Leadership and organizational change for implementation in healthcare

1 Organizational Change Review The scholarly reviewed article by Aarons, Ehrhart, Farahnak and Hurlburt (2015) focuses on the issue of leadership in effecting organizational change. The study specifically uses quantitative and qualitative data in a mixed-methods approach to assess whether the Leadership and Organizational Change for Implementation (LOCI) intervention is effective in promoting organizational change. Aarons et al. (2015) found that the LOCI strategy “has utility to improve staff-rated leadership for EBP implementation” (p. 11). This finding was based on surveys and interviews of 12 mental health service team leaders and their staff of 100 care providers across three different agencies in California. The study is significant because it addresses the factor of leadership in organizational change and how important strong leadership is for the change management process. Because there was so little empirical evidence in the existing literature, Aarons et al. (2015) set out to determine the precise impact that a strategy like LOCI could have on organizational change stakeholders. I agree with the author’s viewpoint because in my own reflections on the issue of organizational change I have often thought that change is highly dependent upon leadership and if leaders do not have an effective strategy for initializing and executing the change management process, they are likely to meet substantial resistance. What Aarons et al. (2015) show is that LOCI is such an effective strategy that leaders can use it to help their followers engage with the organizational change process and implement the new behavior or ideas that are meant to be embraced by the staff. This is an important study because it brings to light how leaders can help to implement EBP in a health care setting to promote greater quality of care by providers for patients.