Respect for People in Healthcare Leadership

Respect for people is the act of honoring and regarding the activities of others (Drotz, & Poksinska, 2014). Healthcare leaders should respect their superiors, employees, and patients to ensure the smooth operation of health facilities. The aspect of respectful treatment of others can help medical leaders to deal with tension or conflict at the workplace. Uncertainty arises at the workplace due to the numerous differences among employees. The leader should ensure that different groups maintain a respectful relationship to improve the organization’s productivity. A leader must listen to others before judging the conduct of employees at the workplace. Respectful relationships boost the morale of employees and foster unity in an organization. A leader requires skills such as empathy and communication traits to maintain a respectful partnership with the employees.

An organization is a platform where people from diverse backgrounds unite to work as a single unit. The individuals who make an organization have different qualifications, work experience, and specialization. Organization culture refers to behavioral patterns, traits, and attitudes that dictate how employees interact with one another (Moss, Mitchell, & Casey, 2017). Organizations create principles and beliefs that the employees follow during their line of duty. Different organizations have their own culture that makes it unique. The leadership of a health facility must ensure that the staff acquires values that assist them in adopting the culture. This essay will explore the concept of respect for people and the traits that a leader should take. The write-up will also look at the essence of organization value in leadership. Finally, the paper will discuss the influence of organizational culture on company performance.

The most significant pillar of respect is listening to others. Caregivers perceive a sense of honor from their leaders when the administrators acknowledge the input of the junior employees. The hospital administrators should be open with the nurses and allow the care providers to provide recommendations during the decision-making process. Listening to junior employees improves the working relationship in a given health facility (Freeman et al., 2014). Care providers tend to trust leaders who treat them with dignity and respect.  A leader should not argue with employees due to their conflicting ideas.  However, an ideal administrator should listen and correct where necessary.

Elimination of disrespect is not the exact definition of respect. Active disrespect includes behaviors like insulting or rudeness to gain respect from others. Respect involves speaking, acting, and demonstrating deeds that honor the other individuals (Goodall, Bastiampillai, Nance, Roeger, & Allison, 2015). Therefore, administrators of health facilities should speak in a respectful manner to their employees. Additionally, the leaders should act in a way that eliminates conflict at the workstation. Furthermore, the head nurse should show respect in all healthcare activities. Respectful interactions help leaders to solve disagreements between care providers. Tension and conflict are also minimal in set-ups that thrive in respectful communication and actions.

Leadership Traits that Demonstrate Respect

The leader can show respect in numerous ways. Factors that influence respect include social relationships, peers, families, and organizational culture (Vassilev, Rogers, Kennedy, & Koetsenruijter, 2014). The interpretation of compliance depends on the role, power, and status of an individual in a given organization. Healthcare leaders should understand how to receive and give respect in the hospital. Respect is a simple concept as the leader should not undergo stress to master the virtue. The acknowledgment and understanding of other people’s input are essential for respectful relationships. The process of showing interest in the opinion of others is the first step in showing respect. Therefore, leaders should understand and evaluate the view of others.

An ideal leader should appreciate the ability, skills, knowledge, and perspective of other caregivers in the provision of care. The administrators should also recognize and commend nurses for their contributions and efforts at the facilities. The leaders should also openly communicate procedures and policies to ensure uniformity among the employees (Spiers, Lo, Hofmeyer, & Cummings, 2016). Furthermore, a good hospital administrator should clarify the process of decision-making for the staff. The leaders should welcome input from employees on critical decisions.  A respectful leader encourages the workers to state their concerns without fear. The administrator should prioritize the interests of the caregivers and seek long-lasting solutions to the problems.

The first respectful character of a respectful leader is proper listening skills. A good administrator should allow the staff to offer feedback after a conversation (Courtney, Nash, Thornton, & Potgieter, 2015). The input from employees inspires the leader and can lead to an essential transition in a given hospital. The act of listening to employees empowers them; hence improve their productivity. A leader who looks carefully at the input of the employees respects those workers. Leaders should be active listeners and contribute to the proposal of the workers. The administrators should take notes when employees are providing to critical issues and request for clarifications after meetings.

Emotional intelligence and empathy are other traits that a leader must develop to respect the people around them. A high degree of knowledge helps leaders to solve conflicts between caregivers or between care providers and the patients (Carragher, & Gormley, 2017). Furthermore, an intelligent leader remains impartial in resolving critical disputes. A fair and just solution to disagreements is a sign of respect for the patients and the nurses. Empathy involves showcasing social awareness and humility towards others. An empathic leader is compassionate to the wants and needs of the care providers and the clients. The aspect of addressing hospital issues with emotional intelligence and empathy is an act of respect.

