The Role of Leaders in Workplace Change Processes

Discuss about the Performance Measurement In Mental Health Care.

Changing scenario in the organisation has become the common scenario these days. The rapid innovation in current days is changing the demands of the service users. Therefore, the organisations are adopting the change management scenario for fulfilling the needs of these service users (McGovern, 2014). The efficient leaders and their leadership style drive the organisation towards the successful change scenario. The leaders manage and lead the change scenario by establishing the appropriate vision, innovations, mission, aims, and values. It is notable that building the organisational capacity focuses on developing the resources, structures, workforce, and leadership attributes for enabling the team and learning development fir implementing improvements (Sarros, Cooper & Santora, 2008). The improvement of the service quality in the health care scenario needs the proper visionary initiatives undertaken by the organisational leaders. Therefore, the essay concentrates on the role of the leaders in developing the workplace change processes.

The essay will elaborate the role of the leaders, especially during the change management scenario. Furthermore, the study will also discuss the types of leadership style that create the significant effects on change. In addition to this, the essay will develop the ideas about the workplace culture and its significance to the change management scenario. The importance of the vision, mission, and organisational values will be discussed in this essay. The theoretical analysis of the leadership style will be discussed in the study. The challenges and the facilitators to the success of the change will be presented in this essay.

The leaders or the managers in the health care system have the significant contribution to the change management scenario. According to Marquis and Huston (2015), the managers or the leaders need to ensure the delivery of the day-to-day operations in an efficient way. They often undertake the appropriate business analysis and set the benchmarking approach to encourage the associated staffs to adopt the change. The leaders firstly need to ensure the improvement of the services and systems within their own departments of facilities. It is important for these leaders to involve the entire organisation prior to bring changes within the environment (Buchan, 2000). The case scenario is reflecting the improvement of the health care services in the specialized areas. The leaders need to initially concentrate on the requirements of changes prior to strategize the further activities. The recognition of the appropriate leadership attributes can facilitate change within the scenario. In today’s world, majority of the health care professionals are much familiar with the methodologies of quality improvement (NSW Health 2012). The initiatives undertaken for achieving this purpose are generally performed by dividing the teams in the specialized care units. The leaders are responsible for providing the fruitful and relevant training to the associated workers to improve their professional skills to perform the activities. Carroll and Edmondson (2002) pointed out that leaders develop the learning environment that facilitate the change by encouraging the associates and improving the performance parameter.  During the change management scenario, the emergence of the internal conflicts is much noticeable. The leaders need to take the responsibility to mitigate these conflicts and motivate the workforce to perform in a better way.

Leadership Styles and their Impact on Change

The improvement of the health care service quality requires the appropriate management and guidance of the skilled leaders and managers. Therefore, it is essential to adopt the appropriate leadership style that creates the significant effects on the change management scenario. At the initial stage, it is important for the leaders to create the clear vision and select the appropriate leadership style that would drive the change. The development of the transformational leadership style would be much beneficial in such context. Speedy and Jackson (2014) opined that the leaders within the organisation define and shape the work that generally contributes to the innovations. It was evident that the individual leadership style is one of the major visible determinants of innovation. However, Marquis and Huston (2015) argued that transformational leaders provide the adequate support and promote the innovative atmosphere that creates the learning atmosphere for the associated workforce. In the transformational leadership style, the leaders often motivate the employees to perform in an efficient way. On the other hand, the participative leadership style encourages culture and innovations. They believe in high performance level within the organisation. This attribute is necessary for fulfilling the purpose of improving the health care service quality. These two leadership styles are much attributed to the purpose set for this very research. Baars et al., (2010) explained that an efficient transformational leader generally concentrates on six major factors. These specific factors are to provide an appropriate role model, establishing the high performance standards, fostering the goal acceptance, providing the individual support, and delivering the intellectual stimulation (Isouard et al., 2006). These specific factors are aligned with the organisational culture that automatically improves the quality of the health care services. Therefore, it can be inferred that transformational and participative leadership styles are best suited to foster change within the health care scenario.

