Integrating Leadership into Professional Practice

Integrating Leadership into Professional Practice Every organization requires good leadership to ensure successful team building (Marquis Huston, 2003) and effective management of the organization (Perra, 2000) as well as personal fulfillment. In the past, health care system was a bureaucratic organization that was locked by hierarchical models type management (Thyer, 2003). However, due to advanced in technology, information and communication; changes in politics, demographic, social economics status and patients expectation toward health care system, traditional task- orientated, routine and habitual nursing management style no longer able to meet the evolving health care system. Therefore, it is crucial for current health care worker especially nurses to integrate leadership in health care management to meet the needs of contemporary professional nursing practice and consumers requirement and expectation (Sofarelli Brown, 1998). As senior medical assistant with 10 years working experiences. Currently I am practicing at a hospital based orthopeadic department in Northern Hospital. Our unit comprises four units, orthopeadic wards, Trauma operating theater, Orthopeadic clinic, Rehabilitation unit and emergency observation room. In fact, through our professional background, as a health worker, we are well trained for the decision making skill to deal with immediate patient care, such as dislocation, polytrauma, polyfracture, fat embolism, compartment syndrome and etc. Leaders have, for the most part, been concerned with orientating the profession to focus upon developing nursing practice (Salvage, 1989). As a senior Medical assistant other than giving services to the client who came to hospital to seek the treatment , I also assign to manage newly qualify staff nurses and medical assistants to makes sure that all the job done by them is following Standard Operating Procedures and helping them to get their opport unity to upgrade their knowledge. These are our new government policy and know as monitoring internship programme. According to Chua (2006) newly graduated nurses are now required to undergo a one year practical before they can earn their Annual Practice Certificate and this is part of the efforts to arrest the decline in nursing standards in public hospitals as health centers. This paper discussed about leadership quality in my organization when mentoring newly qualified staff nurses and medical assistants. As mention by Charnley (1999) the transition from student to staff nurse has always been seen as a challenging and stressful time in the working life of a nurse. In my view to lead and contributes to the development of an organization and provides professional leadership to the practice nursing team, we must have good knowledge, attitude, skills and capability. As a mentor I have to facilitate personal and professional development through identifying gaps in knowledge and skills, encouraging reflection and providing structure feedback to enable the newly qualified nurses develop and expand their practice with safety and confidence and improve standards of care. According to Clancy (2004) although employers can influence the quality of patient care, it is the qualities of individual nurses which have a more direct effect on the way patients are looked af ter. There are numerous texts providing definitions of leadership. Marquis and Huston (2003) defined leadership as a process of empowering beliefs, moving, persuading and influencing others toward a goal mostly without any force or threat. According to Yulk (1998) leadership is commonly defined as a process of influence in which the leader influences others toward goal achievement. Meanwhile Cohen (2004) stated leadership is the best tactic that one can use to motivate others and renew interest in others in attaining goals that are for the good of all. There are three style of leadership which are autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire, as cited in Kelly-Heidenthal (2003). Autocratic leadership involves centralized decision making, with the leader making decisions and using power to command and control others. Democratic leadership is participatory, with authority delegated to others. The third style, laisser-faire leadership, is passive and permissive and the leader differs decision making. These approaches are still apparent today (Carvey, 1999), and can be used interchangeably to response to various situations. (Marquis Huston, 2000). The autocratic style can be seen as high power tactics over the group leaving very little for others to actively become involved with process changes or improvements. (Mintzberg, 1979) this style is use when the leader tells her subordinates what she want to be done and how she want it done, without getting the advice of her followers. Subordinates behavior is closely controlled through such means as punishment, reward, arbitrary rules and task orientation. According to Fieder (1967) the autocratic leadership style is based on the assumption that the leader knows everything and what is best for their organization. Subordinates cannot be trusted to do what is right for the organization. Because of this, autocratic leadership usually leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover. The democratic method of leadership style is seen as the most productive within a group setting because this offers chances for their group to become one in decision making with the leader identifying individual strengths or weakness and guides