Awareness is another trait of a respectful leader. A leader should possess the ability to connect with the self and the employees (Scully, 2015). The administrator should know when to reprimand or push employees towards a specific hospital goal. The leader should also recognize situations that call for rewarding employees for exemplary work.  Additionally, an ideal administrator should realize that failure or loss have a severe impact on the productivity of people. Therefore, female employees who are expecting babies require a work leave to avoid negativity at work. Additionally, the leader should issue sick leave to employees as a sign of respect. Therefore, awareness is a sign of respect.

Respectful leaders have persuasive strengths in their line of duty. The employer should gather the opinions of the employees about critical issues before arriving at a decision (Paterson, Henderson, & Burmeister, 2015). The leader should not reprimand employees who give unpleasant suggestions. However, the leader should explain to the staff why their input is wrong and suggest other solutions. Additionally, the administrator should seek the opinion of the workers on the new proposals. A good leader should not take advantage of privileges or powers to enact changes in an organization. Persuasive leadership ensures peaceful co-existence between the administrators, caregivers, and the patients.  Therefore, a leader should prioritize persuasion over dynamic leadership.

A leader should develop an appropriate foresight to steer the organization to great heights. A good leader should sense future obstacles to the provision of health care to the patients by the caregivers (Daly, Jackson, Rumsey, Patterson, & Davidson, 2015). Additionally, the administrator should seek solutions to the setbacks that can jeopardize the quality of care at the health facility. Proper foresight skills are signs of respect for the healthcare workers and the clients. A leader can develop the foresight skill by recognizing the past events and examining the prevailing situations at the health facility. Foresight helps the hospital to achieve its mission and vision by providing exemplary services to the patients.

A respectful leader should possess team-building skills to improve the quality of service delivery. The administrator should not dominate interactions with the healthcare teams (Waddell, Nissen, & Hale, 2017). However, the leader should give every member of the groups an opportunity to express their opinions. An ideal administrator should trust the employees with critical decisions about the company. The leader should also challenge the workers and allow them to handle tough situations.

The values of a company support its vision and form the basis for its cultural orientations. Values also serve as a reflection of the expectation of the organization towards the employees (Perry, Xu, Duffield, Gallagher, Nicholls, & Sibbritt, 2017). The outsiders identify a company based on its virtues, beliefs, and principles. A majority of organizations neglect essential virtues and concentrate on the technical aspects of an institution. However, a company that has strong values boasts of external and internal advantages over its peers. Therefore, a hospital should develop virtues that the leaders, patients, and caregivers can recognize and respect during their interactions.

Values help hospitals to make important healthcare decisions. The lead Nurse should establish virtues that allow nurses to develop a therapeutic relationship before issuing care (Wong et al., 2017). Therefore, a caregiver who fails to honor the procedure risks punishment and suspension. Organizational values educate potential clients and patients about the hospital, its staff, diseases that the facility attends to and many other details. Therefore, the patients gain adequate knowledge about the health facility without enquiring information from unreliable sources. A health facility that has clear-cut value statements is more steps ahead of other hospitals in healthcare delivery. Therefore, a leader who develops appropriate values is a crucial asset to the hospital or any other organization.

Hospitals that offer quality healthcare have various values in common. The first value is accountability which is taking responsibility for an individual’s actions or decisions (Hutchinson, 2018). The hospital administrator should ensure that the caregivers take responsibility in case of medical errors and other prevailing situations. An ideal leader should also develop and uphold a desirable balance of life and work for the staff members. Most health facilities strive to make a positive contribution to the development of the surrounding communities. Empowerment is another value that health facilities should adopt. The leader should urge the workers to start initiatives and complete them with perfection.

Virtues help leaders to ensure the growth of the employees at the workplace. A hospital that has efficient values improves the skills and knowledge of the employees (Twigg, & McCullough, 2014). A majority of care providers are looking for favorable working environments where they can improve their skills. Therefore, the administrator should institute agreeable virtues to attract highly competent staff. Relevant organizational values breed success of the hospital, its leaders, and the workers. Values also elevate the rate of engagement between the leaders and the staff members. Therefore, the two sets of individuals get a platform to share ideas and grow in mental capacity.

