Human Resources and Organizational Behavior for Health Care Leadership in Health Care Management Essay

There are people that need a strong leader in order to thrive in their job. There are also people that don’t need a strong leader because they have the drive to be successful but may need a push every now and then. When it comes to an organization and the dynamics of it, managers be charismatic because of dealing with so many different personalities in the group. Being a charismatic leader requires self-confidence and trust in his/her subordinates. Showing trust in huge as it instills confidence in that employee and tells them they don’t have to look over their shoulders. They can do their jobs freely which can lead to more production in the organization. Conflicts are a natural part of human interaction and it’s inevitable. Part of being a good leader is having effective conflict management skills. When conflicts arise, managers must know how to manage them so that bigger problems don’t grow. There are so many aspects of being a manager and leading. Employees in the organization depend on good leadership and if that need is not met, it can lead to workplace disfunction. Keywords: Charismatic, Conflict, Leadership, Dynamics, Management When the management job is talked about, leadership often comes to mind. It takes a strong minded, organized, and determined individual to do this job. Over seeing a number of different employees can at times not be the easiest job. Leaders must be willing to accept and meet challenges that come for the betterment of patient healthcare. Not everyone can lead a group of people in an organization. It takes the type of person that has people skills as well as the knowledge of his/her job to lead effectively. Leading Creatively Usually when healthcare leaders have a question they take a rational approach until the right or wrong answer has made it up the chain of command. This approach can be effective in some cases but in healthcare thing are always changing. A regular leader loves to avoid mistakes which all mistakes are not avoidable. Someone who is creative loves to learn from mistakes as it can give them more ideas to choose from. Today, the healthcare environment is even more complex as reform and market forces transform the way healthcare is delivered and managed. Belief systems, values and attitudes are shifting. Creative thinking and agile, adaptive leadership will be required to make hospitals, health systems and networks sustainable as the healthcare delivery landscape transforms (http://www. ccl. org/leadership/landing/healthcare/index. aspx). As a leader in healthcare, managers must show their employees that they are willing to be innovative and let their ego go as group collaboration becomes the norm. By modeling this, the employees will be more willing to work together for the good of the organization and the patients. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has developed a model that health systems can use to adapt and thrive in uncertain times by creating direction, alignment and commitment. There are six essential organizational capabilities that are a prerequisite for success: Collaborative Patient Care Teams- The team will extend to include clinicians outside the hospital environment which will place a much greater emphasis on higher-order collaboration skills. Resource Stewardship- Requires individual ownership and accountability for the decisions that will ultimately allow the system to thrive and manage its resources judiciously. Talent Transformation- Leaders will need to hire and develop talented individuals who can see the next wave of plausible solutions and innovations and lead transformational change. Boundary Spanning- Leaders draw on networks and relationships as they work systemwide to meet the mission of healthcare. Capacity for Complexity, Innovation and Change- Effective leaders move populations from old established processes to new models of effectiveness and understand the underlying emotional impact of change and how it varies by individual. Employee Engagement and Well-being- Employees are most productive and committed to their organization when they are engaged emotionally, mentally and physically. (http://www. ccl. org/leadership/landing/healthcare/index. aspx). These organizational methods are the essential keys for managers to not only lead their workplace to the way of the future but also helping to lead other organizations. The collaboration aspect is key as it will require everyone to be cohesive and understanding. Power and Influence Power is a defined as having behavioral or fate control over the behavior of another. It exists only when there is an unequal relationship between two people and where one of the two is dependent upon the other (Borkowski, 2011). Power can be a trap for some managers which can lead to abusing it. When employees see and experience this happening they pull away and lose respect for that manager. This can be the downfall of an organization as it can cause employees to lose motivation, commitment, and creativity. There are five bases of social power: reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, and expert power. An individual is not limited to just one source of power. Reward power is the ability to give rewards, something that holds value to another individual. Coercive power is the ability to punish either by administering a punishment or by withholding something that an individual needs or wants. Legitimate power is given to an individual on the basis of a given role or position. Referent power stems from P’s affective regard for, or identification with, O. The greater the attraction, the greater the identification. Expert power exists when P awards power to O on the basis of P’s perception of O’s knowledge within a given area (Borkowski, 2011). In class discussion the general consensus was managers that had the trust and respect of their employees, had the most power. A manager is an expert of the knowledge he/she has over a subordinate. When managers use that expert power in the right way, which is to teach his/her subordinates, they will feel that the manager is wanting them to expand their knowledge for their success as well as the organization. This in turn continues to build trust and deep respect for the manager. As an educator, this is modeled for us by our administration. Our superintendent and principal have both been teachers in the classroom but have since moved into the roles that they have now so they are the experts when it comes to some of the issues that come up. They attend countless meetings of changes that may happen either with our district or state so that then they can inform us. Once we have a good grasp of what is going to take place we can then inform our students. The expert power that our administration