Critical Analysis Of Leadership Approaches - Essay Example

Critical Analysis of Leadership Approach Student’s Name Institution’s Name Date Critical Analysis of Leadership Approach A healthcare organization is a purposeful structured, designed social system created for healthcare services delivery by specified workforces to defined markets, populations, or communities. Healthcare organization can be grouped based on services provided, mission, and if they are privately or publically owned. Publically owned health facilities are normally tax supported, government medical treatment organization as opposed to private facilities that fully depend on the funds received from patients in different services or from the insurance policies. Healthcare facilities can also be classified based on their financial motive as either not-for-profit or for-profit. Although the two forms of organizations generate revenue via the services they offer, they differ mainly based on the regulatory rules as well as based on how the funds are utilized and dispersed (Gidden, 2013). Healthcare systems are comprised of a number of professional groups, specialties, and departments with nonlinear, intricate interactions between them. Thus, healthcare systems complexity is frequently unparalleled due to constraints associating to various multidisciplinary staff, multidirectional goals, and disease areas. With such larger healthcare organizations systems, the various groups with related subcultures may support or be in conflict with one another. Therefore, leadership in such organizations requires capitalizing on the organization diversity as a whole and effectually utilize resources when structuring management processes, while enhancing personnel to work towards shared goals. In this regard, the adopted leadership approach in healthcare environment should focus on improving management in this highly complex setting (Al-Sawai, 2013). Leadership is regarded as an individual behaviour when directing the group activities toward a common goal. The main leadership role entails influencing activities of a group and managing change. One challenge observed when considering health care professionals leadership is that a number of theories were not created in a context of healthcare. These theories were normally generated for the business environment and then transferred or applied in the healthcare context. In this regard, there is little evidenced from the published researches to justify that leadership initiative of this kind are related to improvements in healthcare organization, or patient care outcomes when employed in the healthcare environment. However, there are a number of leadership theories that are more applicable in healthcare organizations as compared to others. The relevant leadership theory in healthcare organization must effectively cater for organization performance, patients’ satisfaction and enhance the application of ethical measures in the organization performance. The three most applicable leadership theories in this context include collaborative leadership, shared leadership, and ethical leadership (Al-Sawai, 2013). Healthcare organization is highly concerned about the health and well-being of individuals in the surrounding society. In this regard, one of the main objectives of all healthcare organization is to ensure quality care to all its patients with aim of enhancing quality life. In order to attain this objective, it is very important for all organization workers to remain committed to their respective duties and to observe all ethical measures that govern healthcare management at their respective operation level. According to Gilmartin and D’aunno (2007), this can highly be achieved by enhancing leadership in healthcare organization. Leadership serves as the backbone of any organization since it highly determines the quality of services provided in any healthcare organization. Collaboration is a cooperative and assertive process which takes place when people work together towards joint benefit, in organizational symbiosis form. Collaborative leadership is the skilful and intentional relationships management which allows others to succeed as individuals, while achieving a collective outcome. It engages communicating information to associated organizations and co-workers, to permit them to make informed decisions. Collaborative communication techniques of this form improve healthcare management by sharing experiences and knowledge, enhancing dialogue between various stakeholders, and lowering the complexity level in healthcare organizations. People with varying levels of responsibility require engaging in the process of leadership in order to be actively engaged in communicating and validating needs. This also enhances the identification of practices which might be needed to handle changing demands at different levels of operation in a healthcare organization. According to VanVactor (2010), collaborative healthcare organization leadership needs a synergistic work setting, in which different individuals are encouraged to work as a team in the implementation of effectual processes and practices. Collaborations of this form enhance understanding of various cultures and interdependency as well as integration among different stakeholders. In collaborative leadership, people are unified by common values and visions, and the subsequent synergistic working practices can attain results which are higher than the