Prior to implement the change management scenario, it is necessary for the leaders to identify the probable reasons for encouraging change within the organisation. The improvement of the health care services would improve the quality of health among the community members. The theoretical explanation creates the better understanding regarding the subject context (Son et al., 2011). Kotter’s Change management theory with the step wise discussion can be relevant in such scenario. The eight-stage change process is formulated for making progress towards the changing scenario. This simplistic model offers the appropriate guidelines that direct and support the change scenario within an organisation. The first step of this theoretical model is the establishment of sense of urgency. It is important to create a sense of urgency prior to make any relevant decision regarding the required changes. The development of the specialized department or unit creates the detailed focus on a specific area of treatment. Therefore, the quality of the service would increase much significantly. Greenfield (2007) suggested that establishing a guiding coalition is also much necessary for a change management scenario. This is considered as the next stage of the Kotter’s Model. It is explained that the leaders need to involve people from all levels for establishing the clear vision. It is also much helpful in addressing the specific needs. The next stage of the model is to develop a clear vision and strategic views for driving the workforce towards the planned change. Leggat, Harris and Legge (2006) defined the next stage of the model that indicates the necessity of communicating the change scenario with the associated employees. If the employees are unaware of the necessity of bringing change, it might affect their security sense. The leaders need to take the responsibility to communicate such visions to the employees for making them adaptive towards change. The fifth stage of this model is the empowerment of the employees for participating in the organisational functionality. The participative leaders often receive the opinions of the employees prior to undertake any organisational decisions. In a health care setting, the leaders also need to accept the opinions of the healthcare practitioners to generate the sense of reliability that would motivate them to perform in a better way and improve the quality of the treatment in their specialized field.

Importance of Workplace Culture and Vision, Mission, and Organizational Values

The next step of change management scenario is to strive for the short-term wins. Maddern et al., (2006) opined that the involvement of the efficient leaders is required for ensuring the short term achievement. The skilled leader focuses on the opportunity beyond the comfort zone and strategizes the functionalities accordingly. Therefore, it is essential for them to create the right direction for guiding the associates in an appropriate way. In this case scenario, the leaders need to concentrate on the individual improvement while delivering the health care services. The improvement of these individualistic segments would be effective enough to instigate the changed atmosphere (NSW Health. 2012). The next stage is to consolidate the profitability extracted from the changing atmosphere and address the resistance to the change. In such cases, it is necessary to strengthen the leadership approach in a more specific way. The changes in the leadership style will also be helpful enough for achieving the purpose that is pre-determined within the health care setting. The final stage of this theoretical model is to anchor the new approaches in the organisational culture. The improvement of the healthcare service quality and developing of the specialized care units require the innovative solutions and better approaches from the leaders to manage the workforce. An efficient leader needs to identify these stages during the change management scenario (Pruitt and Eping-Jordan, 2005). The maintenance of the sequential and systematic approach would create the opportunity for developing change management scenario within the health care center.

Workplace culture depends on the behaviour, belief, morale, and characteristics of the associated employees and the organisational management. Maintaining an appropriate workplace culture during the change management scenario is one of the crucial aspects that are needed to be taken into account (Victorian public sector commission, 2015). It has been observed that the organisational culture in the health care centre depends on the appropriate chain of command and each department is linked with others. According to Finkelman (2006), managing cultural change within the workplace requires the clear vision and the hands-on approaches from the business leaders.  Maintenance of the cultural change depends on several factors that are influencing the change within the health care scenario. The cultural change strategy concentrates widely on the reform or transformation. Legge, Stanton and Smyth (2006) suggested that the ‘cultural continuity’ policy helps in strengthening the competitive edge for the workplace that contributes to the changing scenario determined earlier. On the other hand, it is also stated that the second order of change emerge when there is the deficiency noticeable within the existing culture in an organisation. Dividing the specialized care unit is a newer approach that contributes much significantly to the improvement of the health care services. In respond to the change scenario within the organisation, the cultural dimensions play the significant role. One of the strategies of developing the cultural change model is the structural dimension, which identifies the nature of the culture is to be developed (Isouard et al., 2006). It is stated that the development of the detailed diagnosis of the overall organisational scenario determines whether the change is to be implemented or not. It also reveals the method of sustaining the current order of change. Walburg et al., (2006) defined that the process dimension is a form of cultural change that determines the adjustment of the appropriate guidance towards the change. The spontaneous change is considered as the metaphor to drive the change scenario within the workplace. Finally, the contextual dimension is formulated to align the culture with the surroundings or the environment. In this specific context, the cultural dimension deals with the adaptive approach that is aligned with the ‘strategic drift’ and ‘cultural lag’. It measures the gaps created between the existing culture and the changed culture required for the organisational environment. However, the cultural change during the change scenario creates the observable challenges for the organisation as well.

