Leadership. Project Management Issue

Paper Info
Page count 9
Word count 2866
Read time 11 min
Subject Business
Type Essay
Language 🇺🇸 US

Introduction

Proper leadership is fundamental in successful running of organizations or project. Leadership refers to the practice of persuading people for the purpose of accomplishing common goals. It entails supporting people in order to make extraordinary things to happen. Leaders are expected to have the ability to pay attention, observe and to use their proficiency to initiate dialogue at all stages of decision making. This promotes transparency in decision making by allowing all stakeholders to articulate their ideas, principles and vision rather than imposing them on individuals without their participation. Proper leadership requires leaders to prepare and critically develop agendas rather than reacting to agendas (Bishop, 2005, P.30). They are required to identify problems, instigate change which allow considerable improvement and not managing change. Leaders should possess spirit and characters which allow them to work with other individuals and project stakeholders as a team. Other leadership traits include desire to direct others, integrity, self confidence in order to influence and convince others, intelligent and possession of relevant qualification in order to deliver duties and responsibilities of the post adequately. Leadership styles define behavior of different leaders and how it influences the way and approach of offering direction, executing plans and inspiring people (Kurt, 1939, p. 87). The essay seeks to explore different leadership styles their characteristic and identify the most appropriate leadership style that would ensure quality health care.

Leadership Styles

Leadership styles involve the approaches employed while executing plans, directing followers and motivating them while running a union. Leaders may employ one or more styles of leadership in executing their roles and responsibilities. However, effective leaders employ all styles to tackle different issues in the organization depending on the situation with one style being dominant in their leadership profession. Leaders who stick to one style may find difficulty in solving complex problems which needs different approaches. Leadership styles comprise the following approaches; laissez-faire, autocratic and participative. In autocratic leadership leaders dictate to their employees by giving instructions on what they need done and how to do it. Opinions from followers are not allowed leaders are the central people in decision making. This style has been doing well because it offers powerful motivation to managers; they are able to exercise their powers fully. The style is most appropriate when there is no adequate time for decision making as it allows quick decision making. However, some leaders abuse this style and use it as a vehicle to shouting, giving orders, threats and debasing language to their employees. Thus this approach is not the best as it intimidates the workers are often less motivated to work harder. Autocratic leadership should be used only when the management team does not have adequate time to allow consultation. This style may lead to wrong decision notably when the leader has some element of incompetence. Employees may feel left out or feel as if they are not part of the project this de-motivates them from giving their best in service delivery. Organizations whose aim is to motivate its employees should employ other styles of leadership in order to boost their commitments and morale (Argyris, 1976, p. 78)

Participative or democratic leadership involves followers or employees in decision making. Their opinions are appreciated in deciding what should be done and how it should be done. Nonetheless, leaders still upholds the last decision making authority. Democratic style strengthens employees as they feel appreciated by the management team; this improves their commitments to the organization. This style is most appropriate when the management team has some bits of information and the followers have some parts of it. Leaders do not have the knowledge of everything that goes on in the daily running of projects and this explains why they recruit knowledgeable employees. However, this style is inappropriate when there is limited time as the group may take long to agree.

Laissez – Faire or Free Rein Leadership the followers are given the freedom to decide on what need to be done and how to go about it. In occasions whereby there is no time to convene meeting everyone is left to make his/ her own decision regarding the issue at stake. This is allowed when employees have the capacity to analyze the condition and adequately decide on what requires to be done as well as how it should be done. Leaders are not supposed to employ this style as a way of blaming employees for failure, but they should only employ it when they are confident with their followers. However, the style can cause chaos or great project failure when wrong decisions are made by each individual (Zaccaro, 2008, p.190).

Conclusion

Participative or democratic style of leadership is the most appropriate in promoting quality health care. This style allows different opinions which when properly employed would strengthen the project. Workers play a fundamental role helping an organization to achieve its objectives. Appreciating workers by valuing their opinions is considered as a great way of improving their commitments towards running of the project. Depending on the situation the three styles can be used by one leader in a project for instance authoritarian style can be used on newly recruited employees in the process of learning the job. Participative or democratic can be used when the employees clearly understand their job or when leaders do not have all information required to address the underlying situation. Free rein style can be used when workers fully understands the project and as a way of promoting project ownership.

