Self Esteem and Self Centeredness, Concept of Ethical Relativism - Assignment Example

Healthcare Leadership 1) Consider the differences between self esteem and self centeredness. Often, students are convinced that most senior leaders are very self-centered and focused only on gains for their own recognition. What might be special about the health care field that would make this less true than in other fields? Leaders require a number of attributes to successfully manage the workforce under their surveillance. Self-esteem is one of those personal traits which lead to successful and efficient leadership. Self esteem is the positive views of an individual about himself. Self esteem usually refers to the firm, stable and high appraisal of a person about himself. Self-esteem provides confidence, strength, power and independence to the leaders. Having a positive self esteem leads to positive results in excellent decision making and hence, provides a basis of adequate leadership tools. A person with positive self-esteem will not take the mistakes or wrong decisions as negative evaluation of his/her performance but will be motivated to learn from those mistakes. A leader making a wrong decision with high self-esteem will accept the mistake but will ensure not to repeat it (Barker, 1992 pp 159-160). On the other hand, a self-centered leader will be more motivated toward getting rather than giving. Leadership requires the leader to be familiar of the employees, customers and other affected by his decisions. If a leader is self-centered his decisions will be based on his own personal interest and will. An effective and ethical leader should always care for others or at least give enough consideration to their needs and the consequences of his decisions. The self-esteem and confidence help in developing long-lasting and strong relationships and on the other hand, self-centeredness takes the leader towards apathy and disloyalty of the related people. Health care field calls for more ethical decision making as people’s health and life is directly or indirectly related to the decisions made by the leaders. In the health care field, personal interests are not given priority over others. The concept of stewardship applies in the healthcare field as healthcare providers are accountable for their actions and decisions made for the individuals. Hence, the concept of self-centeredness fails in this context and patients and other employees are given the power to communicate and discuss the possible outcomes of the decisions made to provide proper treatment and comfortable healthcare environment to the patients and clients. 2) Consider the concept of ethical relativism. What does this have to do with leadership? The diversified population of today has brought many changes in the society. Some of these changes have brought positive influences but some have brought an overall change in the economies and ethical considerations. Knowing the different values of people in the diversified populations, it becomes difficult to manage and control the people with vivid and firm rules which are applicable on all. The distinct moral practices across cultures pave way for crucial ethical issues, thus creating the concept of ethical relativism. This concept provides that morality is related to the cultural norms of individuals (Pozgar, 2010 pp. 38-39). People’s judgment about things, decisions and processes depends on their society’s moral norms where the things exist, decisions are made or processes are carried out. A practice which is perceived to be ethical and flawless in one society, maybe considered as wrong and unethical in the other. Ethical relativism puts forward the idea of not having universal moral standards and call for changing and flexibility of choices and decisions. Ethical relativism provides leaders with the view of diversification and call for a flexible approach rather than following fixed and inflexible rules for the whole team. The concept provides the basis of ethical leadership which does not impose undue restrictions and compulsion to perform an act which is ethically or morally wrong to that individual. 3) The book discusses the idea of a "team code of conduct" How do class members view this in term of applicability and efficacy? A team code of conduct provides the team members with similar grounds to portray behaviors which are mentioned. The behaviors are selected and incorporated in the code of conduct to ensure the progress of the team towards their goals without any biased or discriminatory attitude towards their individualistic actions. The members’ behaviors are assessed against the behaviors defined in the code of conduct. It helps the team members in moving along and work collectively effectively. The code of conduct is applicable and is highly productive since these codes are selected and adopted by all the members. The code of conduct in a college team or class team members may act as a valuable tool to move them along. The college sport team, for instance, may be given a code of conduct which directs the members to be present in the play ground on time, communicate freely, share issues, listen to others, attend meetings etc. All these codes of conduct help the members of the team to follow them and keep the team on the track to success. However, the class members may question its efficacy if no or fewer restrictions are imposed on the members to follow the code of conduct. The team members should be given strict principles if they do not abide by the code of conduct in order to improve the efficacy of this concept. 4) Define trust. How many of the definitions provided become descriptions of behaviors? It is justifiable to say that “trust emerges in the team as members learn from their success and failures to rely on one another"(Pearce & Conger, 2003, p. 211). In this context the team trust may be defined as the perceptions and assumptions that the teams members hold about each other’s skills, talents, honesty, reliability and benevolence (Jarvenpaa, et al., 1998). According to Kramer & Tyler (1996) team trust is “the belief that an individual or group (a) makes good-faith efforts to behave in accordance with any commitments both explicit and implicit, (b) is honest in whatever negotiations preceded such commitment, and (c) does not take excessive advantage of another even when the opportunity is available” (Kramer & Tyler, 1996, p. 303). In the context of teams, trust hence, is the behavior of one team member which implies certain traits of his personality on others. The behaviors that enable others to believe and have faith in other’s traits and qualities along with the reliance on his ideas and suggestions constitute trust. The trust between the team members emerges from the knowledge of their working abilities, skills, flaws and strengths and the perceptions of the outcomes of those efforts. If the outcomes are significantly different from the expected results, this gap is due to the violation of trust