Leadership Models

Philosophy and Models of Leadership

Abstract

The following paper presents an employee interview at Parkland Health and Hospital System at a managerial designation within the emergency department. His leadership traits and personality features are inspected during the interview, which is linked with the course learnings. Certain concepts and popular theories are elucidated within the document in line with the findings from the interview so that leadership features could be best understood in real-life applications.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Their Philosophy 3

Their Relationships with Other Colleagues at All Levels 4

Their Career Path: Past, Present, Future 5

Organizational Information 5

Learnings about the Leader Who Was Interviewed 6

Leadership Theory 8

Relating Them to What You Learnt In the Interview 8

Did You Discover Any Leadership Ideas Not Covered In The Course? 9

Application of Course Learnings in Future Leadership Endeavors 9

References 10

Leadership Models

Leadership is a trait required by any higher-level manager or employee of the top rank of any organization since he is the one that would set clear goals and vision for his subordinates. With effective communication, a leader should be capable of setting the direction of his employees so that their roles and responsibilities are well-defined for the quality performance of the overall firm. This trait is even crucial in the healthcare industry since quality medical care should be accompanied by patient safety and satisfaction. This paper aims to interview the manager of the emergency department of Parkland health and hospital system in Dallas, Texas, and link with what has been learned in the course regarding leadership and its relevant theories and concepts.

Their Philosophy

Mr. XYZ appeared to be a calm and peaceful person who knew his position and the responsibilities of his designation. He did not seem to be a person who was privileged in his position despite being paid well; rather, he was a composed man who could direct his subordinates well, especially in times of critical care in the emergency room. He had the skill of strengthening them in times of stress when the pressure of the patient who was in grave condition was on the shoulders of his team members. He believed in excelling when teamwork exceeded expectations.

His knowledge sharing was exceptional as he believed that he did not keep a minute piece of detail about the patient’s condition or his illness from his employees. For this reason, he thought developing trust among his followers is mandatory for making relationships work and keeping them healthy in the workplace. Only then would the employees be able to respect him, obey him, and follow his orders. His type of leadership vitally requires building strong trust relationships among his followers so that the subordinates can look up to him in times of need and know that he is there for them.

Only one weakness was identified when the interview was being conducted that he sometimes got emotionally attached to the patients and his subordinates. For example, he narrated one of his incidents in the hospital that his employee had to leave the emergency room as soon as a call from her home came about her mother. Although she was on duty, she had joined her job after knowing that her mother is ill and there should be someone with her when she is at her job. The emergency department manager did not ask any more questions and gave her off for the day. It is good that he cared for his employees, but it could be risky when other employees start following the same pattern; it would be hard for him to discern who is truthful and who is lying. Also, emotional detachment is taught to the medical doctors for keeping their opinions objective and dealing with distressing situations at the hospital in a shrewd manner (Kerasidou & Horn, 2016). Therefore, emotional attachment is his weakness.

Their Relationships with Other Colleagues at All Levels: Supervisors, Peers, Followers

The manager at the emergency department has healthy relations with his supervisors since he is a serene and unruffled person and has a special quality of being submissive towards his top managers. Hence, he is one of their favorite employees who is not considered a troubled person, which is the basic characteristic required in a person’s personality, particularly in the healthcare industry.

His peers find him a friendly person. He is a good listener, and everyone finds him a good ear to thrust out their concerns. His peers take him as the best example of a trusted friend who could be contacted at any time of the day when they want to vent out. Besides, he has outgoing nature, which means he is present at gatherings outside the hospitals with his friends. It verifies that he is an extrovert and likes being in the company of people since if this trait were not there, he would not have managed dissimilar several employees daily.

The followers mentioned above in detail that he cared and believed that the workforce ought to be given their due respect. Since he had a calm composure, he was rarely seen in anger and did not throw any tantrums on his subordinates. It depicts that he has strong and well-developed relations with his followers for long-lasting patient safety outcomes.

Their Career Path: Past, Present, Future

The manager at the emergency department said that he started as a healthcare aid to the facility and then moved on to be a licensed vocational nurse. After completing the term, he became a registered nurse and finally completed the Master’s degree in leadership nurse. Currently, he is a unit manager at one of the most well-renowned medical institutes in the United States. In the future, he aims to obtain a Ph.D. degree in nursing in the next five years over time.

