Visual Representation of Public Health Leadership Theory - Assignment Example

Visual Representation of Public Health Leadership Theory Visual Representation of Personal Leadership Theory for World Public Health How the visual representation addresses the literature gap identified in Week 5 and incorporates aspects of systems thinking The above visual representation of leadership theory addresses the literature gap identified in Week 5 in various ways. First, the visual representation has been developed as an approach for all organizations in the field of public health. Therefore, this is generalizable to different countries. Thus, this can also be adopted for use by leaders across the globe. In the literature, it was impossible to generalize certain aspects in the studies of Borkowski, Deckard, Weber, Padron & Luongo (2011) and Genat & Robinson (2010) to different countries and health organizations. Similarly, the visual representation is directly linked to health care organizations, thus is more specific, as compared to the literature of Zalenznik, A. (1977), which discusses the leadership aspect, but does not link the discussion directly to health care organizations. The visual representation is also diverse, with regard to the purpose of healthcare organizations. In the literature, Vladeck (1992) considered that the major purpose of healthcare organizations is only the public interest. However, in the visual representation, it has been shown that healthcare organizations have other responsibilities that are not tied to the public, to fulfil. For instance, this shows that health care organizations have responsibilities to fulfil for the employees of the organization, other organizations of same interest and the state, and finally, the community and society, which can be labelled as the public. In addition, the visual representation provides a system that health care organizations can adopt in order to ensure that they fulfil their mandate to the public. In the literature, there was no provision of a system that could help health care organizations and their leaders to protect their clients, and fulfil their mandate to the public. However, by clarifying the values that a leader should embrace, as well as the different relationships they should value and strengthen, the visual representation offers public health organizations and leaders a way of ensuring that they fulfil their mandate appropriately. The visual representation is also broader in its approach to leadership in public health. This is not inclined to only one aspect of leadership, as in the case of Vroom (2007), who only addresses the situational aspects of leadership in public health. The visual representation has addressed the values of a leader, relationships, outcomes, as well as antecedents. This has also shown how the leadership values can be acquired by an individual. This is as opposed to Dine, Kahn, Abella, Asch & Shea (2011), who only outlined the characteristics of effective physician leaders, without explaining how one could learn those values or whether they are inherent in an individual. The visual representation however, addresses this issue through its section on antecedents. This visual representation also addresses the issue of systems thinking, which is paramount in public health. In the literature, Trochim, Cabrera, Milstein, Gallagher & Leischow (2006) only discuss the challenges of systems thinking in public health, and leave out the solutions that can be adopted to address the challenges of systems thinking in public health. In the visual representation, the provided framework, if appropriately adopted, can help to solve various problems that arise from systems thinking in public health. In addition, this visual representation provides a specific approach to systems thinking for any health care organization. This is unlike in the literature, where Leischow & Milstein (2006) only discuss aspects of systems thinking and modeling in public health, but fail to prescribe an appropriate systems thinking approach that public health organizations can adopt. The visual representation is also an important component that contributes to the area of research on leadership in the field of public health. This offers a different approach to leadership in the organizations in public health, hence making significant contribution to the research on leadership in public health. In the literature, Derue, Nahrgang, Wellman & Humphrey (2011) failed to achieve all the objectives of their study due to limited literature on leadership in the field of public health that would enable them to make a comparison and develop an integrative approach to understanding leadership in public health. The visual representation therefore, partly addresses this problem by contributing to existing research on leadership. The visual representation incorporates aspects of systems thinking in different ways. Systems thinking is considered important in public health, as its application helps to address complex health problems and risks in the field of public health. Nonetheless, this visual representation depicts some aspects that are characteristic of systems thinking. First, the visual representation has identified the roles of a public health organization as being in the form of leadership, health workforce, information, and service delivery to clients in the community and overall society. The expected outcomes by public health organizations have also been identified at different levels, including the organizational level, inter-organizational level, and community and societal levels. This therefore can be considered the health system framework specific to the visual representation. The roles identified can also be considered as the major building blocks of the health system. By making such an outline, this helps to show that the health system building blocks are sub-systems of the health system, thus are characterized by different and changing interactions and synergies. For instance, within the sub-system of service delivery, there might be the hospital system, and within the hospital system, a laboratory system, among others. On the other hand, the visual representation has identified the special role of people in the health system. These are shown as the ones driving the system. For instance, the leader in a health care organization, the health care workers and other employees in an organization, stakeholders and other partner organizations all have different roles they play in driving a health system. By placing people at the centre of the health system, this visual representation identifies the importance of collaboration and participation in public health organizations. The approach of systems thinking is considered to help in problem solving by focusing on problems as a part of a wider system that is dynamic in nature. This calls for a deeper understanding of relationships, behaviours, and interactions of all components of the whole system. Therefore, since this visual representation emphasizes on relationships within the specified health system, it lays ground for the possibility of systems thinking approach to be applied in the system in order to solve any emerging problems. In the literature, Topol (2004) identified a major problem in public health, but failed to offer possible solutions to avoid the recurrence of the problem. However, this visual representation, through its incorporation of systems thinking, offers possible ways that problems in public health can be solved. Most importantly is that this visual representation has categorically identified a health system, including various elements that build it, as well as relationships and identifying people as the centre of the health system. For this reason therefore, it is possible to apply systems thinking in the health system, in order to achieve intervention that has an effect on the whole health system. References Borkowski, N., Deckard, G., Weber, M., Padron, L. & Luongo, S. (2011). Leadership development initiatives underlie individual and system performance in a US public healthcare delivery system. Leadership in Health Services, 24 (4): 268-280. DOI 10.1108/17511871111172321 Derue, S., Nahrgang, J., Wellman, N. & Humphrey, S. (2011). Trait and Behavioral Theories of Leadership: An Integration and Meta-Analytic Test of Their Relative Validity,” Personnel Psychology, 64, 7–52. Dine, J., Kahn, J., Abella, B., Asch, D. & Shea, J. (2011). Key Elements of Clinical Physician Leadership at an Academic Medical Center. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, pp. 31-36. DOI: 10.4300/JGME-D-10-00017.1 Genat, B. & Robinson, P. (2010). New competencies for public health graduates: a useful tool for course design. Australian and New Zealand Journal Of Public Health, 34(5): 513-516. Leischow, S. & Milstein, B. (2006). Systems Thinking and Modeling for Public Health Practice. American Journal of Public Health, 96 (3): 538-548. Topol, E. (2004). Failing the Public Health — Rofecoxib, Merck, and the FDA. New England Journal of Medicine, 351 (17): 1707-1709. Trochim, W. M., Cabrera, D., Milstein, B., Gallagher, R. & Leischow, S. (2006). The practical challenges of systems thinking and modeling in public health. American Journal of Public Health, 96 (3): 403-405. Vladeck, B. C. (1992). Health care leadership in the public interest. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 8(3), 3-26, 42. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203855675?accountid=45049 Vroom, V. & Jago, A. (2007). The Role of the Situation in Leadership. American Psychologist, 62 (1): 17-24. Zalenznik, A. (1977). Managers and leaders: Are they different? Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 67-78. Read More