Change Management for Clinical Leadership - Term Paper Example

Change Management for Clinical Leadership Name: Institution: Change Management for Clinical Leadership Introduction It is imperatively explicit that the legal entities ape the life imparted in them by their inherent human element. This implies that as humans evolve to adapt to the ever changing world, organizations too have to improve and change to contain the pressure of the fast-paced business realm. Success in change management is deliverable through highly specific skill sets that are often bolstered by complete overhaul of routine internal practices. Change as presented by Stanley (2011, p.119) is sophisticated and complex in that some people may be needing it but are unable to deliver while some managers may adopt the wrong sequence of change implementation only to demean its valuable intentions. This critical report details change management building on a case scenario of a Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) at a large metropolitan hospital that felt the institution required transformation to leverage current evidence based practices. Force Field Analysis As aforementioned, change is successfully achieved when systematically implemented, and Field Force Analysis (FFA) (Stanley, 2011, p.130) appears the best suited model in this context. FFA is preferred in the case scenario in that it facilitates for change agents to manifest in the program and their role in the transformation becomes apparent, which makes the model a viable tool that not only guides change but helps in progressive assessment. FFA is anchored on a practical rationality underscores the prevalence of opposing and constraining forces that bolster stability in social systems. The Lewin’s model is therefore a concept of identifying, discussing, and addressing forces that confer realism in change management. For successful change management at by the case NUM, a critical analysis of the need at hand would objectively help in listing the restraining forces that may hinder the change management purpose, and also identify the driving forces worthy investing in to drive the change objectives. The main characteristic of FFA is its retraining and facilitating forces, identification of which confers a change manager to isolate crucial project areas to reduce resistance while obtaining desired institutional transformation. At the case hospital, the NUM can deploy team work strengths: brainstorming, drawing mind maps, which would generate informational base about the teams, take on the change program and what is achievable as proposed. According to Stanley (2011, p. 130) strategic utility of FFA helps in exhaustive identification of primary change areas and gives room putting down steps that guide successful change implementation from planning to action. The model would be crucial in helping the NUM to harness necessary team support and avert challenges of resistance. Additionally, the NUM would be engaged to seek other expert’s input into the change program while allowing productive feedback on the implementation performance. Change Theory Although continual change at work environments has imparted tremendous implications on the contexts under which Lewin’s theory was originally built around, the model remains extremely valuable in the contemporary change management. As the NUM in this context pursues the dream of revolutionizing the management at her institution, it is in her interest to integrate research based factors that Lewin (Sims, 2002, p. 348) incorporated in his change management theory. The theory is based on the thinking that there are three primary stages that a change program has to traverse in pursuance of real change that is owned by the target people. The Lewin’s stages: the unfreezing, change, and freezing, are pivotal for successful change delivery in the healthcare facility in this context. Unfreezing The unfreezing stage remains one of the fundamentals underpinning the knowledge of change planning and implementation in the change laden world. According to Sims (2002, p. 348), this stage revolves around adequate preparations for the planned change. The fundamentals of the unfreezing stage include the rationalization of the inevitable need for change in the organization, and justifying the need to shift away from the institution’s prevailing management regime. The inherent processes under this stage underpin the creation of an environment that precipitates the necessity for change, which mainly involves change leaders preparing and spreading the preparatory wave for the change to others in the organization. The rationale behind this phase is that the more people within the organization embrace the need for change, the better the potential of heightening the motivation for change realization. The hypothetical reasoning behind unfreezing is that people are driven to evaluate all the advantages and the underlying disadvantages, and making viable decisions based on inclusive deliberations. It is based on this rationality that Lewin (Sims, 2002, p. 348) formed the FFA to aid change decision makers to make informed and feasible decisions at the initial phases of the process. Change The strength of Lewin’s theory lies on the understanding that change is not an instantaneous event but a process. According to Stanley (2011, p. 130), change is a transitional process because it occurs as change managers try to actualize the anticipated changes: people have already been unfrozen and bestowed upon a transition into a new way of operations. This second change stage is characterized by resistance and other implementation challenges because people require more time to conceptualize the reality of change and learn to work under the new settings. It is at this point that the NUM for instance would be required to provide adequate support to the change team because mistakes would be many and the morale to proceed may decline. Freezing According to Lewin (1947, p.5), coined this stage to connote systemic stabilization phase after change challenges have been subdued. At this level of change process the people often have accepted the new ways of work and they have customized the change practices. Additionally, people form new working relationships and they fully appreciate the changed working routine. This stage is highly criticized in that in the constantly changing contemporary work environments, there is never real room for freezing phase as purported by Lewin. This is because once the challenges of change are overcome, there crops up a new wave of a need to transform towards higher level of performance (Lewin, 1947, p.5). Transformational Themes Transformational theory is underpinned by the need to understand the difference between leadership and management, which explains why some people can better harness following by their teammates even when the rationality of their ideals is not apparent. The theory of transformational leadership is greatly associated with change management in Stanley (2011, p.119) that expounds the interactional factors that catalyze leader’s popularity among followers. There are four canonical themes that they highly valued for explaining transformational leadership. Vision was identified as a crucial leadership character in which the individual dreams and persistently seeks to deliver on the fiction. Communication was plotted as another important feature of transformational leadership that articulates the leader’s vision into the imagination and minds of followers. Additionally, the ability to bolster confidence from followers, trust, was considered an integral element of transformational leadership. Importantly, self knowledge sufficed the base of self confidence. Vision In the