Managers and Leaders in Health Care Organizations

Managers and Leaders in Health Care Organizations

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Managers and Leaders in Health Care Organizations

A leader is a person who heads others in conducting tasks in an institution. A manager is a person who is responsible for ensuring that tasks are executed in an establishment. In health care organizations, the most influential person is a manager. This is because health care institutions operate under composed structures of organization, which require managerial skills for efficient running. The role of these structures is to control external and internal factors that have an impact on the organization. Usually, the structures are headed by managers who influence decision making within the board of the organization. One of the decisions made by managers and not leaders includes the employment of new staff into an organization. Leaders do not possess the managerial skills, for example, to allocate finances for acquiring medicine and paying employees. The role of leaders in health care organizations is motivational rather than administrative. This makes it difficult for them to handle tasks that affect the external environment, and ensure smooth running of the organization.

It is possible for a person to be a leader and a manager, depending on the structural organization of the health facility. Small health care organizations like private dental clinics or optical centers have leaders who are also managers. These managers play the role of running the clinics while training staff. However, large organizations like public hospitals have structures that distinguish managers from leaders. Leaders in these hospitals are heads of various departments while a manager is the overall superior of the whole organization. The dominant quality in both is that of leadership. The most successful health organizations are run by managers who possess leadership qualities. Managerial skills entail having leadership qualities like, being able to speak on behalf of all staff members of an organization. This shows the capability of a manager to lead since these decisions are made by someone who heads an organization.