Free Essay - Leadership Change Analysis

A disaster is a situation, which overcomes local capacity, requiring a request to both national and multinational levels for foreign support. Disasters have become a great menace in the past few decades. They have claimed many lives and also cost the universe billions of dollars. They have impacted serious disruption of the functioning of society resulting in economic losses. Disasters overwhelm accessible resources. Research indicates that there is an average of one disaster every week that requires international aid (Chugh, 2015).

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Catastrophes such as the recent one, Covid 19, Hurricane Katarina, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti have led healthcare workers to review their activities to deal with them censoriously. For instance, Covid 19, which has claimed more than 53,000 deaths, has become a worrying disaster that needs an immediate response.

Health workers, especially nurses, usually have great responsibilities for the community; hence they need to be familiar with their role in emergency preparedness and disaster planning. It is, therefore, important to come up with a change mechanism that would help nurses facilitate such preparedness in disaster management. The project entails disaster preparedness and management, which requires a general change theory, which would be implemented. Nurse leaders adapt leadership styles, changes, and care processes.

Nurse leaders play a vital task within the composite adaptive system as they maintain an effective service delivery that sustains quality care and improved patient results, irrespective of the endless changes. Furthermore, the leadership tools, which include organizational mission and vision that steer both administrative and patient care providers are always reviewed.

Change Theory Used

Leaders generally provide a sense of management and overall steering to their employees. These leaders make use of organizational vision, mission, and value statement. Such measures provide important directions for every employee, especially nurses participating in all events within the health care system organization. Therefore, for a health system to thrive, the system needs to undergo regular changes while responding to the surrounding ambiance.

Change theories in nurse leadership can be linear or also non-linear. The change theory used for the project is the Force Field and The Unfreezing Change Refreezing Model. This theory was postulated by Kurt Lewin, and it involves a three-stage form of change. The Unfreezing Change Refreezing Model is based on the idea that if one can key and determine the capacity of forces, then it is possible to recognize the forces which require to be lessened or strengthened to accomplish change (Hussain, Lei, Akram, Haider, Hussain & Ali, 2018).

Behavior, as described by Lewin, is "a dynamic balance of forces working in opposing directions" (Shirley, 2013). This theory makes use of two types of forces and is well applied to stabilized environments. These two forces are driving and restraining forces. Driving forces propel a direction that induces the change to happen or that facilitates the difference since they press a person in a wanted direction. On the other hand, restraining forces counter the driving motive and hamper the change since they press a person off from the desired direction. When the driving forces can prevail over or even weaken the restraining forces, then a change can occur.

Furthermore, this theory is based on three stages. The first stage is unfreezing. It involves the process of determining a system to assist people in relinquishing of past patterns of behavior and helping individuals in defeating resistance through educating, challenging the status quo, and also exhibiting problems. This stage makes it possible to recognize the driving forces for a change and the prospective restraining forces (Cummings, Bridgman, & Brown 2016).

The second stage is moving or changing. A change in feelings, ideas, and behaviors is involved in this stage. It also means looking for alternatives, showing the benefits of change, and reducing forces that affect change negatively. This can be achieved through brainstorming, proper coaching, and training. However, this is usually the toughest stage due to some uncertainty and fear related to change. Hence, it is essential to have a supportive team and well-defined communication to accomplish the necessary change.

The final stage is refreezing. It generally involves demonstrating the change as a new routine. It integrates a new equilibrium into the organization hence resisting further change. For instance, celebrating success and also tracking important performance indicators. This stage is crucial to ascertain that the amendment applied in the second stage will be adhered to over time. Also, this stage creates a greater level of performance anticipation.

Facilitators

The stable environment where the change was applied was a great facilitator of this theory. Also, the supportive nursing team and clear communication ensured the smooth implementation of this change theory. The team was ready to embrace change for quality service in health care delivery. The team worked collaboratively to find new and relevant information that helped set up the desired change. Such collaborative efforts played a great role in creating connections, ideas sharing, flourishing of the available opportunities for innovation, and also transpiring of the strategies for change. Executive engagement and purposeful orientation worked pretty well to facilitate the change theory.

Barriers and Challenges

Lewin's change theory is a widely used model though it is faced with several challenges during its implementation. It is so linear and simple, leading to the change being often unpredictable and also complex. The theory also requires nurse leaders to decline prior knowledge and replace it with the latest information.

Also, some challenges that were faced included not having full participation from other nurses, which resulted in a few negative consequences. At some point, the theory led to a small division among the different nurse groups due to the lack of consensus. In the paper, the change theory looked pretty good for the project, but after implementation, it lacked consideration of human feelings.

Evaluation of Change

The change theory would help to promote quality healthcare delivery by nurses by involving them in various aspects of planning and carrying out of daily activities. By implementing Lewin's theory, it will help reduce stakeholder resistance and worry of change by the development of a critical thought plan and competent participation in the event of a change. This is because, often, nurses have been forced to change practice without having the chance to give input, and this has led to a lack of trust in nurse organizations over time.

Through the implementation, this model, managing and curbing disasters such as Covid 19, would be easier since this change encompasses all aspects. This theory brought a significant positive impact on the project of disaster preparedness as it initiated proper planning and good governance by the nurse leaders. The approach was the best for the project as compared to the other theories such as Havelock, Rogers and Lippitt, Watson & Westley. This theory was a better choice since it is an easy model to implement with clear guidance steps. Analyzing this model on my project, it made the transition easier (Torraco, 2010).

Recommendations for Future Change

The general change process was a bit slow, and it needed more time for it to be more effective. In preparing for disaster management, proper planning is a key step, and leaders should be at the frontline in implementing such plans. Additionally, Lewin's change theory worked effectively by providing a platform where the nurses could share their skills and embrace a positive change in readiness for the disaster discussed in my project.

For a future change, the theory should be considerate in human feelings during the planning and implementation process. Also, the theory should take into account different opinions that would result in a mutual agreement.

Summary

Generally, a leader needs to put in mind the mission and goal of the changes to lead an organization successfully. Also, a leader should be in a position to set goals and accomplish them within the set deadlines. The leader should always involve the employees, in our case, the nurses, to inspire them to join efforts to achieve a common goal. Being a change manager entails proper change navigating, creating and mobilizing adequate resources towards invention, and bettering the outcomes.

The key steps for emergency planning involve establishing the planning team, assessing the risks involved and the capabilities of the organization, developing various emergency response plans, implementing and testing the ideas, and finally improving the policies by being updated on the new trends.

References

Becker's Hospital Review (2017). Ten Top Patient Safety Issues for 2017.Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/10-top-patient-safety-issues-for-2017.html

Chugh, N. (2015). Risk Identification, Assessment and Management in Healthcare Sector. Editorial Board, 44(2), 36. Retrieved from https://asci.org.in/journal/AJoM_44(2)_Sep%202015.pdf#page=40

Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin's legacy for change management. Human Relations, 69(1), 33-60.

Dimick, J. B., & Ryan, A. M. (2014). Methods for evaluating changes in health care policy: the difference-in-differences approach. Jama, 312(22), 2401-2402.

Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3), 123-127.

Torraco, R. (2010). Evaluation and Feedback with the Change Process. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/omahaodn/evaluation-and-feedback-within-the-change-process