Introduction
The structures of healthcare organizations are very complex, as a result, there is the need for leaders to provide leadership, supervise and coordinate all employees in order to guarantee holistic care delivery to the patients (Stetler, Ritchie, Rycroft-Malone & Charns, 2014). The purpose of this paper is to identify the key players in a 417-bed integrative hospital. The key players in the hospital include hospital administrator, manager, and a supervisor for the nursing units.
Roles of the Key Players
Hospital administrator
The hospital administrator is in charge of coordinating the operations of the entire hospital. The administrator directs and ensures that the healthcare services provided in the organization are implemented as planned. In addition, the administrator ensures that the strategic goals of the organization are met. One of the goals is providing holistic care to patients through the creation of healing environments. The administrator is also in charge of development and implementation of policies and procedures for the organization.
Nurse Manager
The manager coordinates with the hospital administrator to ensure that there are adequate resources required in the nursing units. The manager ensures that the economic needs of nurses are met such as remuneration. Regarding non-economic factors, the nurse manager is in charge of strategic policies to improve the nurse work environment and promotion of the work culture.
Supervisor
The supervisor collaborates with nurse manager to create positive work environment. He provides support and directions to the nurses in order to motivate them. The supervisor also inspects the work premises to ensure work environment is safe and free of hazards.
Leadership style Demonstrated by each Key Player
Supportive leadership plays a critical role in the implementation of advanced nursing practices in the workplace (Gifford et al., 2013). The type of leadership employed by leaders determines the motivation levels of the nurses and influences the health care delivery (Carter et al., 2010). The hospital administrator applies transactional leadership while the nurse manager and supervisor practices leissez-faire and transformational leadership respectively.
Transformational leadership encourages participatory approach to solve issues (Sherman & Pross, 2010). A study conducted by Stetler et al. (2014) found that transformational leaders were “able to articulate a compelling vision and galvanize collective action, communicate messages in meaningful ways, and operate in an innovative, inclusive, intellectually stimulating manner” (p. 221). The leissez-faire leadership is hands off approach. The leaders provide little direction because they believe that the subordinates can work without being supervised (Clarke, Swider & Bigley, 2013). Thus, it leads to a state of status quo. The transactional leadership style focuses on leader-follower exchange with the follower acting with respect to orders given by the leader. Communication is in one direction.
Examples
The administrator issues instructions to be followed by all the departments. In addition, there are rewards and reprimands based on the performance of the employees. On the other hand, the nurse manager believes that everything is in order and hence less concerned with the working processes of the nurses. The supervisor encourages nurses to give their views on what should be improved in the organization.
Role of Power Influence
Morgeson, DeRue, and Karam (2010) found that leaders can leverage on power of position, power of charisma, power of reward and the power of relationships. The power of position and power of reward enables the administrator to execute the transactional leadership. The manager applies the power of position to set up systems that ensure the subordinates work without the need for close supervision. The supervisor utilizes both the power of position and relationship to advance transformational leadership.
Leadership Theories
The theories that relate to the key players include the transformational theory, contingency theories, and transactional theories. Transformational leadership theory stipulates that work environments should encourage communication that takes place in all directions. An example is the transformational leadership by supervisor. The manager applies transactional leadership theory and hence the transactional leadership. The theory is based on a framework of a clear chain of command. Rewards and punishments are used to enhance performance. The manager applies contingency theory, which is based on belief that there is no best way of leadership. Thus, solutions are reactive and based on the situation at hand.
References
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Clarke, P., Swider, S., & Bigley, M. B. (2013). Nursing leadership and health policy a dialogue with nurse leaders. Nursing Science Quarterly, 26(2), 136-142.
Gifford, W. A., Davies, B. L., Graham, I. D., Tourangeau, A., Woodend, A. K., & Lefebre, N. (2013). Developing leadership capacity for guideline use: A pilot cluster randomized control trial. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 10(1), 51–65.
Morgeson, F. P., DeRue, D. S., & Karam, E. P. (2010). Leadership in teams: A functional approach to understanding leadership structures and processes. Journal of Management, 36(1), 5–39.
Sherman, R., & Pross, E. (2010) Growing future nurse leaders to build and sustain healthy work environments at the unit level. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 15(1), 112-121.
Stetler, C. B., Ritchie, J. A., Rycroft-Malone, J., & Charns, M. P. (2014). Leadership for Evidence-Based Practice: Strategic and functional behaviors for institutionalizing EBP. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 11(4), 219–226.