You have been tasked with leading the introduction of a new technique / technology in your team. However you have noticed that many staff are reluctant to adapt their practice and adopt the new technique / technology and you are worried about your project failing to meet its targets. Use one leadership theory and one or two theories related to self-regulation, motivation, communication or organisational change to analyse what might explain staff resistance. Use your chosen theories to analyse how you can support your team to work towards the set targets.
With the advancements in the technological fields, the works of human beings have become easier. Technology has helped human beings to be more efficient and complete a task more accurately and at a faster pace in comparison to domains where technologies are not applied. Similarly, in the healthcare industries, different types of technological advancements have been made so that care delivery to patients becomes easier (Nguyen, Belucci and Nguyen 2014). Technologies have been proposed to provide safe care to patients and also to increase patient satisfaction and decrease their stays in the hospitals. Often treatment of different diseases like cancer, chronic kidney disorder and many others have been made easier due to utilization of important instruments like dialyzers, instruments associated with radiotherapy, chemotherapy and many others. Therefore, technology has now become an integrated part of the healthcare industries (Nelson and Staggers 2016). However, there are many professionals in the healthcare industries who dislike the use of technology. They had criticized that recent technological advancements have reduced the development of proper relationship between the patients, nurses and other professionals. Many also feel demotivated to change their working procedures when new technologies are incorporated in the working environment. Fear, lack of confidence, apathy to change the traditional working style, apathy to change habits and many others become the sole reasons for the creation of issues in workplace (Boonstra, Verslius and Vos 2014). A similar issue was faced by me when as a leader; I tried to implement the electronic health record system in the working facility of the hospital. Several protests from the older nurses had been noted after the implementation of the Electronic health record system which is also called the EHR. Therefore, the assignment will mainly be based on the leadership style that I had adopted in such scenario which helped me to handle my team effectively. Moreover, I will also discuss different theories which I had followed to make them comfortable with the new changed working environment. Ultimately the issue was resolved and smooth flow of work was continued.
An audit conducted in the healthcare center had showed that there had been an increased number of medication errors in the past six months. This has mainly been due to the inability of the nursing professionals to document the record of the patients properly. Often due to improper communication, delegation and incomplete filling up of the documentation record sheets of the patients, inappropriate delegation of care services were taking place. Medication errors, complaints from patients and families and minor accidents have taken place. Therefore the higher authorities wanted to implement a proper system which will reduce the medical errors and will increase the accuracy of the systems. Therefore, I was assigned the duty to properly lead my team through the implementation of the systems and providing proper guidance and training so that they can correctly handle the systems.
The main reason for which I had selected the implementation of the HER in the system is that it provides accurate as well as up to date and complete information about patients at the point of care. It also enables quick access to patient records so that more coordinated and efficient care is provided to them. It also helps in securely sharing electronic information with not only patients but also with other clinicians (Ben-Asuli 2015). Moreover, this system also help providers to more accurately diagnose patients, reduce medical errors an also provide safer care. Besides, improvement in patient as well as provider interaction and communication it also helps in different healthcare convenience. It also ensures safer as well as more reliable prescribing. It also helps in the promoting of legible and complete documentation and accurate billing and streamlined coding (McAlraly et al. 2015). It ensures privacy and security of the different patient data. Another important area where it would be increasingly helpful is that it helps in improving productivity as well as work life balance. It would also enable providers to improve efficiency and also meet their business goals (Sinsky et al. 2014). It also decreases cost through decreased amount of paperwork reducing duplication of testing and improving health.
After implementation of the system and calling a meeting to discuss about the changes that would now be incorporated in the environment, I came across several issues. One of the barriers that I faced after the change in the working environment is a large number of behavioral issues from the nursing professionals. Many of the nurses, mainly the veteran nurses exhibited in regards to the perception and satisfaction towards information technology. They were also upset about the time that they would have to spend documenting for the patient information (Englebright, Aldirch and Taylor 2014) They mainly had doubts that whether they would be able to work in a nursing environment with such high level of technology. Although I provided them with reference guides, screenshots and cheat sheets, they were grateful of the new technology and stated that they might not get adapted to the new technology and make mistakes which may harm hospital resources as well as patient lives. A rumor had also circulated that the procedures are very difficult to handle and the machines may break down at any time. All such rumors had made the environment very tensed and even the new nurses who were initially enthusiastic were now lacking confidence. While some of them complained of the having a hard time in adjusting to electronic charting, there were also many who were filled with anxiety and fear. One such fear discussed by a senior nurse is clicking at the wrong places while working with the computerized charts. They become aggravated when they cannot perform their electronic tasks. Besides, the fear and uncertainty being some of the barriers faced by nurses in the new working protocol, it was also seen that there were many veteran nurses who were reluctant to change their working procedure. They believed that their habits are working fine with the system of the hospitals and therefore there was very little need for new technologies. They were just not ready to accept it as a part of the system. From all these I realized that they were basically suffering from lack of confidence and motivation. The rumors and the negative environment created were making the nurses demotivated (Englebright et al. 2014). These were affecting them physically and mentally and were also interrupting the smooth care delivery of the patients. Hence, it became very important for me to motivate them, to enlighten them about the new technique and help them ponder on the positivity. As a leader is also ha to help them get over their fear and develop skills which would ensure safe care delivery.
