LDR 432 Principles of Leadership for Healthcare Organizations Discussions and Assignments
Week 1 Discussion Board
The Discussion Board is designed to stimulate class dialog that would normally take place in a face-to-face setting. Participation in the Discussion Board serves as a learning strategy to help demonstrate your knowledge of the course content.
To earn full weekly discussion credit, students are expected to comment on all prompts posed by the instructor and provide responses to classmates. Each Discussion Board post will be assessed using a rubric (under the My Grades menu item). In addition to reviewing the grading criteria in the rubric, please note the following expectations for Discussion Board posts:
- Discussion posts must be completed during the week they are assigned. Discussion posts made in advance of the assigned week will not count toward your grade. If you wish to work ahead, please compose your responses in a Word document, then post when the week arrives.
- Each week, you are required to submit a reply to each initial prompt and replies to your peers or instructors in the Discussion Board. The required posts are as follows:
- No later than Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. (Pacific time) each week, you must respond to each initial prompt posted by the instructor. An automatic 10% deduction will be assessed for all late initial postings. Please note that there may be one or two initial prompts per week, depending on the course material. It is your responsibility to reply accordingly -AND-
- Throughout the week, and no later than the conclusion of each week, you must reply to a minimum of two (2) peers or instructors, per prompt although replying to more is highly encouraged. Replies must be made throughout the week to show active participation.
- Any post made in the Discussion Board must be well-developed.
- A well-developed post is meaningful, shows relevance to the topic, and reflects your knowledge of the material. Well-developed posts demonstrate synthesis of the subject matter, extend the discussion by building on previous posts, and include proper source citations, when applicable. Posts limited to “I agree,” “Great posting,” or “Thank you” will not be assessed as well-developed, and will therefore not be considered a contribution to the number of required weekly posts.
I just want to share some thoughts today based upon the writings of Henry Mintzberg and his managerial roles. Mintzberg’s (1975) treatise on the myths and realities of managerial behavior was likely a well-received and much-needed article when it was published in 1975. However, a skim through the references list indicates that the average date of the studies from which his conclusions were drawn is 1962, and many of the studies were published in the 1950s. LDR 432 Principles of Leadership for Healthcare Organizations Discussions and Assignments
As such, it seems to me that Mintzberg’s ideas from this article have relatively little value in 2017 outside of a historical perspective on practice of management. While it would certainly be possible to go through and analyze each of his myths and roles for their applicability to the modern managerial environment, I’ll just do one.
For purposes of discussion, let’s examine his first myth: “The manager is a reflective, systematic planner” (Mintzberg, 1975, p. 50). Mintzburg believes that the evidence (in 1975) overwhelmingly rebuts this myth, and I’m inclined to agree with him based on the evidence he’s using to support his claim.
However, when we fast-forward to 2017, managers are expected to be reflective and systematic planners, and the truly successful managers are both. It is fitting that Mintzberg himself is one of the educators and researchers who has taken steps to undo the lack of reflecting and systematic planning among managers. When he set out to redesign the curriculum in the graduate management program at McGill University in the mid-1990s, he sought to encourage “synthesis rather than separation” of managerial roles (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003, p. 1). Toward that end, he developed what he calls the “Five Managerial Mind-Sets,” which correspond to the “five ways in which managers interpret and deal with the world around them” (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003, p. 2). LDR 432 Principles of Leadership for Healthcare Organizations Discussions and Assignments
These are: the reflective, analytic, worldly, collaborative, and action mind-sets. You’ll notice that I’ve bolded reflective and analytic, as they form the core of my argument about the outdated nature of Mintzberg’s first myth about management. Discussing the reflective mind-set, Mintzberg argues that “these days, what managers desperately need is to stop and think, to step back and reflect thoughtfully on their experiences” (2003, p. 3). Further, in his discussion of the analytic mind-set, he states that “organizations depend on the systematic decomposition of activities, and that’s what analysis is all about” (2003, p. 2), which sounds suspiciously similar to “systematic planning.”
Mintzberg is not alone is his quest to educate managers about the importance of reflection. Numerous others have published articles and books elucidating the importance of managerial reflection and the methods of instructing managers in the value of reflection (for example, see Ayas & Zeniuk, 2001; Boud, Cressey, & Docherty, 2005; Daudelin, 1996; Hedberg, 2009).
