Strategic Leadership in Public Health (Research Paper Sample)

Strategic Leadership in Public Health
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Primary attributes, characteristics, and styles of leadership
Being a public health manager does not make one a leader because leadership is a complex and inherent trait that a person can either developer acquire. In essence, leadership is the ability of an individual to influence his followers to take certain actions or think in a certain way that will enable them to attain a predetermined goal. It means that leadership goes hand in hand with goal setting, whether in the public health sector or other sectors (Hunter 2007, pp. 148-173). The public health sector requires managers who have distinct leadership traits and styles so that the public health care centers can run efficiently. Fundamentally, six leadership styles exist with each having its unique attributes and characteristics. Such leadership styles include transactional, transformational, democratic, autocratic, and Laissez-Faire leadership styles (Dessler & Phillips 2008, p. 87).
Authoritarian/Autocratic leadership is highly disapproved in public healthcare management because the leader takes total control of everything. An authoritarian leader will make all the critical decisions in the public healthcare sector without consulting his followers, who may have valuable information to share. Such a leader decides and delegates duties and instructions to his team members. On the other hand, democratic leadership style allows other health practitioners to give their input on the main issues before their leader takes a well thought-out decision. Since the manager allows participation by all members, the public health care fraternity feels part of the management and their motivation levels go up (Schermerhorn 2011, p. 279).
Since the medical and nursing professions are serious occupations, health care professionals can manage their affairs without much supervision and control. The Laissez-Faire leadership style suit a team of healthcare workers such as nurses perfectly. Nurses and other healthcare workers are highly trained and competent professionals who can handle a hands-off leader. Perhaps transactional leadership style is the worst style of leadership that the public health management can have because it involves punishments and rewards to the workers based on their performances. Conversely, transformational leadership style, which focuses on changing the mindset of public health care workers, can have adverse outcomes, particularly if the leader does not identify with the issues at hand in the public health care sector (Kibbe & Chen 2015, pp. 56-57).
Since leaders in the public health care sector can exhibit only one or two leadership styles, it is important that such leaders inculcate some leadership attributes and characteristics that are essential to all leadership styles. Public health leaders ought to be proactive as opposed to being reactive to critical health issues. They should be flexible, good communicators and emotionally intelligent so that they can cope with the many challenges of the public health care system. Beyond being confident, public health managers ought to exhibit a high sense of trust and motivation (Wittmann-Price & Cornelius 2013, pp. 3-4).
Strategic leadership and strategic change in public health
Public health management needs both strategic leadership and strategic change to enhance efficiency within the sector. Strategic leadership involves using appropriate leadership styles and traits to influence the performance of the health care professionals towards a common objective. More often than not, the goal of public health management is to deliver quality health care services in an efficient manner (Hunter 2007, pp. 148-173). Efficiency is one major issue that most managers of public health care facilities grapple with on a daily basis. Owing to the bureaucracies involved in such healthcare facilities, the leaders must inject strategic leadership to change the organization culture. Most of the public health care facilities have an organization culture that promotes negligence and inefficiency. Only strategic change can solve the problem (Finkelstein, Hambrick, & Cannella 2009, pp. 83-9).
Strategic leadership and strategic change have a high correlation in the sense that strategic leaders impart their visions on their followers to forge a new path of efficiency and success. Only if the workers in the public health acre are willing to accept such a transformation will strategic change occur. The strategic leader usually employs a transformational style of leadership to drive strategic change (Hunter 2007, pp. 148-173). The public health care requires strategic leaders who will develop frameworks through which the public health care fraternity will adopt change. Such a strategic plan can occur either through restructuring of the public health care management or by developing a strategic plan that public health care organizations will follow. Strategic leaders will always work towards strategic change in their dockets, including the public health docket. Such leaders will influence and control the healt...