auspices of transformational leadership, a vision is augmented with clear sense of goals to bolster a leader’s ability to drive successful change initiative. Swanwick and McKimm (2011, p. 8) describes vision as a statement of what the organizations seeks to achieve and the clear ways of realizing the planned goals. The importance of vision in change initiative cannot be over emphasized because it is the values that guide organizational decision making and founds the cornerstone of institutional culture. The values inherent in a vision contribute to the design and functioning of systems and the general company structure. Visionary leaders turn transformative in the organization if they are able to deliver in shaping the institution’s culture by accepting the onus to optimally expedite their roles within their appropriate positions in the organization. In seeking to lead change at her capacity, the NUM has to remain visible as a role model and ensure full support for extant culture to avoid transformational conflicts. In this context, (Stanley, 2011, p. 137) argue that the junior clinical staff are crucial for planned clinical change, and should be critically managed as the core change agent. A visionary NUM should establish an acceptable mode of change ownership and responsibility by employing effective personal communication concepts that enhance the deliverance of planned changes toward modernizing pediatric practices in the hospital. To bolster a successful organizational culture transformation, the NUM need to harbor visionary values that are apparent to the supporters, and need to demonstrate congruent leadership in which the emotional intelligence is matched with tangible actions. To hone the transformative leadership, the NUM need to harness respect and trust from the subordinates and even the management, this is achievable by leading by example in delivering their stated vision for the hospital. Communication As aforementioned, transformational leadership is founded on the leader’s ability to take care of the followers’ needs, which is discerned through effective communication. Kowalski (2010, p. 82) underlines the significance of effective communication in sustaining amble working environment that not only enhance retention of nurses but also pivotal in limiting medical errors. In this context, the NUM need to reevaluate her talent in honing communication skills among her change team because they form the core of performance improvement. Clark (2008, p.3) promotes the rationale that communication is only second to breathing among the things that humans do routinely, which implies that it is occupies the center stage in the path of transforming clinical competence. Because communication is effected in a sophisticated and complex ways: verbal and nonverbal signals, a transformational leader should not only be able to correspond through emotional wisdom but also thoughts, ideas and opinions. Communication is crucial in the creation of that powerful leadership figure that a newly recruited NUM may want to adore in order to harness full support from work mates. This is because the initial correspondence is not only retractable, but also the first impression created by the message is often lasting and determines the worthiness of a leader. Additionally, self knowledge is an integral of effective communication in that it underlines the kinds of relationships a leader can build at the working environment. Poor communication on the other hand weakens relational bonds, instigates high levels of emotions, and influences how a leader is judged. Trust Trust is a fundamental determinant of success in change leadership and management. Trust is established on the leader’s values that should be seen by change team to be reflected in the leader’s actions. The NUM should build trust among within the target change team buy demonstrating role model nursing skills, communicating effectively, and listening to the concerns of the team while making the rationales of the planned modernization program clear to all. Building trust will also require the NUM to provide equal opportunities for other nurses under her docket to freely exercise their desired behavior, and strategically intervene with modeling approaches that pave way for adoption of new ways of service delivery, support and motivation. Garnering trust requires clear demonstration and reinforcement of consistent leadership values using actions to empower verbal statements. According to Swanwick and McKimm (2011, p.34), trust requires total inclusivity to allow participation by all stakeholders in the change initiative and bolster change process ownership. NUM need to empower her staff through giving them voice and leveraging their emotional feeling of being actively participating in the change process. The trust building and sustenance approaches ensure that the values inherent in the leader’s vision of the change program are explicitly articulated and understood. This aspect facilitates the trust and respect for the change agent that draws full attention of the participants. Additionally, winning people support is strongly dependent on the respect for the established culture, and a change initiative should be people-centered to realize a sustainable and meaningful change by making the transformation the people’s new culture. Self Knowledge Self knowledge is a key transformational leadership element that not only explains a leader’s ability to evaluate their real personality and the characters they need to acquire in order to fulfill their leadership role in the society (Stanley, 2011, p. 42). The generic meaning of self knowledge in the transformational leadership realm is the an individual’s capacity to discern their emotional intelligence in that they are able to self-motivate, and creatively perform optimally while being able to sense what their colleagues’ reactions to them. In the case context for instance, as she embarks on the change mode, the NUM need to be able to reflect strong grip of power and be visualized by subordinates as perfect in all areas of leadership. This is because her role in disseminating the inherent change vision that values the work of others, and most importantly the transformational leadership underpins the success in the reconstruction of the environment in which they work by replacing working context with a new one. Conclusion It has become apparent through this critical review that Kurt Lewin’s Model is important in demonstrating the processes of change in a manner that is easy to understand. This is because conceptualizing change as a transitional process cultivates the thinking about the preliminary preparations, the mid-way stages and the culminating phase. The change theory and the transformational leadership themes are crucially strategic in communicating the facilitators of change success. Communication, trust, self knowledge and in overall a clear vision are change features whose role in transformative leadership cannot be overemphasized. References Clark, C. (2008). Creative nursing leadership and management. London, UK: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Kowalski, T. J. (2010). The school principal: Visionary leadership and competent management. London, UK: Taylor & Francis. Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics; Concept, method and reality in social science; social equillibria and social change. Human relations, 1-5. Sims, R.R. (2002). Managing organizational behavior. New York, NY: Greenwood Publishing Group. Stanley, D. (2011). Clinical leadership: Innovation into action. Australia: Palgrave McMillan. Swanwick, T., & McKimm, J. (2011). ABC of clinical leadership. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Read More