This paper has been segregated into four parts namely Task-2, Task-3, Task-4 and Task-5. This report particularly aims to elaborate the styles of leadership which are seen to exist in the health care sector, therefore is able to illustrate the form of transformational leadership which is generally utilised for the purpose of making a positive change with the concerned organization. Additionally this paper aims to discuss the various styles of leadership and also present a reflection on the outcomes of learning of the particular unit.
This particular part aims to elaborate the output of the team of professionals in terms of performance that is seen to be highly dependent on the behavior and attributes of the team leader. It has been stated by Kumar (2013), the style of leadership chosen in turn reflects the attitude of the team leader during the process of guiding, mentoring and managing the respective team. A leader who is efficient enough is able to provide motivation to the team in order to make them work together and to provide idea which will be helpful for the purpose of elevating the outcome. Additionally it is also important to note that leaders who are efficient enough will be able to bring about a change in terms of the welfare which will be holistic in nature for the organization and also for the employees. Hence it is of high significance that the important traits of leader must be identified so that the positive and the negative styles of leadership can be distinguished. According to Kurt Lewin, there are various styles of leadership which have been identified in terms of the healthcare system. In this context, it needs to be mentioned that in the field of leadership in the health care sector, the first study was carried out related to organizational leadership (Bosiok and Sad 2013). However recently there have been a number of researches carried out. These studies shows the three different styles of leadership namely includes the authoritarian, democratic and delegative or Laissez-Faire leadership (Bosiok and Sad 2013). The Authoritarian leadership reflects the autocratic leaders who are involved in leading the team through a clear definition of the role of the various team members in addition to the provision of a clear view of the expectations associated with the team. This type of leadership reflects the process of implementing power and command on the members of the team. Similarly it must also be noted that there is a clear distinction present between the members of the team and the team leader. It is the team leader who has the authority to take all the critical decisions for the sake of the team where there is a little or no input from the members of the team. Researches have shown that for this type of leadership there is no scope for making any creative decision (Al-Sawai 2013). Additionally this authoritarian leadership is often compared to the factors like anarchic, controlling and at the same time stagnant making it difficult to shift to another leadership style. It has been noted that the place arena where this type of leadership can be implemented is a situation that calls for crisis and there is a very small time frame available for the sake of decision making process.
The second type of leadership deals with the participative type of leadership which is also referred to as democratic leadership. This type of leadership has been portrayed to have yielded the highest amount output from the team. It is the democratic leaders who are expected to offer guidance to the team members and also involve them in the process of decision making (Trastek et al. 2014). Additionally it should also be kept in mind that the democratic leaders are responsible for encouraging the team members to take part in group activities in order to inculcate a sense of involvement in members of the team in order to ensure that the members of the team have an equal say during the process of descion making.
As stated by Trastek et al. (2014), the delegative leadership style is involved in ensuring the minimum group productivity. It is the delegate leader who is responsible for offering guidance to the team members which is negligible and therefore the members of the team are largely responsible for the decisions without any guidance. However this kind of leadership have also been useful in several cases like while managing a team consisting of experts who possess excellent education background along with prior clinical experience. In spite of this, delegate leadership is seen to lack the components like a defined structure with is bestowed with internal conflicts along with the lack of efforts and the reduced team progress.
Hence in order to summarize, it might be stated that the authoritarian leadership is considered to be a negative leadership style due to the fact that there is no openness present in addition to lack of consideration for the members of the team during the process of decision making. However this type of leadership also ensures the betterment of the issues like the compliance of the rules along with discipline and a sense of responsibility. This is in contrast to the democratic leadership styles where there is a mutual trust present between the members of the team which in turn is responsible for the strengthening of the team bonding. According to Allen et al. (2016), a team which works under a democratic leader is often seen to get chances for taking part in discussions and consultations with the others members of the team which is highly significant before taking a final decision. Additionally there are other leadership styles also present like the situational leadership style, the transactional leadership style and the transformational leadership style, studies on which have been carried out by various researches.