Ideal values improve the level of self-awareness in various organizations. The virtues help administrators to discover the weak points of the staff members (Lin, MacLennan, Hunt, & Cox, 2015). Additionally, leaders can use the organizational values as the mirror for the blind spots in the strength of a caregiver. Therefore, leaders rely on values to sharpen the skills of the workforce. Additionally, an organization with reliable and relevant values experience excellence in its operations. A leader should develop values that improve the quality of care to the patients. The virtues should also enhance the knowledge of the care providers. Therefore, values are essential ingredients to effective leadership.

Organizational Culture is a decisive factor in the interaction between employees. An active culture motivates employees to remain loyal to the administration (Musto, Rodney, & Vanderheide, 2015). Culture also promotes desirable competition among the workers. A culture of pleasant top performing staff motivates the caregivers to outdo one another and receive the award. An active culture is a source of direction to the employees. Therefore, the workers develop a uniform method of delivering care to the patients. Furthermore, cultural values outline the responsibilities and roles of the care providers. Therefore, nurses can beat strict deadlines due to distinct organizational cultures.

The culture of an organization differentiates it from other institutions. Patients identify different health facilities with their distinct cultures (Rosenthal, Tsao, Tsuyuki, & Marra, 2016). Organization culture directs employees to a similar platform. The leader has the responsibility of treating the employees equally to boost their working morale. An attempt to leave out or neglect a member of staff is detrimental to the levels of productivity. The administrator should help the team to adjust to the culture of the hospital; since the adjustment brings the best out of the employees. The culture is also a source of unity for care providers from different colleges; therefore, it helps to harmonize their mentalities and attitudes.

An organizational culture helps to improve the relationship between the caregivers and the patients. The culture also enhances the levels of interaction amongst the care providers (Truong, Paradies, & Priest, 2014). Additionally, the culture makes the nurses to view each other as equals and that no one is a burden amongst them. Furthermore, an appropriate cultural setting improves the output of each employee. A health facility should be strict and insist that each nurse must provide a report of activities at the close of each working day.  Such a system makes the nurses responsible and accountable for their actions.

Several factors affect the culture of an organization. The first factor is the person that an organization has employed. The mentalities, perceptions, attitude, and interests of the employees have an impact on the organizational culture (Cheng, Bartram, Karimi, & Leggat, 2016). Caregivers from an army background tend to abide by strict cultural requirements. Such employees always arrive early at work and are not prone to medical errors. Sex is another essential determinant that affects the culture of an institution. Recent research has shown that female caregivers are less aggressive than their male counterparts. The objectives and goals of a health facility also affect its culture.

Health facilities should carefully monitor their management style as it also affects the culture of the institutions. Specific organizations allow caregivers to make independent decisions and participate in developing critical strategies (Lean Keng, & AlQudah, 2017). Such cultures motivate healthcare professionals to work for an extended period at the hospital. The leadership must discard a culture that is profit-oriented and develops strategies that prioritize the well-being of the employees. Undesirable cultures demoralize the workers and make them search for other employment opportunities.

Conclusion

Respect involves honoring other people’s skills and knowledge. The essential pillar of respecting is listening skills. The factors that affect respect include social relationships, family, and organizational culture. An ideal leader should appreciate the abilities and knowledge of the caregivers at the care setups. An administrator should develop specific traits to deal with the caregivers respectfully. The first skill is careful and active listening capabilities. The leader should appreciate the input of the nurse and correct the caregivers where applicable. An ideal leader should also possess emotional intelligence and empathy. A good administrator should also be aware of the self and the activities of the employees. Foresight and team-building also ensure respectful treatment of employees by the employers. Therefore, a leader must adopt the above traits to promote respect for the people at the health facility.

Organizational values assist the hospital to make critical decisions on care. Proper virtues also improve the quality of healthcare provision by the caregivers. Relevant values enhance the growth of employees at the workstation. Additionally, values strengthen the awareness of both leaders and the employees at the health set-ups. Organizational culture is distinct from one institution to the other and helps outsiders to identify an institution. The culture improves the relationship between the caregivers and the patients. An individual’s personality and sex affect the culture of an organization. The management style also has an impact on the culture of an institution.

References

Carragher, J., & Gormley, K. (2017). Leadership and emotional intelligence in nursing and midwifery education and practice: a discussion paper. Journal of advanced nursing, 73(1), 85-96.

