Leadership Development Proposal Essay Example

Introduction

Healthcare industry has unique challenges that face its workplace and operations. That owes to the nature of operations that requires effective leadership as a means of enhancing the success in terms of achieving desired results. Thus, having suitable leadership is crucial in addressing organizations’ issues ranging from the challenges and planning for the future. In that consideration, this report presents a proposal for a leadership development proposal for Memorial Regional South Hospital. The report covers a various aspect of the proposed program ranging from the participants selection criteria, key competencies and applicable leadership theories to the suitable follow-up strategies.

Proposal

Participants selection for the program and progress monitoring
Participants for the program will be selected on the performance basis in various departments. In that view, the best performing employees in the departments will be selected to participate in the program each year as a means of providing leadership skills that are relevant to their departments and operations

Incentives existing for participating in the program

The programs’ participation will be considered in the annual employees ‘evaluation hence will act as an incentive for employees as they seek to enhance their careers.

Differences among leadership theories and how these theories might be applied to develop leaders within the leadership program

Leadership theories differ depending on their focus with some focusing on leaders’ traits and abilities while others focus on the environment and tasks at hand. Thus, application of various leadership theories in the program is crucial for the development of both leaders’ abilities as well as for helping them to address environment conditions and issues. (Borkowski, 2011)

Competencies important for leaders in the industry

The program will be crucial for the development of competencies necessary for the healthcare industry. Such competencies include ability to predict, explain and control. The competencies are necessary for predicting the ability would help a leader in diminish possible threats and enhancing opportunities. In addition, the explaining ability increases the followers confidence in the leader while control ability enhances the leader’s ability to influence others to participate in the organization’s strategic goals. (Borkowski, 2011)

How the leadership competencies are acquired

The competencies would be acquired by the participants through participation in focus groups that enhances the necessary skills’ application. In that respect, the participants will apply the learned skills by practicing them in addressing administrative issues. (Borkowski, 2011)

How the leadership competencies can be applied in the workplace as a reflection of the workplace needs

The organization’s workplace needs include the need for efficient service delivery as well as a need to enhance safety in all operations for both patients and the service providers. In that respect, the competencies including the ability to predict, explain and control are crucial ion addressing the needs. That is because the ability to predict the industry trends in terms of patients’ numbers and needs enhances the ability to serve them efficiently. In addition, the leaders’ ability to explain and control enhances clarity in the workplace that in-turn enhances employee's understanding of their expectations hence delivery of more efficient services. (Andrew, 1999)

Role of leaders in planning and preparing for the health care industry future

Leaders play a crucial role in preparing organizations and planning for the future. That is because they can predict the industry situation as well as plan for ways to efficiently address possible threats while utilizing opportunities. In addition, leaders can engage other employees in finding possible solution to issues given their ability to explain the situation and influence their participation. (Robbins, 2001)

How management and leadership theories, as well as styles, differ, their application to at different levels within the organization

The theory applicable to this situation will be contingency theory. The theory has the assumption that leader’s ability to lead is dependent on various factors including their preferred style as well as capabilities and behaviors of the employees involved. In that respect, with application of the contingency theory in this case. The beginning of the program will depend on the followers’ attitude towards the organization’s new goal of enhancing efficiency with a view to improving patient's outcome and reducing patient's admission rate.
Contingency theory deal with behavioral theories that state there is no single best way of addressing issues through leadership and leadership style may be effective in certain situations and ineffective in others. In that view, there will be a need for change in the leadership approach as the situation and factors change with progress towards the organizational goal. Thus, the theory applied will be similar to the situational theory of both states that there is no single best leadership style for as leadership effectiveness is dependent on situational factors. However, the situational theory focuses more on the behaviors that the leaders should adopt. In addition, as the organization progresses collaborating with other organizations and developing other systems, there will be a need for change in the leadership style as communication channels and models will change. (Robbins, 2001)

Characteristics of professionalism essential for leaders within the health care industry

Owing to the nature of the healthcare industry services, its employees’ and leadership requires professional characteristics that enhance service delivery and sustainability. In that respect, some professional characteristics such as ethics and professional growth are more crucial in enhancing service delivery efficiency and achievement of desired results for both the patient and the organization. In that respect, ethics, which refers to the ability to make morally the right decisions, is crucial in helping the professionals make decisions that address patients’ needs rather than focusing on the organizational and personal benefits. That would be crucial in addressing the service and treatment outcomes efficiency as desired in the bid to reduce patients’ admission and related costs. In addition, professional growth is crucial in ensuring that the employees have suitable and necessary skills and attitudes to deliver services efficiently in a manner that serves patient's interests. (Borkowski, 2011)

Challenges facing leadership in the health care industry

Leadership in the healthcare industry faces a number of challenges including the need to enhance service delivery while addressing dilemmas that face the workplace. In addition, there is a challenge in terms of conflicts that arise between employees as well as between patients and employees. (Andrew, 1999)

Overcoming the challenges and issues affecting leadership in the industry

Overcoming the challenges requires effective leadership that is capable of solving the employees and patients interest conflict. That requires providing suitable training on how to determine patients’ needs and balance them with the organizational needs to avoid cases of serving organizational and personal interest at expense of the patients. There is also need for the leadership to enhance coordination between all departments in seeking to enhance efficiency in service delivery as well as reduce patients admission rates that would in turn reduce costs for patients as well as improve treatment’s outcomes. (Robbins, 2001)

Follow-up strategies to ensure success of the program

For the leadership development to be efficient and deliver desired results, must follow-up strategies. Those strategies would be necessary for ensuring that the participants’’ do not only get the necessary skills but also puts them into practice. Such strategies include following up evaluations that entail continued evaluation of the leaders’ effectiveness in applying the learned skills. The evaluations would be done on a quarterly and annual basis and be followed by necessary adjustment to the program depending on how well it enhances the leaders’ effectiveness. (Robbins, 2001)

Conclusion

In view of the programs’ proposal, the healthcare industry and the hospital in specific have a number of challenges including inefficient service delivery that results in high costs to patients and high admission rates. In addition, there are cases of conflicts between the employees and patients interest as well as between employees that needs to be solved. Thus, it has been identified that must leadership that has competencies in predicting, explaining and controlling as well as that have professional characteristics such as ethics and professional growth. With those competencies and characteristics and application of contingency leadership theory, it has been identified that the leadership would be capable of addressing the industry challenges. Finally, it has been identified that must follow-up strategies including leaders evaluations that will be useful in adjusting the program to feature the actual organizational and industry needs.

References

Andrew, L. (1999). Conflict management, prevention, and resolution in medical
settings. Physician Exec. 25 (4), 38–42.
Borkowski, N. (2011). Organizational Behavior in Health Care. 2nd Ed. Boston, MA: Jones
Moreover, Bartlett.
News Press. (2014). Florida hospitals face Medicare penalties for readmissions.
Retrieved from, http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2014/10/19/florida-hospitals-face-medicare-penalties-readmissions/17591175/
Robbins, S. (2001). Organizational behavior. 6th Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.