individuals’ sum efforts. In this regard, healthcare organization leaders require demonstrating collaborative behaviours, to lift the motivation level and cultivate interdependency between various healthcare practitioners (Goleman et al., 2002). Collaboration is both an outcome and a process wherein shared conflict or interest which can be handled by any single person is addressed by crucial stakeholders. A crucial stakeholder in this case is any individual that is directly impacted by the action adopted by others to address a complex issue. The process of collaboration entails a synthesis of various perspectives to enhance the understanding of complex issue. A collaborative result is the integrative solutions development, which goes past a personal vision to a prolific resolution that could not be attained by any single organization or individual. The importance of effective collaboration in healthcare professions in attaining high quality results in a progressively interdependent system of healthcare delivery continues to develop. Collaboration is a multifaceted partnership and it takes place over time. It is a result, a synthesis of varying views, and an integrative answer. However, it is normally characterized by a number of conflicts which according to Gardner (2005), are a chance to deepen agreement. Thus, to enhance collaborative leadership, leaders must have skills in conflict resolution and goodwill power to enhance team commitment and quality of decision made (Gardner, 2005). Delivering compassionate, quality, safe care is the basic mission for all healthcare organizations. Provided that the roles in the patient-care team are very co-dependent in nature, collaboration skills are very important. This is particularly true in situation of acute care, where nurses, doctors as well as the teams they control are involved. This implies that although collaboration is essential in the entire healthcare organization, it is particularly essential at the patient interface. The aptitude to guarantee patient care is determined not just by technical proficiency, but also by the effectiveness of leadership of all those engaged in solving the presenting medical problems. These people are leading the experience of patient-care as they foster a novel contractive for working as a team (Browning et al., 2011). Collaborative leadership in healthcare organization has also been credited by Nolte et al. (2005), after conducting survey in different health care organizations in different parts of the world that include Canada, Australia, and the United States among others. The researchers conducted this researcher after noting the extensive growth in the level of interdisciplinary collaboration in primary care in different healthcare organization. Based on the research findings, collaboration in primary care has enhanced the quality of performance, performance efficiency, patient satisfaction as well as medical workers job satisfaction. It has eased the process of handling complex medical cases in different organizations and enhanced the process of care among critically ill patients and patient with chronic conditions. Collaboration has also been found to lower the medical cost and to reduce the hospitalization time. Although each analysed hospital had adopted different collaboration model, the promotion of collaboration and team work by leaders with collaborative leadership perspective have greatly improved performance in most organizations in the world (Mickan & Boyce, 2006). The main strength of using collaborative leadership is that it always ensures success and further development of an organization. Sharing of information ensures knowledge development and hence improved care to patients. This results to the growth of the organization’s positive reputation. This form of leadership enhances workers efficiency, maximum patients caring and high level of job satisfaction in all organization departments. It therefore ensures good general performance of an organization. The main weakness of employing this form of leadership is that it requires more effort and input before the final goal is attained. Enhancing collaboration among individuals from different operation departments and role can be quite challenging. It also requires high conflict management ability and skills to enhance effective collaboration (Blandford & Smyth, 2006). Another leadership theory applicable in a healthcare environment is shared leadership. Shared leadership is regarded as an interactive, dynamic influence process among people in groups for which the goal is to lead each other to the attainment of organizational or group goals or both. This process of influence frequently engages lateral, or peer, influence and at different times. It also engages downward or upward hierarchical influence. There are a number of dimensions, factors, and components that impact shared leadership. Shared leadership according to Garman et al. (2010), is facilitate by a general team setting that contains three dimensions which include voice, social support, and shared purpose. In this case, external coaching and internal team setting work in accord to ensure team performance. According to Merry (1994), shared leadership engages four different dimensions that include emotional support, decentralized interaction among staffs, mutual skill development and joint task completion. Based on Nolte et al. (2005), research empowering behaviours of the team