How Staff Motivation Can Be Improved by Effective Leadership and Management - Research Paper Example

Executive summary: This report is related to the leadership factors and its impact on an organizations function. Leadership is of different types anddifferent leaderships are suitable for different situations. This report deals with autocratic leadership styles in which the leader is aggressive on dealing with the subordinates. Here there is only a one way communication. An autocratic leadership style is highly hazardous for an organization. This report clearly states the various implications of autocratic leadership styles. Introduction: An autocratic leadership style is considered as a classical approach. This style is also known as authoritarian style .It is one in which involves retention of full authority by the leader. Leader decides, decision is passed on to subordinates, instructions about the implementation of decisions are given and the subordinates are expected to do what the leader has told them to do. The employees have to obey the supervisors without receiving any explanations. “The motivation environment is produced by creating a structured set of rewards and punishments” (Styles of leadership, 2002). The advantage of this style is that the tasks are efficiently completed, since there is no opportunity for the time consuming two way communications between the employees and the supervisors. The autocratic styles are useful in the case of new untrained employees who need detailed orders and instructions to perform. There are some workers who prefers autocratic leader since they feel secure under his or her leadership. In such cases productivity and morale of the workers tend to be high. Main body: The report analyses the various implications of autocratic leadership under different heads. The impact of autocratic leadership styles in different kinds of organizational setup is being analyzed in this portion. Problems associated with autocratic leadership style: The autocratic leadership has a lot of problems associated with it. The primary problem is that workers are made aware of what to do but not why. This may lead to low employee morale and higher turn over. The autocratic leadership style cannot be used in some situations. In the case of employees become tense and fearful, and depend more on their supervisors to take decisions, the production volume is high and the time is limited to take a decision. In such situations if this style of leadership is used the employees do not feel secure and they cannot adjust with the situation. They don’t get motivation, therefore their confidence decreases. This will increase the employee turn over. This also creates low employee morale in the organization. Morale is an enthusiasm, zeal, confidence in individual or group that they will be able to cope with the task assigned to them. The morale effects output, quality of product, co-operation, discipline etc. The morale reside in the minds and emotions of individual and in the reaction of their groups. It affects an employee’s or group’s willingness to work in the best interests of the individual or group and the organization for witch they work. Employee turnover affects the overall productivity of the organization. It also incurs huge cost for the organization to select and train the new employees. How to overcome the problems: The first step to overcome the situation is to build a high morale in the organization. For this purpose they have to build a confidence in their leadership. Team work also plays a main role in building the morale. This is the leader’s responsibility to encourage teamwork in the organization. A team should be formulated and the decision should be taken as team. The management should hold team meetings regularly, and encourage everyone to take responsibilities and initiatives. Effects of low morale and high turnover in patient care: Low morale and high turnover have bad effects on the patient care. The health care department requires employees who are committed and have a service mentality. The patients need care with love. The attitude of the doctors and other members towards the patient must be good. Otherwise it will affect the goodwill of the hospital. Then the patients will tend to vacate from there. The morale of the employees determines their attitude towards the patients. “A member of the health care team experiencing low morale may perform at a lower standard of practice than usual.” (Beyea, 2004). That is if the employees has high morality and satisfaction they will be committed in their work and it will reflects in their performance. If they are not satisfied in their conditions of work they do not have any commitment towards work. These increases employees turn over. “High staff turnover does not only hinder the provision of quality, frontline patient care services, it also affects organizations financially because of the costs involved in replacement, lost productivity, and temporary staffing.” (Gelinas & Loh, 2004). Many hospitals face the problem of lack of sufficient doctors and staff. The doctors and other staffs are not ready to continue in such hospitals because of poor working conditions and incentives system and they quit the job. Therefore the patients who were admitted in such hospitals will not get adequate services. So they have to find other hospitals providing more facilities and service. SWOT Analysis: A SWOT analysis of autocratic style of leadership will help to understand the various factors related to