NMS11189 Leadership And Finance for Effective Service Delivery
Introduction
This essay is going to be focused on highlighting two leadership styles in relation to the healthcare sector around the globe. Thereby, it is going to include different healthcare sectors as an example to highlight their leaders in terms of their efficiency and performance growth in the international market. Apparently, it will provide distinct information regarding the importance of two major leaderships as well as focus on highlighting the usage of those leaderships within the healthcare sector around the globe. Hence, it is going to be focused on developing compare and contrast type of research findings to make the overall essay more accurate.
Discussion
Importance of leadership in the healthcare sector
Leadership in business is a concept that focuses on the capacity that the internal management has to achieve targeted goals and overcome challenges while operating in a particular industry (Lusiani et al, 2020). In reference to the studies of Wardman (2020), it has been concluded that leadership provides the ability for the management to focus on a particular direction to take decisive actions as needed. Accordingly, it also helps the entire management with the ability to outperform the competition in the market as well as inspire others to perform at the highest level possible. A prime example of leadership within the healthcare sector is noted to be Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group Inc (UnitedHealth Group, 2023). Based on the given example, it can be stated that due to its effective leadership capabilities, the organisational management has been capable of operating effectively in the healthcare sector with a competitive position in the market. Based on the studies of Lam et al, (2021), leadership provides the ability of the organisational management to enhance their overall workforce capability in terms of attracting potential employees to the management. Therefore, it helps in retaining and increasing the overall number of employees to acquire potential outcomes as per the organisational objectives. As per the case of UnitedHealth Group Inc, the potential leadership qualities of Andrew Witty have managed to provide the organisational management to witness employee growth of 6.06% from the financial year of 2020 to 2021 (Macrotrends, 2022).
In reference to the positive outcomes of effective leadership quality, the importance of leadership within the healthcare sector might also be considered to be effective to overcome significant obstacles. In accordance with the studies of Rana et al, (2020), it has been found that prominent leadership quality is also important as it helps in overcoming challenges in terms of impacting the overall brand image in the market. Potential leaders are capable of implementing the visions and strategies as per the required objectives for the organisational management in order to enhance the overall brand image of the brand in the market. As a prime example of the reputed brand image within the healthcare sector, CVS Health Corp. (CVS) can be stated to be one of the most potent brands in this particular sector (Forbes, 2022). The CEO of the organisational management Karen S. Lynch can be considered one of the most potential leads in terms of implementing relevant directions and strategies to develop a positive brand image in the international market (Cvs Health, 2023). On the basis of the example, it has been Karen S. Lynch has a huge contribution towards developing a positive brand image in the market and hold a strong market value for the brand. The market capitalisation of CVS Health Corp. is $112.51 Billion and it strongly holds the position of the world’s 121st most valuable company by market cap (Companies Market Cap, 2023).
Democratic leadership style in the healthcare sector
As concluded from the studies of Devi & Subiyantoro (2021), it has been found that the concept of democratic leadership style is a concept that is being followed by leaders that focus on letting multiple individuals participate in the decision-making process within the management. Leaders within the healthcare sector focus on utilising this particular leadership style in order to improve overall efficiency and overcome challenges. Apparently, this particular style of leadership is mainly focused on individuals that adopt a participatory psychological aspect. It allows the leaders to distribute responsibility, empowerment, and other decision-making initiatives with the management to achieve greater success (Ferdinandi & Kiwonde, 2023). In terms of democratic leadership style, it has been noted that it provides a significant advantage to the organisational management within the healthcare sector as it helps in increasing the overall rate of innovation within the workplace (Katsaros, Tsirikas & Kosta, 2020). This particular scenario helps in ensuring that each and every individual within the workplace is focusing on achieving organisational objectives and developing greater means of action. For example, it allows the management to witness a greater number of individuals within the workplace share their ideas and improve the existing process through updated methods (Ashok et al, 2021).
In comparison to this particular advantage of the democratic leadership style, this leadership style also results in developing challenges that could be faced by the management such as making decision-making much slower (Essien & Ekoriko, 2020). Therefore, increasing the number of ideas and innovations within the workplace increases the amount of confusion among the team members on which method to be utilised within the management. Despite the fact it results in decreasing the overall decision-making time, it also significantly impacts the performance level of the organisational management as well as the workforce. As an example, it can be stated that it results in an increase in the overall time consumed for a particular activity. In comparison to this particular disadvantage of the democratic leadership style, this particular method of leadership style also provides the advantage to witness a greater amount of team collaboration within the workplace (Gultom & Situmorang, 2020). Despite the fact that this method slows down the overall decision-making time, it helps in ensuring that there is a positive work environment within the workplace. Apparently, it helps in decreasing the overall impact of the absenteeism of the employees. On the basis of the overall findings, it can be concluded that the democratic leadership style provides both significant advantages as well as disadvantages in order to improve the overall efficiency and performance of organisational management within the healthcare sector.
