Sample Proposal: Transformational Leadership in 3-Star Hospitals in UK

Introduction

Leadership is a key issue in the development of groups, organisations and nations. The study of leadership plays a crucial role in the behavioural and management sciences. It receives a lot of attention and is intensively explored. However, leadership is different from headship or appointmentship. Organisational change involves, by definition, a transformation of an organisation between two points in time. For most analysts, the key aspect of change comes from comparing the organisation before and after the transformation. Making such a comparison constitutes an analysis of the content of organisational change. It assesses what actually differs in the organisation at the second point in time. On the basis of content, major changes consist of transformations that involve many elements of structure or those that entail radical shifts in a single element of structure. This study set itself the task of investigating transformational leadership development and its status in 3-stars hospitals in UK that ensures success.

This paper discusses in detail the research proposal that examines the perception of the patients and hospital administrators about transformational leadership. Basically, the researcher attempts to identify the impact and factors related to transformational leadership in 3-star rated hospitals in UK. It attempts to discover the impact of transformational leadership to the development of 3-star hospitals in UK. This includes discussion of its history, the current status of leadership, and its impact to the progress of the organisation/hospital. Specifically, this proposed research explores the perceptions of the respondents and their view regarding transformational; leadership present in UK 3-star hospitals.

This research proposal discusses in detail the background, general purpose of the study. Moreover, the objectives of the study and the research statements are presented. Here, vital concepts, questions and assumptions are stated. Finally, the scope and limitation of the study, overview of the methodology used and the significance of the research are discussed.

Background of the Study

Today’s organisations are experiencing change like never before as a result of competition which had created uncertainty for the organisations. Moreover, the pace of change is so rapid, only organisations that can adapt to this changing environment can survive, getting a profile of the current problems can enable organisations to thoughtfully bring the elements of the change into alignment and move forward towards an ideal. Because of this fast pace of development, leadership factors tends to become an important tool in survival. Hospital institutions in UK particularly the 3-star rated hospitals need to consider the present leadership traits particularly transformational leadership which is useful for this kind of pace.

According to Ratzburg, (2004), leadership is the capacity to lead, to conduct, to escort, to guide, to route, to steer, or to manage others. It is a key issue in the development of groups and organisations. The study of leadership plays a crucial role in the behavioural and management sciences. It is generally accepted that good leadership is essential to the functioning of an organisation. It may be useful to think of the leadership process as the interaction between the situation, the leader, and the followers. Leadership is behaviour so it is defined as a function of the leader's personality (Ratzburg, 2004).

In addition, the effective organisation particularly the 3-star rated Hospitals in United Kingdom must be able to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges; adaptability and responsiveness are essential to survive and thrive. Today’s organisations are experiencing change like never before as a result of global competition which had created uncertainty for the organisations. Moreover, the pace of change is so rapid, only organisations that can adapt to this changing environment can survive, getting a profile of the current problems can enable organisations to thoughtfully bring the elements of the change into alignment and move forward towards an ideal.

Moreover, leaders play a key role in change implementation. It can be argued that the effective planning and management of change require careful consideration of the impact of structure change on middle managerial work roles and work satisfaction levels – to maintain their resistance, and maximise their commitment to the containing and accelerating pace of change within the organisation.

Apparently, Drucker (1995) sees leaders as the basic resource for an organisation as well as the key factor for a healthy growing economy and supply, which is critical to the survival and further development of any organisations. Drucker (1995) further regards leaders in an organisation as the life-giving elements in every organisation in that without managers, organisations cannot possibly function properly. Thus, a strong link is noted between a leader’s efficiency and organisation performance. It has been recognised that leaders are a significant power behind the progress and successful development of an organisation’s strategy and such success is very much dependent upon their attitudes, behaviour and commitment to their specific responsibilities.

Given the challenges of managing complexity and internal resistance to change, the task of leaders during the implementation of change can be very difficult indeed. Where significant change is involved, effective management is required. The challenge to understanding management becomes one of identifying effective management behaviour in the context of the organisational turbulence stirred up in the change process. So in order to cope with and manage the challenges posed by organisational change, leaders at any level should perform a variety of roles.

On the other hand, transformational leadership theories predict in general that followers’ attachment to the leader and their emotional, motivational forces are a consequence of the leader’s behaviour (House et al, 1988). While the transactional leader motivates subordinates to perform as expected, the transformational leader typically inspires followers to do more than was originally expected. Hater and Bass (1988) noted that the dynamics of transformational leadership involves strong personal identification with the leader, joining in a shared vision of the future, or going beyond the self-interest and exchange of rewards for compliance. Leaders that are transformational in nature broaden and elevate the interests of followers, generate awareness and acceptance among the followers as to the purposes and mission of the group, motivating them to go beyond their self-interests for the benefit of the group. In addition, Yammarino and Bass (1990) found that transformational leaders articulate a realistic vision of the future, such that the vision can be shared and used to stimulate subordinates intellectually, but recognise the differences among them. Tichy and Devanna (1990) highlight the transforming effect that these types of leaders can have on organisations as a whole as well as on individuals.

