Leadership in healthcare institutions is a difficult issue due to the distinct peculiarities of the industry, such as the need to continually think about allocating scarce resources, competition between healthcare institutions and a great role of followership (McKimm&Mannion, 2015, p.270). A crucial feature of the work of a leader in the sphere of healthcare is that such leader shall simultaneously be a good ethicist with strong decision-making abilities (Ledlow& Coppola, 2014, p.237). Leadership is also about creativity. Recently I took a quiz to get to know my degree of creativity, and found out that I am very creative (75/116) (Kellog School of Management, 2016). This result seems expected to me, because I always try to develop innovative solutions to leadership issues.
In the case under study, the leadership of an organization faced a serious competition-driven issue (the opening of a new hospital in the neighborhood). The hospital decided to respond to this issue by opening a new burn unit.
The idea to respond to the competition issue by launching a new burn unit can be assessed as a good one, provided that the opening of this unit is viewed as an impetus towards further development of an institution. However, implementing such idea requires not only a clear strategy, but a thorough application of a specific leadership model.
In the situation at hand it is suggested to apply the Dynamic Culture Leadership Model. The rationale for choosing this model is determined by several factors. First, the Model has several levels that allows influencing not only leadership, but an extent of dedication, manifested by followers. Given the highlighted importance of followership and dedication in the area of healthcare management, it is essential to promote leadership at all the levels of an organization. Such necessity is strengthened by the tow facts of the case.
Foremost, there is a common threat that cannot be effectively countered without all the employees of an organization taking part therein. Second (and even more seriously), employees of a hospital under study already tend to perceive the organization of a new hospital as an opportunity to work in better conditions and get higher salary.
Another key reason for choosing the Dynamic Culture Leadership (DCL) Model is that this Model is significantly concerned with the improvement of organizational culture. In turn, particularly an organizational culture plays a significant role in determining employees’ satisfaction, and, therefore, the quality of employees’ performance.
An important concept, entailed into the Model that needs to be specifically considered is the one of optimized leadership. The major emphasis related to this concept is a sense of balance that needs to be sustained in leadership (Ledlow& Coppola, 2014, p.191). In other words, it is shown that leadership shall be comprehensive, and bringing change to a sole and specific aspect of it (e.g., employee benefits) is often insufficient to reach significant improvement in the functioning of a company as a whole.
Another crucial notion to be included into the scope of the DCL Model is the one of culture-creation. Ledlow& Coppola (2014) underline the importance of conceptualizing and implementing a company’s unique culture (p.81). Culture-creation shall be a continuous process that needs to be facilitated along with situational leadership and the management of change.
In the case at hand I would suggest to simultaneously focus on the multiple levels of leadership, such as individual leadership (followership), team leadership and the level of organization as a whole. The starting point of organizing and running a new burn unit shall deal with discussing existing competition-driven challenges with employees and elaborating on a common vision of change.
The rationale for getting employees engaged into the process of change management deals with several points. First, it is generally established that employee engagement tends to facilitate job satisfaction and employee loyalty (Macey&Schneider, 2008, pp.3-4). Second, as the hospital’s employees already tend to view the opening of a new hospital as a chance to improve their working conditions, facilitating employee satisfaction is a crucial prerequisite for preventing employee turnover. In this regard, it is also important to show employees that the hospital is ready to improve working conditions for employees. If there is a sufficient amount of material resources, it is advised to introduce new employee benefits.
At the same time, the leadership at the organizational level will require an emphasis on an organizational culture. Required steps may include launching a dialogue about the organizational culture; getting employees included into the shaping of an organizational culture; facilitating informal communication between employees. In this regard, an important part can be played by teamwork, especially if such approach was not previously implemented by the hospital leadership. After the challenge is discussed at the organizational level and immediate measures to improve employee satisfaction are taken, it is advised to elaborate on a single strategy of coping with a challenge and related team division.
The team approach will help to simultaneously solve numerous practical issues related to the opening of the new burn unit and promote leader-follower relations in the hospital. At the individual level, it is crucial to promote employee engagement, followership and dedication to the job.
References
Kellog School of Management (2016). Quizzes. How creative are you? Retrieved 22 June 2016 from http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/htm/teaching-leadership.htm
Ledlow, G., Coppola, N. (2010). Leadership for health professionals. Sudbury: Jones &Bartlett Publishers
Macey, W.H., Schneider, B. (2008). The meaning of employee engagement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(1), pp.3-30
McKimm, J., Mannion, H. (2016). Medical leadership – we need more good followers. Retrieved 22 June 2016 from http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)00484-5/fulltext?rss%3Dyes
