Introduction
Organizational Management in Health and Social Care is one of my favorite and most insightful unit in my course. As a student, effective management represents the most challenging responsibility in healthcare, and it is critical to understand how individuals operate in various settings. The module has assisted me in developing my knowledge of effective leadership, communication, conflict management, and influences of quality and change in various health care and social services domains. As a part of this reflection, I will describe my tasks during the program and how they helped to improve my knowledge and competencies. In addition, I will discuss the specific learning restrictions experienced and how learning the module affected my views and perspectives, which may influence me as a Health and Social Care expert.
One of the fundamental things I have learned in this module is appreciating interpersonal engagement in every activity, effective communication, and empathy. Working in a team allowed me to consider sharing my ideas about the topic with my classmates. As a result, my communication and learning, and listening abilities have significantly improved. In addition, I learned to empathize with my classmates struggling to grasp various concepts related to the subject. As a result, such group studies assisted me in receiving and comprehending diverse perspectives presented by the participants of the group relating to the topic. This skill has established and broadened my knowledge about the importance of effective governance and leadership while also encouraging me to think more critically. I have learned much from my classmates, teachers, and friends as we shared our perspectives, rationales, and thoughts on various organizational management issues.
Theories Discussed and Their Implication for Health and Social Care Practice
I will use Gibb’s Reflection Cycle to reflect on my experiences and understanding of the module. As per Gibb’s Reflection Cycle, five stages can describe an experience. The first stage is “Description,” which depicts the general experience. The second stage, “Feelings,” depicts the emotions encountered during the whole encounter. The third stage, “Evaluation,” evaluates the expertise in the field from both a positive and negative standpoint (Miller et al. 2020). The fourth stage, “Analysis,” examines the complete encounter to see if it helps make sense given the circumstances (Miller et al. 2020). The fifth stage, “Conclusion,” summarizes what has been achieved and what might have been accomplished. Finally, the sixth stage, “Action Plan,” acknowledges what stages of remediation are in case of a future problem. This reflection style will direct my discussion on my experiences and understanding of the Organizational Change and Leadership module.
Description
One of the interesting things I encountered throughout this module was interpersonal engagement. At first, collaboration seemed to go well until conflicts, misunderstandings, and exclusion. Week 11 was a very interesting period considering that we focused on an inclusive approach to organizational management in health and social care. During this period, group members gathered so much information that they were able to contribute conclusive insights into this subject matter. However, some of the points proposed were debatable, leading to many arising issues and misunderstandings in the group. For instance, in service strategy, some people believed it was more sector-focused than consumer-centric. The group provided many ideas regarding this subject, and some people took the discussion too personally, which led to conflicts.
Feeling
Initially, I was dormant in the group, considering that people took a personal approach to everything. However, I realized that keeping quiet when things are taking the wrong turn is not an ethical approach. One factor is that everything is arguable in science, and people should understand that challenging an idea is not indicating that you hate someone. I became frustrated when some people became mute since they considered that a group member would challenge anything they said. However, this experience made me realize that operating in a diverse group, however small it is requires emotional intelligence.
Evaluation
One issue about the groups is that everyone had an equal chance meaning that there was no leader. This gap made the group lack direction considering that people would do anything and however they pleased. This factor made me realize the relevance of governance which is also an integral topic we discussed in class. Leadership is important since it helps establish rules and gives a team validation and direction. Therefore, it is integral that in every group, from the classroom setup to the real world of practice, everyone is aligned to a specific leadership so that there is order in that specific group.
Analysis
Greeting ideological opponents to work together requires effective conflict management skills and affirmation strategies. One strategy is to avoid justifying the weaknesses in their opinions, being specific in interactions and sincerity. Leaders must not persuade ideological opponents of the substance of their moral opposition. The goal here is not to convince. Instead, regardless of your ideological positions, your goal should be to foster a mutually respectful and collaborative relationship. Another strategy is sincerity which means appreciating an individual’s strengths or what is admirable about them so that they understand that everyone can affirm rational thinking. At the same time, irrational ones must also be criticized. Additionally, maintaining an emotional balance while dealing with a crisis facilitates change.
The group decided to focus on productive processes that supported its formation objective. Although this looked like an avoidance mechanism, it was effective, considering everyone now focused on getting the work done and minimizing conflicts. I learned that sustaining effective groups requires one to be committed to transforming the team to align with the objectives. One leadership style that inspired me during this crisis was the transformative governance system that focuses on mentorship, which is why leadership is integral in all aspects of engagement.
Action Plan
Managers should consider effective organizational management strategies when they lead oppositional or competing group is. Strategic leadership structures ensure that people work within certain boundaries to sustain engagement ethics. Therefore establishing good morals is important when dealing with challenges in a diverse setting since it ensures everyone is treated equally and that decisions do not affect the people’s welfare. Such competencies enable the group to function effectively and achieve its intended purpose.
Review of Related Literature
The health and social care environment are very different from that of a regular organization such as the production industry. It focuses on wellness and medical interventions, which are delicate issues requiring evidence-based practice. High-quality medical education research starts with a thorough literature review, which helps to increase its validity, authenticity, and generality. A literature review provides background information, guides research methods, fosters creativity, prevents duplication of effort, and guarantees that ethical standards are upheld. Therefore, managers should review the literature to enhance their leadership scope by gaining effective input.
Healthcare managers should also consider the peer review literature because it can help develop better insights into governance that help authenticate their decisions. Rational choices can help establish better organizational practices and achieve operational balance. In addition, informed decision-making backed by relevant literature helps with generalizability, considering that they help achieve a balance by total inclusion, which is important for sustainability.
Challenges in Conducting Literature Review
Traditional reviews constantly fail to provide an adequate comprehensive assessment of the included study validity, treating all evidence as equally valid. This factor makes conducting a review difficult, considering that finding the most relevant information, data availability, reliability, and storage are significant limitations. Sometimes, information about a specific topic can be so limited that making conclusions about it is difficult when data availability is limited. In addition, when conducting research using case study data, this information can sometimes not be generalized, affecting the validity of the claims made in the research.
Another significant issue is the relevance of information found in the literature. Some sources of information are outdated and can make the reliability of the information gathered questionable. This problem was prevalent during our research, considering that researchers can not apply some information to the contemporary world due to their insignificance in the current issues. Additionally, ways of keeping track of the source of information is a problem that can result in academic dishonesty and misguided rationale. Therefore, it is important to develop a culture of reading to understand the basic dynamics so that when literature is misguiding, it can be identified.
Conclusion
Organizational Management in Health and Social Care is a unit that strengthens soft and hard skills by fostering a culture of independence and accountability. This module helped me gain insights into effective leadership, communication, conflict management, and influences of quality and change. One leadership strategy ideal in healthcare setup is transformative since it helps establish better strategies of inclusion that help establish better engagement processes even with ideological oppositions. Therefore, this course has taught me my responsibilities as a health and social care expert by promoting emotional intelligence and empathy skills. One suggestion to improve this module is on delivery whereby a concept such as bloom’s taxonomy should be included so that the course begins with simple concepts to more complex ones. Experiences from this course established my understanding, especially when working with peer groups, and this confirmed my comprehension of the unit.
Reference
Miller, J. M., Ford, S. F., & Yang, A. (2020). Elevation through reflection: closing the circle to improve librarianship. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 108(3), 353. Web.