Leadership theories essay

A1: The Versailles is a senior living continuing care and retirement community. The objective of the not-for-profit organization is to be a place of elegance where seniors can continue to live exceptionally through all stages of the care continuum. The care continuum is inclusive of skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care and independent living. The community stimulates growth in the senior population to exceed the needs of residents from a spiritual, physical, mental and social well-being. The Versailles seeks to see people grow younger everyday through rich opportunity and engagement at all levels of care in the community. A steward of patient’s investments, the Versailles is a non-profit organization that continuously reinvests into better services for the residents of the community.

A2: Three leadership practices of the current primary leader include the use of coercive power, cascading responsibilities and aligning leadership through strategy meetings. The leader uses coercive power to enforce compliance throughout the organization. The current leader uses this practice to reward and punish team members based on performance and outcomes. Cascaded responsibilities are also a practice of the current leader. The practice is utilized to hardwire the responsibility of roles and job titles in the organization. Lastly, a practice of the current leader includes holding daily strategy meetings to guarantee the leadership team is coordinating and aligning on the organizations goals.

A3: Current leadership and its effects on the organization’s culture Current leadership of The Versailles has affected the culture of the organization, both positive and negatively, over the last year and a half. Practices of the new leader has required adjustment in expectations and a shift within roles and their responsibilities. This has required team members of the organization to step into unchartered territories so to speak, while other team members have learned to step back. Redefining the roles of the organization created a period of uncertainty for some roles and more opportunity for others. This time period of ambiguity created a culture of resistance and fear.

The organization had many leaders with long tenures in the organization. With new role responsibilities and expectations, the leadership team faced hard decisions if they were not able to successfully align their direct reports. Daily strategy meetings were effective for the leadership teams. Meetings ensured continuity from the top out creating a culture of transparency from their leader. Information from these meetings were sometimes shared and sometimes not. This created tension between management/direct reports and leadership. This tension created cliques and drove out team members. Though there were many negative effects on the organizations culture – after a storm came a calmness. Realignment of leadership and roles created a more effective workflow across different domains and departments in the organization. Things that were once unclear were now clearly defined. Reviewing the roles of current positions and making changes allowed gaps in responsibility to be filled. This leader not only brought change to the organization but change to the residents that lived within it. Residents were not used to cascaded information and decisions but buy-in and being included on verdicts through their councils and their committees. Resident’s struggled with change to their activities of daily life. This affected the organization because charter members of the community were leaving and others threatening to leave. This was a learning curve for both the leader and the community. Coming from Ritz, the leader did not realize the impact of significant changes on resident’s who have and are in the community long term verses short stays.

B1: The organization’s strengths was five star care in a first class setting. The Versailles continues to provide excellent care in their healthcare plaza. The plaza is inclusive of skilled, assisted living and memory care. All of which had deficiency free surveys for the last several years. The organization was ranked 5 stars among CMS and among nursing home compare. This is one of the few senior livings in Texas to have three state of the art restaurants, cafes, and grills to meet the needs of the residents in the community. With new construction The Versaille has many innovative offerings such as wine cellars, rooftop pools, bars and a new therapy gym to support the physical well-being of both their staff and their residents. Aside from their 5-star CMS rating, five course meals, weekend brunch and state of the art facilities is what The Versailles does best.

B2: Weaknesses of the organization include the corporation of Fritz Hotel Leaders. The perceptions of the residents is they feel like they are treated like hotel guest and like this is no longer their home. Offerings that were once always available are now structured through time or going through the new and appropriate channels to get it. Daily, residents mention the changes have not been communicated and they are not sure where or who to go to for their needs. Another weakness includes high employee turnover rates. With change in leadership and roles, on top of the healthcare industry, The Versailles has battled holding on to employees due to change in bonus structures and loss of employee retention strategies.

B3: The organization’s opportunities are to have a “ Town Hall” like meeting that focuses on updating the residents in the community and creating buy-in to the coming changes in the future. Residents of a not-for-profit community who invests all their savings like to know where their money is being reinvested back into the community and the decisions that affect their home. A like meeting for employees would also be beneficial for the entire organization to stay aligned on their purpose and vision for the organization. This level of transparency will harvest trust throughout the community. Another opportunity for Versailles would be to grow their partnerships in the community as they gain momentum for expansion. Skilled nursing drives a lot of revenue for the organization. With three 5-star communities in a 2 mile radius, the healthcare team must continue to grow and harvest relationships with the hospitals to ensure the skilled nursing census remains high.

The community has grown from a 60 bed to a 92 bed facility. Fostering relationships with the hospitals and social workers in the area will continue to drive the census and the revenue for the community. B4: As previously mentioned, threats to The Versailles community include competitors in the surrounding area. New and like communities are beginning to create an equally tempting environment much like The Versailles has to offer. With a tight knit community in the metropolitan area and within the surrounding country clubs, (majority of The Versailles consumers/residents) many current residents are beginning to catch wind of their friends considering other properties in the area. Potential resident’s buy in and invest into the continuing care retirement community ultimately for the healthcare benefits they will receive in the continuum of care when needed. However, with a delay in construction and an additional delay in the aftermath of Harvey last year, many potential residents continue to debate waiting for the new independent living tower at The Versailles to open. The threat of both new competitors and delayed construction could severely impact the bottom line of the community.

C1: The current leader identifies with the transactional leadership theory. Strengths from this practice include clear rewards for productivity or outcomes. The leader ensures structured bonuses for middle management to enforce compliance with leader expectations. When goals are met or exceeded there is a clear reward for the outcome. Subsequently, the leader also uses punishment in his practice. A strength in this practice is that the coercive power will encourage the organization’s team members to align and meet the leader’s expectations. Lastly, the leader continuously practices being reactive. This can be positive, as the leader is quick to handle situations that arise.

C2: Three weaknesses of the current primary leader include punishment, self-interest driven decisions and being reactive. While punishment has the potential to drive outcomes, it can also create fear and reduce employee morale. Consequently, the adverse of this coercive power can reduce performance of team members within the organization.

Self-interest decisions are also considered a weakness of the leader. Lack of buy-in and selling to team members creates a culture of ambiguity. Instead of inspiring and selling change among staff this practice is in turn telling staff how to operate.

Reactive leadership is another weakness as a leader. While taking care of issues as they arise is important, in the world of healthcare, the need for leaders to have an anticipatory approach to the industry and the needs of the organization are strategically important from both a regulatory and financial point of view. Deming, W. E. 1986. Out of the crisis. Cambridge, Mass. : The MIT Press. C3: Leadership research suggests that both transformational and transactional leadership behaviors influence the leader’s effectiveness (for example, Shea and Howell 1998). Empowerment has been a highly discussed topic among many organizations. Organizations have created a shift in their cultures to encourage their team members to empower, direct and regulate themselves while carrying out their responsibilities and how they align those goals and work with the goals of their immediate leader and the organization overall. Transformational leadership supports this theory with the practice of being people-focused. This allows leaders to develop their employees/followers through effective empowerment within their roles and responsibilities within the organization. Research shows that the delegating of tasks and responsibilities to direct reports can be a crucial role in creating empowerment in the work place.

This is when the strengths of transactional leadership become necessary to drive out empowerment. With transactional leadership theory being task-focused there needs to be a balance of the transformational leadership approach, which would be to take a more hands-off approach, ensuring a people-focused approach that will in turn empower the lead.