had has been passed to the teaching staff so that then we can pass that knowledge to the students. Decision Making Decision making is an everyday part of our lives whether we realize what type of decision we make or not. Sometimes we make decisions rationally and sometimes intuitively. The fact is, we want to make the right decision but that is not always going to be the case because we can never see what the outcome of that decision will be and we have to live with that. As in any decision model we use, there are pros and cons of each. In the rational decision making model it brings logic and order to decision making. This approach also can help ensure discipline and consistency. Here are the sequence of steps used to rationally develop a solution: Identifying a problem or opportunity, gathering information, analyzing the situation, developing options, evaluating options, selecting a preferred alternative, and acting on the decision. A strength of this model is that it provides structure and discipline to the decision making process. A weakness of this model is the time that is needed to go through this process (http://www. the-happy-manager. com/articles/rational-decision-making-model/). Another decision making model that is used often is intuition. Intuition can make you a much more effective decision maker, especially when you deal with non-standard situations or in expedient decision making. However there are points that need to be considered for instance, when you need to use intuition, can it be effective, and how this decision model ranks versus rational analysis (http://www. time-management-guide. com/intuition-decision-making. html). In class discussion, classmates used a few different models most notably the two mentioned above. There were a few that used both or weighed heavily on just one. I was one that used both rational and intuitive. There are times in coaching when I use the rational approach to make a decision concerning practice. For example, if I need to set up teams that are equal in talent as opposed to starting five and bench, I have to think about who matches up better with who, or what drills are going to be the most beneficial and productive on a given day. My intuitive approach is used during game situations. For example, when to utilize timeouts, when to substitute players, what play to run, or when to switch defenses. Either way, decisions ometimes don’t work out the way you envision but you learn to live with it and move on. Conflict-Conflict Management Another aspect of being a leader in management is conflict and conflict management. Some situations are easier to handle than others but a manager that has effective conflict management skills can diffuse a bad situation before it gets worse. Interpersonal conflict is a natural outcome of human interaction that involves two or more individuals who believe that their attitudes, behaviors, or preferred goals are in opposition (Borkowski, 2011). This type of conflict is probably one the most common in the workplace simply because there are personal characteristics and issues, interactional difficulties and perspective and perceptive differences. As a result of the diversity of today’s workplace, an extensive range of differences exists between personal and cultures. When dealing with groups of people, many interpersonal conflicts involve role confusion. If a person doesn’t understand their expectations it can intensify the conflict leading to unhealthy relationships. As a result, reactions such as aggression and hostility can take place. There are many strategies we can use in conflict situations whether we use some more often than others or not. It’s important that the strategy we do use is appropriate for that particular situation even if it’s not the strategy we habitually use (Williams, n. d. ). Some strategies we can use for conflict management are; Forcing, Accommodating, Avoiding, Compromising, and Collaborating. When forcing, the manager is using formal authority or other power that he/she possesses to satisfy their concerns without regard to the concerns of the party they are in conflict with. Accommodating is allowing the other party to satisfy their concerns while neglecting your own. Avoiding is not paying attention to the conflict and not taking any action to resolve it. Compromising or attempting to resolve a conflict by identifying a solution that is partially satisfactory to both parties, but completely satisfactory to neither. Lastly, there is collaborating or cooperating with the other party to understand their concerns and expressing your own concerns in an effort to find a mutually and completely satisfactory solution (Williams, n. . ). When leading an organization, understanding how conflict arises is helpful for anticipating situations that may become conflictual. This was something that was talked about in our class discussion. Another idea that was mentioned was that seeing all sides of a situation makes a good manager because it helps the employees develop trust. A situation that stands out to me is looking up from speaking with another student and witnessi ng a student get hit with a ball by another student. We will call the student that got hit (A) and the student that threw the ball (B). Obviously student (A) was not happy about getting hit so the first thing he does is run to confront student (B). Some pushing was done by both and then I intervened. Not seeing student (B) throw the ball just the outcome, I calmed them both down and I asked student (B) why he hit student (A) with the ball. He said he was trying to throw it to someone else but that student (A) stepped in at the wrong time and got hit so it was a just an accident. After student (A) heard the story he understood and apologized for pushing student (B) and student (B) also apologized. The strategy I used was collaborating as we all came to an understanding to what happened. Conclusion Not everyone can lead a group of people in an organization. It takes the type of person that has people skills as well as the knowledge of his/her job to lead effectively. Managers are pulled in so many different directions and they must be able to adapt. Being a leader in an organization is not easy, however being a leader period is not easy. A manager must be aware of what is happening in their organization to lead effectively. Not everyone has the same expectations but part of being a charismatic leader is showing that trust and confidence in his/her employees shows them that even though you are the manager, you trust what they are bringing something positive to the organization. Managers relationship with his/her employees is important as the day to day operations depend on the behaviors of everyone. The relationship connectedness between subordinates and managers is key to productivity in the workplace.