Transforming Leadership in Hospitals by Exploring Leadership Practices for Organizational Success

Abstract

Due to the complex and constantly changing environment in hospitals, many attempts in leadership development and change management fail. The primary purpose of this qualitative, descriptive case study was to better understand how leadership practices contribute to organizational success at Lynford Memorial University Hospital's Comprehensive Acute Care Rehabilitation Unit (CARU). Organizational success was defined by meeting the mission and continued financial viability and market competitiveness. The conceptual stance was critical theory/pragmatism because the researcher sought to bring about changes in the hospital leadership structure, practices, and culture by creatively combining a variety of data sources to explore and understand the research problem. The design included semi-structured, qualitative interviews with members of the CARU leadership team, a focus group with CARU employees, analysis of archival records, observation, and memoing. The conceptual framework provided a systemic approach to explain the importance of integrating leadership practices to promote organizational success. The researcher analyzed the data through the use of open coding, axil coding, selective coding, and comparative method to discover themes and non-supporting trends. The analysis revealed that leadership practices contribute to organizational success in a hospital by: practicing the SCORE (Service Excellence, Collaboration, Ownership, Responsibility, and Empowerment) Values with transparency in leadership; developing rapport with employees and offering them personal and professional growth opportunities; practicing patient center care; controlling costs and eliminating waste throughout the system; branding the exceptional care services; and creating and achieving the desired outcomes environment. Analysis also revealed a non-supporting trend: a discrepancy with managing large-scale changes better than small-scale changes. The findings informed the development of a Strategic Leadership Development Plan for implementation by the CARU leadership team and hospital employees. Further research is needed to explore the impact of collaborative leadership and organizational culture on the CARU and the impact of leadership practices on other units of the hospital as well as on hospitals that are not urban, non-profit, academic hospitals.Keywords: employee engagement, financial accountability, leadership, organizational change, organizational culture, organization development, organizational success, and patient satisfaction.%%%%Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Management – Drexel University, 2014