The Role of Executive Coaching in the Reengineering of a Health Care Organization - Research Paper Example

The role of Executive Coaching in the Reengineering of a Health Care Organization Introduction: Executive coaching has become a very important part of leader development in the last several years. According to Smith (n.d.), the word coaching goes back to the 1800s although executive coaching only began to be recognized as a field between 1980 and 1994 (p. 1). As downsizing increased and uncertainty entered workplace, many organizations found that using a coach to help their top executives was important for the organizations growth. According to Smith, this practice is "now synonymous with successful executives" (p. 2). The Executive Coaching Handbook (2004) defines executive coaching as: …an experiential and individualized leader development process that builds a leaders capability to achieve short-and long-term organizational goals. It is conducted through one-on-one interactions, driven by data from multiple perspectives and based on mutual trust and respect (p.22). This definition is important to research because it defines not only the need for working with leaders but it also gives an opportunity to organizations to understand the coaching relationship. According to Ennis, Goodman, Hodgetts, et.a. (2005), coaching is a process and central to this process is the ability of the coach to help a leader develop to their full potential in an organization. Many organizations find that exemplary leadership must be retained in their reengineering or restructuring efforts and often the way to retain them is through fostering executive coaching. Executives bring about change, and this researcher will look at change management and how it can be implemented within a health care organization using executive coaching. Coaching executives are needed by large and small organizations to evaluate the behaviors of their employees, their attitudes at work, their level of enthusiasm and motivation and the factors that influence them to have a positive outlook towards their job According to Giglio, L & Diamante, T & Urban, J.M (1998) organizations are willing to provide a coach for senior level managers when it is perceived that the executive is in trouble, is going to be in trouble, or when the executive has isolated himself/herself from the senior level team. The time for executive coaching seems to be best done before the individual is in trouble because change usually generates from the decision making level of an organization. The change agent can be defined as a manager who is there to reconfigure an organization’s roles, responsibilities, structures and the output Saka,A(2002). Problem Statement: Executive coaching is important to the restructuring or re-engineering of a healthcare organization in order for its leaders to move forward. In moving forward, a leader becomes a change agent who helps motivate employees, help them accept change on an ongoing basis and helps to empower the employees. Purpose of Research: The purpose of this research is the identification of the role of executive coaching in the re-engineering or restructuring of a healthcare organization. Of particular interest is how executive coaching can assist a leader in improving employee job satisfaction and retention. Central to the purpose of any leader is employee motivation and how it interacts with the workplace. Most leaders will encounter issues with employees that include employee motivation, change management, employee empowerment, employee involvement and the psychological issues related to employee behavior. This research will determine whether executive coaching provides the way Research Questions: 1. What is the role of the coaching executives in the re-engineering of a health care organizations? 2. How does an executive coach help leaders move their employees through organizational change? 3. How do executive coaches leaders create employees who adapt to change? Literature Review: Executive coaching is a term that has been used for at least the last ten years. Many companies have found the benefits of using this opportunity to help their top leaders excel. According to Altman (2007), "50% of companies spend between $100,000 and $500,000 pounds a year on coaching. American copanies spend as much as $1 billion a year on coaches" (p. 27). These figures are for coaching across the board and gives the indication that many companies are getting results. A question that enters this discussion is "When is the best time to use a coach?" According to the Institute of Directors, executive coaching works best when an individual understands the issues that they need to address in their position (Altman, p. 27). With this information in mind, it seems that in order for an organization to use executive coaching effectively, they must be clear as to what they want to change. When looking at the cycle of change that many organizations go through, it may be that executive coaching is used throughout the process. As an example, there may be different times during the process of restructuring or reengineering that executive coaching may be more important that at other times and this "timing" may be different for each organization; this research will examine the timing within the organization chosen. Good organizations become great organizations when their leaders embrace change and help all employees move through the process and also embrace the changes. This idea sets the stage for leaders to be catalysts for change. This literature will discuss the role of the coaching executives in the health care organizations as the change agents .The focus will be on the health care organizations, however, the other influential matter is how the changes are implemented and executed keeping in view the issues of the employees. The competencies of change agents within the organization should be clarity of specifying the goals, team building activities, communication skills, negotiation skills, and influencing skills to gain commitment to the goals and objectives. However, the limitations in change management are more linked with the higher management’s perceptions of the need for change. Research also shows that even though the internal change agents adapt to the change management styles to be participative, free from politics and involving all concerned in the decision making and diverting the resources in solving actual operational problems. In the implementation phase of strategic change, the top managers are expecting the lower managers and the employees to act in line with their strategic vision and strategic plans. Joyce,P & Wiley,J (2000). The employees does not have the responsibility to manage change where as the responsibility of managing change is with the management and executives of the company. Kotler, J.P. (1995). The literature will further discuss the use of the tool for leadership development in varied type of organizations and the influences it will have on the performance of the employees. The document will also focus on the human psychology perspective, related with employee de motivation and feelings of distress and lack of involvement with the team players. Many businesses and managers themselves seek focused solutions to immediate problems. Executive coaching is the route of not only liberating the full potential of careers but also the full potential of the organizations. Shaughnessy, S.O (2001). A coach is an outside individual who can take a fresh perspective and approach when analyzing organizational processes and one who has nothing to gain by taking a position. The primary task facing the executive coach is the process of gathering data from the executives and from those with whom the executives