Leadership and Effecting Change in Public Health for Management

Question: Discuss about theLeadership and Effecting Change in Public Health for Management. Answer: Introduction In the past decades, there have been changes in the public health planning and management. This has been prompted due to advances in technology, which has advanced the preventive and disease treatment strategies, changes in the population needs, increased focus on environmental and nutrition health and the need for an improved health living for the individual and the community. It is for these reasons that the management training of public health leaders and managers has become a prerequisite rather than a luxury. Though the public health managers and leaders play critical role in the public health provision, it is important that a succinct understanding of their roles in public health be developed. Leaders vs. Managers Comparison of the Role and Responsibility of a Leader to that of a Manager Leadership and management are terms that many people often use interchangeably but they are different. According to (Kozier et al., 2015) leadership is provided by leaders and involves getting people to work in order to attain certain goals. On the other hand, management involves the coordination of activities in order to get the job done (Northouse, 2010). In view of the difference between leadership and management, it is clear that a leader and a manager assume different roles. According to (Northouse, 2010) there is a great difference between a leader and manager. According to the author, to manage implies the act of accomplishing activities and mastering of routines, whereas to lead means the act of influencing others and creation of vision for change (p. 11). The other distinction between a leader and a manager is that a leader is considered to be a emotionally active and involved, whereas managers are often reactive and have the preference to work with people in solving of problems albeit with low emotional involvement. Moreover, leaders have been considered to be visionary people, in that they are articulate, informed, confident and self-aware, with great interpersonal skills (Kozier et al., 2015). The authors also assert that leaders are good communicators and listeners, who often take the initiative and have the ability and confidence to initiate innovative change, while facilitating and mentoring the followers (p. 571). In contrast, managers assume the role of power, authority and responsibility to plan, organise, coordinate and direct the work of other people, as well as the establishment and evaluation of standards. These roles place the managers in good position to understand the organisation structure and culture. They have the responsibility to control human, material and financial resources, set goals, make decisions and create solutions to problems. However, though the roles of a manager and a leader differ, (Northouse, 2010) asserts that the two roles overlap. According to the author, the influence that managers have on its groups in an effort to meet the goals is considered a leadership process in itself. On the other hand, the leaders involvement in planning, controlling, organising and staffing, are management processes (p. 11). How the Role and Responsibility of a Leader and Manager Might Differ in the Public Health Industry from any other Industry The public health functions are distinct to those of other industries and involves the collection and interpretation of important statistics, sanitation, control of communicable diseases, provision of maternal and child health programs, provision of laboratory services and health education (Rowitz, 2013). These roles differ from those of other industries such as the ones that deal with consumer goods and services. The focus of public health is one the general well-being of the population. Thus the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers in this industry differ from those of other industries in many ways. The leaders of public health have the responsibilities to promote their agencies, making them to be viewed as repositories of public health information and as providers of high quality programs and services. According to (Rowitz, 2017) public health leaders have the responsibility of developing relationships with the leaders of public health agencies as well as partnerships with community health providers. The public health industry is critical to the wellbeing of any country and its performance and strength owes much to the nature of funding it receives from the government and private agencies. The public health leaders and managers play active role in the allocation of public health funds and the funding of public health programs and services. Rowitz (2017) asserts the changing nature of public health leaders into becoming more entrepreneurial as they now receive grants and develop contracts with private and public funding organisations to supplement their budgets. Their other way in which public health leaders and managers differ from those of other industries is their oversight role and quest for excellence in public health. According to (Rowitz, 2017) public health managers and leaders are tasked with the responsibility of developing benchmarks for best practice. In their oversight roles, the public health leaders and managers help in improvement of the services of community health providers through motivation (Tulchinsky Varavikova, 2014). By working with managers and leaders from other organisations, public health managers and leaders help in developing intensive and integrative approaches that help to improve public health. Also, the public health managers and leaders responsibilities differ from those of other industries owing to their responsibility towards the agency staff. According to (Rowitz, 2017) the public health leaders and managers must monitor and evaluate the performance of agency staff in order to increase their understanding of their job responsibilities and their job performances. Moreover, the public health managers and leaders play great role of empowering employees at the team levels, the agency level and at the community level. They do this through delegation of duties and offering motivation and support when the employees are performing their responsibilities. Leaders in the Public Health Industry In the course of learning I interviewed two public health leaders according to the interview guide for public leaders described in table 26-4 (Rowitz, 2013, p. 638). One of the public health leaders was a project officer working in Kogarah, NSW, and in charge of injury, while the other was a health education officer, working at Waverley NSW. The project officer was a young female in her mid 30s called Ann Waltz (real name withheld for privacy purposes), whereas the health education officer was a middle aged man in her early 40s by the name Davison Kruger (real name withheld for privacy purposes). Although the two were public health officers, their roles and responsibilities varied. The project officer was based in New South Wales and her roles included establishment, recruitment and facilitation of the community support programs. Waltz, is responsible for quality and cultural appropriateness of the programs delivered, providing support to the community based staff and maintaining communication network between the project team and the communities. On the other hand, Kruger, a health education officer, is responsible for working with community health workers