Another type of leadership is the situational leadership which is largely based on the context of prevailing environment or a particular situation (Steller et al. 2014). This type of leadership mainly focuses on the importance of the environment in order to determine the pattern of leadership. Situational leadership comprises mainly of two categories namely the leadership style that is based upon the Hersey and Blanchard’s model in addition to the extension of the Hersey Blanchard’s model which is a second type of situational leadership (Steller et al. 2014). The first sub-type reflects the significance of the four elements which includes the telling style through which the leader tells the team members about what needs to be done along with the selling style through which the leader is able to convince the team members how to readily consume the shared ideas. There is also a participatory style which helps to ensure the members of the team to get involved in the decision making process of the team in an active manner whereas the delegating style is observed while the leader is dependent upon the team members to take important decisions and adapts an aloof approach. Care should be taken of the fact that there is an extension of the model which is based on the existing skills of the team members that helps to adapt to the lead to the team. The style of providing support is based on the support that is prompted at every step which is often marked by the lack of a unique direction and support.
Based on the aspect of consideration of the relationship, the translational leadership reflects the translational process that exists between the leader and its team members (Nica 2015). This is often regarded as a common type of leadership which is able to determine the team members as the employees who are able to acknowledge the tasks that can be given by the team leader instead of a financial compensation. One of the major benefits of this leadership style is responsible for the clear definition of the job role along with the expected return which addresses the allotted tasks efficiently. Additionally it is the team leader who should supervise the members of the team and offer them guidance in order to make the process of working smooth. However there are certain limitations to this that includes the barrier imposed on innovative thinking and creativity.
Whereas the transformational leadership can be referred as the leadership style that is most effective in terms of helping the employees for the promotion and ensuring team output. As stated by Middleton (2013), it is the one of the most effective leadership styles in respect to the healthcare sector. This style consists of certain elements like the ability of the leader to inspire and motivate the team members in order to drive a positive change within the team. The attributes of the transformational leadership style includes intelligence, spontaneity, energy, passion and emotional consideration (Miles and Asbridge 2014). It is the duty of the team leaders to provide guidance to the members of the team so that better performance can be acquired and there is an increase in the job satisfaction under the transformational level (Ellis and Abott 2013; Miles and Asbridge 2014).
The pros of the transformational leadership style includes the factors like promotion of enthusiasm and motivation within the team members. Additionally there is a spontaneous establishment of an objective using which the team is able to achieve progress. On the other hand there are several cons which includes the factors like the complexities that are present within the organisation as well as in the objectives of the team (Fitzgerald et al. 2013).
As a result of this it is important to state the idea regarding the various forms of leadership style which will benefit the health care professionals to adapt to the right form of the leadership which in turn will help the team members in the correct manner. Based on the evidences present there is transformational leadership which is considered to be the best form of leadership in the healthcare sector.
Recently I am working as a Registered Nurse in (XYZ) healthcare organization. The leadership role with which I am involved constitutes the healthcare professionals who plan the referrals and the discharge. In this context, it is important to state the leadership roles which expects the promotion of the communication along with an efficient inter-professional communication that exists between the members of the team. For this I implemented the transformational leadership style for the purpose of guiding the professional team. For the purpose of drafting a plan for discharge for the patient which involves the suggestions of a group of nurse professionals which includes the pharmacist, dietician, occupational therapist, physiotherapist and the Graduate Nurses who are responsible for taking care of the patient during their stay in hospital. In this context the transformational leadership seems to highly applicable since the plan of discharge needs a consideration from each of the accessory health care professional’s suggestions which is required in order to ensure the availability of the delivery of holistic care. Therefore according to this, it is the group of the professionals who are responsible for accessory care which I am trying to have an impact on the present leadership role which I am following.
Another type of leadership is the implicit leadership that can be explained using the cognitive theory of leadership which in turn can operate based on the perception of the employee that is present regarding the team leader. This idea is in turn associated with the rationale that is relevant to the individuals who are present within the team who are responsible for holding a specified perception regarding the team leader along with the leader who is responsible for the use of the preconceived notion that is associated with the control and command the team members. Therefore this theory of implicit leadership as is mentions clearly differs from the nature that is present to another which is based on the style of leadership which is later followed by the management of the team. There is also a variance present in terms of the theory that depends upon the task requirement along with the skill or expertise that is essential for the purpose of addressing the task. During the process of handing the patient in the emergency department, there is a need to automatically change the leadership style to the authoritarian leadership style where my team is dependent on me for taking decisions which are critical in nature so that they are able to move forward with the intervention of treatment that is required by the patient. In such situations it is the duty of the leader to be composed and act in an influential way in order to be able to dictate the members of the team so that they are able to address the emergency in the manner that is mostly appropriate.