Managing quality

Introduction

Management of quality initiatives in health care organization involves planning of health care activities, directing staffs and organizing the entire organization in order t achieve set objectives. Health care organizations operate with an aim of delivering health services that meets patients’ needs adequately in order to promote healthy living. Services offered by health care organizations are sensitive as they deal with human being and resolving them is a matter of life and death. Researches show that health care organizations are required to change their practice in order to suit dynamic patients’ needs. Emerging diseases require different management approach which is mostly learnt through organizational learning. Management team in health organizations are required to promote organizational learning for the health care providers in order to equip them with relevant skills to address different health issues that they come across in their daily practices. Qualification of health care providers is fundamental in determining the quality of health services they deliver to the patient. According to Lock qualifications of different health care providers should be verified before they are permitted to practice by professional bodies. Newly recruited health care providers should be monitored closely to ensure that they are offering appropriate services to the patients and that patient’s health is not compromised by any form of malpractice (Lock, 2004, p. 81). Services provided by health care providers should have attributes of dependability. The staff should show empathy, responsiveness and confidence. Service delivery to patients should be consistent and given when promised. The health professionals working in the organization should show some sense of care to the patients’ individual needs. The services offered should be accessible to the patients and meet their needs intensively and timely. The staff should exude some sense of confidence when attending to the customer’s needs. All the services offered should emphasize safety, efficiency, equitability, and effectiveness. They should also be time bound. Principles and beliefs are supposed to be the driving force in an organization. organizations belief should be embedded on visionary leadership, attainment of results, social responsibility, organizational and personal learning, evidence based thinking and alignment. Principles should emphasize collaboration and respect for all the staff members. Learning process should be continuous and there should be emphasis on best practice. Moreover, the customers should be given utmost attention.

Discussion

Strategy planning hierarchy is normally presented in the form of a pyramid with the mission of the organization at the top (Arbor, 2003 p.10). The mission statement says a lot about who the members of the organization are. From the bottom are budgets, programmes, rules, procedures, policies, strategies, policies, strategies, objectives, and vision respectively. Objectives spell out where the organization expects to go to. The rest of the planning strategies determine how the organization will get to whatever the destination they intended to go to (Fiedler, 1967 p.120). These strategies are very critical in improving quality in a health care system. Strategy formulation in a health care system should have a lot to do with what the health care providers intend to do in future. At the lowest level of the organization, health care providers should have short and long term operational goals. This should also be true for tactical plans. However, at the highest level of the organization there should be long term strategic goals. Strategic integration in an organization involves strategic planning, tactical planning and operational planning. Strategic planning involves skill and resource matching of an organization with the SWOT analysis. A lot of focus is made on resources, mission and the environment. Tactical planning entails thought out ways of executing strategic plan in order to actualize a dream of achieving the strategic goals. Operational planning is done to achieve outlined goals (Ireland, 2006 p.89). Through planning, an organization is able to engage its resources to achieve its set objectives. The foundation of strategy formulation process by a health care system should be embedded on the mission statement, the vision and the values that an organization cherishes. The mission spells out why the organization exists; vision-what they expect to be; and values-what is so important to them. There should be an in depth analysis of the environment and the structure of the industry. The analysis should also look into the organization’s core competencies. Strategy map should finally be drawn. This helps in translating the strategy into action. Strategic outcomes from the strategy map should ensure that the shareholders are satisfied, the customers are happy, processes in the system are running efficiently, and that the employees are happy because of the motivation they get. SWOT analysis is basically done to measure the internal strengths against the external opportunities or to measure internal weaknesses against external opportunities or to gauge internal strengths against external threats and finally the internal weaknesses against external threats. Service delivery should be divided into pre-service, point of service and after service (UK Health Care, 2010 p.123). Pre- service should entail elements of market research, definition of the target market, kind of services offered, the pricing system and how the distribution is supposed to be done. Point of service should emphasize quality of the services delivered and the process. Marketing should prioritize satisfaction of the patient and development of the product. Follow ups and the billing comprise after service delivery. Support activities should comprise organization culture, structure and the strategic resources. Organization culture should have more to do with shared values, norms and assumptions where as strategic resources involves finances, information and human person.

When a health care provider formulates working strategies, the organization is bound to embrace technologies that may help them enhance their service delivery, positive changes in the heath care provision can also be realized. Decisions and actions that are made can also be process based. The quality of the services provided, motivation of the employees, and improvement in the attitude of the entire staff can be realized. Moreover, there may also be an increase in knowledge about the organization.

Conclusion

Quality strategy should emphasize improvement of quality as the core organizational professional responsibility. The members of staff should be educated about the need for improving service delivery to match the expected quality standards. Quality strategies should embrace the need for developing pilot programmes that are continuously updated. This will ensure that rigorous criteria for translating clinical research and trials are promptly revised to enable the organization come up with some practice guideline. Better mechanisms that appreciates and rewards quality should be introduced to enhance performance. This should be done by recognizing physicians’ efforts preferably those who undertake to take part in voluntary quality enhancement efforts. Tools and knowledge that is used in quality improvement should be developed and organized.

Project management methodology

Introduction

A project is a short term venture with a defined start and end carried out with an aim of meeting specific goals. End products of a project are expected to bring about valuable change or add value to the community or business depending on the type of the project. Project management entails planning and managing of resources both human and non human resources in order to realize successful conclusion and achievement of particular project objectives. As they try to deal with the potential limitations, project managers are faced with a challenge of meeting all the projects’ goals. Project constraints include time limit, budget and human resource management. It is important that project manager embark in to a project with the end in mind. A structured approach of a project involves project initiation, implementation and project closure. Appropriate project methodologies should be employed in running of in order to achieve the set goals and objectives (Nokes, 2007, p. 89). The essay seeks to explore project management methodology and identify the best approach to enhance successful healthcare projects.