positively relate to shared leadership. Shared leadership has highly been embraced in healthcare organisations. A number of hospitals have demonstrated the need for novel form of leadership, with most of them preferring shared governance to enhance their outcome. Shared leadership is extensively practiced in health organization since the field demand a high level of cooperation. However, the patient care quality frequently depends on how effective a diverse administrative and medical expert group work together. Based on the research sited in Kocolowski (2010), shared leadership can improve the decision making process and clinical efficiency in any healthcare organization that consider adopting to enhance its performance. However, one of the major challenges observed in this form of leadership is that, shared governance is a dynamic process and thus, it will need regular re-evaluation and assessment so as to be responsive and flexible to an ever-changing setting (Johnstone et al., 2006). Various studies have demonstrated that independent healthcare employees with direct duties toward their patients do not respond effectively to authoritarian leadership to govern highly qualified professionals in healthcare (Kocolowski, 2010). In this regard, leadership requires centring on the development of effectual collaborative associations via task delegation and support. This could be the foundation of extensive implementation of the model of shared leadership in the healthcare environment. This is due to the fact that shared leadership promotes shared governance, continuous learning in the workplace and development of effectual working associations. Shared leadership according to Merry (1994), is a team-level leadership or management system which empowers workers in the processes of decision-making. It provides the chance for people to develop and manage in a team. This form of leadership is effectual in enhancing job satisfaction and work environment. Effectual teamwork is crucial to the shared-leadership technique, since it centres on identifying values of a team and improving team efficiency to enhance practices. Ideally, shared leadership enhanced the adoption of leadership behaviours by members of staff, enhanced patient care outcomes and high level of independency. Although shared leadership is of great value to any organization, the development of this form of leadership faces a number of challenges especially in a healthcare environment. Some of the barriers to the shared leadership development include insufficient setting of goal, lack of responsibility, uninteresting work, staff turnover rates and high workload, as well as poor team ethos. Shared leadership can be regarded as a continuous and fluid process which needs continuous assessment to be responsive to modifying healthcare challenges, and postulates a good working association between staff and management. When group and organizational inter-relationships are fostered and developed to attain defined goals, they can impact the individuals and groups practices outside the central team and also, upsurge the group standing in the organizational hierarchy (Cruikshank et al., 2006). The main strength of shared leadership is that it enhances collaboration, sharing of ideas and expansion of knowledge in an organization. Shared leadership also enhances coping mechanism for workers involved in more traumatizing and demanding jobs such as nurses through social support (O'Rourke & Davidson, 2004). It also enhances the organization success since it allows workers to work together to accomplish the organization goal. The main weakness is that leaders need to employ a lot of effort and time to mobilize workers to work together and to share the same goals based on different departments and roles in healthcare organization. In addition, some workers are involved in more demanding roles than other and thus, making it hard to set similar goals for all (Griffiths &Wiese, 2004). The third leadership theory that can be effectively employed in healthcare organization is ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is a form of leadership that always considers what is just and morally right in management and decision making. Ethical leader understands that positive associations are the gold standard for all effort of an organization (Berghofer & Schwartz, n.d.). Good quality associations founded on trust and respect are one of the most essential determinant of success of an organization. Ethical leader understands relationships of this form grow and germinate in deep rich soil of essential principles that include compassion, justice, equity, fairness, honesty, integrity, respect and trust. These principles are commonly referred to as the “laws of the universe” and acting based on these laws enhances harmony in an organization (Berghofer & Schwartz, n.d.). According to Al-Sawai (2013) practicing effectual leadership can have considerable effect on the healthcare staff working lives, organization fate, and patient outcomes. In some cases, the leader will require to influence members of the group by developing enthusiasm for dangerous techniques, requiring modification in underlying values and beliefs, in influencing decisions which favours some at the cost of others. Nevertheless, by engaging in behaviours of this kind, in some cases, the leader may influence others to be involved in obedience crimes that have resulted to deteriorating public trust. To