As mentioned by Leggat and Balding (2013), the concept of followership refers to the set of actions which are shown by the members of the team who are subordinate in nature. Widely speaking, it is possible to illustrate the skills of leadership which is required for the management of the hierarchical organisation. The concept of hierarchy refers to the distinction in the levels in terms of operations which makes it possible for the workflow to carry on with ease and thus help the organization to acquire its objectives. In accordance to Cheng et al. (2016), it is the concept of followership that can be compared to that of the practice of the subordinates which are intentional in nature in order to ensure the flow of a smooth communication existing between the team members and the team leader. Care should be given to the process of followership and leadership that cannot be restricted to that of the leaders along with the members of the team who are independent of one another so as to ensure a hundred percentage of the team production. As is argued by Turkel (2014), the leaders are expected to play a role within the team that is integral in nature and who are able to set a vision for the purpose of transforming the set vision to reality. It can therefore be mentioned that both of the factors of leadership along with that of followership is quite different from one another however still they share a set of competencies that are similar in nature. Hence in accordance to the words of McDonagh et al. (2014), the idea of follower reflects an individual whose designated place is below than the team leader when considered in the hierarchal position. In accordance to Junker and Van Dick (2014), the other kinds of followership styles which exists within the healthcare sector is seen to include the followers who are alienated, or are passive followers or sheep, in addition to that of the conformist followers along with the survivors and followers who are dynamic or effective in nature. It is also important to note that in this context the situation that exists within a team refers to the findings which are similar in kind as of the followers who are extremely rare and generally comprises of a team usually having different kinds of followers.
The first kind of followers, also known as the alienated followers generally stay aloof and passive within a team. These followers possess the ability to think critically and take independent decisions which serve as a positive attribute of the patients. On the other hand, the distance and aloofness serves as a negative attribute of these followers that weakens team bonding. When the team leader introduces a change within the group, these followers respond passively to state their opposition. Hence, while dealing with alienated followers it is important to ask them personally about their opinion so as to make them feel valued within a team. Another category of passive listeners within a team comprise of the sheep who are extremely dependent upon the team leader and the other members for the completion of any task. According to Epitropaki et al. (2013), it has been mentioned that these followers d noit possess the ability to critically reason and offer valuable input during the decision making process. Similar to the alienated followers, upon introducing a change, these followers do not oppose. An advantage of this category of followers can be mentioned as the convenience of managing these members within a team. On the other hand, the disadvantage could be stated as their poor contribution in the critical decision making processes that extensively hampers team dynamics. Conformists are another category of followers who readily agree to the decisions taken by the team leader and do not possess the skills of critical analysis and logical reasoning. Confirmists, however do not involve in any kind of team conflicts that serves an advantage while dealing with these followers. On the other hand, the disadvantage could be considered as the lack of the ability of these followers to offer valuable input in the decision making process at times of emergency. Another type of followers include the survivors, who prefer to ‘go with the flow’. The negative aspect of the survivors include their withdrawal from the team at emergency situations and always remaining on the ‘safe-side’ to avoid risks. Whereas, the positive attribute of these followers can be mentioned as the automatic acceptance of any change introduced within the team without the slightest opposition. According to Foti et al. (2017), the effectors are the most valuable followers within a team. This is primarily because the followers possess the ability to logically reason and present valuable input that can make the decision making process extremely easy. In addition to this, the effectors are disciplined and devote themselves to a self-learning process that is critically reflected by their attempt to shoulder responsibilities within a team to enhance team progress. The advantage of having effectors within a team can be explained as their ability to critically analyse a risk prone situation and offer valuable input that can positively affect the decision making process. However, the disadvantage can be considered as the assertive nature of the effectors that could end up causing team conflicts.
