Introduction
Organizational leadership is crucial for routine decision-making and business management. The leadership is mandated to develop policies that guide the daily interactions among the employees among other stakeholders. Big corporations such as CHOP have an effective leadership structure with definitive roles at each level. CHOP is a children’s hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The hospital is one of the largest and oldest healthcare centers in the U.S. and has been ranked as the best in the country. Given its patients’ capacity and size, its leadership has played a significant role in ensuring that it remains effective in the medical industry. Consequently, various leadership styles have been adopted at different organizational management levels to ensure that the stakeholders’ actions are consistent with its mission and vision. While CHOP’s management is significant to its success in the children’s treatment, effective leadership structure, technological integration, and team-building activities can help improve it.
CHOP Overview
Historical Background
CHOP has a long history that has contributed to its success and reputation in the U.S. and the world at large. The first CHOP hospital was established in 1855 when many children died of chicken pox. Dr. Francis West Lewis, who was a Philadelphia physician, was inspired by the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London to establish the children’s hospital in North America (Zimmerman & Rotta, 2021). The first CHOP hospital was located on Blight street, now Watts street, and had twelve beds and a dispensary. In 1866, the hospital was relocated to 22nd street between Locusts and Walnut Street. The relocation occurred after the U.S. Civil war and consisted of thirty-five beds and a dispensary. The second hospital exhibited two major developments: first surgery and first resident physician.
CHOP underwent a further expansion and increased its bed capacity to ninety-four. Between 1894 and 1914, the hospital had a nursing school, laboratory, and a department for the prevention of disease in the country (Wells, 2020). In 1913, the construction of the third hospital began, with the first unit being opened in 1916. The hospital made further developments until 1974: the discovery of Whooping cough vaccines and affiliation with the University of Pennsylvania school of medicine, among others. In 1974, a new hospital was opened on the West side of the Schuylkill River. The fourth hospital has modern equipment, including a helicopter transport system for critically ill and injured children. Presently, the hospital has a capacity of five hundred and ninety-four beds and admits about 28,000 children (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2022). Therefore, CHOP’s historical developments have significantly contributed to its present success in medicine.
CHOP Services and Departments
CHOP offers medical services to children through a collaborative pediatric approach. The hospital provides outpatient services, and inpatient stays for its clients. Moreover, CHOP offers speciality care in neonatology, pediatric cancer, cardiology, and heart surgery, among other services. The services offered by the hospital have been ranked the best in Philadelphia and U.S. at large. For instance, in 2021, CHOP was ranked as the best children’s hospital in Philadelphia and runners up in the U.S. The hospital has modernized medical equipment and specialized medics who offer quality services to children. The services offered at CHOP are divided into different institutional departments. The departments include the Adrenal and Puberty Center, Adolescent Preventive and Primary Care, and Alagille Syndrome Clinical Care Program, among others (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2022). Given its wide array of services and many departments, CHOP has an effective leadership structure.
Leadership
Organizational leadership is crucial in strategic decision-making and team motivation. Every corporation has a definite leadership structure that helps in the execution of routine activities and future planning. Leadership is defined as the capability to influence or guide others or an organization (Rizki et al., 2019). Leaders learn various skills that help them to effectively give directions to their subjects. An organizational leader plays various roles within a corporation: communicates the firm’s mission, establishes a strategic plan, and motivates individual stakeholders, among others (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). Organizations such as CHOP require proactive leaders who can help solve existing problems and develop creative solutions for the firm’s success. Therefore, CHOP needs effective organizational leadership to steer its success and remain afloat in the industry.
Essential Elements of Leadership
Successful leadership is anchored on various elements that create a cordial relationship between the management and employees. CHOP, as a medical and public institution, has adopted an ethical code that guides the conduct of its stakeholders. Transparency, humility, trust, decisiveness, and creativity are core leadership elements. Transparency involves having open motives that do not lead to doubt from others (Amin et al., 2020). Transparent leaders are challenged less by their subjects since they share their motives with everyone. Consequently, the transparent leaders’ decisions are backed up with reasons, and none feel prejudiced. Humility keeps leaders connected with the people around them (Zapata & Hayes-Jones, 2019). Humility traits include being honest, having integrity, and listening to the employees. Transparency and humility help leaders gain more respect and trust from people around them.
