organizational culture in healthcare institutions. In a situation whereby the management codes of the healthcare facilities are embedded on aspects like transparency in financial reporting, performance appraisal, accountability in procurement and transparency in recruitment of personnel based on merit and competence, these virtues are bound to disseminate in a downward model to the rest of the workforce in the organization which is fundamental in cultivating an organizational culture based on accountability, honesty and transparency. This is best epitomized in a recruitment process whereby the transparency of the human resource department in the staffing of a healthcare facility, in disregard of gender of the applicants, disability or cultural background is core in cultivating and organizational culture of equality in the healthcare facilities. Wiskow, Albreht and Pietro (2010) determined that this organizational culture is paramount in providing an environment whereby the female health practitioners will feel that they are equal to their male colleagues and that their input in the healthcare organization is recognized and appreciated. This will improve the effectiveness of the management in the sense that the input of both genders and managers from diverse cultural backgrounds will be incorporated in the management decisions which will promote a holistic approach in service delivery. On the other hand, the organizational culture of equality will improve both the performance and reputation of the institution. Transparency and community engagement The discourse in the preceding sections has revealed that transparency in the management and leadership of healthcare organizations is central to ensuring that community participation is increasingly entrenched in these undertakings. An organization which is credited for having a transparent management structure involves the community in the formulation and implementation of policies, mostly those which are aimed at promotion of primary healthcare. This level of community engagement is evidenced in New Zealand whereby according to Neuwelt (2012), the New Zealand 2001 Primary Health care Strategy necessitates the involvement of the communities in the governance by the primary health organizations (PHOs). This also entails the healthcare organizations being responsive to the diverse needs of the communities. The rationale behind this approach is that there are some inherent societal needs which are embedded in the lifestyles of the members, for instance, hygiene and feeding patterns which can be unknown to the healthcare practitioners but having extensive impacts on the health of these populations. Thus, the involvement of the members from these communities in planning intervention strategies will ensure that these aspects are incorporated in the plans which will in turn translate to extensive success of not only the intervention efforts but also increase the effectiveness of the management structure. Nonetheless, it is imperative to note that there are some inherent constraints on health care leaders that may affect their willingness or ability to be transparent in their approach to strategic management of the organization. Some of these constraints are explored in the subsequent section. Constraints impeding transparency among healthcare leaders Firstly, there is sometimes non-cooperation from other stakeholders in the healthcare system which may impede the level of transparency in the decision making processes. This can be as a result of conflict in interests, divergence in healthcare approaches as well as conflicting role in the larger healthcare system. This intrinsic non-cooperation can oblige the management structure in different healthcare facilities to embark in a non-consultative decision making process which has extensive impacts of minimizing the level of transparency in the organization. Secondly, in case a certain organizational leader is transferred to another locality where the organizational culture in the particular healthcare facility does not support transparency in governance and management, this is bound to pose challenges to the new leader trying to embed transparency in the management structure of the new posting. This is based on the fact that the human resource and the management personnel in this new place might oppose the strategies geared towards promoting transparency in the institution which can create a major constraint to the strategies initiated by the leader aimed at fostering transparency. On the other hand, heightened political intervention in the management of healthcare organizations usually constrains the ability of the leaders to be transparent in their approach to strategic management of the organization. This is because the increased political pressure often obliges them to engage in certain practices, not based on the rationale that they promote transparency but instead because they serve particular political interests. Thus, the planning, policy formulation and implementation and recruitment of the human resource are informed by the political pressure as opposed to the need to uphold transparency in the management and leadership of the healthcare organizations. Lastly, the leader can be confronted by extensive community opposition to the healthcare interventions among the members of the population based on diverse reasons like cultural constraints, which can limit the level of community participation in planning and eventual execution of the healthcare policies, mostly in primary healthcare. In this regard, the leader in the healthcare facility is confronted by the challenge of disseminating these policies to the society, however beneficial they might be as well as fine-tuning the strategic approach in the interventions as a result of limited or absolutely no feedback from the community about the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of the interventions. Conclusion From the above discourse, it is evident that transparency has evolved into becoming a core concept in the realms of healthcare in the recent decades. Transparency is usually linked to diverse aspects in healthcare organizations, for instance, decision making, governance, organizational culture and community participation among others. Thus, transparency has been cited as increasing the effectiveness of the management and leadership of health care organizations through positively impacting on the above tenets. References Audet, J. et. al (2008).Transparency as a Pillar of a Quality and Safety Culture: TheExperience of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 34(12), 707-712. Duckett, S.J. (2008). The Australian health care system: reform, repair or replace?. Australian Health Review, 32(2), 322-339. Fung C. H, Lim Y. W, Mattke S, Damberg C, Shekelle P.G (2008). Systematic review: The evidence that publishing patient care performance data improves quality of care. Annals of Internal Medicine, 148(2), 111–123. Kordas, A. &Taber, E. (2009). The Push for Transparency in Healthcare. OACTA Quarterly Review, 1(1), pp. 3-6. Mongan J. J, Ferris T.G, Lee T.H (2008). Options for slowing the growth of health care costs. New England Journal of Medicine, 358(14), 1509–1514. Neuwelt P.M. (2012). Community participation in primary care: what does it mean ‘in practice’?. Journal of Primary Health Care, 4(1), 30-38. Nuseirat, A. (2009). Measuring transparency toimprove good governance in thepublic pharmaceutical sector: Jordan. Cairo: World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. Parigi V.K. et. al (2004). Ushering in Transparency for Good Governance. Retrieved October 10, 2012 from http://www.cgg.gov.in/workingpapers/Ushering_in_Transparency.pdf. Schyve, P.M. (2009). Leadership in healthcare organizations. San Diego: The Governance Institute. Shea K, Shih A, Davis K. (2007). Health care opinion leaders’ views on the transparency of health care quality and price information in the United States. 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