who inject drugs. His roles include ensuring minimisation of harm, social justice and efficient service delivery of the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. Other roles include drug use assessments, crisis management, supportive counseling and referrals. The interviews included about 15 questions as outlined in the public leaders interview guide described in table 26-4 (Rowitz, 2013, p. 638). In her response, Waltz pointed that her major motivation behind her career in public health was her desire to serve the community. Kruger pointed his motivation as the need to help in solving the increasing society problems such as poor sanitation. On asking them on what they regarded leadership to be, Waltz defined leadership as the process of providing people with direction and motivation in their job performance, whereas Kruger regarded it as a multidimensional process that involves individual leader skills and experience in helping people to attain their potential in the workplace, as well as meeting organization goals and objectives. While regarding the important leadership skills as creativity, innovation and advocacy, the two public health leaders conceded that the public health organisation system barriers to leadership are poor mentorship and highly bureaucratic organisation structures that hinder the ability of young people from expressing their leadership skills. However, despite these limitations, they pointed that their core roles remains in the research and development of appropriate policies that would enhance public health. They also emphasized their roles in advocating for increased fund allocation for the public health programs, which they eluded as being inadequate. On the question regarding whether the public health should be integrated into the general health sector, Waltz and Kruger were opposed. Waltz pointed to the huge mandate that the public health performs, including the general environmental health and nutrition of the population, which she pointed that if such merger occurred, it would overwhelm the health sector in the country. On his part, Kruger pointed that the merger of public health and the general health would make it even harder for the newly created organization to meet the increasing health needs of the population. He pointed the disparity in health that exists among the Aborigines as the perfect example that highlights the current challenges that would become worse had the two been merged. Although Waltz and Kruger are excellent visionary leaders, I found that they have a weak understanding of the role of politics in public health. Waltz pointed that she had little or no interest in pushing for their interests in the political platform. Kruger on the other hand pointed that he felt the politics played little role in his job as a public health education officer. What this shows is that there is little interest or information regarding the important role that politics play in public health. This is inconsistent with what was learnt that public health officers must have a good understanding of the political system of their location and how to influence the political processes for the benefit of health of their communities. Moreover, though the two leaders displayed a good understanding of their roles and that of the public health, they seemed not to have a good understanding of their leadership styles. When asked on her leadership style, Waltz regarded herself as just a young leader who was out to promote the welfare of the community. She pointed that she had no specific leadership style. Similarly, Kruger pointed that he did not consider himself in a good leadership position as his roles were limited to the direction of the organization he worked for. This is particularly not good for a young public health practitioner who ought to identify his or her leadership style. Kruger and Waltz were already in charge of teams and this amounted to some leadership responsibilities and they should be in a position to identify their leadership styles. Self-Assessment of Leadership Style The Leadership Skills Inventory has been developed to measure three major types of leadership skills; the technical, human and conceptual skills (Northouse, 2010, p. 64). On summing up the scores for responses in questions 1,4,7,10,13 and 17, I had a score of 28, which is my score for technical skills. The scores obtained for the human skills score represented by questions 2,5,8,11,14 and 17 was 26. The conceptual skills score represented by questions 3, 6,9,12, 15 and 18 was 23. The results reveal that the best recognized skills that I possess are the technical skills, followed by human skills and finally the conceptual skills. The Leadership Skills Inventory is important in determining the strengths and weaknesses of an individual leadership. It is also used to determine the level of management that suits one. The high scores in my technical and human skills shows that I am more suited in the lower management level. This means I can be an effective leader at the lower management level. However, Rowitzs principles of public health demand that public health leaders must adopt a proactive approach in their roles (Rowitz, 2017). Public health leaders should possess strong leadership skills which are critical in roles such as advocacy, coalition building, community building, promoting of agencies and advocating for funding. All these roles demand that a public health leader must possess strong technical, conceptual and human skills. The differences in the technical, conceptual and human skills scores show that I have major strengths and weaknesses. My major strengths are in the technical skills, to which is had the highest score. From the skills assessment, my major strengths lies with the good understanding of my work details, following directions and completion of assigned duties and concern on how my decisions may affect others. However, I will need to improve on working with abstract ideas, critical thinking, handling of complex organisation problems and creation of a mission statement. Conclusion Public health continues to be one of the most important components of the health system of any country. Developing good leadership skills and an understanding of the roles of public health leaders and manager is critical in fulfilling the core mandate of the public health. However, public health leaders must assess their leadership skills in order to determine their strengths and areas that they should improve in order to become effective public health leaders. References Detels, R., Gulliford, M., Karim, Q. A., Tan, C. C. (Eds.). (2017).Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health: The practice of public health. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Kendall, L. (Ed.). (2002).New Practitioners in the Future Health Service. Institute for Public Policy Research. Kozier, B., Erb, G., Berman, A., Snyder, S., Levett-Jones, T., Dwyer, T. (2015).Kozier and Erb's Fundamentals of Nursing Volumes 1-3 Australian Edition eBook(3rd ed.). Melbourne: P.Ed Australia. Northouse, P. (2010).Leadership: Theory and Practice(5th ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE. Rowitz, L. (2013).Public Health Leadership: Putting Principles into Practice(3rd ed.). Burlington, Mass.: Jones Bartlett Learning. Rowitz, L. (2017).Essentials of Leadership in Public Health. Massachusetts: Jones Bartlett Learning. Tulchinsky, T., Varavikova, E. (2014).The New Public Health(3rd ed.). Massachusetts: Academic Press.