The Importance of Leadership in Public Health
Question:
Discuss about the Transformational Leadership and Staff Retention.
Leadership is one of the most important requirements in the organizational sectors in the present day scenario and along with that leadership can be defined as the key facilitator of bringing forwards harmony and balance in productive cooperation between the different professional domains. With respect to the public health sector, the implementation of effective leadership helps in optimally aligning different health services. It has to be mentioned that health sector is a kind of public service that thrives on addressing the different demands and issues of the clients or the patients. The implementation of the leadership strategies on the public health sectors provide the health care management with the opportunity to streamline the process of delivering different aspects of care to the group of clients with respect to their differential needs (Germain, 2012). Another very important need for the public health sector can be defined as the constant need for change implementation to address the changing needs and demands of patients. In this assignment the difference between leadership and management will be explored exponentially and the based on how the difference between the two constructs are explored in the public health sectors (Weberg, 2010). Along with that, with respect to way that the leadership and management is perceived in the health care sector, I would explore the difference between the leadership styles and approaches.
Leadership can be defined as ability of a particular individual to be able to lead a group of people or a complete organization towards the path of success and performance with a vision of change facilitated by motivation, inspiration and encouragement. The leaders in any situation practice setting of a new direction or a new focus for the particular group of subordinates that the leaders follow. On the other hand, management can be defined as the discipline of managing different professional aspects to the best manner. The managers have the power of position to achieve maximum compliance in any sector and get results (Spisak et al., 2014). On a simplified note, it can be mentioned that leadership is the art of influencing the followers, so that they can themselves visualize the objective goals and can attain it enthusiastically and willingly. On the other hand, management is a discipline that provides the managers with the power and position to formally advice and lead people with individual and collective efforts in order to be able to accomplish shared goals of the different individuals (Antonakis & Day, 2017).
Elaborating more on the difference between leaders and managers, it can be stated that the managers attain and exercise power by the virtue of their professional position whereas the leaders get the power from the followers. One of the most crucial differences between the construct of leadership and management, is that management is very formal and professional devoid of any motivational touch, a manager is not concerned with the impact on the employees, they are only associated with attaining the results. Whereas the leaders are the advocates of the welfare of the followers as well as the productive harmony of the company. However, the different attributes of the roles of the leader and manager when applied to the public health sector overlaps extensively in practice (R?ducan & R?ducan, 2014).
Leadership and Management: Exploring the Differences
Exploring the different roles and responsibilities of the leaders, there are five different roles of the manager, planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Hence, on the other hand, Rowitz has defined leadership to have five key essentials, identifying and using information, motivating other, risk taking, communication, and systems thinking (Rowitz, 2013). Hence, it has to be mentioned that in order to plan, organize, direct and control any challenging scenario in the public health sector, it is crucial for the managers to have the skills of motivation, risk taking, communication and system thinking as well. As per the Bolden (2016), the challenges and issues in the public health industry are unique to other pertinent organizational issues. In this case, the issues are related to the health welfare of the patients and hence, the management activities will also need to have a compassionate or empathetic take. Along with that, the staff involved in the scenario is often exposed to life threatening situations and risks, and hence the welfare of the staff needs to be taken into consideration while implementing any solution. Researchers are of the opinion that in the public health sector, there are various different stakeholders involved with a single issue and hence the managerial decision making in the public health scenario can only be affective if there is compassion and empathy associated with the decision taken. Hence, despite there being a clear demarcation between a leader and a manager, when public health scenario is considered, the concepts of leadership and management overlap with respect to the varied needs and demands pf the public health sector (Chiabrishvili & Chiabrishvili, 2013).
For this part of the assignment I will have to undertake two specific interviews involving two leaders in the public health industry, one of which is going of be Dr. Ernest Madu, a renowned cardiologist and Dr. George Benjamin, a well known leader and physician.
The first interview was conducted with Dr. Ernest Madu, who is globally recognized as a cardiologist; he has a trusted and famous heart institute in the Kingston, Jamaica(Craven, 2011). Dr. Madu is specifically concerned with the access to the appropriate technology and citizen’s public health that are affordable in nations that have low resources. The research conducted by Dr. Madu emphasis on the health effects and management of the globalization in a population that are susceptible, and he is driven by his commitment to offer healthcare that is superior to the people in the developing world (Craven, 2011).Dr. Madu is a renowned clinical investigator whose research has been published and presented in various prominent journals. His professional role and responsibility comprise of being a reviewer for multiple leading cardiology journals and serves on the international healthcare services boards. He has a role in providing strategic direction and vision to achieve the organizational objectives. In addition to his responsibility, Dr madu has a role in translating the vision into concrete performance from the staff. Finally, among his roles include the responsibility to work and share a sustainable vision of the cardiovascular care programs and self-reliance on the policymakers and others to usher a paradigm shift which provides high quality cardiac care. Hence, it can be mentioned that he performs the responsibility of not only running his cardiology clinic and being a reviewer of the cardiology journals; he also helps in strategically directing the staff towards the path for achieving the targets of the clinic and safeguarding the vision and mission of the clinic (Stacey, 2012).
