Leading and Change Agent in The Work Environment

Introduction

Every workplace setting has a different culture in which people of that environment may have unconsciously developed a norm. There are many unresolved problems in workplace settings such as the healthcare system that need to be addressed. Action should be taken in order to prevent and facilitate an improved workplace environment. Having leadership and being able to create change can help to improve the work environment of everyone involved. Firstly, bullying is an ongoing issue occurring in and influencing many healthcare work environments. Secondly, one leadership and change theory will be identified to explore ways to address the workplace issue. Thirdly, specific change strategies will be identified relating to the leadership and change theory that will be used to address the issue. Lastly, the desired outcome of the change initiative and why it is important will be discussed.

Bullying in healthcare work environments

There are many issues occurring in the work environment of healthcare institutions. One of the main concerns is bullying. This issue has a strong influence among the work environment especially affecting nurses. Many nurses that are bullied suffer from psychological and physical effects such as anxiety and frequent headaches which will also impact their level of job satisfaction (Lee, Berstein, Lee, & Nokes, 2014). Bullying has detrimental effects on the victims experiencing it but can also damage the environment of the organization (Lee et al., 2014). Bullying is an issue that the public would not think would also occur in workplace settings such as healthcare institutions, but it is an important underlying situation that some employees are still experiencing. Since the effects of bullying can harm our health and disrupt quality of life there needs to be appropriate action to draw attention and focus on resolving this recurring issue. Bullying between employees affects the workplace culture, there will be more marginalizing instead of collaboration and communication among everyone part of the interdisciplinary team which will then affect the image of the organization (Sauer & McCoy, 2018). If a nurse is mentally stressed and not in the appropriate health to effectively take care of patients, there can be unintentional mistakes or just not fully being able to attend to patients needs which will overall lead to decreased patient safety (Hubbard, 2014). The effects from bullying can lead to decreased economic health of the organization through employees not wanting to be present at work and increased turnover rate which will negatively affect the economy of the organization (Sauer & McCoy, 2018). Bullying not only affects the employees but also the patients, and the organizations can negatively become impacted, which is why this issue needs immediate sustainable action.

Leadership and change to address the workplace issue

The leadership theory of transformational leadership and the change theory Kotter’s eight stage change process can both be applied to address this workplace issue. Transformational leadership is about a leader having personality qualities consisting of being courageous and enthusiastic with an ability to engage followers to achieve goals towards a shared vision, and to transform the thinking of others (Fischer, 2017). It consists of four main elements idealised influence such as being a role model, inspirational motivation such as collaboratively creating a vision with others, intellectual stimulation such as empowering the capabilities of others, and individualized consideration such as being authentically present with the concerns of others (Fischer, 2017; Guadine & Lamb, 2015). The ability of a leader to demonstrate these characteristics can help to promote the need of an improved organizational culture.

Kotter’s eight stage change process is about a systematic process being implemented to establish change in a work environment. This change theory consists of eight steps the leader must follow in order for change to be successful, development of a sense of crisis, forming partnerships, collaboratively developing a new vision, articulating the vision, empowering others to participate, creating short term accomplishments, committing to the change, and reinforcing the change (Jones-Schenk, 2017; Guadine & Lamb, 2015). The ability of a leader to create an environment for change to occur by being encouraging and engaging others to work together to achieve a common goal can establish a possibility of improving the current work environment.

Transformational leadership theory and Kotter’s eight stage change process can both appropriately be applied to address the persistent bullying workplace issue occurring in healthcare settings. Having a leader that portrays qualities of a transformational leader can help facilitate everyone to achieve goals within an organization. When there is collaboration and census among many people about a shared vision to improve a work environment, establishing a coalition to reinforce the change can be possible. In order to promote organizational goals, the leader must be receptive of information from followers, have the ability to build trust, relationships, and empower others so that the identified common goal can be accomplished (Crowne et al., 2017). This leadership style can help to address the issue of bullying in the workplace by encouraging everyone to see a vision of there needing to be change and actively being a part of the process to achieving the success. Building a team and sharing input during the decision-making process between leader and followers is essential to accomplish organizational goals (Fardellone, Musil, Smith, & Click, 2014). The need for change must be brought to attention and followers should be stimulated to think critically and innovatively to create strategies (Fischer, 2017; Guadine & Lamb, 2015) and feel empowered in order to accomplish them. Having an agent of change can help facilitate and draw attention to the need of the status quo of the work environment to be challenged. When there is a systematic approach to achieving a result, it will be useful for the leader to be able to have a guideline or a framework to track the progress and identify areas during the change process that may need reassessment and adjustment. Creating the environment for change, forming a coalition, engaging and enabling the whole organization to create a new vision, recognizing small accomplishments, and sustaining those changes can allow successful results to occur in the organization. This change theory can help to address the issue of workplace bullying by moving people out of their norms and become aware that change needs to be initiated. In order to see results of change in an organization everyone involved needs to feel empowered and have an active role during the process to sustain the achievement permanently (Jones-Schenk, 2017).

