Democratic leaders enhance collective decision-making, promote teamwork, and encourage the delegation of responsibilities. As a leader, the responsibility is to bring all the relevant stakeholders in healthcare on board. Working in a Mental Health Hospital in the United States, one of the identified issues is the shortage of mental health professionals. The challenge leads to staff fatigue, which might have negative implications on quality of health unless urgently addressed. As a leader, the moral and ethical responsibility will be to foster positive change in the organization while collaborating with other stakeholders. The following discussion focuses on the application of my leadership styles coupled with the ethical, moral, and legal values and principles in fostering change in the healthcare organization.
Democratic Leadership Strengths
As a democratic, my main strengths are teamwork, delegation, empowering others, and enhancing collective decision making. I consider collaboration to be a strategy that promotes group cohesion, minimizes resistance to change, and allows members to take an active role in enhancing transformation in organizations. I promote teamwork through creating a favorable working environment for all and fostering a sense of fairness. The delegation of responsibilities is vital in ensuring that other people in the team can also take active roles of promoting change (Cianci, Sean, Roberts, & Tsakumis, 2014). My responsibility is to empower others through training and sharing ideas/experiences to make them more competent. Through delegation, the pressure that emanates from leading others is eased. The rationale is that I can trust others to perform specific roles while I engage in others. Resistance to change is a significant challenge in many organizations. Usually, resistance to change occurs because of the fear of the unknown, desire to maintain the status quo, and poor communication about the proposed change. To counter such challenges, I usually ensure that the relevant stakeholders become an integral part of the proposed change by participating in the decision-making process. The collective decision-making process allows stakeholders to contribute, raise their concerns, and make their recommendations. I have found my strengths as a democratic leader leading to team morale, more productivity, and satisfaction.
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Keirsey Temperament Sorter Results
From Keirsey Temperament Sorter results, I am described as a guardian. The core characteristics include service, preservation, and management. Guardians take an active role to enhance the functionality of social institutions, including families and organizations. Guardians can be described as change agents. The primary goal is to enhance growth and development in organizations. While guardians create strong bonds with employees, they are also result-oriented. My Keirsey Temperament Sorter results are a reflection of my leadership styles. While I have the strength needed to enhance organizational change, my leadership style can also impede faster execution plans. One of my leadership style’s weakness is slow decision making. The challenge is caused by the fact that all the relevant stakeholders have to be involved in deliberations before making the final decisions. While engaging all stakeholders is vital, the process of decision making can take a longer time. As a result, democratic leadership style is not the most effective in responding to a crisis in an organization. There are issues in the organization that requires to be addressed immediately. That means the leader must be willing to make a decision independently. However, I have been able to overcome this challenge by having a small team that can help to make decisions faster during a crisis.
Identified Issue
I work at the Mental Health Hospital in the United States. I am passionate about my work and I actively participate in activities that can enhance positive change. Mental health illness, particularly depression and generalized personality disorders, are on the rise. Our hospital admits many patients who require the services of mental health professionals. The shortage of professional mental health professionals is one of the main challenges at the mental health organization. While the number of patients has continued to grow steadily, the psychiatric nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other social workers have not been increased. The huge disparity between the number of patients and that of mental health professionals causes significant challenges in the organization. One of the issues has to do with burnout and fatigue among the mental health service providers. Because of the enormous number of patients, many mental health experts will be required to work for long hours. Fatigue and burnout can lead to low morale, making the staff less productive. For that reason, it is imperative to address the issue urgently to ensure that patients get quality healthcare services. As a change agent and a leader, my goal is to advocate for change to see a significant increment in the number of healthcare professionals. As an advocate, I understand I have an ethical responsibility to promote quality health in the organization by mobilizing the management and other stakeholders to allocate more resources towards the mental health organization.
