Role of Leaders in the Change Process
With the new techniques of treatment introduced in Healthcare service change in the Healthcare sector is an inevitable process. However there is a requirement of high level of skill and expertise which can help to deal with changes in the workplace of Healthcare and also ensure high quality service are being provided to the public. The aim of the current report is to discuss various theories and models of leadership that are incorporated in the Healthcare service in order to deal with the change process. The theories and model will help to deal with the issues that are raised due to changes in the workplace. The current report aims to discuss various elements, related to change in the Healthcare sector industry and use organisational theory and design in order to properly structure the Healthcare system after implementation of change. The role of leadership is also defined along with its importance in managing change in the Healthcare sector. The report also focuses on the various and facilitators of Change management in order to properly evaluate the role of the Healthcare workers in the context of adapting themselves with the change in the workplace environment.
The leaders of the Healthcare industry plays an important part in the entire change process management and also adapting the new techniques of treatment that are being introduced in the Healthcare service in context of the modern day scenario. The primary role of the leader in this case is to incorporate the change and ensure that the entire process is done in free and fair manner. The success of change implementation is highly dependent on the lord of leadership and also the capability of the leaders to manage the challenges that arises due to consequence of change.
The success of the change process that is being implemented in the Healthcare industry is totally dependent on the managerial and leadership skill of the senior clinicians. The primary role of the leaders in this context is to understand the importance of incorporating change and also raising the level of awareness of all the workers so that they understand the context in which the change process is being implemented in the Healthcare industry. It is one of the natural habits of all the stakeholders in Healthcare industry in order to resist the change process as they are not willing to face the challenge and issues that are highly likely to happen due to the implementation of change process. Hence, it is the duty of the leaders and the managers provide correct information related to Healthcare industry.
The leaders and the manager act as the main enforcer in order to facilitate the change and also remove all the challenges and obstacles that are faced by the workers in the Healthcare industry due to the incorporation of change process. It is one of the effective duties of all leaders in the Healthcare industry that will help them in the process of effective change implementation process. It is also one of the effective duties of the leaders in the Healthcare industry in order to realise the importance and necessity of changing techniques that are needed in context of the modern day of providing health care service.
Workplace Culture and Its Relevance to Workplace Change
The motivation role played by the leaders of Healthcare industry is also an important part of dealing with the challenges related to Healthcare industry. The overall decision making process that are related to implementing change is an important part that helps the leader to make a choice regarding the working protocol that needs to be implemented after successful Change management process. Hence it can be said in this context that qualities of leadership are one of the main dependent factors of implementing Change management in the workplace of the Healthcare industry and also ensure that all the workers and stakeholders are properly able to adapt themselves with the changing protocol that are being implemented in the industry in order to have better result and productivity
It has to be considered that we live in the modern age of dynamic economy, unrealistic demands and rats race to succeed. And by the virtue of World Wide Web, internet and a smartphone, the public is more aware their rights, their choices and their lifestyle standards. On a similar note, it has to be considered that the patterns of the health care industry is also changing considerably, with the public more aware and responsible about their health care rights, it is a constant struggle for the health care professionals to keep up with the demands. Other than that, the health care regulatory authorities impose newer and stricter practice protocols and policies every other day, hence it can be safely concluded that health care is an occupational sector that is associated with the most transitions. And like any other professional constitutions health care industry also had to master the art of adaptation (Hayes, 2014).
As mentioned above in the assignment, change is constant, and in order to combat the impact of the constant and random changing patterns the foundation of the health care sector and the organizational structure and processes need to be adaptable and flexible. Organizational structure in simple terms is a multidimensional system that is associates the organizational policies and professional processes with the organizational culture and the differential background and organizational behaviour of the employees. Coming back to the prime focus of the assignment, in order to establish successful change management, the organizational culture needs to be extremely adaptive of the changing needs and requirements of the organization.