the group with motivating questions and suggestions. However, the leader maintains the final decision-making authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a sign of strength that your subordinates will respect. According to (Kelly, 2003) the democratic leadership style encourages subordinates participant and professional growth and promotes greater job satisfaction and improved morale. The laissez-faire style allows the subordinates to make the decision. This French phase means leave it be and is used to describe a leader who leaves her colleagues to get on with their work ( Kumar, 2006). It can be effective if the leader monitors what is being achieved and communicates this feed back to her team regularly. However, the leader is still responsible for decisions that are made. This is used when subordinates are able to analyze the situation and determine what needs to be done and how to do it. According to Daft Marcic (2001) unfortunately, the laissez-faire leadership style can also refer to situations where managers are not exerting sufficient control. Mentoring the mentorship programmed had given me the opportunity to use several of leadership style to lead the newly qualified staffs to achieve their goal and to enhance the quality of the patient care. Continuous Professional Development activities definitely improved knowledge and skill to assist newly qualified staffs in patients health education effectively, to encourage the newly qualified staffs to attend Continuous Professional Development program I use the democratic leadership style. The democratic leadership style encourages each individual to give suggestion and new ideas, and let them to decide whice the activities in Continuous Professional Development they want to attend, each individual feel valued and motivated. I also practice the autocratic style of leadership but on rare occasions especially in maintaining the Standard Operating Procedure. I will guide and coach them to develop their skills and gives them motivation to influence productivity and will provide the good quality of care to the patients. The current type of leadership is transactional leadership. Transactional leadership categorized as traditional leadership which concernig day-to-day operation in unchanged organizational system (Marquis Huston, 2003; Lindholm et al., 2000). Transactional leader represent by efficient managers that focus at on hand task, solve immediate problems, communicate clear expectation to their staff and give reward to good performance (Tatum et al., 2003). In transformational leadership, leaders and followers are able to raise each other to higher levels of morality, motivation and productivity (Marquis Huston, 2003; Lindholm et al., 2000; Spitzer- Lehmann, 1994). Transformational leader value organizational culture (Marquis Huston, 2003).Therefore, effective communication is crucial for leader and follower to share the goals and culture of the organization (Marquis Huston, 2003). The transformational leadership is the preferred model to manage todays complex and rapid ever changing healthcare environment. Transformational leadership is an empowering leadership style and one which is highly suited to the profession of nursing. Burn (1978) as cited in Kelly-Heidenthal (2003), described a transformational leader as one who empowers others. Empowerment is the process by which we facilitate the participation of others on decision-making and power sharing. Graetz, et al. (2006) described empowerment as redistribution of decision-making to involve employee or worker participation. By educating and motivating staff to practice transformational leadership, eventually the team will mature and create strong team building and high performing working culture. Hence increase health care service standard and promote cost effectiveness for the organization (Thyer, 2003). A leadership style that is empowering nurse in decision-making enable nursing practices to shift from traditional boundaries to new and effective practices. This is because health care professionals are continuing facing great challenges in dealing with patients with complicated problems. This means that nurses and nursing leaders have to be good decision-makers. However, many nursing leaders in Malaysia are adopting the hierarchal models of leadership styles which limit nurse empowerment in decision-making. This model makes it difficult for nurses to gain confidence in decision-making and skills in assertiveness and negotiations, hence prefer to adopt a submissive approach towards those who control the organizations. What is the difference between leadership and management? It is a question that has been asked more than once and also been answered in many different ways. The huge difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the personal who work with them. Kotter (1990) describes the differences between leadership and management in following way, Leadership is about creating change and management is about controlling complexity in an effort to bring order and consistency. Stated by Bennis Nanus (1985) managers are people who do things right and the leaders are people who do the right things. Management is defined as the action to plan, organize, direct and control staff (Marriner-Tomey, 1996). According to Allen (1998) a leader used specific skills to inspire the work of others, all leaders are not necessarily managers and all managers are not necessarily leaders, however, to be an effective manager, one must have strong leadership quality and personality. A leader is