I mainly prefer following a transformational leadership styles. In this style of leadership, the leader mainly works with the subordinates in order to identify the proper changes and thereby create visions. He helps the subordinates by guiding them through the changes by properly motivating them and providing inspiration (Kruse et al. 2015). He also believes in executing the changes in tandem with committed members of the group. This type of leadership styles mainly helps to enhance the motivation, morale as well as the job performance of the employee with the help of a number of initiatives (Weng et al. 2015). This leader mainly does so by connecting the team member’s sense of identity and self to the project. It also helps to align the subordinates with the collective identity of the organization.
Therefore, my main aim would be to first align the nursing professionals to align with the mission and vision of the organization. I have to make them understand that main rationale for implementing the system s that they can appraise the necessity for the technology implemented in the healthcare sector (Frankel and Pcgms 2017). They should be properly made to understand that how these systems would ultimately help in developing the quality of the care that is provided to the patients. They must be made to recognize that how EHR system is ultimately helping them to meet with the main principle of nursing – providing safest and best evidence based care to patients (Gillett et al. 2013). At first a proper relationship should be developed with the nurses so that the bonds between me and the nurses become strong and trustworthy. Trust based relationships help in making the working environment smooth and also makes its stress free. Here the team members trust each other and the leaders and thereby communication and productivity get increased. Once trustworthy relationship is developed, I can help them look at the positive aspects of the technology (Lavoie et al. 2016). I can also encourage them to overcome their fear and try their best to adapt to the new working procedure. After the building of strong relationships, my next aim would be to motivate them to try out the new initiatives which they fear to take. They should be motivated to buy and deliver the vision. They should be influenced by giving them enough scopes to participate in the training procedures, in group discussion, in feedback meetings and many others (Grosman and Valiga 2016). The old nurses as well as the new nurses should be influenced about how such changes should not only develop patient care but would make their work much easier. They would also prevent them from developing job stress, mental and physical disabilities and others.
Two motivational theories I can use here as the leaders. The first one would be the Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. It consists mainly of two important factors. The first are the motivation factors which are actually the factors that lead to satisfaction and motivate employees to accept the changes and work more. I can ensure motivating the employees by making them feel recognized for the successful handling of the EHR, for properly documenting reports and others (Alshemri, Shawn-Akl and Maude 2017). This will motivate the employee and will also encourage the other nurse professionals. I will also look for their career progression for further motivation. The second factors are the hygiene factors which if absent may lead to dissatisfaction and lack of motivation among the employees. These include salary, benefits, company benefits and also relationship with the managers and coworkers (Grossman and Valiga 2016). Therefore I, as a leader would try to develop relationship among the co-workers as there remain a health relationship among them. I would also try out new incentive scheme plans for those who would be successfully handling the new technology and would be enthusiastic to learn about them. These would motivate the employees to learn the new techniques. Another motivational theory that can be also used in this context is the Hawthorn effect (Wong et al. 2013). It was named after a series of social experiments on the influence of the physical conditions on productivity at in the 1920s and 30 at Western Electric’s factory at Hawthorne, Chicago. The researchers noticed that different factors like lighting, working hours, breaks and others are all important for motivating individuals at work (Hawthorn et al. 2017). Therefore as a leader, I should take initiatives to properly plan about the working hours, breaks, proper work life balance and others. All these would ultimately make them feel that the organization is thinking for the betterment of the nurses and as a result they should also try their best to dedicate themselves for the organization and try to align with their working professionals.
