Introduction
During my internship program at Trinity Healthcare, I worked under Daniel Roth, the managing director of operations at the organization. Mr. Roth was responsible for overseeing the organization’s normal activities, including patient safety and ensuring patients were provided with quality healthcare services. Additionally, Mr. Roth was responsible for initiating community programs that addressed the needs of the surrounding population to create a positive relationship between the public and the healthcare organization. Mr. Roth holds a medical bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a Master’s degree in Internal Medicine from the University of Michigan. Before joining Trinity Healthcare, Roth worked as a senior clinical officer at Mercy Healthcare. He served in various leadership roles, including the chief medical information officer and the organization’s president of physicians.
Mr. Roth’s leadership model was based on the trait leadership theory. According to this theory, leaders have specific inherent characteristics that make them ideal for leadership positions (Weintraub & McKee, 2019). Some of the characteristics that Roth portrayed in his leadership were commitment, integrity, accountability, and passion. His passion and commitment made it easier for him to interact comfortably with his juniors, and he gave directions and instructions passionately. He gave his juniors reasonable objectives and led the other employees in achieving the set objectives.
As he became more engrossed in the leadership position, Mr. Roth‘s leadership style started evolving toward becoming a servant leader. He aimed to empower and inspire his juniors to exploit their maximum potential. As a result, he became increasingly involved in executing duties and guiding other employees in attending to their roles. For instance, he often arrived at work among the first and left among the last. For instance, he helped clean the corridors of the hospital, engaged with environmental cleaning programs, and actively listened to the concerns of his juniors. As a result, many people became inspired by his commitment and passion for whatever he does. A sense of competence and commitment to one’s duties became increasingly high among the employees.
Trinity Healthcare has various established core values that define the organization’s objectives regarding healthcare provision. The organization’s core values include reverence, commitment to poor people, safety, justice, integrity, and stewardship (“Mission, Core Values and Vision at Trinity Health”, 2022). The perception of Trinity Healthcare regarding organizational culture involves inclusion and belonging. The organization believes that all the stakeholders have a significant role in influencing the provision of quality healthcare. This culture is facilitated by adequate training of the employees and the management to ensure that their background perception reflects the organization’s beliefs. Additionally, the healthcare organization has various colleague resource groups that equip the employees with essential values that are essential in promoting inclusion and eliminating biases within the workplace bias.
Roth’s trait leadership theory and servant leadership closely reflect Trinity Healthcare’s values on the organizational culture of inclusion. His leadership style requires closely engaging all the employees towards creating a conducive workplace ideal for achieving the organization’s objectives. Additionally, Roth’s leadership model enables him to effectively address the employees’ concerns and motivate them to work efficiently towards achieving the organization’s targets. Roth’s leadership experienced challenges that undermined his commitment and passion for steering the workforce to achieve organizational goals. For instance, there was resistance to change among some employees whenever Roth introduced new measures.
Many employees had worked with the organization and had fully integrated the organizational practices that slowed growth. When Roth wanted to change some of such practices that derailed development, he experienced a lot of resistance that slowed development projects at the healthcare organization. Furthermore, Trinity’s workforce was culturally diversified, making it difficult for Roth to successfully handle the different perspectives of the employees without undermining their culture. Lastly, Roth experienced difficulties managing the healthcare organization’s business objectives and patients’ needs. There was a conflict between achieving the profit and providing quality, affordable care to the community.
Sam Hazen
One of the leaders in the healthcare sector whose leadership style has proved to be successful in achieving organizational objectives is Sam Hazen. Hazen is the head of the leading healthcare organization in the United States, HCA Healthcare. Since joining the organization, Hazen has served in various positions before being appointed the chief executive officer in 2019. He once served as president of the Western Group of HCA, overseeing the group’s financial operations. Hazen began his career as a financial officer in 1983 in Las Vegas and Georgia hospitals under the Humana Specialist Program (“HCA Healthcare – Governance – Board of Directors – Person Details”, n.d.). He earned a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Hazen’s leadership theory is based on the charismatic leadership model. This theory enables leaders to inspire their employees to place the organization’s objective above their aspirations and fully dedicate themselves for aching the organization’s goals (Sy et al., 2018). One of Hazen’s leadership policies that define his charismatic leadership style is to make a big company seem small through the dedication and commitment of the employees. This leadership model requires practical communication skills where the leader offers their vision and expectation on how the workforce will achieve the organization’s objective.
Hazen’s leadership model has proved effective in many senior positions he held in his career before being appointed the CEO of HCA Healthcare. The evolution of his leadership style is based on his confidence and clarity of mind on what he expects of his followers. Between 2011 and 2015, Hazen served as the president of operations at HCA, contributing immensely to planning vital activities of the organization (Stinnett, 2020). As he gained more confidence as a leader, Hazen’s leadership style evolved from the trait leadership model to being charismatic, using his experience to guide his followers and initiate change within the organization.
HCA Healthcare is defined by various core values that guide the conduct of its employees and define its relations with the community. Its core values include compassion and kindness, dignity, loyalty, integrity, and fairness (“Our Mission and Values”, 2022). Hazen’s views on organizational culture are based on the organization’s hierarchical structure. This perception requires senior leaders to be responsible for their juniors’ conduct. Hazen believes a thriving organizational culture is based on a clear structure with clear positions with specific duties and expectations that employees holding such positions must meet. Since taking over HCA Healthcare, Hazen approached the company’s organizational culture by strengthening existing departments and creating more employee connections. He aims to ensure that he meets their needs and provides them with conducive conditions for meeting the organization’s goals (Stinnett, 2020). For instance, he has increased technology and financial resources in the organization’s different departments to equip the employees to meet their objectives.
Conclusion
Hazen’s charismatic leadership style is closely related to his views on organizational culture. This leadership requires an organization to have a culture of competence and confidence among the employees where clear structures define the responsibilities of the workforce. One of the significant challenges that the Hazen faces is managing the large number of employees that HCA Healthcare boasts of. The organization has about 250000 employees who may provide a challenge for Hazen to ensure that they are all accountable and responsible in their duties (Stinnett, 2020). Additionally, Hazen faces the challenge of lack of motivation among the employees, which can lead to poor performance.
References
HCA Healthcare – Governance – Board of Directors – Person Details. Investor.hcahealthcare.com. Web.
Mission, Core Values and Vision at Trinity Health. Trinity-health.org. (2022). Web.
Our Mission and Values. HCA Healthcare. (2022). Web.
Stinnett, J. (2020). HCA’s incoming CEO on what makes a good leader – Nashville Health Care Council. Nashville Health Care Council. Web.
Sy, T., Horton, C., & Riggio, R. (2018). Charismatic leadership: Eliciting and channeling follower emotions. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(1), 58-69. Web.
Weintraub, P., & McKee, M. (2019). Leadership for innovation in healthcare: an exploration. International journal of health policy and management, 8(3), 138. Web.