autocratic leadership styles in detail. The SWOT analysis of autocratic leadership in the context of health care sector is being performed here. Strength: The strength of this style of leadership in the health care sector is that the employees will perform well due to threats from their superiors. The threat of punishment from the superiors will motivate the employees to perform well. This will ultimately lead to quality in the services provided by the organization. Weakness: Autocratic style of leadership is not always helpful for the organization. The threat from superiors can have a negative impact on the attitude of the employees. The morale and motivation of the employees will decrease in an autocratic setup. This will lead to poor quality of the services rendered to the patients. Opportunities: Health care sector is very highly affected by the behavior of the employees in the sector. If the behavior of the employees towards the patients improves the quality of services will also improve. Therefore autocratic leadership has the opportunity to improve the quality of the services through improvement in the employees’ behavior. Threats: As mentioned earlier autocratic leadership can harm the morale of the employees. This will lead to poor performance of the employees. When the employees perform ineffectively the rate of health hazards for patients will increase. Importance of motivation: A basic principle is that the performance of an employee depends on his or her ability backed by motivation. The first determines what he can do; the second determines what he will do. The level of performance of an employee largely depends upon the type of motivation they got from the organization. That is if there is a strong positive motivation the employee’s output increase, but where it is a negative or a weak motivation his performance level decreases. Motivation is the one of the most important element of personnel management. “Motivation is “WHAT drives you” to behave in a certain way or to take a particular action. It is your WHY.” (Definition of motivation). It is a fact that every individual like to work in an environment which gives him a feeling of security, friendly and supportive relationship with his co-workers and supervisors, therefore a supervisor should strive to treat individual with dignity and recognition of their personal worth. Successful supervisors will be those who integrate the goal oriented actions of individual workers with the pursuit of organizational goals. Both the individual and organizational goals can be achieved through the motivational process. Different types of leadership styles: Leadership is the process of encouraging and helping others to work enthusiastically towards objectives. It is a management tool with which managers can influence the behavior of employees to achieve organizational goals. “Leadership is the behavior of an individual... directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal.” (Valenzuela, 2008). Leadership style is the typical approach a particular person uses to lead people. That is the behavior the leader exhibits during supervision of subordinates is known as leadership style. The most basic leadership styles are: 1. Autocratic style 2. Participative style Participative leadership style is also known as democratic style. In this style employees are also participated in decision making process. But the authority to take the final decision is vested in the hands of leader. This style is normally used when the leader has a part of information and the employees have other parts. Using this style helps to make better decisions. This style increases employees’ feeling of self- worth and satisfaction. This style also increases the quality of decision making since more members are involved in decision making. 3. Beaurocratic style Bureaucratic style is style in witch all the tasks must be performed according to some polices and procedures. The employees should work on the basis of some rules enforced by the leader. This style is used when the employees are performing routine tasks, some tasks witch involves the usage of dangerous equipments, tasks involving handling of cash etc. 4. Laissez-faire style This style also known free-reign style gives as much freedom as possible to the employees. The employees take decisions of their own. This is a style to be used when the managers have the full trust and confidence in the people below him and the group is composed of highly committed members. Department of healthcare standard agency: “The Ministry of Health was established in 1919 to bring together the medical and public health functions of central government, and co-ordinate and supervise local health services in England and Wales” (History of the department, 2007). The health care department made a lot changes to improve the health and social care services. “The Department of Health (DH) exists to improve the health and wellbeing of people in England.” (About the department of health, 2002). The objective of the department of health is to improve the health and well being of all the people in England. They adopt some procedures for this purpose like communicating their strategic direction, monitoring the standard and safety of health and social care services, and by ensuring that public money is spend effectively. The department of health provides effective leadership and management. They believe in equality and human right and provide service equally without any discrimination. There is commission for the