prevent such incidences, a good leader need to have behaviours, values, and intentions that anticipate no harm to anyone and that respect all parties’ rights (Althaus et al., 2007). Ethical leadership has been given great importance in the medical field in healthcare organization. Most healthcare facilities have been subjected into public scrutiny and their efficiency judged based on the organization adherence to ethical issues. In this regard, researchers have developed a number of models to evaluate in ethical leadership of healthcare organization as a way of guiding on improvement in this form of organization leadership. Some of these models include four V-models, where the four V include voice, vision, values and virtue all set in a triangle and virtual placed on the middle. Based on this model, ethical leadership contains a starting point in which leaders need to learn and be familiarised with essential values governing an organization and developing a kind of discipline which will assist to integrate these discipline in their daily life. According to Aghiorghiesei et al. (2015), values are intended to serve others, an aspect that indicates a latent vision, that result to voice, and this operate the transition from work to polis that can be expresses in various manners and that contains an on-going value renewal process. Virtue on the other hand indicates the common good and demands leaders to focus on the voice, vision and value so as to sustain the virtue. Studies according to Aghiorghiesei et al. (2015) have demonstrated that individual competence in a particular field can contribute to the extents of ethics in decision making. As a result, organization leaders should consider seeking knowledge that can enhance their ethical decision making. Ethical leaders require ethical competence since they are expected to give the right guidance in matters pertaining ethical dilemma, cases that are quite common in healthcare institutions. Having worked in healthcare organization, ethical cases can range from small mistakes as failure to document a medical procedure given to a patient to demand for mercy killing by patient or relative of a patient suffering from chronic disease. All these cases can put the organization on the spot in the eyes of a public since they can both result to fatal outcomes. In such cases, a nurse or any other medical professional would require to make ethical decisions either as an individual or as guided by the organization or department leadership. In this regard, healthcare organization leaders must demonstrate their integrity which can only be achieved by having the suitable experience and knowledge. Thus, ethical training and education would be very necessary for leaders in healthcare organization (Berghofer & Schwartz, n.d.). Ethical leadership is one of the most volatile leadership theories since it contain a number of views and models to govern its application measures and application. This makes it hard to identify the most effective techniques that can be followed to enhance effective ethical leadership in any organization, especially in health care where ethical values are highly valued. Healthcare organizations have highly tried to retain issues of ethical leadership in their grid of assessment pertaining to performance management. However, some other organizations have reduced ethical leadership to individual’s common sense and consciousness. This condition has resulted to a number of ethical challenges in most healthcare organization that ranges from lack of proper patient information documentation to poor treatment and sharing of private patient information among other ethical issues. Such instances can highly influence the ration between ta healthcare organization and its stakeholders, especially private organization that operates just like all other businesses (Giddens, 2013). The main strength of ethical leadership is that it protects the reputation of the organization by ensuring that all operations are carried out ethically. It also enhances moral behaviour in an organization and ensures that patient receive proper care. The main weakness is that, it is hard to integrate ethical leadership in the entire organization operation since it is more about individual moral value than the entire organization. Thus, one may decide to be unethical despite of the rules (Clare & Hofmeyer, 2004). In conclusion, effective leadership in healthcare organization is very essential in enhancing quality patient care and well-being of patients in any medical organization. Leaders in healthcare organization need to carefully select the right leadership technique based on their aim, mission, goals, and complexity of their organization system. The three most applicable theories in healthcare environment as discussed above include collaborative leadership, shared leadership and ethical leadership. While the first two are very essential in determining the general performance of a healthcare organization, ethical leadership acts as a subset leadership approach that must be integrated in any healthcare system to enhance overall efficiency. However, it may be hard to employ ethical leadership as the only form of leadership governing healthcare institution. References Aghiorghiesei, D. 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(2010).Collaborative communications: a case study within the U.S. Army medical logistics community. Saarbrucken, GE: VDM Publishers. Read More