Organizational structure can be defined as the set of beliefs, principles, ideologies and values that the employees of the organization share. As long as the cumulative culture of the organization is not flexible with the change, successful change management cannot be established. In most cases the major hindrance to the successful change management comes from the stagnant workplace culture. It has to be understood that any change in the workplace structure is managed by the equal and cooperative effort by both the employees and the management sides. And if the workplace culture is not stimulating or motivational to begin with, there will not be enough effort from either side to survive the turmoil of change (Hayes, 2014)
The most important element in the organizational culture elemental in the change management is the ambiance of unity and cooperation amidst the employees regardless of the designation of the employees and the power of the position. An organization can only excel towards the path of success overcoming all the challenges associated with the change and its successful management with a cumulative and shared effort from all the employees belonging to different posts and designation working together for the betterment of the organization. For instance, if there is a change in the hospital policy and the staffs does not cooperate with each other the compliance will be hampered and the change will not be successfully established (Hayes, 2014).
Employee loyalty is another important component of workplace culture that is concerned with the successful change management, if the employees are not loyal to the organization; there will be neither any motivation nor any effort from the employees to adapt to the change. The third important element to organizational culture in the change management scenario is the transparency and effective communication between the employees and the management hierarchy. If there is a conspicuous lack of transparency and communication in between the management and employees of the business organization, the incomplete knowledge will hinder the successful compliance to the change. For instance, if hospital staffs are not made aware of the changes in the practice policy or standards, they will not be able to adapt to the change either. Moreover a workplace culture that is more respectful and transparent to each and every employee generates much more loyalty towards the organization and its growth. Therefore the components of the workplace culture play a profound role in determining the progress of change management in all occupational sectors (Shirey, 2013).
Any business organization, regardless of the sector it belongs to, is founded on a set of principles and a few aims and objectives. There is always a vision in the forefront based on which the business processes is established and there is a mission towards attaining which the organization progresses towards. The vision and mission both are the zeal and the motivation behind the activities and processes of the organization. In case of a health care facility the impact of the vision and the mission is magnified multiple folds, and how an organization performs in adverse situations and what it seeks to do in such situation is determined by the vision and mission of the organization. The strategies and the goals that will be implemented however is not determined by just the vision and the mission of the organization (Levasseur, 2010).
On a more elaborative note, vision statement of an organization can be defined as the idea of what the organization wants to become and the mission statement is concerned with the what the organizations aims to achieve and how the organization is attempting to do that. Change management is heavily linked with these two core values of an organization. Moreover a health care organization deals with the welfare and the well being of the human society, hence the value of the vision and mission behind their path is much more sensitive. If the vision of the health care organization does not align with its need for change, the strategies for the change management will not be fruitful in any manner (Jones, 2010).
Here comes the concept of strategies and goals of an organization in the scenario of change management. Along with having an inspirational vision and mission statement as the moral backbone of the organization, having a set of effective strategic goals towards developing a health care facility with continuously improving quality and safety in health will make the organization concerned much more receptive and responsive to changes or transitions. It must not escape notice that an organizational strategy is concerned with the step by step lay out of the priorities for the organization and how the organization aims to achieve the priorities. Therefore without having a effective strategic set of priorities that are associated with continuous improvement of health care quality and standards, the goal towards effective change management will not be successful (Jones, 2010).
As mentioned above, change has been and continues to be one of the most consistent elements of life; hence the concept of change management is not very new either. The human civilization has been attempting to overcome impact of change along the decades and there have been many strategies, plans and tactics employed to ease the process. Along the years there has been development of many theories in order to combat the changes in professional sectors in the easiest manner with the minimal disruption to the organizational structure of the business corporation. Lewin’s change management theory is one of the most effective or the most abundantly used theories of change that can easily align with organizational layout and solve issues with organizational change management. This change management theory or model was developed by the physicist and social scientist Kurt Lewin in the 1950s, who characterized the best and most plausible method of change management in the organizational setting without disrupting the culture and corporate ambiance of the organization concerned (Jones, 2010).
Now in case of a health care facility, it has to be understood that change will be a constant part of their professional process. And with so many people coming from different backgrounds and disciplines coming together in an inter-dependable and collaborative practice involving the health and welfare of this society, there is not much scope for trial and error. Hence implementation of a change management theory or model will ensure that there is swift and efficient method to adapting to the changes without disrupting the care processes in the process.
