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LEADERSHIP STYLES AND PATIENT SAFETY

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Introduction

            Organizational leadership is vital for the success of any organization and one of the critical success factors. Managers need to show their capabilities for the achievement of the desired goals. The managers should be able to influence the subordinate workers, provoke them and also take responsibility for the outcomes.

            There is a need for organizations to create extensive organizational changes for their survival in the market. The leaders who can facilitate this work are called transformational leaders. These leaders can strengthen staff comprehension, justice and improve the quality of life in an organization (McFadden, Stock, & Gowen , 2014). Quality life in an organization includes the level of employee satisfaction and improvement in the organizational culture. On the other hand, a decrease in performance of employees is caused by the perception of deception, discrimination and injustices. However, transformational leadership is complex and a dynamic process that needs the leaders to influence the values of their followers, their beliefs and objectives. The leaders are responsible for moving organizations towards recognition of the organizational needs and apply the required changes (Giltinane, 2015). The leaders also develop potential chances for the employees and establish commitments to alter the culture of the organization. Transformational leadership is vital for an ailing patient. The workplace enforcement in healthcare leads to improved quality of healthcare.

Transformational leadership affects the quality of healthcare services and reduces medication errors. Transformational leadership lowers the risk of death of ailing patients. There is also learning from moderate and small patient safety tutorials (Wong & Giallonardo, 2016). The improvement in the quality of healthcare and health and safety for the clients leads to advancement in quality of care and delivered and can easily lead to growth in the quality of healthcare and therefore promote the safety of patients.Transactional leadership style is a ‘telling’ leadership style. Its focus is on emphasizing performance and structure. There are several building blocks of transactional leadership.

Putting more emphasis on supervision

            The leader sets particular guidelines and ensures that the instructions are followed. He also relies heavily on the structure of the organization (Boamah, Laschinger, & Wong, 2015). He emphasizes on rules, procedures and standards. The leader is given the mandate to form laws, and then the subordinates are supposed to follow them. The transactional model gives much emphasis on performance too. The relationship between the leader and subordinate staff is based on exchanges and the performance of the subordinate staff. In a case whereby performance meets the set standards, the performance level is monitored by the supervisor, and then he also rewards the exceptional ones. The leader is, however, expected to focus on ensuring that the three mechanisms mentioned above are applied in the organization.

            However, the focus in a transactional leadership style is for short time goals. The method is concerned about ‘here and now style’ in keeping the leadership style afloat. The technique does not consider the future of the organization (Al-Sawai, 2016). It is good to have long term goals to make sure the business remains in the market. The style can work with workers who are not experienced and unmotivated. The technique assumes the subordinate to be a rational thinker who is motivated by financial benefit. The style focuses much on behaviorism and believes that human behavior is predictable due to its pure driving force. However, the view disregards the other reasons for human motivation. The theory does not consider other factors like emotional factors and social values. The leadership style also has a problem of shifting creativity and innovation within an organization. The subordinates are expected to perform tasks following the guidelines given to them. The aides are not allowed to offer any opinion as long as the procedure functions.

             Transactional leadership motivates the healthcare workers through a system of rewards and punishments to get the daily chores done. The style focuses on getting specific tasks done by the management of each portion. Transactional leaders primarily focus on the job being done without making any significant change (Giltinane, 2015). Transactional leadership in nursing hinders long term relationships and has a negative influence on nurses’ job satisfaction. When there is no job satisfaction for nurses, the safety of patients is not assured, and this can easily lead to an increased mortality rate.

Conclusion

            In the current clinical setting, it is good to have effective leadership to ensure a high-quality care system that will offer safe and efficient care. The healthcare professional needs to identify the most effective leadership styles that will ensure that the safety of patients is maintained and that there is the satisfaction.

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