differe nt from being a manager from the following categories their point of views, actions, goals, motivation and the extent of their authority (Fieder, 1967). According to Swansburg (1996) skill of both managers and leaders are needed for successful operation of any organization. It would easy, if indeed possible, for an organization to achieve their goals if a manager did not know how to lead as well as manage. According to Grohar (1992), newly qualified nurses have found mentoring to be a useful tool for career development especially at the beginning of their career and specific defining moments such as a change of work roll. Mentoring has been accepted as a guiding of inexperienced subordinates but not at all monitoring result in the growth of the mentee. According to Hanna (1999) the young leader will learn a lot on her own and not be spoon-fed to gain knowledge from someone past experiences. This topic has attempted to broaden the understanding of the subject of leadership in nursing and to develop the theme that leadership to bridge some of gap between theory and practice in nursing, the development of the leadership, the application of leadership skills is up to us. It can only be gained through actual experience and experimentation. Actualizing goals in todays health care arena requires nurse managers to be excellent change agents and role models. Effective leadership in nursing requires skills that are both taught and practically learnt Burns (1978). According to Fielder (1967) the leadership theory a nurse choose should reflect her ideals and be one she can most effectively use. Nurses who assume leadership and management roles need to be creative thinkers, in their work demand and have to oversee that everyone else is fulfilling their duties and the patient care is of the best. In my view a good management and leadership skills are very important in this current increasing awareness of organization to meet their demands and provide excellent nursing care practices. A good leader will be able to implement effective leadership which will help to achieve unit goal by involvement by unit staffs. (2006 words)

Reliabilty and Validity

Test Reliability and Validity: Evaluation of the GRADE A+ Standardized Reading Assessment Assessment is the key to instruction and intervention, but according to Salvia, Ysseldyke and Bolt (2007), â€Å"reliability is a major consideration in evaluating an assessment procedure† (p. 119). Reliability refers to the stability of a tests’ results over time and test reliability refers to the consistency of scores students would receive on alternate forms of the same test, for example Test form A and Test form B. If a test is reliable then one would expect a student to achieve the same score regardless of when the student completes the assessment, but if it’s not reliable then a students’ score may vary based on factors that are not related to the purpose of the assessment. An assessment is considered reliable when the same results occur regardless of when the assessment occurs or who does the scoring, but a good assessment is not only reliable but minimizes as many factors as possible that could lead to the misinterpretation of the tests’ results. It is important to be concerned with a tests’ reliability for two reasons: First, reliability provides a measure of the extent to which a students’ score reflects random measurement error. If there is relatively little error, the ratio of true-score variance to obtained score variance approaches a reliability index of 1. 00 (perfect reliability); if there is a relatively large amount of error, the ratio of true-score variance to obtained score variances approaches. 0 (total unreliability) (Salvia et al. , 2007, p. 121) Therefore, it is warranted to use tests with good measures of reliability to ensure that the test scores reflect more than just random error. Second, reliability is a precursor to validity, which I will go more into detail about later. Validity refers to the degree to which evidence supports the fact that the test interpretations are correct and that the manner in which these interpretations are used is appropriate and meaningful. However, a formal assessment of the validity of a specific use of a test can be a very lengthy process and that is why test reliability is often viewed as the first step in the test validation process. If a test is deemed unreliable, then one need not spend time examining whether it is valid because it will not be, but if the test deems adequately reliable, then a validation study would be worthwhile. The Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE) is a normative diagnostic reading assessment that determines developmentally what skills students have mastered and where they need instruction. Chapter Four of the GRADE Technical Manual focuses on three sections: reliability, validation and validity; but I will only be evaluating the first and last sections which are reliability and validity. The first section presents reliability data for the standardization sample by test at 11 levels (P, K, 1-6, M, H and A) and 14 grade enrollment groups (Preschool- 12th) to describe the consistency and stability of GRADE scores (Williams, 2001, p. 77). In this section, Williams addresses Internal Reliability- which addresses consistency of the items in a test, Alternate Form Reliability- which are derived from the administration of two different but parallel test forms, Test-Retest Reliabilities- which tells how much a students score will change if a period of time has lapsed between test and Standard Error of Measurement- which represents a band of error around the true score. The GRADE Technical Manual reported 132 reliabilities in table 4. that presents the alpha and split half total test reliabilities for the Fall and Spring. Of these, 99 were in the range of . 