Organizational leaders are often involved in making decisions that are unique to a firm. Employees at lower organizational levels look to the leaders for innovative thinking and solutions to existing problems. Therefore, creativity is an essential leadership skill that comes in handy among organizations (Zapata & Hayes-Jones, 2019). Companies with creative leaders adopt innovative mechanisms that help them overcome business hurdles. Meanwhile, decisiveness involves carefully weighing decisions and becoming firm on the decision made. Firm decision-making promotes commitment and breeds consistency. Therefore, humility, decisiveness, trust, transparency, and creativity are essential among organizational leaders.
Leadership Styles
Organizations adopt different leadership styles according to their size and stakeholders’ population. While there are many approaches to leadership, participative, delegate, and transformational styles are effective (Philip, 2021). The participative leadership approach is rooted in democracy, and team members are involved in decision-making. Consequently, the employees feel included, engaged, and motivated to contribute to organizational growth (Philip, 2021). The delegation approach involves assigning specific roles to team members according to their competency levels (Zapata & Hayes-Jones, 2019). The approach enhances an innovative and positive working environment, bolstering success. Meanwhile, transformative leaders share the organizational vision with team members and encourage them to follow suit. Participative, delegate, and transformational leadership approaches help organizations to remain sustainable and successful.
Leadership at CHOP
CHOP Leadership Levels
CHOP is a big corporation with various leadership levels, each with different assigned roles. The hospital is headed by a president who is the chief executive officer (CEO). The CEO is deputized by seven different executive vice presidents. Various departments are represented by the executive vice presidents: human resources, business development and strategy, operations, and finance. The president and the executive vice presidents form the hospital executive board with eight members (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2022). The executive branch work in close coordination with a board of trustees and advisors. The board is headed by a chairperson who is deputized by a vice-chairperson. The board of trustees and advisors has a total of eighteen members who advise the hospital’s executive branch.
CHOP has various departments and centers, each with a leadership structure. Moreover, the hospital has over fifty locations, each with unique leadership levels. Some of the CHOP’s centers are the Academy for Resuscitation of Children, the ADHD Management Center, and the Advanced Pediatric Thyroid Cancer Therapeutics Clinic (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2022). The hospital’s centers bring together experts from various medical fields to offer specialized services. Consequently, leadership structures at the center levels contribute to the hospital’s overall success. Therefore, CHOP leadership is divided among three levels: executive, board and advisors, and centers or departments.
Adopted Leadership Approaches
Transformational Style
The transformational leadership style is adopted at both levels of CHOP leadership. The hospital is anchored on the values of transparency, humanity, and humility, among others. Consequently, the leaders from the highest to the lowest levels act as role models to the employees and the clients. The transformational approach encourages the exercise of social values that build an excellent reputation for the hospital. For instance, many decisions are made upon consulting the stakeholders, including the board of trustees. The employees and other stakeholders have trust in the executive leadership and are always ready to follow any decision or resolution made. The approach is adopted by departmental heads in case a difficult situation arises. Therefore, the transformative leadership approach has significantly contributed to trust and friendly working conditions at CHOP.
Delegation Style
The delegation leadership approach involves assigning specific roles to the employees. CHOP, like a big corporation, offers various services ranging from consultations to complex surgeries. Consequently, different medical practitioners are delegated with roles they have specialized in. The organization’s performance requires an active and well-developed technical system. The executive leaders delegate various work to the different departments. Meanwhile, the department leaders divide the available work among the employees. For instance, when conducting a cardiac surgery, different specialists will conduct various roles for a successful activity. The approach is beneficial to CHOP since the experienced employees take advantage of their competence and experience, and creativity is highly enhanced.
Participative Style
CHOP is a medical and training center, and stakeholders’ coordination helps it remain successful. Being a big corporation with over fifty centers, management decision-making can be a hard task. While some employees may agree with management’s new directives, others may remain opposed to them. Therefore, a participative leadership approach is adopted at various organizational levels. The executive and board of trustees consult each other when formulating policies and strategic planning. The department heads involve their fellow employees when executing their assigned roles. Furthermore, the clients are involved in rating the services offered for future improvements. The participative leadership approach as adopted by CHOP motivates all stakeholders, who feel appreciated and involved in key decision-making.
Effectiveness of CHOP Leadership
CHOP leadership is effective since it is one of the best-performing hospitals in the U.S. Effective leadership is contributed by its organizational structure and the employees’ ethical behaviors. The organization has been ranked as one of the best hospitals in the U.S. The success is largely contributed by the effective leadership structure and strategic plans. The hospital’s leadership has been at the forefront of acquiring and adopting modern technologies in pediatrics. Historically, the organization’s management has developed creative solutions to expand the hospital’s capacity. CHOP’s positive growth and development have attracted many clients seeking specialized medical attention. Therefore, the effective leadership at CHOP has positively impacted employees and other stakeholders.