equality and human rights started operation in 1 October 2007. The DH provide many services for all age disabled people to maintain their health and make them able to live independently. The department of health helps people to take appropriate decisions that are right for their situations. It can be inferred for the above that Department of Health Care Standards provide primary importance for the health of the people of the country. For ensuring better health for the people the health centers and other health care organizations should function properly. For the organization to function effectively the employees of the organization should be highly motivated. In such a case practicing an autocratic leadership styles in the organization will lead to poor performance of the employees. This will lead to non-achievement of the objectives of Department of Healthcare Standards. NHS Leadership Quality framework: The NHS quality framework is a description about the qualities required for the leaders. It is developed specifically for the NHS. The quality framework contains descriptions about each quality and the levels that can be attained within each quality. According to this framework the qualities are arranged in to three clusters. They are: Personal qualities: The personal qualities include all the qualities that an NHS leader must possess personally according to the demands of the job. These qualities include self belief, self awareness, self management, drive for improvement, and personal integrity. Autocratic leadership styles have an implication in this. An autocratic leader doesn’t allow the subordinates to act on their choice. An autocratic leader is unable to maintain the personal qualities. In order to make improvement the leader must have better cooperation from the subordinates. This is not possible in an autocratic leadership setup. Setting direction: The outstanding leaders are able to set the directions for future. The qualities included in setting directions are seizing the future, intellectual flexibility, broad scanning, political astuteness and drive for and results. An autocratic leader is usually concerned about implementation of their present objective. He is less concerned about the future. Delivering the service: The high performing leaders delivers good service. They use different styles for delivering the best service results. Such leaders have quality to lead change through people, empowering others, effective and strategic influencing, and collaborative working. An autocratic leader has less scope for changing the performance of employees. They have less influencing power on the employees. Recommendations: Based on the review of the different leadership styles and the consequences of different leadership styles in the health care industry the following recommendations can be drawn. 1. Autocratic style of leadership to be abolished from the health care sector: Autocratic leadership should not be exercised in the organization because it will harm the morale of the employees working in the organization and will affect the smooth functioning of the organization. 2. The NHS quality framework says that a leader should have the ability to motivate the employees and should have a drive for improvement. Since an autocratic leader will be unable to drive the employees towards the achievement of objectives this style of leadership should be avoided in the organization. 3. A participative approach should be adopted in the leadership styles so that the superiors can share his ideas with the employees and also the employees can share their views to the superiors. Conclusion: This report went deep into the various advantages and disadvantages related to autocratic leadership styles. The autocratic leadership style was studied on the basis of its application in the healthcare industry. The major problems that are associated with autocratic leadership style are related to motivation and morale of the employees. The methods that can be used to overcome these problems are also discussed in detail. The SWOT analysis of autocratic leadership styles on healthcare sector clearly analyzed the various aspects of this leadership style. Bibliography About the department of health. (2002). [online]. Department of health. Last accessed on 02 March 2008 at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/index.htm BEYEA, Suzanne C (December 2004). Employee Morale and Patient Safety, the Effects of Low Morale on Patient Care. [online]. BNET. Last accessed on 02 March 2008 at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSL/is_6_80/ai_n8579098 Definition of motivation. [online]. Motivation- for-dreamers.com. Last accessed on 02 March 2008 at: http://www.motivation-for-dreamers.com/definition-of-motivation.html GELINAS, Lillie S. & LOH, David Yik-Hin (Sep-Oct 2004). The Effects of Workforce Issues on Patient Safety, Employee Turnover Affects Patient Care. [online]. BNET. Last accessed on 02 March 2008 at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSW/is_5_22/ai_n17207639 History of the department. (23 may 2007). [online]. Department of health. Last accessed on 02 March 2008 at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/HowDHworks/DH_074813#_5 Styles of Leadership. (2002). [online]. Essortment. Last accessed on 02 March 2008 at: http://www.essortment.com/leadershipstyle_rrnq.htm VALENZUELA, Ken (2008). Leadership definition. [online]. BeALeader.Net. Last accessed on 02 March 2008 at: http://www.bealeader.net/leadership-definitions.php Read More