4 Refer to Hughes text, Ch. 13, Pp. 554-55S Mini Case, Big Changes for a Small H
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4 Refer to Hughes text, Ch. 13, Pp. 554-55S Mini Case, Big Changes for a Small Hospltal,Answer the following Questlons. As F. Nicholas Jacobs toured the Windber Medical Center facility, he was dismayed by the industrial pink-painted walls, the circa-1970 furniture, and the snow leaking through the windows of the conference room. Employees earned 30 percent less than their counterparts in the area, and turnover was steep. As Windber's newest president, Jacobs knew be was the facility's last hope if he couldn't successfully turn around the aging facility, it would mean closing the doors forever. Coming to Windber Medical Ceater in 1997, Jacobs was keenly aware that the hospital could be the next in a series of small hospitals that had fallen victim to a struggling economy Determined to see that not happen, he began by making connections with the emplovees of the hospital and the community at large. Jacobs's first step was to interview the employees to find out firsthand what they wanted for the Windber community and the medical center. He also looked to members of local community groups like the local library, the Agency on Aging, and local politicians and asked these groups what they wanted from their local medical facility. When Jacobs realized that octogenarians made up a larger percentage of the population in Windber, Pennsvlvania, than in all of Dade County, Florida, he made it a priority to provide more options to seniors for improving their bealth and quality of life. He set forth a vision of a medical center that was more of a community center-a center that would allow members of the community to exercise in a state-of-the-art facility while having access to professionals to answer health-related questions. Jacobs realized that keeping eople in the community both physically and mentally healthy also meant keeping the spital financially healthy. He made the center's new preventative care philosophy clear to the pablie: "Work out at our hospital so you can stay out of our hospital. acobs's efforts have paid off in an era when small hospitals are closing left and right, Windber Medical Center is thriving. Under Jacobs's leadership Windber has established an affiliation with the Plane tree treatment system, which integrates meditation, massage, music and other holistic methods into traditional health care. Windber's wellness center, which offers fitness training, yoga, and acupuncture, among other treatments, opened in January 2000 and now generates over $500,000 annually. Gone are the pink walls and dated furmiture replaced with fountains, plants, and modern artwork. Jacobs recruited a former hotel manager to oversee food service. And despite the dismissal of about 32 employees (those used to a more traditional hospital setting had a tough time in the new environment), the staff has nearly doubled to 450 employees, and pay has improved. Windber has raised more than $50 million in publie and private funding and has forged research partnerships with the Walter Reed Army Health System and the University of Pittsburgh, among others. The Windber Research Institute, Windber's heart disease reversal program, has treated about 250 patients 1. Consider the factors from the situational leadership theory outlined in Figure 13.4. In text book. Apply these factors to Jacobs and Windber. 2. How do you think Jacobs would score on the least preferred co-worker (LPC) scale? Why? 3. Based on the success of Windber, in what range would you guess the overall situational favorability might fall for Jacobs on the continuum illustrated in Figure 13.6 in text book?Explanation / Answer
Que1: Consider the factor from the situational leadership theory in figure in text book. Apply these factors to jacob and windber
Answer:
A model of leadership theories demonstrates three interventional factors: Situation - Follower - Leader and the correlations between the factors.
- Situation: is the case or context on which the leader applies his relationship behaviors. At Windber, the case when Jacobs took over the center is that the center was in trouble and toward the danger of being closed. The task set forth for Jacobs to accomplish then is to prevent the center from becoming the next sample in the series of small hospitals as victims of challenging economy.
- Follower: in fact refers to the readiness of the staff. At Windber Medical Center, follower’s readiness was very low. In a degrading working environment with dropped revenue and staff’s income being 30% lower than elsewhere, the key problem here is not follower’s capability but their lack of readiness and belief to get bonded to the hospital as well as the determination to recover the hospital.
- Leadership: there are four leadership behaviors corresponding to the level of follower’s readiness
According to leadership theories, “leadership effectiveness is mainly determined by the right choice of leadership behavior and the changing of the situation to fit a particular person’s leadership style.” Telling, selling, participating and delegating are the most common leadershipbehaviors.
However, none of them should be attributed to be the best or the worst option. Real situation needs to be taken into account in order to get the most suitable application.
In Jacob’s case at Windber, in addition to situational changes that fit the hospital’s reality, Jacob has made a flexible and wise combination of all four leadership behaviors, with some flexible modifications along the time.
- Specifically:Participating behavior: In this behavior, Jacob, the leader sat down together with his employees to discuss what need to be solved, allowing them to make contribution to decisionmaking. At the very beginning, Jacobs paid very often visits to local people and hospital staff to hear their opinions and expectations. This is a useful way of cooperation and gathering opinions and information that helped him a lot in making decision to change Windber.
- Selling behavior: also called directing and supporting behavior. Once drawing the strategy forthe hospital development, Jacob shared the idea with his followers. He pointed out the urgentrequirement then was to change in terms of working attitude and hospital leading way. When the employees were directed and felt trust in the leader and in the hospital’s future, they themselves would know how to get to the target, just as what Gen. George S.Patton said “never tell people how to do things, tell them what to do (target).”
Ques2: How do you think Jacobs would score on the least preferred coworker scale? Why?
Answer:
Score of Jacobs in LPC Scale:
According to the case description, Jacob would have scored fairly in the LPC scale. Jacobs can be considered as a lowLPC leader as for him it was important that the people of his organization should know what they want from their Windber community and produce better results. He saw that their morals were down and thus affected their performance. He also realized that their pay was 30%less than their counterparts and thus lead to lowered standards of work. Thus he ensured that there are better skilled people who are paid for the worth of their efforts. Also he ensure that there are more specialized people engaged for different works so as to enhance standards. He also made sure that the seniors of Windber set their priority to improve their health and quality of life to set as initiating example of growth of Windber.The community did dismissed 32 employees based on their low performance standards as they were unable to adapt to the new environment. Windber also recruited new employees and the staff nearly doubled including specialized staff for various tasks.Thus as in such unfavorable situation Jacob did kept ensured that performanceof the community in terms of diversification, employee skill development and job enrichment can only set new standards for such small hospitals.
Ques3: Based on the success on the Windber, in what range would you guess the situational favorability might fall for Jacobs on the continuum illustrated in the fig.?
Answer:
Situational Favorability:
The situational favorability was very low, i.e. octant 8. Here leaders showing low LPC can prove to be better leaders. As explained, Jacobs was highly task oriented and thus wanted that the company should reach new heights. Thus he ensured that the employee’s are always motivated and produce excellent results by creating improved benchmarks every time
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