Ethical Skills to Resolve the Issue
According to the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses, health care professionals have the responsibility to promote health and safety in the organization. Provision five of the code of ethics indicates that nurses owe others (patients, fellow staff, and others) the duty of care. As such, I have an ethical responsibility to promote excellent health and increased morale among the faculty by advocating for an increased number of healthcare professionals. Provision six allows the nurse to collaborate with other healthcare professionals to address the challenges that hinder the delivery of quality services. My teamwork skills will help me to work closely with the management and other staff to find an amicable solution at the mental health organization. Working as a team helps to minimize the resistance to change and the perceptions of vested interests. Engaging all the stakeholders ensures that they own the proposed change and are committed to bringing the intended change. Nurses should also integrate the principles of social justice in advocating for change. Patients and staff have the right to dignity and justice. Increasing the number of staffs will minimize suffering among the patients and also solve the issue of fatigue and burnout among the nurses. Therefore, my plan is to used my ethical leadership skills to bring on board all the relevant stakeholders to deliberate the issue of staffing. It is expected that there will be minimal resistance to change and positive outcomes for patients and staff at the hospital.
Differences between Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership
Ethical leadership derives its legitimacy from the professional principles/guidelines (Hannah, Avolio, & Walumbwa, 2011; Ganz, Wagner, & Toren, 2014). As aforementioned, the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses provides ethical principles. The ethical guidelines determine the responsibilities of the nurse leaders within the healthcare organizations and within the community (Marquis, 2014; Brigid, 2014). For instance, one of the code of ethics for the nurse is the contribution towards the nursing profession via research evidence-based practice. As an ethical leader, the goal should be to enhance change in organizations through evidence-based practice and in collaboration with other stakeholders (Disch, 2014). The legal leadership emanates from the legal rules and regulations in healthcare. There are several local, state, and federal healthcare laws that guide how nurse leaders make their decisions during the dispensation of their mandates. For instance, leaders have a legal mandate to provide quality healthcare and avoid situations that might lead to patient harm. Finally, moral leadership is based on personal values and beliefs about what is right and what is considered wrong. A moral leader does what he/she thinks is morally right for others. A nurse leader, for example, has a moral obligation to enhance the health of the patients through improved services, efficiency, and fairness.
The motivation for Taking Stand on Important Issues
In making decisions concerning essential issues, nursing professional ethics, organizational culture, the management competencies, and my values are the primary sources of motivation. Each of the values and principles from all the domains is imperative when it comes to execution of duties and making informed decisions in the healthcare organization. However, most of the time the professional and organizational cultures will precede my values and principles. This does not bother me as long as what I am required to do as a leader culminates into improved quality health care for the patients.
Conclusion
The ethical, legal, and moral principles are imperative in the decision-making process. As a democratic leader, I thrive in the delegation of responsibilities, empowering others, enhancing the collective decision-making process, and promoting teamwork. Change is inevitable in an organization, but one must be careful how to initiate and execute proposals for reform. Resistance to change can occur, especially when it is perceived to be inconsistent with the organizational culture and legal principles.
References
Brigid, M. (2014). Transcultural Advocacy and Policy in the Workplace, JNPD Journal for Nurses in Professional Development , Vol 30 (1), 29Y33 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Cianci, A., Sean, T., Roberts, P. & Tsakumis, T. (2014). The effects of authentic leadership on followers' ethical decision-making in the face of temptation: An experimental study. The Leadership Quarterly 25 (2014) 581–594
Disch, J. (2014). Using Evidence-Based Advocacy to Improve the Nation’s Health. Nurse Leader .
Ganz, F. D., Wagner, N., & Toren, O. (2015). Nurse middle manager ethical dilemmas and moral distress. Nursing Ethics , 22(1), 43–51.
Hannah, S. T., Avolio, B. J., & Walumbwa, F. O. (2011). The relationships between authentic leadership, moral courage, ethical and pro-social behaviors, and performance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 555–578
Marquis, B. L. (2017). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing , 9th Edition [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781496374851