All change management models derived by the experts are unique in the characteristics to lessening the impact of an organizational change. However, when the change management is associated with health care sector the change management model needed is swift easy and simple, consuming as less time as possible in restoring back the balance. The change management model by Lewin is the best fit for such scenarios (Jones, 2010).
There are three simple and easy steps to this particular theory; the step is unfreezing which is concerned with the preparation of the change. In this particular step, the change is characterized by its probability to inflict damage to the operational characteristics of the organization and a strategy is developed to combat the change to inflict the damage. Taking into consideration the relevance to a health care facility, this is the step where the importance of the change is recognized and strategies ate planned on how the change will be implemented and what will be done to ensure its successful establishment. The second stage is change step where the implementation of the actual transition takes place and the preset strategies and action plans are utilized. The third stage to this theory is the refreeze stage that is the aftermath of the implementation of the change strategies. In ideal scenarios by the time this stage is achieved the change has been successfully implemented and accepted, and the strategies are developed with the aim of achieving this stage. Hence change theory can easily be implemented top combat the ups and downs associated with establishing a change in the workplace scenario (Frankland et al., 2011)
There are various barriers or challenges that can come up to the Change management in Healthcare scenario. It has to be understood that there are many challenges that can surface in the process of Change management and can damage the balance between change and stability. And as soon as that balance is lost the entire Foundation on face the organisation is based on will collapse along with taking the reputation and organisational structure within. One of the challenges or barriers that are constant elements of Change management is the resistance to change management (Frankland et al., 2011). It has to be understood that the resistance in the employees and the management to any change that are necessary and inevitable in the Healthcare scenario will provide a lot of friction in successful Change management establishment.
It should not stay quote is that change is facilitated and adapted to buy employees of the organisation and the management hierarchy of the organisation and if there is Resistance in the human resource work force then the change cannot be stable has changed in the Healthcare industry is and will eventually affected the candles and reputation of the Healthcare facilities.
This is true for an organisation where resistance to change becomes not the most frightening devils for the successful Change management in the organisational structure. Another challenge to successful Change management in occupational sector is the cost and other resources associated with the Change management. the project constraints of an organisation does not required to be separately charged or represented, and investing resources in management of a change that is not deemed necessary by the management of the staff will handle for the improvement of polity through Change management. Other various associated with Change management in Healthcare scenario include legal various legislation related barriers policy related barriers complaints related barriers, client related barriers (Frankland et al., 2011).
There however are some facilitators to successful Change management as well. For example one of the facilitators is inside of the management and organisational cultural behaviour in the employees. It is possible enough to protect the impact of change on the reputation and process of the Healthcare facilities and employees are loyal enough to comply to the changes for the benefit of the company and their own career then Change management will be established much more quickly than it is if the challenges are visiting the process of Change management. Another important facilitator of successful Change management the Healthcare scenario is the compliance in the staff to the new and better protocols and policies in the practice standard. This challenge facilitators Health Organisation to combat the impact of change and manage it in a manner that will be beneficial for all the stakeholders associated with it (Bordia et al., 2011).
Conclusion:
Consistency is undoubtedly one of the most desired elements in the life, however most ironically the only consistent thing in life is change. From the very start of human civilization, the structure of the society has changed time and time again to attain where it stands today. And in the dynamic world that we live in today change in an inevitable element that impacts the personal, professional and societal elements of our lives. It has to be understood a change is the only constant feeling in our lives hence without the facilitating of change the survival and sustainability of any organisation will be threatened due to the dynamic needs of the customer market.
Delete for change in our scenario is constant head for their needs to be constant management theories and plans and strategies in place in order to combat the impact of change and restore the balance of organisational structure and successful business processes. This assignment has focused on all the different factors associated with Change management and how it can be more quickly and more easily done. Hence it can be safely concluded that implementing these changes and strategies Change management can be achieved easily and safely without importing any negative effect to the standard and quality of the health care facility or any other organisational sector.
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