Challenges and Facilitators to Success of Change

According to Ward (2008), the change management scenario requires the clear vision stated by the leaders prior to make any specific decision. The establishment of the clear vision provides the insightful ideas about the requirements of change, which is the first step towards change. The clearance of the purpose helps in understanding the set of activities that are needed to be performed for facilitating the determined change. Hargraves (2008) pointed out that vision statement helps the leaders to provide a clear description of the purpose of the organisation. In fact, the clarified vision statement provides the clear ideas about the employee behaviour and the areas of improvements. On the other hand, leaders need to emphasize the appropriate mission statement to the employees. The quality improvement of the health care service require the more clear views regarding the set of dealings and activities that are to be undertaken in each specialized care unit. If the leaders present the clarified mission of the strategic change, it would help the health care associates to focus on the goals and perform accordingly.  Hargraves (2008) opined that the strategic goals are formulated to organize the activities in a systematic way. The leaders develop the clear understanding of the scope of the strategic movement that can facilitate the change in a directive format. The leaders in the health care setting need to concentrate on the strategic goals for change scenario as well as the motivating factors for the employees to adopt the change. The development of the appropriate movement would be effective enough in directing the employees towards the right direction. Hence, it can be inferred that the leaders need to create the right form of vision, mission, and strategic goals to respond back to the change management scenario. Following these factors would help in improving the health care service quality in a significant manner.

The obtained idea from the essay highlights that the change management theory is formulated by depending on eight stage process. Kotter’s Change Management Theory is discussed to understand the sequential steps for driving the change. Creating the urgency defines the necessity of improving the quality of the health care service. It also creates the insights regarding the necessity of developing the specialized care units (Isouard et al., 2006). The establishment of the specialized care units distributes the responsibility among the expertise people. The leaders need to initially concentrate on the requirements of changes prior to strategize the further activities. The recognition of the appropriate leadership attributes can facilitate change within the scenario. In a health care setting, the team collaboration is much crucial to achieve success. The leaders need to guide the employees towards the appropriate direction that can develop the team collaboration for achieving the pre-determined objectives. The leaders are responsible to create the strategic vision for making the employees understand the necessity of developing a learning environment (Pruitt and Eping-Jordan, 2005). The health care services require the involvement of the management and the high level authority before undertaking any decision regarding the change scenario. Nonetheless, it has been observed that the leaders often face the numerous challenges or constraints during the development of the change scenario within the health care setting. Complete assessment of the checklist or the change management report assessment can help the leaders to measure the progress and identify the area of improvement. Identifying the underlying strengths and weakness as well as the opportunities and threats is quite helpful in understanding the requirement for change. The leaders need to develop the sense of motivation among the employees by creating the clear vision. Following such theoretical direction can facilitate the change in a significant manner.

During the change management scenario, it has been observed that the business leaders often face the considerable barriers. One of the most observable constraints is the workplace conflicts. The health care service units are associated with the healthcare practitioners and other associates from diverse cultural background. During the change management scenario, the workforce generates the sense of insecurity while segregating the departments into the specialized units. On the other hand, the lack of resources can become another considerable issue that the leaders might face during the implementation of the change scenario. The improvement of the health care service quality requires the appropriate infrastructure and higher efficiency level of the associated workers (Marquis & Huston, 2015). The leaders need to take the responsibility during such moment. The leaders need to concentrate on the motivational factors for encouraging the workforce for being adaptive towards change. It is important for the health care leaders or practitioners to provide the effective learning and development session to the employees for utilizing the latest technologies and infrastructure for improving the quality of the health care service. The recognition of the appropriate leadership attributes can facilitate change within the scenario. The development of the transformational leadership style is much helpful for developing the personal and professional skills of the associated health care service providers. Maintaining an appropriate workplace culture during the change management scenario is one of the crucial aspects that are needed to be taken into account. The leaders are responsible for managing the appropriate work culture relevant to the change initiatives. Sepkowitz (2011) stated that the employees are unaware of the necessity of bringing change, it might affect their security sense. Therefore, it can be inferred that the sense of motivation is crucial to develop the high performance parameter that will drive towards accomplishing the determined objectives. Managing these facilitators to change can serve the purpose more significantly.

Conclusion

The study develops the understanding of the leadership roles in facilitating the change initiatives within the health care setting. The improvement of the health care service quality and dividing the specialized care units require the association of the leaders and health care professionals. The leaders play the much significant role in managing the work place culture, employee motivations, and stages of changes for accomplishing the determined objectives. Creating the clear goals and vision is the primary responsibility of the leaders. The health care setting requires the teamwork approach for increasing the quality of the health care services. Adopting the transformational leadership style is much helpful for developing the professional and personal skills of the associated employees.  Transformational leaders provide the adequate support and promote the innovative atmosphere that creates the learning atmosphere for the associated workforce.  On the other hand, Kotter’s Eight Stage Model of change management provides the appropriate strategic direction to facilitate the change. The employee conflicts, lack of resources, and lack of expertise level can be the most considerable constraints that the leader might face during the change management scenario. Development of the effective training and development session and investing more on the infrastructure development for the specialized care units would be much helpful to overcome these barriers. The employee motivation also plays much significant role in terms of accomplishing the determined objectives within the health care scenario.

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