The most heralded managers of the 21st century have been intensely reflective, systematic planners. From the iconic Steve Jobs to the quirky Jeff Bezos to the visionary Howard Schultz, it’s hard to think of a wildly successful manager who lacked the ability to reflect thoughtfully on their experiences and then systematically plan for the future.
Any thoughts my students?
References
Ayas, K., & Zeniuk, N. (2001). Project-based learning: Building communities of reflective practitioners. Management Learning, 32(1), 61-76.
Boud, D., Cressey, P., & Docherty, P. (2005). Productive reflection at work: Learning for changing organizations. New York: Routledge.
Daudelin, M.W. (1996). Learning from experience through reflection. Organizational Dynamics, 24(3), 36-48.
Gosling, J., & Mintzberg, H. (2003). The five minds of a manager. Harvard Business Review, 81(11), 54-63.
Hedberg, P.R. (2009). Learning through reflective classroom practice: Applications to educate the reflective manager. Journal of Management Education, 33(1), 10-36. doi: 10.1177/1052562908316714
Mintzberg, H. (1975). The manager’s job: Folklore and fact. Harvard Business Review, 53(4), 49-61.
Week 2 Discussion
My scores landed right about in the middle of the scale. I scored 30 on my task score and 35 on my relationship score. I was surprised to see the task score so low since the description says it’s reflective of me defining the roles within my team and letting them know what is expected of them. This is concerning to me because I always work best with leaders and supervisors who are extremely clear with what they expect from me. I will say that my most recent “teamwork” has been in school and it was not a pleasant experience. I found myself backing off towards the end because I did tend to take a leadership role and it created a lot of stress and, frankly, people did not want to do the work by the deadlines I set. This could have skewed my results slightly. I started my new grad nursing position almost a year ago and we don’t necessarily do projects in a teamwork setting the way I did in school so I haven’t had much to judge since then. I know once I gain more experience there are plenty of opportunities to join committees in the hospital where these skills will be vital.
I’m pleased with my relationship score. I do try to make people feel comfortable and be the best they can be, but in previous roles as a leader I know I can also be hard on subordinates as well. It’s a fine line between making an effort to make someone feel comfortable with themselves and others and them not trying at all and relying on you to always be by their side. That’s common when training someone. They are supposed to lean on you heavily in the beginning but after a while I do expect that they start branching off on their own and showing me that they are practically applying what I am teaching them. That really ties back to my task score. I need to reflect on whether or not I am making my expectations clear to those involved from the beginning.
I think I’m more of a relationship leader. Although I am task oriented, I am concerned about my employees and whether they are meeting their goals and how I can help them. I try to stay relatable and approachable but not so much that they don’t respect me as their leader.
88 LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE
Leadership Behavior Questionnaire
Instructions: Read each item carefully and think about how often you (or the person you are evaluating) engage in the described behavior. Indicate your response to each item by circling one of the five numbers to the right of each item.
| 1 = Never, 2 = Seldom, 3 = Occasionally,
4 = Often, 5 = Always |
||
| 1. | Tells group members what they are supposed to do. | 3 |
| 2. | Acts friendly with members of the group. | 5 |
| 3. | Sets standards of performance for group members. | 5 |
| 4. | Helps others in the group feel comfortable. | 5 |
| 5. | Makes suggestions about how to solve problems. | 3 |
| 6. | Responds favorably to suggestions made by others. | 5 |
| 7. | Makes his or her perspective clear to others. | 5 |
| 8. | Treats others fairly. | 5 |
| 9. | Develops a plan of action for the group. | 3 |
| 10. | Behaves in a predictable manner toward group members. | 5 |
| 11. | Defines role responsibilities for each group member. | 1 |
| 12. | Communicates actively with group members. | 5 |
| 13. | Clarifies his or her own role within the group. | 3 |
| 14. | Shows concern for the well-being of others. | 5 |
| 15. | Provides a plan for how the work is to be done. | 3 |
| 16. | Shows flexibility in making decisions. | 5 |
| 17. | Provides criteria for what is expected of the group. | 4 |
| 18. | Discloses thoughts and feelings to group members. | 5 |
| 19. | Encourages group members to do high-quality work. | 5 |
| 20. | Helps group members get along with each other. | 5 |
Chapter 4 Behavioral Approach 89 Scoring
The Leadership Behavior Questionnaire is designed to measure two major types of leadership behaviors: task and relationship. Score the questionnaire by doing the following: First, sum the responses on the odd-numbered items. This is your task score. Second, sum the responses on the even-numbered items. This is your relationship score.