95 to . 99; which indicates a high degree of homogeneity among the items for each form, level and grade enrollment group (Williams, 2001, p. 78). In the GRADE alternate form reliability study, Table 4. 14, 696 students were tested. The forms were given at different times and ranged anywhere from eight to thirty two days. The coefficients in the table ranged from . 81 to . 94 with half being higher than . 9 indicating that Forms A and B are quite parallel (Williams, 2001, p. 85). In the GRADE test- retest reliability study, Table 4. 15, 816 students were tested. All students were tested twice, the test took place during the Fall and ranged anywhere from three and a half to forty two days. Form A of the various GRADE levels appeared similar in stability over time to performance on Form B. However since most of the sampling was done with Form A, further investigation of the stability of scores with Form B may be warranted (Williams, 2001, p. 7). The standard errors of measurement listed in Table 4. 16 of the GRADE was computed from Table 4. 1, but due to the variances in total test reliability, the SEMs ranged from low to high and due to the fact the measure of error is observable, there will always be some doubt about one’s true score. Overall it will be acceptable to assume that the reliability aspect of all levels of the GRADE Technical Manu al provides a significant amount of established evidence between test forms A and B. As noted earlier, validity refers to the degree to which evidence supports the fact that the test interpretations are correct and that the manner in which these interpretations are used is appropriate and meaningful. For a test to be fair, its contents and performance expectations should reflect knowledge and experiences that are common to all students. Therefore, according to Salvia et al. (2007), â€Å"validity is the most fundamental consideration in developing and evaluating test† (p. 143). A valid assessment should reflect actual knowledge or performance, not just test taking skills or memorized equations and facts, it should not require knowledge or skills that are irrelevant to what is actually being assessed and more so, it should be as free as possible of cultural, ethnic and gender bias. The validity of an assessment is the extent to which the assessment measures what it intended or was designed to measure. The extent of a test’s validity determines (1) what inferences or decisions can be made based on test results and (2) the assurance one can have in those decisions (Williams, 2001, p. 2). Validation is the process of accumulating evidence that supports the appropriateness of student responses for the specified assessment and because tests are used for various purposes, there is no single type of evidentiary validity that is apt for all purposes. Test validation can take many forms, both qualitative and quantitative, and in an assessment case such as the GRADE, can be a continuing process (Williams, 2001, p. 92). As stated previously, I will be evaluating two sections from Chapter Four. Section one is complete so it brings me to the last section, which deals with validity. In this section, Williams addresses Content Validity- which addresses the question of whether the test items adequately represent the area that the test is supposed to measure, Criterion- Related Validity- which addresses the relationship between the scores on the test being validated and some form of criterion such as rating scale, classification, or other test score and Construct Validity- which addresses the question of whether the test actually measures the construct, or trait, it purports to measure. The content validity section of the GRADE Technical Manual addressed 16 subtests in various skill areas of pre-reading and reading and documents that adequate content validity was built into the reading test as it was developed. Therefore, if the appropriate decisions can be made, then the results are deemed valid and the test measures what it is suppose to measure. For the GRADE criterion-related studies, scores from other reading tests were used as the criteria and included both concurrent and predictive validity. For the concurrent validity study, the section compares the GRADE Total Test scores to three group administered test and an individual administered test. They were administered in concurrence with the Fall or Spring administering of the GRADE, with data being collected by numerous teachers throughout the U. S. and all correlations being corrected using Guilford’s formula. The three group administered test given in concurrence with the GRADE Total Test suggested they all measured what they were suppose to but the individual administered test showed evidence of discriminative and divergent validity. For the predictive validity study, the section compared how well the GRADE Total Test from the Fall predicted performance on the reading subtest of a group administered achievement test given in the Spring. Three groups totaling 260 students were given the GRADE in the Fall and the TerraNova in the Spring of the same school year, but the final samples were a little small because some of the students that tested in the Fall had moved so the scores were correlated and corrected for both assessments using Guilford’s formula. Instead of 260 there were now 232 and Table 4. 