Attributes and Responsibilities of Leaders and Managers in Public Health
The second interview was conducted with Dr. George Benjamin, who is a well-known leader and a physician in the field of public health. He has a clear understanding of the importance of the preventive care and the things likely to happen to in case it is not accessible. Dr. Benjamin’s primary mission is to make United States next generation the healthiest globally. Before Dr. Benjamin worked at APHA, he helped in the development of Maryland bioterrorism plan. His roles comprise of a publisher at APHA’S nonprofit magazine whereby he published more than 1000 journals articles.
Based on the data documented from the interviews, it has to be mentioned that both of the public health leaders chosen for this particular assignment had two very different leadership styles. First and foremost, Dr Madu had a definite leadership style and approach that can be correlated with the trait leadership approaches. According to the trait leadership theory, the leader has the qualities that distinguished him as a potent leader from non leaders. This theory states that the leaders are born with certain qualities that are innate, and along with that, these leadership traits cannot be developed with time. DR madu founded the heart institute after realizing the need to provide and improve cardiovascular services access to the people of Jamaica. With his innate leadership capabilities he could easily identify the risisng need for a cardiac clinic and could put all the resources to use to establish the cardiac clinic for the benefit of the local public. Through his capable leadership, Dr. Madu has managed to successfully expand the access to cardiovascular services to other places to ensure accessibility throughout Jamaica. And as a result he had established an image of a leader who is visionary, selfless, dedicated and committed, dependable and motivated person (Lunenburg, 2011).
On the other hand, the leadership approach of the second interviewee is DR George Benjamin, whose leadership approach is very relatable with the situational leadership style. Dr. Benjamin focused more on the tasks as compared to a relationship with others. He was a task-oriented leader who focused more on organization goals accomplishment. As per the situational leadership theory, the leader is able to understand the need of the hour with clarity and is able to switch between different leadership styles and attributes according to the needs and demands of the situation as identified. A situational leader is not transformational neither transactional, the situational leader can employ any and all traits of different leadership style with respect to the need identified by the organization (Rowitz, 2010).
Correlating the advantages and disadvantages of both of the leadership approaches; Trait leadership is associated with the exceptional visionary persona of the leader, in this case the leader is able to serve as the idol for the followers. Although, the disadvantage of this leadership style is that this leadership approach can be very stagnant as it does not take into consideration the demand of the situation. This particular leadership style is not able to improvise with the differential need of any scenario as compared to situational leadership as well. On the other hand, situational leadership is by far the best fit for any demanding public service scenario, including health care (Day et al., 2014). This leadership style understands the changing demands of the situation and can act according to the differential needs. The only disadvantage of this leadership style is that it can easily become manipulative or coercive depending on the traits of the leader. Based o n the responses attained in the interview, Dr Madu has stated that for him the greatest leadership traits are vision, mission, encouragement and mentoring. And on the other hand, the Dr Benjamin chose leadership traits like motivation, inspiration, coercion and if needed even rewards and punishment. Hence, it can be stated that both the leaders were passionate in their professional responsibilities, although, they both had different take to leadership and management. Whereas, Dr Madu had a more traditional or conventional take to leadership, Dr Benjamin had a more contemporary leadership approach.
Compassionate Decision-Making in the Public Health Sector
In order to assess my leadership style, the three skills approach by Robert Katz had been used, focusing on human, technical and conceptual skills. As per the results of my test, my technical score was 15, human score was 25, and conceptual score was 22. Now as per the Rowitz’s (2013) 16 ‘Principles of Public Health Leadership’, and the most important aspects are mentorship and whether leaders are born or made. Mentorship is not associated with the skill inventory, although mentorship is crucially associated with the leadership development. I personally enjoy mentoring, however, sometimes my impatience and perfectionism gets in the way and I become harsh, barking orders on my subordinates. Lack of patience and compassion can be very detrimental leadership qualities and hence, it is crucial for me to work on these weaknesses.
Leadership styles need to be developed and improvised as per the need of the hour, hence, leaders might be born with certain qualities, but they have to invest efforts undoubtedly to enhance the skills (Czabanowska et al., 2014). I scored highest in the human and conceptual skill; hence I have the attributes for emotional intelligence and people management skills while using different concepts. Hence, I can conclude I have been born with a few key leadership attributes. Although my weakness remains the use of technology, which I will have to work on along with my lack of patience and compassion.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, the construct of leadership is complex and as a result the overlap between leadership and management. There are diverse competencies and characteristic of the leaders and managers in the public health, both of which are equally important in the public health industry. Hence, I would have to work on the weaknesses that I have discovered in the skill inventory and would have to improve the strengths as well to develop overall competence; so that I can employ key leadership and management skills according to the need.
References:
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Rowitz, L. (2013). Public health leadership. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Spisak, B. R., Blaker, N. M., Lefevre, C. E., Moore, F. R., & Krebbers, K. F. (2014). A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 792.
Stacey, R. (2012). Tools and techniques of leadership and management: Meeting the challenge of complexity. Routledge.
Weberg, D. (2010). Transformational leadership and staff retention: an evidence review with implications for healthcare systems. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 34(3), 246-258.
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