Discussion

Project management methodology aid in efficient running of projects it allows managers to set out the whole project cycle stage by stage. Phases of a project cycle include initiation which involves project definition; the function and scope of the project are defined at this stage, recruitment of qualified project is also carried out at this stage. The second phase entails project planning this involves detailed planning of the project laying objectives and defining roles of all team members. Throughout the process of project delivery, a plan aimed at offering guidance is necessary. Project execution is the third phase, implementation of activities takes place during this phase continuous monitoring and evaluation is also done at this stage. The last phase is the project closure whereby the project team addresses sustainability of the project by building the capacity of the community or stakeholders to own the project. At this stage, all stakeholders are notified of the project closure, and later, a post execution assessment is carried out to spot and classify the project achievements as well as the lessons learnt. The project team uses this set up to deliver all services required in order to achieve projects objectives. Project methodology guides the project team on what to do in management of the project from the start to the end. Project methodology explains every stage of project cycle in detail so that team members are able to understand specific duties to finish, when and how to go about it. This allows the process to run faster as compared to when a project methodology is not used. This motivates the project managers to toil in the desired path while maintaining track of the whole project cycle. Activities at every stage are well defined and the project team is able to handle all of them without any omission. Project management methodology allows monitoring and evaluation of project progress in order to ensure that everything runs as expected (Kurt & Lippitt, 1939, p. 118).

Appropriate project methodology

A good project management methodology is the one that emphasizes on phased commitments. The entire project team clearly understands their roles in running of the projects and dedicates themselves to achieve set goals and objectives. This is realized if the project methodology employed defines tasks of every project member clearly. Involvement of management in project methodology promotes smooth running of activities throughout the project cycle. Researchers claim that management team is a key requirement in running of a project. An appropriate project methodology is that which allow constitution of a management team in a health care organization. Management team monitors the progress of health care projects to ensure that they are delivering quality health services (Gomez, 2008, p.5). An approach which promotes communication aid in keeping every project member informed on the progress of the entire project. Individuals are informed on any new development or important changes to ensure that the whole team is working towards the same direction. Quality is a fundamental need in health care system a methodology which promote high quality of health care services would be the most appropriate. Such approach promotes safety, efficiency and improves confidence of health care providers as well as that of the patients. A methodology which seeks to cut cost of running the project and actively involves the stake holders is the most appropriate in health care sector (Nuttall, 2004, p. 123).

Conclusion

Project methodology act as a guide in running of a project, it outlines details of every step in a project cycle. All phases of projects are clearly explained in project management methodology for instance project initiation, project planning, project execution and project closure. The project team is well informed of the project activities, roles clearly defined to enhance smooth running of all activities. Appropriate project methodology in health care organization is that which allow communication among team members; cuts cost of running the project, actively involve stakeholders and work towards improving the quality of health care services.

Reference List

Arbor, A., 2003.Medstat Honors Healthcare Organizations for Outstanding Quality Initiatives. Web.

Argyris, C., 1976. Increasing Leadership Effectiveness. New York: Wiley.

Bishop V., 2005 Leadership for Nursing And Allied Health Care Professionals. New York: Prentice Hall.

Fiedler, F.,1967. A theory of leadership effectiveness. McGraw-Hill: Harper and Row Publishers Inc.

Gomez, M., 2008. Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York, New York USA: McGraw-Hill.

Ireland, R.,2006. Project Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Kurt, L & Lippitt, R., (1939). “Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates”. Journal of Social Psychology 10: 271–301.

Lock, D., 2004. Advanced project management: a structured approach‎. Great Britain: Gower Publishing Ltd.

Nokes, S., 2007.The Definitive Guide to Project Management. London: Prentice Hall. 2007.

Nuttall, M., 2004. An analysis of the Research Fellowship Scheme of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Web.

UK HealthCare. 2010. Health care Quality Initiatives. Web.

Zaccaro, S. J et al., 2008. Personality and leadership: Leadership at the crossroads. Westport, CT: Praeger

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EduRaven. (2022, March 15). Leadership. Project Management Issue. Retrieved from https://eduraven.com/leadership-project-management-issue/

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EduRaven. 2022. "Leadership. Project Management Issue." March 15, 2022. https://eduraven.com/leadership-project-management-issue/.

1. EduRaven. "Leadership. Project Management Issue." March 15, 2022. https://eduraven.com/leadership-project-management-issue/.


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EduRaven. "Leadership. Project Management Issue." March 15, 2022. https://eduraven.com/leadership-project-management-issue/.

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EduRaven. 2022. "Leadership. Project Management Issue." March 15, 2022. https://eduraven.com/leadership-project-management-issue/.

1. EduRaven. "Leadership. Project Management Issue." March 15, 2022. https://eduraven.com/leadership-project-management-issue/.


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EduRaven. "Leadership. Project Management Issue." March 15, 2022. https://eduraven.com/leadership-project-management-issue/.