Therefore, in this segment I would like to describe my clinical experience based on the styles of leadership and followership discussed in the previous paragraphs. I had always been an extremely dedicated care professional and that accounts for the reason why I was promoted as an ‘Assistant Head Nurse’ within six months of my practice. I was supposed to manage the night shift. The team that I was responsible for handling comprised of the ‘sheep’ or passive followers as the members were Graduate Nurses who lacked the expertise to handle patients efficiently. I feel that their followership style was justified due to their inexperience in the clinical environment. I literally had to teach them everything ranging from drug administration and patient education to documentation and even drug management. It was a new experience for me as well, because I had not never directed a team before. I strongly feel that the leadership style depends largely upon the followership style. As in my case, I had started leading as an authoritarian leader because my followers were too dependent on me for everything. Due to the passive nature of the team members, it became easy for me to conveniently manage them, and they followed my commands without opposition. However, the leadership style practices by me was not an effective one. With time, I tried my best to improve my leadership style and at present I am heading a team of multidisciplinary professionals where half of my team strength are effectors and the other half are conformists. The decision making processes are based upon the input offered by the team mates and it has helped in enhancing the quality of care provided to the patients. Hence, as a leader, prior to leading a team, it is important to identify the styles of the followers as it helps in implementing the best team management strategy to acquire positive outcome.
The healthcare systems and the nursing profession need a high-performance team environment to function and ensure maximum productivity. It is important for the team leaders to inspire the team members and move outside the comfort zone to procure maximum team performance. The transformational leadership style is the best leadership style within the healthcare system. As stated by Miles and Asbridge (2014), the transformational leadership can be defined as a style of leadership that is based upon creating a vision by the team leader followed by encouraging the team members to realize the vision and turn it to reality. The team leaders in this case inspire the team members and ensure their absolute commitment towards the team. Motivation, appreciation and recognition of skills are the attributes used by the team leader to inspire the team members in order to interest them on the project. The leader serves as a role model and encourages the team members to identify their strengths and weaknesses and accordingly put in effort to improve their performance. The assessment of the strengths and weaknesses specifically help to establish specific roles and responsibilities of the members to put in effort for the team collectively. Also implementation of transformational leadership has been studied to yield positive outcomes within a healthcare organization (Turkel 2014; Nica 2013). The factors of global turbulence, organizational instability and uncertainty makes it essential to incorporate organizational form of leadership within different hierarchies in healthcare organizations. The followers of transformational leadership habve been identified as self-reliant and extremely dedicated. Also, according to Middleton (2013), these followers are loyal and report high level of job-satisfaction. Thus, based on the findings of the background research, it should be acknowledged that this form of leadership helps in driving positive change and at the same time improves employee commitment and performance. Hence, my job role would need me to implement the transformational leadership style. The exhaustive evidence based studies supporting the transformational leadership within the healthcare organization serves as the rationale for choosing this kind of leadership. In addition to this, this leadership style would require me to lead the team and ensure complete participation of the team members to acquire positive patient outcomes.
In this section, I will explain the action points that I would incorporate within my leadership style. The action points would also be explained in association with appropriate justification. The three action points can be mentioned as ‘instilling a sense of urgency’, ‘assuring complete participation’ and ‘creating temporary short-term achievable goals’.
Instilling a sense of urgency: A leader must proactively share the financial trend as well as the market positioning of the different healthcare organizations at short time intervals. This would help in conveying the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the rival healthcare organizations. Thus, this step would help in instilling an urgency among the team members to work collectively and ensure a smooth workflow in order to acquire positive outcome. It would also help in introducing a change within the organization and readily complying with it to ensure better service delivery. For instance, if the healthcare organization decides to shift from one EHR to another, then a board meeting must be conducted where the leader would brief about the need to adapt the change along with a proper rationale. The team members could be informed about the change with the help of a powerpoint presentation highlighting the relevant statistical figures and the rationale for opting the change which in this case can be mentioned as better interoperability and compatibility of different EHR interfaces.