A change process always remains associated with large amount of confusion. This confusion mainly arises from half heated information distributions, lack of proper knowledge about the change among the subordinates, rumors that spread in the organization and many others, issues also arise where individuals became concerned about their fate in the organization and thereby get anxious about their position. All these make employees feel disoriented as the organization lets o of the old process and embraces new procedures and structures (Mantos et al. 2014). Therefore researchers are of the opinion that transformational leaders in such situation should establish effective communication with every of the team members so that the negative outlooks of the employees could be known. Their issues need to be known clearly by properly communicating with them (Know et al. 2017). Therefore effective communication should be ensured by the leaders to stop the employees’ form feeling anxious and panicking about the new establishments. While communicating with the nurses, I should first empathize with their concerns. Impressing upon them the new procedures without giving scope to the nurses in communicating their feelings may have negative impact on their work and productivity. Therefore, gaining feedbacks form them and then analyzing them and communication they correct strategies and benefits which are necessary (Behnia and Muller et al. 2014). I should implement active listening skills and proper feedback receiving skills so that they can vice their concern. Following them, I will give them proper explanations and empower them in ways by which they would gain confidence to work with the new technology. The main attributes that I will use effectively while communication with both the old and new nurses are effective verbal communication and non verbal communication. Proper listening skills, active negotiations, problem solving, decision making and assertiveness are attributes of communication (Valackiene and Susinene 2013). Therefore all these would be maintained by me to make the nurses develop their confidence.
A transformational leader does not only have the above mentioned duties. Researchers are of the opinion that ‘reinforcing and reminding’ are two important attributes which need to be incorporated in the leadership skills while managing change procedures. Although every employees want to see immediate results but it is not possible always. It may take a time for the employees to catch on the new methods. The employees will need to move through a psychological transition. I, as the leader of the team, should not forcibly try to make them align with the situation. In place, it is necessary for them to give the nursing professionals, time so that they can psychologically adjust and thereby gets absorbed in the new working protocol (Goestsch and Davis 2014). However, as a leader I should make sure that the time taken by the nurses to adapt to the new system should not be long enough. For ensuring these, I need to conduct meetings and training sessions in order to make sure that the nurses are gradually coming out of their old habits and working styles. It should be sneered through the meetings and classes, that they are getting adapted to the current scenarios.
The leaders have to enforce the strategies taken by them in a proper pace and in proper manner so that the employees do not slip into old patterns once again. Researchers are of the opinion that accountability can be established through metrics and reports. Leaders should need to check in with the subordinates more frequently during the course of launching new technologies in the healthcare centers. The leaders can conduct one to one meetings as well as smaller team meetings. Researchers say that the advantages of the team meetings are that it involves elements of collaboration which evokes an essence that all team members are working together (Belias and Kouste 2014). This has one benefit. There is also an element of peer pressure. Researchers have seen that when everyone of the group gets committed to change, then those resistors of change will also give in due to the pressure to conform to the crowd. I as a transformational leader should be extremely careful while establishing accountability. This is mainly because I would never like to create an environment where employees would be asked to police each other. Therefore, establishing accountability will ensure that the nurses would be adhering with the new technology implemented in the working environment which would ensure patient safety.
Another important step that I would take as a transformational leader is to invite proper employee feedback. As the nursing professionals will be going through the change process with their new working procedure, it becomes extremely important for the leaders about how they are perceiving about the systems and whether they are facing any issues or not. The ways by which feedback should be collected from the nurses would be by implementation of the employee suggestion box and also employee surveys at the key checkpoints (Cameron and Green 2015). Moreover, open discussion meetings should also be conducted by me where their issues would be listed and accordingly important initiatives would be taken.
When a big goal is to be achieved, it requires time and the nursing professionals may feel that they are not making enough progress. They may think that they may never be able to successfully handle the EHR or would continue making mistakes. In order to prevent such feelings of defeat, it is important for me to measure the progress. This will make the nurses believe that their efforts towards change are making a big difference to the organization and also helping in maintaining patient safety (Alkias et al. 2017). Moreover the focus on the metrics will also create a feeling of teamwork. This will squelch rumors and would help the nurses to overcome fear as well as anxiety about the new processes. Moreover it also becomes important for the leader to celebrate incremental successes as it helps in renewing the staff and also provide proper reward for their efforts.
Conclusion:
From the entire discussion above, it can be easily understood that any sort of change in working procedure of the organization may result in different types of resistance from the employees. When the new technological advancement of electrical health record was introduced in the healthcare system, the nursing professionals were not comfortable with the change. They were filled with fear, anxiety and lacked confidence. Not only that, they also showed apathy towards the new change as they were reluctant to change their working styles. They gradually started getting demotivated and hence their performance was gradually degrading. Therefore as a transformational leader I had to initiate a number of strategies. After development of a strong bind and trustworthy relationship, they were motivated by introduction of different schemes. Proper communication was carried on so that they can proactively understand the rationale of the introduction of the strategies and the implementation of the technology and thereby try their best to adapt to the new scenarios. Besides, I provided them enough time for preparing themselves psychologically at the same time balancing that they are not providing themselves with enough time where they get back to their old habits. Establishing accountability, employee feedback gathering and thereby celebrating small successes also help the teams to adhere properly to the new changes. For proper management of the new changes, effective leadership is required who would ultimately help in stabilizing the unstable situations and help in maintaining smooth workflow.
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