Total scores: Task 35 Relationship 50
Scoring Interpretation
45–50 Very high range 40–44 High range
35–39 Moderately high range 30–34 Moderately low range 25–29 Low range
10–24 Very low range
The score you receive for task refers to the degree to which you help others by defining their roles and letting them know what is expected of them. This factor describes your tendencies to be task directed toward others when you are in a leadership position. The score you receive for relationship is a measure of the degree to which you try to make subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, each other, and the group itself. It represents a measure of how people oriented you are. LDR 432 Principles of Leadership for Healthcare Organizations Discussions and Assignments
Your results on the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire give you data about your task orientation and people orientation. What do your scores suggest about your leadership style? Are you more likely to lead with an emphasis on task or with an emphasis on relationship? As you interpret your responses to the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire, ask yourself if there are ways you could change your behavior to shift the emphasis you give to tasks and relationships. To gain more information about your style, you may want to have four or five of your coworkers fill out the questionnaire based on their perceptions of you as a leader. This will give you additional data to compare and contrast to your own scores about yourself.
Identify a Topic and Thesis Statement for Your Research PaperIdentify a topic related to health care and leadership; this will be the subject of your research paper due in week 7. You will then be working to incorporate a leadership theory or approach discussed in this course and apply it to your leadership in healthcare topic in later weeks. Make sure that your leadership in healthcare topic is neither too broad nor too narrow.
Consider some of the following general areas:
Leadership in:
- Change management in health care
- Technology in health care
- Finance of health care
- Conflict management in health care
- Evidence-based protocols
- Gender equality in the workplace
- Health sector reform
- Embedded safeguards to reduce injury and infection
Please note the above general areas must have a narrower focus in order to work well for a research paper. The list above is not exhaustive, but merely suggestions.
Identify a research area and then develop a thesis statement for your research paper. Ensure your topic is presented in descriptive detail and a clear plan for the research paper is identified. Submit a 1- to 2-page, double-spaced paper identifying your topic in descriptive detail, including a clear plan for your research and a thesis statement. LDR 432 Principles of Leadership for Healthcare Organizations Discussions and Assignments
If you need help creating a thesis statement, view the resources below and or visit Writing Resources area under the tab for further information.
Develop an Annotated Bibliography for Use in Your Research PaperThe purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate progress in compiling research and to indicate a methodology for organizing research sources.
Recommended: Before you begin, review chapters 4–6 in A Pocket Style Manual (APA).
Include the following in your annotated bibliography:
- APA citations and annotations for three (3) sources you deem relevant to your problem statement (thesis).
For each source:
- Cite the source in proper APA format. The citations should be organized in alphabetical order by author as in an APA References page.
- Follow with a brief annotation that summarizes the source (approximately 3–5 sentences). You may quote from the source, but do not copy and paste from the abstract.
- In 1 or 2 sentences, explain and evaluate the source’s relevance and significance to your research.
- Use an academic tone and style.
Review the rubric for further information on how your assignment will be graded. Include a copy of your working thesis statement at the top of your assignment submission.
Please note: Next week, you will be required to find three additional peer sources for your research paper in order to create a full annotated bibliography, for a total of six sources and annotations.
Develop an Annotated Bibliography for Use in Your Research PaperThe purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate progress in compiling research and to indicate a methodology for organizing research sources.
Recommended: Before you begin, review chapters 4–6 in A Pocket Style Manual (APA).
Include the following in your annotated bibliography:
- APA citations and annotations for three (3) sources you deem relevant to your problem statement (thesis).
For each source:
- Cite the source in proper APA format. The citations should be organized in alphabetical order by author as in an APA References page.
- Follow with a brief annotation that summarizes the source (approximately 3–5 sentences). You may quote from the source, but do not copy and paste from the abstract.
- In 1 or 2 sentences, explain and evaluate the source’s relevance and significance to your research.
- Use an academic tone and style.
Review the rubric for further information on how your assignment will be graded. Include a copy of your working thesis statement at the top of your assignment submission.
Please note: Next week, you will be required to find three additional peer sources for your research paper in order to create a full annotated bibliography, for a total of six sources and annotations.
Develop an Annotated Bibliography for Use in Your Research PaperThe purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate progress in compiling research and to indicate a methodology for organizing research sources.
Recommended: Before you begin, review chapters 4–6 in A Pocket Style Manual (APA).