Cheng, C., Bartram, T., Karimi, L., & Leggat, S. (2016). Transformational leadership and social identity as predictors of team climate, perceived quality of care, burnout, and turnover intention among nurses. Personnel Review, 45(6), 1200-1216.

Courtney, M., Nash, R., Thornton, R., & Potgieter, I. (2015). Leading and managing in nursing practice: Concepts, processes, and challenges. Leadership & Nursing contemporary perspectives. 6(8), 345- 405.

Daly, J., Jackson, D., Rumsey, M., Patterson, K., & Davidson, P. M. (2015). Building nursing leadership capacity: An Australian snapshot. Nurse Leader, 13(5), 36-39.

Drotz, E., & Poksinska, B. (2014). Lean in healthcare from employees’ perspectives. Journal of health organization and management, 28(2), 177-195.

Freeman, T., Edwards, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Jolley, G., Javanparast, S., & Francis, T. (2014). Cultural respect strategies in Australian Aboriginal primary health care services: beyond education and training of practitioners. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 38(4), 355-361.

Goodall, A. H., Bastiampillai, T., Nance, M., Roeger, L., & Allison, S. (2015). Expert leadership: Doctors versus managers for the executive leadership of Australian mental health. pp 409-411.

Hutchinson, M. (2018). The crisis of public trust in governance and institutions: Implications for nursing leadership. Journal of nursing management, 26(2), 83-85.

Lean Keng, S., & AlQudah, H. N. I. (2017). Assessment of cognitive bias in decision?making and leadership styles among critical care nurses: a mixed methods study. Journal of advanced nursing, 73(2), 465-481.

Lin, P. Y., MacLennan, S., Hunt, N., & Cox, T. (2015). The influences of nursing transformational leadership style on the quality of nurses’ working lives in Taiwan: a cross-sectional quantitative study. BMC Nursing, 14(1), 33.

Moss, S., Mitchell, M., & Casey, V. (2017). Creating a Culture of Success: Using the Magnet Recognition Program® as a Framework to Engage Nurses in an Australian Healthcare Facility. Journal of Nursing Administration, 47(2), 116-122.

Musto, L. C., Rodney, P. A., & Vanderheide, R. (2015). Toward interventions to address moral distress: Navigating structure and agency. Nursing Ethics, 22(1), 91-102.

Paterson, K., Henderson, A., & Burmeister, E. (2015). The impact of a leadership development programme on nurses’ self?perceived leadership capability. Journal of nursing management, 23(8), 1086-1093.

Perry, L., Xu, X., Duffield, C., Gallagher, R., Nicholls, R., & Sibbritt, D. (2017). Health, workforce characteristics, quality of life and intention to leave: The ‘Fit for the Future’survey of Australian nurses and midwives. Journal of advanced nursing, 73(11), 2745-2756.

Rosenthal, M., Tsao, N. W., Tsuyuki, R. T., & Marra, C. A. (2016). Identifying relationships between the professional culture of pharmacy, pharmacists’ personality traits, and the provision of advanced pharmacy services. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 12(1), 56-67.

Scully, N. J. (2015). Leadership in nursing: The importance of recognizing inherent values and attributes to secure a positive future for the profession. Collegian, 22(4), 439-444.

Spiers, J. A., Lo, E., Hofmeyer, A., & Cummings, G. G. (2016). Nurse leaders’ perceptions of the influence of organizational restructuring on evidence-informed decision-making. Nursing Leadership, 29(2), 64-81.

Truong, M., Paradies, Y., & Priest, N. (2014). Interventions to improve cultural competency in healthcare: a systematic review of reviews. BMC health services research, 14(1), 99.

Twigg, D., & McCullough, K. (2014). Nurse retention: a review of strategies to create and enhance positive practice environments in clinical settings. International journal of nursing studies, 51(1), 85-92.

Vassilev, I., Rogers, A., Kennedy, A., & Koetsenruijter, J. (2014). The influence of social networks on self-management support: a metasynthesis. BMC public health, 14(1), 719.

Waddell, J. J., Nissen, L. M., & Hale, A. R. (2017). Advanced pharmacy practice in Australia and leadership: mapping the APPF against an evidence?based leadership framework. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, 47(4), 263-268.

Wong, F. K. Y., Lau, A. T. Y., Ng, R., Wong, E. W. Y., Wong, S. M., Kan, E. C. Y., … & Bryant?Lukosius, D. (2017). An exploratory study on the exemplary practice of nurse consultants. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 49(5), 548-556.