interact in order to view the various realities. The literature will also discuss the role of the coaching executives as change facilitators, confidence building, team building and influential leadership. Team working is a very important aspect of working in an organization, and requires team skills in individuals’ add-on to other skills that are very important. In essence the coach begins to build a relationship with the executives as a result of expressing genuine interests in the clients work life. The coach’s role of an information provider further expands as a classifier, questioner, elaborator and a motivator. As the coaching relationships develops, the executive will typically become supportive and even excited about identifying the problems and understanding the systems and the interrelationships associated with the organization. The coach will start his/her workings by taking useful data, analyzing the data in the light of the current scenarios, taking assumptions, and then providing the company with useful and helpful solutions that will be helpful in the longer run. The important point in this literature is not the instrument that the coach selects but the thing that is more important is how that instrument is used. The coach will also observe the behavioral styles of the employees as some observations also states that some people are controlling, bossy and self centered and their attitudes needs to be pondered over. The literature will also look into deeper insights, as to the health issues related to the employees in the work environment. The coaching executives will play a major role as psychologists to motivate employee’s regards to their working environment, and catering the issues of the employees regarding the motivations and lack of energy levels. All these issues play a major role in the employee performance and productivity. There will be discussions regarding the employee’s emotional intelligence and how emotional intelligence quotient can be increased to have maximum results in the work environment. Data Collection Methods & Instruments: The data collection method is by using the primary research data collection via questionnaires, interviews, focus group interviews, observations, case-studies, diaries, critical incidents and portfolios. This will help the coaching executives in analyzing the issues of the employees, and their response and behaviors. Interviews are used as a technique that is used to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons for employee motivation, behaviors and preferences. These interviews can be taken on a personal one-to-one basis or in a group. The interviews can be planned in a way by listing the areas in which the information is required, decisions on the type of interviews, transforming areas into actual questions. The designing of the questionnaires for the purpose of primary data collection should be to gather response in an unbiased manner. Surveys and questionnaires are very important for the purpose of the analysis of employee behaviors and improvements in the performance of the employees. These surveys will help in identification of the problems faced in the organization and the implications necessary for the re-engineering of the company with respect to the employees. The answers shouldn’t reflect the differences due to instrument but should indicate differences between respondents, Synodinos, N.E(2002). The wordings of the questionnaires, response choices and instructions play a major role in the construction of a worthwhile questionnaire. Based on the response format the questionnaires can be classified into two classes i.e. Open-ended and closed- ended. The context within which the questions are presented can have a big influence on the answers that is why the question construction has a big impact on the answers. The questions should be in a proper and professional appearance and the formatting should make it easy for the respondent to complete or for the interview to administer. The company must use open ended as well as close ended questionnaires to evaluate the response of the stakeholders especially the employees. These questionnaires and surveys will help them analyze the performance of the company in terms of performance, and productivity of the employees with respect to its competitors. After the construction of the questionnaires the staff should have a pilot testing of it. Pilot testing should be used as an interactive process aimed to perfect the questionnaire for its intended purpose. Research Methodologies: The research methodology adopted for this research paper is the mixed method approach i.e. the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods with the help of focus groups, observations, interviews and questionnaires. The research design that will be adopted for this research paper will be based on the Saunders research process onion. Mixed methods research is a research design that includes the philosophical assumptions as well as quantitative and qualitative methods. Fig 4: Saunders Research Onion The Saunders research process onion provides the research philosophies of positivism, realism, interpretivism, objectivism, subjectivism, pragmatism, functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. The two broad methods of reasoning are the inductive and the deductive approach. The research approach adopted in this research framework is the inductive research approach. Inductive reasoning works opposite to the deductive approach as it moves from specific observations to broader generalizations and theories. The research design used for the questionnaires is the open ended questions as open ended questions include the possibilities of discovering the responses that individuals give spontaneously, and it also avoids the bias which may occur in the case of close ended questions. Open ended questions will make better analysis of the respondent’s attitudes and behaviors and is an approach that is always feasible in case of consultancies and coaching executives in the health care sector. Bibliography Altman, W. (2007). Executive coaching comes of age. Engineering Management. 17 (5), p. 26-29. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from Academic Search Premier database AN: 28724016. Ennis, S., Goodman, R., Hodgetts, W., Hunt, J., Mansfield, R., Otto, J., and Stern, L. (2005). Core competencies of the executive coach. Retrieved October 6, 2009 from http://www.theexecutivecoachingforum.com/ ECFCompetencyModel905.pdf. Giglio, L & Diamante, T & Urban, J.M (1998). Coaching a leader : leveraging change at the top: Journal of management, 17(2), p93-p105 Saka,A (2002), Internal change agents’ view of the management of change problem: Journal of Organizational Change Management, 16(5),p480-496. Joyce,P & wiley,J (2000). Strategy In The Public Sector: A guide to effective change Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p119-p134. Kotler, J.P. (1995). Change Management. Available: http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm. Last accessed 22nd May 2009. Shaughnessy, S.O (2001). Executive Coaching: The Route to business stardom: Industrial and commercial training, 33(6), p194-p197 Smith, E.R. (n.d.) A brief history of coaching. Scribd. Retrieved October 9, 2009 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/7398635/A-Brief-History-of-Executive-Coaching. Synodinos, N.E(2002), The art of questionnaire construction: Some important considerations of manufacturing studies: Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 14(3), p221-p237. The Executive Coaching Forum (2004). The executive coaching handbook. 3rd Edition. Retrieved October 9, 2009 from http://www.theexecutivecoachingforum.com/ images/ECHandbook3rdEdition012204.pdf. Read More