Include the following in your annotated bibliography:
- APA citations and annotations for three (3) sources you deem relevant to your problem statement (thesis).
- Add these three sources onto your work from last week so that you now have a total of six (6) sources
For each source:
- Cite the source in proper APA format. The citations should be organized in alphabetical order by author as in an APA References page.
- Follow with a brief annotation that summarizes the source (approximately 3–5 sentences). You may quote from the source, but do not copy and paste from the abstract.
- In 1 or 2 sentences, explain and evaluate the source’s relevance and significance to your research.
- Use an academic tone and style.
Review the rubric for further information on how your assignment will be graded. Include a copy of your working thesis statement at the top of your assignment submission.
Develop a full-sentence outline of your research topic, taking care to structure your thoughts on the topic in a coherent fashion that clearly illustrates
your objectives and intentions.Your full sentence outline should identify your thesis statement, the leadership in healthcare topic, and also a leadership theory or approach learned in this course. You must incorporate at least one leadership theory or approach to tie into your leadership in health care topic in your final paper. You must incorporate the use of at least 6 references (as required in your final paper) to use within your outline.
Follow the alphanumeric outline structure and use complete sentences. Use APA format throughout. Include citations as needed along with a title page and a reference page. for further information on writing a full sentence outline or visit the Writing Resources area under the tab.
Review the rubric for further information on how your assignment will be graded.
Tip: Review the rubric for this assignment and look ahead to week 7 to see what should be presented in the final paper. This will help guide you through the contents of your outline.
Research Paper
Are you ready to submit your Research Paper next week?Spend your time this week working on your leadership in health care research paper. Make sure to leave time to edit and revise your paper before submitting in week 7. Be sure to review the assignment rubric to ensure that you have met all of the requirements of the paper before submitting and understand how your paper will be graded. You can find the research paper rubric under My Grades.
Essay ReviewIf you need an extra set of eyes to review your paper, remember you can utilize Tutor.com to request an Essay Review. You need to allow Tutor.com at least 24 hours to review your paper, so please plan accordingly if you are going to utilize this service. to access Tutor.com and then click on the Drop-Off Essay Review option.
Submit Your Final Leadership in Health Care Research PaperIn your final paper on your approved topic for leadership in health care, be sure to:
- Present your topic, a summary of the larger scholarly discussion, and your thesis statement.
- Present the evidence to support your thesis, referencing 6 peer-reviewed sources in an organized and focused manner within your paper. You must thoroughly apply at least one leadership theory or approach to your chosen leadership in healthcare topic.
- Close your paper by summarizing your findings, drawing conclusions, and making connections to the larger scholarly discussion.
- Provide an APA-formatted title page and reference page.
The body and content of your research paper should be 4–5 pages total. This does not include the title or reference page.
Review the rubric for further information on how your assignment will be graded.
Personal Leadership Reflective PaperNow that you have completed all of the Leadership Questionnaires and Reflections, you should have an idea of the type of leader you are and the type you would like to become.
Write a reflective essay that addresses the expectations below. Use specific experiences from work, volunteering, or community life to illustrate your points. The paper should be 2–3 pages (not including title and reference pages).
Reflection Expectations:
- Introduction: Introduction and purpose of the paper
- Leadership Approach: Choose at least one leadership approach from the book that you would like to use to assess yourself as a leader. By “leadership approach,” we are referring to the approaches defined in each chapter in the text book (e.g., trait approach, skills approach, style approach). Describe yourself as a leader using this approach.
- Strengths and Weaknesses: Looking at your leadership capabilities overall, what do you believe are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a leader?
- Leadership Plan: Based on your overall review of your leadership approach, what things would you like to do to improve your leadership abilities? What steps will you take to make that happen?
- Summary: Summarize the main points of the paper.
Support your reflection with citations from sources that you have learned about throughout this course. The textbook is expected to be the primary resource to support your reflection, but you may include other scholarly sources that you have encountered during your research. LDR 432 Principles of Leadership for Healthcare Organizations Discussions and Assignments
Your paper should use the following headings:
- Introduction
- Leadership Approach
- Strengths and Weaknesses
- Leadership Plan
- Summary
Paper Specifics:
- Paper must be 2–3 pages long (not including title and references pages)
- Use APA format.
Please note: Upon submission, you only need to submit your leadership reflection paper. You do not need to resubmit your previous weeks’ questionnaires.
Review the rubric for further information on how your assignment will be graded.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
- Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
- Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