from one or more members within the group. The trust of team members also require them to act in good faith of the team rather than putting efforts for their individual benefits. Trust, in simple words, is the result of honesty and sincerity of team members with each other, the team and their collective goal. 5) Write your own mission statement. "To build my career in the healthcare administration field in order to aid the difficulties that exist due to poor planning and leadership skills of the healthcare practitioners. I value the skills in administrative side of healthcare since the basic interest of healthcare departments is to serve others and work in the best interest of public rather than their own selfish interests and benefits. I aim to achieve a highly reputable position in this area by acquiring the qualifications required and implementing the theoretical constructs being learnt in the practical career. To achieve my aims, I have taken two initial steps; the first is the degree program in Healthcare leadership and second is the practical illustration of the leant skills within the professional field. To build up the skills needed for a healthcare administrator I practice my career in the administrative side of healthcare for a children’s hospital currently. I aim to achieve success by acquiring knowledge and experience at the same time.” 6) Some psychological theories have long suggested that the three basic human needs are to get along, to get ahead, and to create order. How do these impact the study of leadership? Leadership traits are not limited to the qualification; cognitive skills and theoretical knowledge of the leaders but it require some social, personal and cultural understanding in the leader to be effective. The first of the three basic needs discussed is somehow a social skill f the leader to manage his attitudes and skills to get along with other within the workplace or the group. Leaders and other members of the group must share common values to get along without disruptions or outside forces interrupting their activities and behaviors. While moving with others, the leader needs to have skills which help in getting ahead of the difficulties and situations that act as hurdles in his way to success. Since it has been discussed already that today’s competitive environment expects some inborn and self-developed qualities in the leader rather than just academic degrees. The quality of getting ahead and the surge of achieving goals is the skill that needs to be developed in the leadership context. Getting ahead is not a simple task but it requires the leader to achieve a distinctive position by taking necessary steps and following procedures which help in efficient utilization of the available resources, motivated staff and accuracy of work while keeping the goals in view. Leaders need not to step forward alone, but they require getting the whole group along. The leader furthermore, needs to create order within the group. Everything has its place in our daily life setting; however, if something loses its place or is not suitable at its position the whole scenario is worsened. A leader is the person who sets the scene of a group. He is responsible to delegate tasks, measure performances and review the plan where necessary. The skill to create order helps in combating chaos and misconceptions about the leaders which may occur in the members’ conceptions about their job, their role in the group and their motivational levels. 7) How long, on average did it take the good-to-great companies to clarify their hedgehog concepts? What implications does this have about finding your own hedgehog concept? On average, it took 4 years to clarify the hedgehog concepts of the good-to-great companies. The hedgehog concept simply requires a person to identify certain truths about him or in case of a business or organization to clearly understand what is important and interesting to them. The hedgehog concept requires the answers to the following three questions or ideas: What one can be the best in the world? What drives one’s economic engine? What one is deeply passionate about? For instance, if I am born with a talent to play football or sing magnificently and I find out this genetic talent in me I am able to answer the first question. The next step in the hedgehog concept is to start working on polishing and making known this talent to gain some economic advantage. The more passionate I am about singing or playing football, the more I enjoy my work. 8) Are you engaged in work that fits your own three circles: What you are passionate about, what you are genetically encoded for, what you can get paid for? Do you need to change? Which circle is hardest to get right? Why? There are certain skills which are god gifted and those skills and talents may be polished and utilized or being forgotten and wasted. The real success is to identify those talents and utilize them for the whole life. My personal interaction with the hedgehog concept is new on the theoretical grounds; however, I feel that I am engaged in the work that fits my abilities and passions in accordance with the hedgehog concept. I have an inborn convincing and leading ability since childhood. The genetic emphasis on equality, getting things organized, planning from the beginning and getting others along in the mission is what I am passionate about. I feel motivated and highly encouraged to set targets and achieve them. I feel enthusiastic by the difficult-to-achieve targets and challenges of the working life. I personally believe that my mission to pursue career in the administrative field fits my skills and I do not need to change it. The hardest circle, however, is the economic returns of my job which are limited as compared to the efforts I make. The reason, for now, is the limitation of time and qualifications. However, I believe that after completing my graduation I would be able to fit my aims in the three circles properly.   Bibliography: Barker, A. M. (1992). Transformational nursing leadership: A vision for the future. New York: National League for Nursing Press. Dye, C. F. (2010). Leadership in healthcare: Essential values and skills. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press. Collins, J. C. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap--and others don't. New York, NY: HarperBusiness Pozgar, G. D. (2010). Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Kramer, R. M., & Tyler, T. R. (1996). Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Hsu, S.-Y., & Nova Southeastern University. (2007).Team transformational leadership, trust, empowerment, satisfaction, and commitment: Testing a structural equation model in software development teams. Pearce, C. L., & Conger, J. A. (2003). Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Jarvenpaa, S. L., Knoll, K., & Leidner, D. E. (1998). Is Anybody Out There? Antecedents of Trust in Global Virtual Team. Journal of Management Information Systems, 14(4), 29-64. Read More