Kouzes and Posner's five exemplary leadership practices in healthcare

Dr. Robert Grice

Please explain the implications of this problem for the stakeholders of the organization (be sure to compare and contrast the implications for the different stakeholders). Among these, you are asked to give special attention to patients.

Leadership in Healthcare

Throughout history, there has been an interest in what qualities serve to define effective leadership. For instance, according to Rosenbach and Taylor (2000), "There continues to be a quest for understanding leadership. Historians search for clues that will help us understand how leaders are defined and what they do" (p. 1). In this regard, leadership is defined by Sweem and Stowe (2008) as being "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization" (p. 27). Effective leadership, though, involves more than just influence and motivation, but also requires the development and sustainment of a learning culture in organizations that is focused on improving organizational performance (Sweem & Stowe, 2008). While the debate over nature vs. nurture continues, there is a growing body of evidence that most people can learn how to be effective leaders even if they are not naturally born that way. Indeed, Dye (2001) emphasizes that, "Health care leaders can build their skills in areas such as respect and stewardship, ethics and integrity, interpersonal connection, leadership, initiating change, commitment to the field, and emotional intelligence" (p. 210). Certainly, these are highly desirable attributes and skills for all healthcare leaders, but other researchers have identified certain other attributes that can be learned that serve to define effective leadership in healthcare settings as well.

For instance, based on their research with thousands of responses to their Leadership Practice Inventory concerning optimal leadership traits, Kouzes and Posner's (1995) developed a model of leadership effectiveness that consists of five fundamental practices that assist leaders in establishing and maintaining credibility as well as gaining the confidence from their followers that is needed to motivate them to perform at greater levels (Strack & Fottler, 2008). The five exemplary leadership practices developed by Kouzes and Posner (1995) are as follows: (a) Challenge the process; (b) Inspire a shared vision; (c) Enable others to act; (d) Model the way; and (e) Encourage the heart.

Based on their application of these five attributes to thousands of managers, Kouzes and Posner (1995) determined that "leaders do exhibit certain distinct practices which do not seem to vary from industry to industry or from profession to profession" (Koteen, 1997, p. 54). The results of their research also convinced Kouzes and Posner that effective leadership is "not confined to a few charismatic men or women, but is a process ordinary managers use to get extraordinary things done and constitutes a skill learnable by anyone interested" (Koteen, 1997, p. 54). Independent research has since confirmed the reliability and validity of these measures in evaluating effective leadership (Strack & Fottler, 2008).