Basically, leaders can ultimately transform an organisation by defining the need for change, creating new visions and mobilising commitment to these visions. This transformation of followers can be achieved by raising the awareness and the importance, of the desired outcomes, and getting followers to transcend their own self-interests by altering or expanding follower’s needs and therefore the organisation (Bass 1985).

Furthermore, Bass (1990) believes that intellectual stimulation is the last dimension to be found in transformational leaders. When a leader is intellectually stimulating, the subordinates are provided with a flow of challenging new ideas that are supposed to stimulate rethinking of old ways.

The literature above suggests, ironically, that to understand leadership development and organisational change one must first understand leadership and organisational inertia, its content, its tenacity, its interdependencies. Recent work also suggests that change is not an on-off phenomenon nor is its effectiveness contingent on the degree to which it is planned. Furthermore, the trajectory of change is more often spiral or open-ended than linear. All of these insights are more likely to be kept in play if researchers focus on changing rather than change. A shift in vocabulary from change to changing directs attention to actions of substituting one thing for another, of making one thing into another thing, or of attracting one thing to become other than it was. A concern with development and changing means greater appreciation that change is never off, that its chains of causality are longer and less determinate than we anticipated, and that whether one's viewpoint is global or local makes a difference in the rate of change that will be observed, the inertias that will be discovered, and the size of accomplishments that will have been celebrated.

The literature presented above are all relevant to present study since it tackles and focus on the leadership and organisational development i.e. related to the transformational leadership present in 3-star Hospitals in United Kingdom. The literature presented above is a great help in the study in order to further understand the context of the study.

Statement of the Problem

The study will investigate the transformational leadership present in 3-star Hospitals in UK and its impact to the Hospital progress. Specifically, the researcher will answer the following queries:

1. What is the current status of transformational leadership in 3-star hospitals in UK?

2. How do 3-star rated hospitals in UK acquire or improve their capacity for leadership particularly transformational leadership?

3. What is the importance of transformational leadership development in organisational success?

4. What are the factors that affect the transformational leadership development of 3-star rated hospitals in UK in order to ensure organisations’ success?

5. What measures should be done to further improve or organisations success in the context of transformational leadership development and organisational change?

Objectives of the Study

This proposed study seeks to achieve the following objectives:

1. To show transformational leadership development in 3-star rated hospitals in UK ensures organisations’ success.

2. Review of related literature on transformational leadership development and organisational change.

3. To discuss the importance of transformational leadership development in 3-star rated hospitals in UK.

4. To determine the factors that affects the transformations leadership development of organisations.

5. To know the measures to be done to ensure success in the context of transformational leadership development and organisational change.

Hypotheses

Based on the above objectives, there are several hypotheses that can be tested:

1. There is a significant relationship between transformational leadership development and UK’s 3-star hospitals success.

2. There is a significant relationship between the factors that affect transformational leadership development of an organisation and perception of the respondents.

3. Transformational leadership has significant effect to the satisfaction of the patients.

Significance of the Study

This study will be a significant endeavour in understanding the importance of transformational leadership development in organisations. This study will be helpful to hospital administrators and health practitioners for this will be a guide for them when they employ effective transformational leadership to their hospitals. By examining the risks and other factors involved in leadership, hospital administrators and health practitioners will be able to design measures to minimise the risks. Further, through the understanding of the needs of their patients in terms of satisfaction, this study will help different hospitals to satisfy their patients. Moreover, this study will be a significant endeavor in promoting effective leadership awareness among patients and health practitioners.

This study is deemed useful for future researchers on effective leadership and its application to different hospital/health industries. This study could also serve as an academic tool in informing its reader about the leadership development and organisational change. Moreover, this research will provide recommendations on how to value leadership development as they are taking a large part in the organisations success.

Scope and Limitation

This research study only covers the impact of effective transformational leadership to the perception of the patients and hospital administrators. The outcome of this study is limited only to the data gathered from books and journals about leadership and satisfaction and from the primary data gathered from the result of the questionnaire survey and interview that will be conducted by the researcher.

Moreover, there are inherent problems in the data due to the survey process since it could have hindered the collection of results, particularly with hospitals that have previously been so inundated with requests for information from patients. Although inconclusive, the results of this survey should be viewed as indicative of the status of the leadership in the hospital at the time of the survey.

Further research should be conducted with those patients who responded to this survey to develop a longitudinal study of trends and develop models for how and when effective leadership is being adopted and developed by different hospitals. Basically, the researcher believes that effective leadership has something to do on the satisfaction of the patients.