Organizational Information

Parkland Health and Hospital System started providing its medical services in 1894, including level 1 trauma center, the second-largest civilian burn center within the country, stroke center, orthopedics, epilepsy center, cancer care, center for clinical innovation, women and infants’ center, and level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (Parkland Hospital, n.a.). Along with providing primary care, the hospital offers several and education programs. There are 20 community-0based clinics for both primary and women’s care.

The hospital’s mission is to remain dedicated to the health and welfare of the individuals so that the communities could trust them to provide quality care. The goal and objective cumulatively narrate the hospital’s devotion to providing medical aid to needy and impoverished citizens in the hospital district (Parkland Hospital, n.a.).

The operating beds in Parkland hospital are 835, and the number of employees working at the medical facility is up to 10,000 (LinkedIn, n.a.). The accreditations that the hospital holds include College of American Pathologists (CAP) medical laboratory at Parkland, CAP main lab accreditation, CAP Point of Care (POC) testing accreditation, Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Ambulatory Surgery Center, CLIA Amelia court lab, CLIA anatomic pathology, CLIA Bachman, CLIA Bluitt-Flowers health center, and CLIA chase building (Parkland Hospital, n.a.).

All the house staff of Parkland hospital is required to earn Texas Physician in Training Permit or Texas Medical License (Parkland Hospital, n.a.). Also, the staff is required to have a drug enforcement administration certificate. Also, the regulations that the hospital has to abide by are feral regulations, including those from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Officer for Human Research Protection, Officer of Research Integrity (ORI), Protection of Human Subjects (45 CFR 46), Scientific Misconduct Regulations (42 CFR Part 50, subpart A), and FDA Approval to market new drug (21 CFR 314), etc. (Parkland Hospital, n.a.)

Learnings about the Leader Who Was Interviewed

Certain leadership traits or characteristics are mentioned by Stogdill second survey, which encompasses taking responsibility, completing the tasks, taking the risk, problem-solving, taking the initiative, self-confidence, sense of personal identity, willingness to accept challenges, decision-making skills, having the ability to tolerate irrational behaviors, having the attribute to influence others and strong social interaction with effective communication (Northouse, 2018, p. 65). Most of these features were seen in the manager of the emergency department since he had toleration as he had a peaceful nature, did not show anger, made sure that tasks were fulfilled by having the employees work with dedication, the subordinates respected him that depicted his identity and the talent to influence them, had social interactions due to his communicative strategies by being tranquil in even critical patient situations.

Further, his leadership style could be considered adaptive leadership since he likes to motivate his subordinates and organize and mobilize them to effectively instigate to work as a team (Northouse, 2018, p. 393). The focus of his attention remains on the success of his followers, which eventually results in high-quality healthcare for the patients who come to the emergency department. New ways of learning each day are given to them so that challenges are kept ongoing, and growth prospects are continually provided to the employees to stay engaged and satisfied with their job (Kim-Soon & Manikayasagam, 2015). Additionally, he has strong social judgment skills such as perspective-taking, social perceptiveness, behavioral flexibility, and social performance that signify his powerful communication skills for influencing his followers (Northouse, 2018, p. 109). His composed manner of talking allows him to choose his words intelligently, which should instantly impact others and trigger them to obey him and take action on the current situation. This behavior also allows him to solve problems instantaneously, especially conflict resolution between two employees. According to the path-goal theory, he is the kind of leader who motivates his followers to achieve the set goals, which would directly impact the overall performance of the entire hospital, especially in terms of patient outcomes and quality care (Northouse, 2018, p. 199; Farhan, 2018).

The relationship with peers is trouble-free since they find him friendly and a trusted friend who is a good listener. It could be inferred that he has powerful human skills, the skills needed to work with people (Northouse, 2018, p. 102; Moore & Rudd, 2004) that enables him to be aware of himself as well as his relation with others based on the distinct personality traits that the other person has.

His career is promising as he knows his direction and is committed enough to obtain his life objectives. His future orientation is directed towards enabling his abilities for the social welfare of the country’s citizens (Northouse, 2018, p. 628), as he wants to pursue a Ph.D. that would sportively impression patient healthcare. He is the person who idealizes change, and for that, he has set his future goals correspondingly.

Organizational information indicates that the hospital is authorized and accredited enough to have qualified staff on board. The hospital is familiar with its legal and regulatory lines that have a central control on the manager.

Leadership Theory

Relating Them to What You Learnt In the Interview