Analysis of specific change strategies

There are some change strategies that can be useful to addressing the issue of bullying in the workplace while applying the transformational leadership theory and Kotter’s eight stage change process. First of all, change cannot be made without the help of followers or without a coalition to support and strengthen a goal towards being accomplished. There is no hierarchy involved in the changing process, it must be inclusive and maintain collaborative effort between each member of the organization in which they all bring their own personal attributes (Anderson, 2018). To address the issue of bullying in the workplace, there needs to be a change agent that is competent in motivating and empowering others to see a vision of what could be done to make a difference in a work environment that will benefit everyone equally, and improve what is currently happening. Employees need to be educated on the topic of bullying and be aware of the different types and all the detrimental effects it can cause. Staff meetings initiated by management can regularly be held on the unit where staff can report any incidences. Those staff meetings created can then inspire other units to hold meetings about bullying until it gets the attention of the whole organization. Policies can be created such as if you see something say something, with policies in place employees can feel comfortable speaking up since we all have a responsibility to incorporate change. There can be mentorship programs so that the ones that are doing the bullying can receive support and become aware of the effects of what their inappropriate behaviour is doing to others. A team of nurses can create an anti-bullying group and reach out to other levels and disciplines within the organization to gather more people, and share their experiences or vision with them to spread awareness and receive different perspectives. Once a team is formed everyone needs to collaborate, share a vision, and feel empowered to contribute to ending bullying in the workplace. When there are no reported incidences of bullying for at least several months that can mark a small win such as employees consistently showing up to work, increased patient satisfaction, and job satisfaction. Once everyone can see those positive changes they can adjust to that new change and feel comfortable making it a permanent success.

Desired outcome of the change initiative

The desired outcome from ending bullying in the workplace is that nurses, patients, and the organizations will no longer suffer from the damaging effects. In a work environment free of bullying workers will be supportive, respectful, and enabled to establish trusting relationships among one another increasing teamwork and overall job satisfaction (Purpora & Blegen, 2015). There will be increased patient safety as the nurses caring for patients will feel less stressed and under pressure, if they do feel that way, they will be able to reach out to their colleagues for support or advice. There will be improved psychological and physical wellbeing among nurses, improved quality of patient care, less turnover, and increased job satisfaction within the organization (Fischer, 2017). When everyone in an organization can openly and respectfully communicate with one another that helps to create a sense of a safe environment. These positive outcomes can then lead to less turnover and the image of an organization becomes positive and inspiring that successful change is possible to achieve. These positive outcomes are important as the effects of bullying is harmful to the physical and psychological health of nurses (Hubbard, 2014) which have major roles in healthcare institutions. It can affect things such as their practice while with patients, and job satisfaction (Purpora & Blegen, 2015) as they will not want to be present at work, and risk of developing health issues. Overall, bullying does not just affect the ones that are targeted, but also the lives of patients and the economy of organizations will also be inflicted.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the issue of bullying is persistently occurring within healthcare settings and needs to immediately be appropriately addressed to end its existence in work environments. Applying the transformational leadership theory and Kotter’s eight stage change process to guide change strategies is beneficial for those that inspire to see change and improvement within their organization. These theories enable leaders to have a framework or a guideline with how they can work together and empower others to act and create sustainable change. When the change process is inclusive and everyone has an active role towards it, that accomplishment will be something everyone can feel proud of. To put an end to bullying in the workplace environment cannot only be done by just one person, a team with a shared vision needs to be developed in order for change to be successful. An environment where everyone can work collaboratively, empower one another, and build relationships is a positive and safe environment and one that can take on challenges. It is important for people to feel empowered and to take action to address issues and when they have an idea of making a current situation into something better, do not try and do it alone, working together as a team is essential for long lasting success.

References

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