Leadership In Health Care Essay

Leadership In Healthcare: Recent Theories and Their Applications

Critically discuss the most appropriate motivational approaches for public health managers to consider when morale is low amongst employees.

1. Introduction

Employee morale has an impact on organizational performance and patient safety, and it is a public health managers’ responsibility to motivate staff and keep them engaged with the organization’s values and vision. As Dawson and Sheffield (2014), confirm, there is a close relationship between staff experience and patient satisfaction. Therefore, it is fair to say that lack of motivation and low employee morale will lead to poor patient care and negatively impact patient outcomes. Below I would like to discuss some of the motivational approaches that have been

Riccardi (2006) examined the future of public health in Europe, and found that building partnerships and consensus is more important than ever before. Reflecting on the current issues related to the NHS, Klein (2013) pinpoints some of the misalignments between policy and practice, vision and reality, and transparency is crucial to developing a new vision and mission for the national health service. It is the leaders’ responsibility to initiate change and create a new vision, motivate employees through transformational leadership.

Transformational leadership (Chemers 1997) in health care can be used to influence individual behaviour (Theory Y), through supporting employees in accomplishing tasks. Bass (1991) also states that transformational leaders initiate and facilitate change, and build a strong relationship with their followers, based on their strong vision communicated clearly, and creating a connection between organisational goals and desired outcomes. Motivation should focus on aligning individuals’ goals with the organization’s mission and vision (Hall et al.