Leadership in Healthcare Organizations

¶ … Management Analysis in Healthcare

Healthcare organizations are generally complex and dynamic, which requires managers to offer leadership in addition to supervision and coordination healthcare workers. The complexity and dynamism of healthcare organizations emanates from the fact that they were created to accomplish objectives that exceed the capacity of any single individual. Actually, the scope and complexity of activities that are conducted to provide services are huge to an extent that no individual staff can function on his/her own ("Understanding Healthcare Management," n.d.). Therefore, the management of these healthcare organizations needs to ensure that tasks are performed in the most suitable way in order to achieve organizational objectives through effective management of financial and human resources. The process of providing appropriate leadership to these organizations requires understanding organizational theories and management theories and styles.

Organizational Theories

Organizational theories can be defined as concepts that explain an organization and its structure and are generally classified into classical or modern organizational theories. The classical organizational theories mainly focus on the formal organization and address concepts for enhancing management efficiency ("Organizational Theories," n.d.). The most common classical organizational theories include Weber's bureaucratic approach, Taylor's scientific management approach, and administrative theory. Taylor's scientific management approach focuses on the notion of planning of work in order to realize efficiency, specialization, standardization, and simplification. In contrast, Weber's bureaucratic approach considers the organization as part of the wider society based on principles of structure, rationality, democracy, specialization, and predictability and stability. Administrative theory examines an organization with regards to accomplishment of tasks and includes principles of management, especially management functions and committees.

Unlike the classical organizational theories, modern theories are based on the concept that an organization is a system that needs to adapt to environmental changes. When using these theories, an organization is defined as a designed and structured procedure where people interact for specific objectives. The modern organizational theories include the systems approach where an organization is regarded as a system of intertwined and mutually dependent sub-systems and socio-technical approach, which is based on the belief that each organization is made of people, technical system, and the environment. The final modern organizational theory is the contingency or situational approach where organizational systems are interconnected with the environment and require different organizational relationships.

Management Theories and Styles

Management theories and styles can be described as the way through which an organization manages its workers and their various work activities. Since management styles differ based on various factors like work activities, the attributes of employees and the organizational culture, the popularity of management styles continue to rise and fall based on the impact of changes in the modern business environment. However, management theories are similar to organizational theories i.e. classical and modern management theories. Therefore, the difference in management theories is similar to the differences in organizational theories, which have been previously discussed.

There are five common management styles that have become prevalent across the corporate environment. The first style is the authoritarian management style in which a manager at the head of the organization or business decides all policies relating to management policies. In essence, employees are given specific tasks to complete by the senior management when this style is utilized. On the contrary, a democratic management style deals with providing workers flexibility in order for the team to work and grow together. However, the paternalistic management style differs in the sense that it focuses on handling an individual's social needs based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs ("Management Theories & Styles," n.d.). The autocratic management style involves unilateral decision making by the manager with minimal or no consideration for workers. The final management style is laissez-faire management style that is different from the others since employees are in control of their own areas within the business with peripheral involvement of the manager.

Most Relevant Organizational Theory

The most relevant organizational theory that closely resembles my healthcare organization is the socio-technical systems approach, which is a modern organizational theory. This theory most closely resembles my healthcare organization since the healthcare facility is made of people, the technical system, and environment. As a result, the organization's processes and operations have mainly been geared towards the use of knowledge, tools and techniques to generate services that promote the greater good of individuals and the environment. Actually, the social system i.e. individuals in the healthcare organization utilize the technical system i.e. knowledge and tools to promote the health and well-being of the consumers and users who are considered as the organization's external environment.

Most Relevant Management Theories and Styles

Given that the organization theory that most closely resembles my healthcare organization is the socio-technical approach, the management theory that most closely resembles management in the healthcare organization is socio-technical management theory. Management in the organization basically entails the use of knowledge, tools, and techniques towards ensuring the well-being and health of the consumers and users. However, the organization also utilizes the systems approach management theory since it is considered as a system of intertwined and mutually dependent subsystems.

The organization's senior management utilizes an autocratic style for decision making though the unilateral decisions are made in consideration of employees. The organization's senior management makes important decisions such as hiring and development of staff, distribution and expenditure of financial resources, and service additions and reductions. However, the managers consider the employees during the decision making process since they focus on ensuring patients obtain the most effective healthcare services that is suitably delivered by the health workers. Moreover, these managers consider the internal and external domains of the organization when making the decisions.