Encouraging participation: On introducing a change, it is important to acquire maximum employee participation. This helps in removing obstacles that could abruptly reject the assimilation of the change within the system. The transformational theory mentions that complete participation can help in spontaneous acceptance of the change in an organization. Also, it helps in collecting valuable feedback from other team members which ensures better creativity. This characteristic could be utilised while devising treatment for the patients and while discussing about quality innovation and business expansion. Conducting in-house training and workshops can help to improve quality and impart education about the new system of operation.
Establish short-term Goals: According to Ellis and Abbott (2014), motivation and recognition are important components of transformational leadership style. It should be noted that to assimilate a change in an organization it is important to introduce a set of minor changes. It is important to focus on the temporary goals to make an impact on the final picture. These temporary goals are treated as benchmarks that help in assessing the efficacy of the team to realize the vision and mission of the organization. For instance, the organization, where I am presently placed has major problems with the implementation of fall prevention policies for the old age patients. The statistical data reveals that approximately 25% of the old age patients experience a fall in the hospital setting. So to address, the problem, I decide to arrange a training for the nurses working in the gerontology unit, and impart education about fall prevention and patient safety. In order to make sure, the nurses acquire knowledge from the organized training they would need to clear a skill test assessment. This would serve as a performance evaluation and ensure the training was absorbed. Also, recognising the top performers with financial incentives, would encourage the participation of other nurses in the training. Also, fixing slabs for performance and incentives would help to assess the improvement level in the gerontology unit of the hospital. Also, the nurses would remain motivated to acquire positive outcome.
Therefore, the specified action points can easily be accomplished through strategic planning and implementation of the principles of transformational leadership. However, the implementation process of the transformational theory has also been associated with criticisms (Redmond 2017). These criticisms comprise of impression management that is unethical and considered as partiality by the team members. Also, motivation could lead to manipulation that would lead to internal conflicts within the team. Further, the theory can be considered a master mix of other leadership theories which then makes it problematic for the head to implement into practice and reality. So, it is integral to ensure these negative aspects are addressed by the leader. This would lead to better compliance with leadership style, efficient workflow, effective followership and smooth communication. The factors combined together would ensure collective team effort and enhanced service delivery. Thus, while drafting the action points and carrying out the process of implementation, the leaders should cross evaluate to ensure that the drafted action plan does not oppose the vision of the organization and cause an adverse effect.
Bulman and Schultz (2013), stated that the process of critical reflection helps encourages retrospection that subsequently helps in enhancing the scope of practicum. In this section, I would reflect upon the style of leadership and also comment on my competence with the learning unit. An efficient leader identifies the trait of his followers and accordingly assumes an appropriate leadership style to lead the team. In the words of Bosiok and Sad (2013), the authoritarian leadership, democratic leadership and the laissez-fair leadership style are the three forms of primitive leadership styles. Usually while handling a team of passive followers, the team leaders exercise authority and dominate the followers. However, while adapting a participatory leadership style, the team members directly involve themselves in important decision making processes. The delegatory leadership on the other hand, is another leadership style where the leader is extremely laid-back and hands over the responsibility of critical decision making to the team members. The situational leadership, the transactional leadership and the transformational leadership are the modern forms of leadership styles that are critically based upon the traditional leadership styles. At present, on the basis of my role as a leader, the transformational leadership can be mentioned as the most appropriate leadership style. As a team leader, I am required to lead my team and not simply manage my team. I would need to ensure smooth inter-professional communication between the different departments of the healthcare organization. In addition to this, the stringent implementation of the previously discussed action points would help in ensuring smooth communication flow between the interdisciplinary health departments. The action points can be mentioned as fostering a feeling of urgency, assuring absolute participation and setting temporary or short-term goals. The obvious rationale for the establishment and implementation of the action points can be described as ready acceptance of a change within the organization in order to ensure better coordination and enhanced team performance.
Conclusion:
Hence, to conclude, I would like to state that after completing the different tasks I have acquired the competency to understand the different kinds of leadership styles that exist within the healthcare system. It has helped me in effectively addressing the learning outcome of this Unit. I have also framed a better understanding about the different styles of followership. Therefore, I would like to implement the learning outcome in order to attain maximum team output.
References:
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