The employee-management relationship at CHOP is cordial, and everyone works towards the hospital’s mission and vision. The top management has instilled an ethical culture that motivates the employees to work in the interest of the patients. Moreover, the employees consult their clients during medical interventions. Meanwhile, teamwork is highly encouraged through the participative leadership approach. The doctors consult each other when offering their services to clients. Additionally, when treating critical patients, the medics involve all the available specialists before making any decision. Consequently, the hospital offers quality services and continues to gain public trust in Philadelphia and U.S. Teamwork, as encouraged by the leadership approaches, has significantly contributed to CHOP’s excellent brand reputation and cordial employment relations.
Limitations to CHOP Leadership’s Effectiveness
Various factors have contributed to CHOP’s leadership failure. While some of the factors are instigated by the external business environment, the internal activities have led to conflicts among the employees. The recent COVID-19 pandemic encumbered the hospitals’ activities since many workers were dismissed and the adoption of virtual working was inevitable. As a medical institution, the hospital had much pressure from the increased cases of COVID-19. Consequently, there was poor communication between the management and employees. Although the COVID-19 ended, the management is still struggling to streamline its activities after the disruption. Consequently, many directives from the hospital’s executive are still in the implementation stages. Therefore, natural pandemics affect the effectiveness of CHOP’s management.
Moreover, the hospital’s size makes it difficult to monitor suggested strategic plans. The organization has over fifty centers operating daily. According to the hospital’s care network statistics, the hospital had about 15, 248 employees in the 2021 financial year (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2022). The large employee population makes it difficult for the leadership to account for every employee’s actions. Consequently, the hospitals’ strategic plans remain unimplemented in various centers. Furthermore, the large employee population makes it difficult for the hospital’s executives to interact with grassroots workers to identify the problems facing them. The hospital’s size and employee population encumber the effectiveness of the firm’s leaders in executing their roles.
Recommendations to Improve the Leadership
Develop an Effective Leadership Structure
Leadership at the CHOP is limited to the executive, board of trustees, and departmental levels. The employees at lower job designations depend on the decisions made at the top levels. There is a possibility of miscommunication and a lack of accountability among the junior workers. The organization can develop a leadership structure that represents all the stakeholders. For instance, the nurses working in the hospital can have their specific leaders. Moreover, the employees working in the hospital’s pharmacies can have their heads. The grassroots leaders would ensure that any decision made at the executive level is obeyed. Therefore, the hospital can restructure its leadership levels so that it accommodates all the employees.
Utilize Technology to Account for Employees’ Actions
Technological developments are crucial for effective corporate performance. CHOP has adopted various technologies to enhance its service delivery. Accounting for about 15,200 employees’ actions can be difficult. The management can adopt an appraisal and customer feedback system. The technology would help the clients to give responses on the services received. The adopted software should allow the patients to enter specific details that would help the management track the incompetent employee for necessary action. The appraisal system would help the leadership account for each employee’s action and develop mechanisms for future changes. Technology is significant in accounting for specific actions of a large employee population by the management.
Enhance Team Building Activities
Team building activities play a significant role among organizations since they remind the employees of the firm’s mission and vision. Since CHOP is a big corporation team building activities should be encouraged at the departmental levels. During the activities, the employees should be allowed to interact with the executive leaders and the trustees. The team-building interactive activities would help the organization identify common management problems and create solutions to solve them. Moreover, through the activities, the employees can be trained on ethical skills that would encourage them to follow the hospital’s policies. Team building activities will help create a cordial relationship among the employees and the hospital’s top leadership.
Conclusion
CHOP is one of the biggest children’s hospitals in Philadelphia and the U.S. The hospital offers specialized pediatric services and has gained an excellent reputation. Like many medical institutions in the U.S., CHOP’s historical developments have significantly contributed to its success. The hospital has effective management that utilizes participative, delegation, and transformative leadership approaches. The management is at various levels, with the top most being the executive leadership and the board of trustees. Moreover, leadership is also exercised at the departmental levels. Effective leadership has contributed to the hospital’s success, but internal and external business environments have remained detrimental. Effective leadership structure, technology, and team-building activities can promote management success.
References
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