2 list the corrected correlations between the GRADE and TerraNova which indicates that the GRADE scores in the Fall are predictive of the TerraNova reading scores in the Spring. The construct validity of the GRADE focuses on two aspects which are convergent validity shown by higher correlations and divergent validity shown by lower correlations. In the GRADE/PIAT-R study, shown in Table 4. 21, convergent validity is demonstrated by the high correlation coefficients of the GRADE and PIAT-R reading scores and divergent validity is demonstrated by the lower correlation between the GRADE and PIAT-R general information subtest (Williams, 2001, p. 7). Performances on reading tasks is represented by the first set of correlations and for the second set of correlations the GRADE represents performance on reading and the PIAT-R represents world knowledge. Convergent/divergent information was also provided for the GRADE/ITBS study shown in Table 4. 23. Evidence of higher correlations for the GRADE convergent validity was provided with the ITBS reading subtest, but evidence of extensively lower correlations for the GRADE divergent validity was provided with the ITBS math subtest, which would be expected for divergent validity because reading was minimal. Overall the validity data provided a considerable amount of evidence to show that in fact the GRADE Technical Manual measures what it purports and apt conclusions from test can be correctly made. So according to my judgment in evaluating the GRADE Technical Manual in the areas of reliability (internal, alternate form, test-retest and SEM) and validity (content, criterion-related and construct), the content provided by the authors in the manual and cross referenced with the content provided in the text book denotes the manual is consistent, has acceptable correlation coefficients and measures what it is suppose to measure. References Salvia, J. , Ysseldyke, J. E. , & Bolt, S. (2007). Assessment In Special and Inclusive Education (10th ed. ). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Williams, K. T. (2001). Technical Manual: Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation. Circle Pine: American Guidance Service, Inc.

Taco Bell Case Study

Workshop Case Study – Taco Bell Design, Layout & Process Choice â€Å"Design for Transformation† In 1999, three out of every four Mexican fast-food meals purchased in the United States were made from one company – Taco Bell. However, this market dominance may never have come about unless the company had not transformed its operations throughout the 1980’s. In the early 1980’s, Taco Bell was typical of this kind. It was essentially a job shop operation. Nearly all food production was carried out on site: – –foodstuffs were prepared from their raw state; food items such as ground beef for tacos were cooked for a period of several hours in vats; –guacamole and other sauces were made-up; –beans were washed, cleaned and cooked; Once these items were ready for sale, they were then assembled in response to a customer order. This meant that wait time at the cash register was 105 seconds on average, an even slower during peak peri ods. This type of operations led to a number of management challenges. Staff had to be scheduled and organised in shifts so that they mainly prepared food items and cleaned the unit during slack periods, whilst they assembled orders and served customers during busy times.It was estimated that the restaurant manager spent an hour each day working on his crew schedule in order to match labour supply as closely as possible to potential demand, and thereby meet the company’s cost targets. Food cost control was also a priority, which meant that a great deal of time and effort went into ensuring no menu item was prepared in too small or too large a quantity. But the complexity of this operation, lead to quite wide variations in food quality, both within single units and between units in the chain. This was not helped by inconsistency in the quality of raw materials, which were ainly sourced locally. The emphasis on in-house food production meant that that the ratio of kitchen to di ning space was 70:30. Moreover, the main assembly line where food items were made to order ran parallel to the service counter, so that employees on the line were facing away from the customers. At that time, Taco Bell did not have a drive-through window, even though 50 per cent of competitors’ sales were from this source. Beginning in 1983, the CEO of Taco Bell, John Martin, made a number of major changes to the physical layout.The food assembly line was reconfigured to have two shorter lines at right angles to the service counter. This improved product flow and improved customers’ perception of the operation. The introduction of electronic point-of-sale not only improved order taking and cash handling, but also provided improved data on which food forecasting could be made. Other changes included: – –adding new menu items; –increasing the average size of new units from 1600 up to 2000 square feet; –adding drive-through windows; the upgradi ng the decor and uniforms of staff. However, external pressures meant that Martin also had to adopt a new operations process. By the mid-1980’s, the US fast-food market had matured and competition was fierce. Previously performance was judged on growth, which could be achieved by opening new units. In the mature market-place, market share became much more significant. Labour shortages also meant an increase in labour costs, up