Transformational leadership style
The transformational leadership style is another effective leadership style that can be applied in the context of the healthcare industry. There are various benefits to the adoption of a transformational leadership style such as improved patient outcomes as transformational leaders tend to motivate their existing staff members, which leads to the delivery of high-quality care to patients (Perez, 2021). It has also been implicated that the dependency upon the leaders in the adoption and implementation of transformational leadership increases significantly, which makes it quite difficult for the workforce when leaders are absent or not present to guide the workforce (Robbins & Davidhizar, 2020). Apart from that, the transformational leadership style is also known for increasing the overall job satisfaction of employees working in the healthcare sector which effectively helps them to lower staff turnover rates. Staff turnover in the healthcare sector can be a major challenge for various healthcare companies as the lack of healthcare professionals in a particular organisation might jeopardise the overall standard of services that can be offered to patients who require critical care and attention (Irshad Majeed & Khattak, 2021). Therefore, the implementation and integration of transformational leadership style in this context can be quite beneficial for different healthcare institutions. Additionally, with the utilisation of the transformational leadership style, a better level of communication has also been identified which tends to effectively decrease the frequency of communication gaps and miscommunication, which can be risky for patients. Nevertheless, the transformational leadership style has also been criticised for leading to potential micro-management from the leaders as well as the individuals who are working under such leaders (Ugwu et al., 2020). To ensure that their vision is carried out properly, transformational leaders may micromanage their team members, which can cause employee dissatisfaction and a lack of autonomy.
The transformational leadership style is also beneficial and effective in the healthcare sector considering the fact that it effectively helps in maximising job and organisational performance. The increased level of performance from the staff members proves to be quite beneficial for the patients admitted to the health care institution. Therefore, transformational leadership style. It can also be implicated that the application and integration of transformational leadership styles in the healthcare sector can also benefit the personal leadership of healthcare practitioners in the healthcare sector (Rinfret et al., 2020). With the adoption of the transformational leadership style, healthcare practitioners can be more focused on patient-centred care. Additionally, if the personal leadership styles of healthcare practitioners focus on the principles of transformational leadership theory, they might develop a higher level of trust with the patients as well as the staff (Kelly & Hearld, 2020). It can be implicated that developing a trustworthy environment in the healthcare sector not only enhances the reputation of the healthcare institution but also helps in maximising the effectiveness of the staff members to achieve their goals and objectives. However, on the other hand, it has also been no test that the adoption of a transformational leadership style as a personal preference of healthcare practitioners may lead to the development of bias towards innovation (Chu et al., 2021). A bias towards innovation can lead to ignorance towards established practices and focus more upon experimentation which can tend to be a risky approach for patients. It is essential for leaders and healthcare practitioners to understand that experimenting with the welfare and safety of patients can be a major risk if these experiments are not done with proper control. Additionally, another issue that often challenges transformational leaders in the context of the healthcare sector is their tendency to bring about changes within the organisation and challenge the existing status quo (Mistry et al., 2020). Change management and effectively implementing change within the organisation towards continuous growth and development are one of the major attributes of transformational leaders.
Impact of leadership styles on change management
The leadership styles adopted by healthcare professionals in their respective job profiles can have a major impact on change management. The above discussion has implicated significantly about the democratic leadership style as well as the transformational leadership style are both quite effective in the healthcare sector (Hussain & Khayat, 2021). However, it has also been identified that the democratic leadership style tends to take a significant amount of time in making decisions while the transformational leadership style due to the charismatic nature of the transformational leaders is able to make quick and informed decisions. Such aspects turn out to be quite beneficial in the context of change management. However, resistance from the employees can be a major challenge for transformational leaders and in this regard, the change management framework suggested by Kurt Lewins can be taken into consideration (Muldoon, 2020). The principles of the change management framework suggested by Kurt Lewins implicate that it is essential for leaders to first create awareness among the workforce regarding the change and then implement the change afterwards the change can be permanently integrated within the organisation. This is a three-step process involving unfreezing the present organisational culture, implementing the change, and refreezing the changes as a permanent initiative. In this context, the transformational leadership style can work quite effectively compared to the democratic leadership style which tends to take into consideration a lot of factors before making decisions (Fletcher, Friedman & Piedimonte, 2019). Nevertheless, it is also essential for healthcare institutions to identify the kind of resources that are available based on which the implementation of the leadership style can be initiated for achieving better results.
Conclusion
The above discussion has shed light on various factors linked with leadership styles in the healthcare industry. The discussion not only implicates the importance of effective leadership in the healthcare sector but also indicates the risk that patients are exposed to if effective leadership is not demonstrated by a particular healthcare institution. In this regard, the comparison of the democratic and transformational leadership styles has elucidated various factors that have helped in understanding the advantages of both these leadership styles. Moreover, it has also been implicated that while democratic leadership is beneficial for the welfare of the workforce it might not be perfectly suited for change management in the healthcare sector. Taking this aspect into consideration it can be concluded that the transformational leadership style is much more effective and well-suited for the healthcare sector which not only benefits the employees but also the patients in various ways.
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