HCA 340 Managing in Health & Human Services WK 5

Health and Human Services

Topic Identification

Leadership and management traits and theories necessary for managing a multidisciplinary and multicultural health care organization to promote organizational effectiveness

Relevance

Healthcare industry has experienced changes driven by government regulation while challenged to meet an expanding demand for services with a shortage of workers. As the healthcare market expands and the retiree-to-worker ratio increases, the demand for effective leadership practices will increase in tandem. According to Angood and Birk (2014), constraints on revenue and heightened awareness by the market position healthcare leaders for making leadership decisions that ultimately affect the delivery of healthcare services. Therefore, I consider it interesting to examine the relationship between leadership practices and performance and productivity performance metrics (job satisfaction, employee turnover, customer satisfaction) in the healthcare industry.

Outline of the Research

I. Introduction

a. As the worker-to-retiree ratio decreases there is need for an effective leadership in healthcare organizations

b. The emergence of exemplary leadership depends on a variety of factors and theories

c. Thesis Statement: Since healthcare businesses are vehicles for providing leadership opportunities to management, there is relationship between the leader’s self-observed leadership practices and business performance outcomes pertaining to job satisfaction, employee turnover, and services customer satisfaction

II. Body

a. Trait Theories

i. Origins of the trait paradigm in leadership theory began with Galton’s (1869) theory of hereditary genius

ii. Leadership is multidimensional and influenced by social and psychological factors.

b. Behavioral Theories

i. As leadership theory evolved, researchers began to look beyond trait theory and into leadership behaviors and its influence on leadership effectiveness.

ii. leaders require specific characteristics for enabling them to inspire, stimulate, and motivate their workforce

c. Contingency Theories

i. Five contingency theories: Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership; Leader Member Exchange Theory; the PathGoal Theory; the Situational Leadership Theory; and the Leader-Participation or Decision Process Theory

ii. Suggests that the most appropriate leadership style should be based on an interaction between leader, follower, and situation.

iii. Work performance is a function of maturity and a product of psychological willingness as well as job ability.

d. Leadership Effectiveness

i. Conceptualization of leadership effectiveness

ii. Leadership Motivation, Job Satisfaction, Employee Turnover and Customer Satisfaction

III. Conclusion

a. Rephrase of the thesis statement

b. The fast pace of change in the healthcare industry has instilled a sense of urgency among effective leaders at all levels in healthcare organizations and hierarchies

Annotated Bibliography

Chuang, E., Dill, J., Morgan, J. C., & Konrad, T. R. (2012). A configurational approach to the relationship between high‐performance work practices and frontline health care worker outcomes. Health Services Research, 47(4), 1460-1481.

Chuang et al. (2012) researched high performance work practices associated with the job satisfaction and perceived quality of care among front-line healthcare workers, and found that integrating front-line workers in participative decision making, positively influences job satisfaction and perceived quality of care. The study suggested that enabling staff to feel empowered with their job duties, and creative in how work tasks are accomplish, positively affects healthcare worker job satisfaction. According to Chuang et al. (2012), front-line employees play a critical role in the delivery of basic healthcare services which directly influences patient satisfaction (i.e., customer satisfaction) and other healthcare outcomes.

Basford, T. E., Offermann, L. R., & Wirtz, P. W. (2012). Considering the source: The impact of leadership level on follower motivation and intent to stay. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 19(2), 202-214.

Basford, Offerman, and Wirtz (2012) investigated the influence of leadership on follower motivation and intent to stay versus leave employment. The results suggested that examining and fostering supportive leadership behaviors at different levels improved the ability of the organization to predict employee motivation and intent to remain in the employment relationship. According to these authors, supportive leadership practices foster enhanced levels of job satisfaction and are negatively associated with employee turnover, intention to quit, and burnout. Further, organizations that encourage leaders of all levels to exhibit supportive and communicative leadership behaviors have enjoyed the benefits derived from improved levels of job satisfaction and employee turnover.

Edmans, A. (2012). The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with implications for corporate social responsibility. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), 1-19.

Edmans (2012) examined the link between job satisfaction and firm value, and found three primary implications impacting how managers approach employee retention and motivation. First, job satisfaction has a positive relationship with firm value. A satisfying workplace fosters “job embeddeness” which enables the development of sustainable competitive advantage via the retention of key employees, which are both valuable and hard for competitors to “poach” (Edmands, 2012, p. 1). Second, corporate social responsibility, which involves considering the interests of stakeholders other than shareholders (e.g., employees, customers, environment), can improve the financial return on investment in the firm. More specifically, the dimension of employee welfare has an especially strong theoretical link to firm value. Third, while the management of employee welfare may positively impact firm value, its full value may yet to be realized by the market because the additional firm value created by enhancing stakeholder goodwill is intangible. Therefore, managers should incorporate immediately tangible information (e.g., employee performance, customer satisfaction), as to encourage intangible assets to impact firm value across the long-term business horizon.

Bass, B. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York, NY. The Free Press.

Bass (1985) developed a transformational approach to leadership by which leaders motivate followers to do more by recognizing and matching the needs and abilities of subordinates and of the organization as a whole. According to Bass, leaders (e.g., intellectuals, reformers, revolutionaries, heroes) directly influence the outcome of organizational success versus failure based on their leadership practices. According to Bass’ research, superior leadership performance is exhibited when leaders heighten and expand follower interests by generating an awareness and acceptance of the organizational purpose and mission. Further, effective transformational leaders are able to motivate followers toward a vision beyond their own self-interest, and onto that of the greater organizational good.

Gibson, D., & Petrosko, J. (2014). Trust in Leader and Its Effect on Job Satisfaction and Intent to Leave in a Healthcare Setting. New Horizons In Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 26(3), 3-19.

Gibson and Petrosko (2014) researched the effect of leadership practices pertaining to trust on employee job satisfaction and the intent to leave in a healthcare setting. The researchers state that employees and customers in the healthcare industry face “immense challenges”, which require a more “holistic view” of leadership effectiveness beyond the technical aspects of patient care (p. 16). Further, success in healthcare is a function of the people employed by the healthcare organization, which are vital to the day-to-day delivery of healthcare services. Gibson and Petrosko (2014) found that healthcare workers who exhibit higher levels of job satisfaction engage in higher levels of job performance (e.g., task accomplishment) and higher levels of organizational performance (e.g., higher customer satisfaction, increased profit). Further, this relationship appears to be even more pronounced in healthcare where relationships are so vital to the most important aspect of the industry, the care of the patient.

References

Angood, P., & Birk, S. (2014). The value of physician leadership. Physician Executive, 40(3), 6. Retrieved from http://csms.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/The-Value-of-PhysicianLeadership.pdf

Basford, T. E., Offermann, L. R., & Wirtz, P. W. (2012). Considering the source: The impact of leadership level on follower motivation and intent to stay. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 19(2), 202-214.

Bass, B. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York, NY. The Free Press.

Chuang, E., Dill, J., Morgan, J. C., & Konrad, T. R. (2012). A configurational approach to the relationship between high‐performance work practices and frontline health care worker outcomes. Health Services Research, 47(4), 1460-1481.

Edmans, A. (2012). The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with implications for corporate social responsibility. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), 1-19.

Gibson, D., & Petrosko, J. (2014). Trust in Leader and Its Effect on Job Satisfaction and Intent to Leave in a Healthcare Setting. New Horizons In Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 26(3), 3-19.