Leadership in Change Management

Leadership in Change Management

Centuries ago, a famous Greek philosopher, Heraclitus disputed conventional wisdom that things will always stay the same. He used the flow of the river as a metaphor to describe the changes that was going on. He challenged the Greek leadership to acknowledge these changes or risk their global dominance. Two thousand years later, modern civilization is facing the same challenges as their predecessors. A rapid improvement in technology compounded with an increase in competition due to globalization has led to the emergence of change in most major industries around the world. One industry were change has become inevitable is the health care industry. Like Heraclitus, today’s experts are calling for change to a health care system that was once seen as permanently structured. Roussel & Swansburg (2009) posited that in order for the health care system to be competitive in the 21st century, health care has to adopt a model that is “flat, innovative, nimble, and responsive to change” (p.3). He noted Some of the factors for change in the health care system are; patients demand for improve quality care and safety, the demand to remain competitive through innovation, cost-cutting, and the adaptation to diversity in the health care industry (p. 3). While change could be seen as a way of improving or adjusting a process or procedures that can lead to better outcomes, when mismanaged, the impact of change could lead to serious issues for both the employees and patients. According to Wright (2010), lack of leadership in change management leads to adverse outcomes such as resentment, rebellious attitudes, and could end up damaging the same people it intended to make better (p.20). Therefore, it is very importa...

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... be hard to understand (p. 82). Through these steps, a leader would be able to reach his or her intended target without fear of the message being distorted.

The second domain is knowledge of the healthcare environment. This domain is just as important as the communication domain. A competent leader must have knowledge of what is going on in key areas such as clinical practice, delivery models, healthcare economics, policies and procedures, and patient safety. Knowledge gained in these areas could help the leader through the critical think process which is vital in change management. Furthermore, nothing makes a leader influential than knowledge. When the employee trust that their leader knows what he or she is talking about, they would tend to pay more attention to the message. Thereby reducing the risk of misinformation that can block a very thoughtful plan.