Abstract
Leadership within the healthcare is not easy as has been indicated in the article. For instance, while dealing with ethics, the managing authority is likely to clash with subordinates who fail to adhere to the specified code. It requires a lot of confidence and resoluteness for one to be a healthcare leader. Setting aside personal relations from work is undoubtedly likely to earn leaders the required level of respect, failure to which it can be difficult for them to enforce policies set. Moreover, ensuring that equality is adhered to by all healthcare personnel may serve to be a difficult task for leaders. Furthermore setting equal opportunities for advancement of workers based on their competence is likely to pose a great challenge for them. It has, nevertheless, emerged that sticking to the specified regulations and guidelines is essentially bound to set the leaders apart from others and make them more influential in the long-run.
Leadership Dilemma in Healthcare
Healthcare leadership is bound to be a daunting task for most people. It may appear appealing but just as one can establish from this article it is possible for leaders to encounter many dilemmas. They have a duty to manage workers and also the operations occurring within the hospital setting. A leader is expected to be resolute, confident and decisive in terms of undertaking any duty under their jurisdiction. Ethics have been identified as part of the most complex dilemmas experienced by leaders where they are under the obligation to reinforce ethical standards of working among all workers. It is evident as established in the course of the article that dilemmas pertaining to leadership within the healthcare setting are unavoidable.
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In the course of the article, one can clearly observe that the dilemma on ethics is undeniably one of the most prevalent issues impacting on healthcare leadership. There is an expectation for acceptable codes which protect the fundamental rights of patients to be observed. Healthcare leaders are expected to ensure that their subordinates adhere to treating all individuals who visit the care facilities in an ethical manner. It is expected that nurses should uphold respect in all aspects regardless of the treatment they are likely to experience from patients. The situation is bound to go out of control in scenarios where nurses clash with those they are administering care to. In such a case, the management ends up having a difficult time in trying to resolve the conflict. Role modelling of ethical performance at the managerial level has been touted as one of the most effective ways of managing conflict (Storch, Makaroff, Pauly & Newton, 2013) . It has been suggested that nurses who occupy leadership positions should seek to promote ethical conduct through the implementation of ethical leadership ( Barkhordari-Sharifabad, Ashktorab & Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, 2017 ). Supporting ethical performance is another factor that can be considered in resolving such dilemmas. Also, sensitivity towards moral issues is bound to foster the dignity and safety of patients and should, therefore, be considered. It has further been suggested that enhancing the capacity to deliberate upon ethics in the course of daily undertakings is likely to nurture development.
Fostering confidence in leaders is fundamental for any healthcare system. This is mainly due to the idea that good leadership succeeds in establishing a culture of care which other employees readily adhere to. The article deliberates on the issue of maintaining such buoyancy in the course of challenging events as being one of the dilemmas faced by healthcare leaders ( Barkhordari-Sharifabad, Ashktorab & Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, 2017 ). It is believed that the leaders are fully aware that others rely on their self-assurance, failure to which they end up underperforming. Discrimination is likely to emerge within the healthcare environment. The leaders are tasked with the task of managing such cases which result from healthcare personnel favoring patients from specific ethnic affiliations at the expense of the others (Storch et al., 2013) . It becomes difficult for the leader to reinforce discipline unless they are resolute when dealing with such employees by instituting disciplinary measures to deter others from such practices. Discriminatory practices are also likely to affect the healthcare workers where some of them are sidelined by their supervisors and offered more complex duties compared to the rest (Arbinger Institute, 2010) . The article indicates that there is need for leaders to counter such issues before they escalate beyond manageable proportions ( Barkhordari-Sharifabad, Ashktorab & Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, 2017 ). The healthcare leader may, thus, encounter a dilemma on whether to institute regulations on those they are closely affiliated to yet this is the right course of action for them to take.
The article capitalizes on establishing various barriers that are capable of impacting on ethical leadership. In order to further validate the dilemma faced by healthcare leaders, a study was established on healthcare within Iran. While compared to peers from other nations, it was observed that Iranian healthcare leaders were greatly discontented with their work. This partly resulted from the dilemma on work pressure; one caused by the increasing number of patients yet their subordinates were understaffed. In such a scenario, the leader is almost incapable of handling the situation since they are not mandated to appoint additional healthcare workers (Mannix, Wilkes & Daly, 2015) . As a result, healthcare personnel serving in various positions within the healthcare setting end up being overworked. This leaves the leader struggling with underperformance which is another issue likely to emanate from work pressures. Shortage of time and resources has also been put forward as another dilemma faced by the healthcare leaders ( Barkhordari-Sharifabad, Ashktorab & Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, 2017 ). With insufficient resources, it is highly unlikely that healthcare workers will manage to fully satisfy the patients` demands.
This article is likely to have a positive influence on my work in healthcare leadership. For instance, balancing promotional incentives is one aspect that I have often encountered and it ends up conflicting healthcare leaders. As indicated within the article, there is a tendency for many healthcare workers feeling deserving of promotional opportunities established by their organization (Wong & Cummings, 2009) . In the event that some miss out from being promoted, they end up becoming reluctant to perform their duties accordingly. What I have learnt is that leaders have to devise a mechanism governing such opportunities for advancement in order to ensure that nobody feels left out. It is also now possible for me to cope with the undesirable social status which one ends up attaining as a healthcare leader. This occurs where they are distanced by their subordinates owing to their resolution to reinforce discipline. It is possible to separate work from personal relationships and friendships and this ensures that boundaries are set in order to gain the desired respect and cooperation from subordinates.
To sum it all up, it is apparent that healthcare leaders experience many dilemmas which they are forced to cope with in the course of their daily activities. Ethical dilemmas are the most common and they are capable of affecting the relationship between leaders and their subordinates. Leaders are expected to maintain high standards of ethical conduct and it is mostly difficult to deal with incidences involving patients and nurses or other healthcare workers. Also, leaders are expected to maintain confidence and resoluteness when dealing with workers. Other aspects such as discrimination are likely to affect the relationship between leaders and their subordinates. Finally it is important to note that countering ethical dilemmas in leadership within healthcare is possible so long as leaders adhere to all the regulations specified.
References
Arbinger Institute. (2010). Leadership and self-deception: Getting out of the box . Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Barkhordari-Sharifabad, M., Ashktorab, T., & Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, F. (2017). Obstacles and problems of ethical leadership from the perspective of nursing leaders: a qualitative content analysis. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine , 10 .
Mannix, J., Wilkes, L., & Daly, J. (2015). ‘Good ethics and moral standing’: a qualitative study of aesthetic leadership in clinical nursing practice. Journal of clinical nursing , 24 (11-12), 1603-1610.
Storch, J., Makaroff, K. S., Pauly, B., & Newton, L. (2013). Take me to my leader: The importance of ethical leadership among formal nurse leaders. Nursing ethics , 20 (2), 150-157.
Wong, C. A., & Cummings, G. G. (2009). The influence of authentic leadership behaviors on trust and work outcomes of health care staff. Journal of Leadership Studies , 3 (2), 6-23.
