Leadership in Change Management

Centuries ago, a famous Greek philosopher, Heraclitus disputed conventional wisdom that things will always stay the same. Using the flow of the river as an example, Heraclitus describes the changes that were going on the time a fluid. 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. A rapid improvement in technology compounded with an increase in global competition has given rise to the emergence of change in most major industries. One industry were change has become inevitable is the health care industry. Today, there are increasing calls from management experts to a change the health care system to one that can remain competitive in the 21st century. Roussel & Swansburg (2009) posited that the current state of the healthcare system would not survive the pressing needs for change. He proposed that the new system should be a model that is “flat, innovative, nimble, and responsive to change” (p.3). This means that the system should be more responsive to its customers, sponsors, and other important players.

What is change?

Change is defined as the art of altering or improving a process toward a better outcome. Roussel & Swansburg, (2009) further describes change as the mastery of a process that can be “exhilarating, refreshing, and challenging, because it represents opportunity (p.112)”. Some of the known factors that are driving change in the health care system are; patients demand for improve quality care and safety, the demand to remain competitive through creativity and innovation, workplace and patient diversity, and cost-cutting (p. 3).

While change could be seen as a way of improving or making adj...

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...tability which would allow change to thrive. Another import part of professionalism that applies to change management is ethics. Ethics is described as a set of rules and regulations that govern the way nursing is practice. In a change environment, it is important for the nurse administrator to integrate high ethical standards and core values into the process. These standards would give the nurse administrator the leverage to enforce change.

The fifth domain is business skills. In every change management there is cost. To be able to assess the return of investment of change, nurse administrator should at least basic business skills. These skills can be achieved through learning about the practices in various departments within the organization. With these skills, the nurse administrator would be able to educate the employee on the financial implications of change.