by 18 per cent for the industry, but by 50 per cent for Taco Bell due to its relatively larger, skilled workforce.Whereas chains with burger or chicken concepts could offset this increase by taking advantage of falling food costs, Taco Bell’s food cost remained at around 30 per cent of sales. So by 1989, Taco Bell was a relatively small player in the market being squeezed by rising costs. In a series of initiatives, the operation was transformed. K-minus was a project that turned the kitchen into just a heating and assembly unit. Nearly all food preparation (chopping, slicing and mixing of vegetables and meat) and cooking was eliminated.Beef, chicken and beans arrived in pre-cooked bags, lettuce was pre-shredded, hard tortillas pre-fried and guacamole delivered in cartridges. This changed the ratio of ‘back-of-house’ to ‘front-of-house’ to 30:70, reduced staffing levels in each unit and increased the operational capacity of each unit. The SOS (speed of service) initiative was designed to respond to market research that showed customers wanted their food fast. Recipes were adapted and a heated staging area developed so that 60 per cent of the menu items, representing over 80 per cent of sales volume, were pre-wrapped ready for sale.This reduced (Total Automation of Company Operations – TACO) was an IT project designed to computerise in-store operations and network each unit to headquarters. TACO provided each manager with daily reports on 46 key performance measures, assisted with production and labour scheduling and aided inventory control. This reduced the time restaurant managers spent on paperwork by up to 16 hours a week. These process changes and the investment in technology were also accompanied by changes in human resource management. The restaurant manager’s job was now very different from what it had been due to K-minus, SOS and TACO.Taco Bell recognised that managers should now focus much more on ‘front-of-house’ and on the customer. The management structure within each unit was therefore changed along with job descriptions and remuneration packages. Much more pay was performance related, so that top managers could earn $80, 000 a year, a huge increase on previous salary scales. Selection criteria for the new restaurant managers were also adapted to reflect the new style of operation. Between 1984 and 1994, Taco Bell doubled its sales and tripled its profits. Despite this, competition remained tough.With the right processes in place, Marti n could now look to other ways in which to improve operational performance. So, in the mid-1990’s the focus switched from technology to human resources, with the growth of team-managed units and the development of the learning organisation within Taco. (Source: Brown, Lamming, Bessant & Jones, Strategic Operations Management, 2nd edn. Elsevier, 2005) Tasks Clearly from the Taco Bell case, managing the process transformation is an enormously important challenge for operations managers in both service and manufacturing settings.Success does not come about purely by having the correctly designed layout, process and technology. Other skills and tacit knowledge also come into play. Task 1 Critically evaluate how strategic operational initiatives such as K-minus, SOS and TACO struck the right balance of addressing the â€Å"hard† & â€Å"soft† operational problems Taco faced and delivering customer satisfaction. Task 2 Changing the transformational process (i. e. to t he layout, product and process control) has a direct correlation to improving customer service and satisfaction? Discuss.

The Curse of Macbeth Essay - 889 Words

The Curse of Macbeth Macbeth is one of Shakespeares more popular plays, and nearly everyone knows about the abundant blood and gore, the witches, Lady Macbeths ambition, and the ghost of Banquo. However, not as many people know about the superstitions that surround this play. Theres a long-standing belief that the play is jinxed, than any company that produces it is courting disaster, and that quoting from the play (or even saying the title) leads to serious bad luck. Theres no doubt that several superstitions are associated with Macbeth. Many actors refuse to say the name of the play but rather refer to it as The Scottish Play or even The Plaid Play (Gero). Some go even further, referring to it as The†¦show more content†¦When the Oldham Repertory Company revived Macbeth for an anniversary celebration, the lead actor, Harold Norman, was stabbed during the final fight with Macduff and eventually died. His baby daughter subsequently suffocated in the theater and his widow went mad. And it seems that Norman had scoffed at the plays curse and had quoted from Macbeth in his dressing room (8). When the 1961 Stratford Shakespeare Festival ran Macbeth, there were numerous accidents. During the final month of the production, an actor from the company was found stabbed to death in a nearby park; another actors daughter was killed in a fall; the companys manager was found tied up in the bathroom of his apartment. He had been beaten, strangled and stabbed several times with a carving knife (Demcisak 8). Clearly, Macbeth himself is not the only one in blood / Stepped in so far (3.4.137-138). Contemporary theater companies continue to report disasters. Steven Gagen describes a 1995 production in Melbourne, Australia. As director, he had publicly made fun of the curse. Then his wife developed a sudden and serious valvular heart disease and two members of the company (one only twenty-six) died suddenly. 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