Leadership versus management in healthcare

Leadership versus Management in Healthcare Leadership versus Management in Healthcare Management and leadership are some of the concepts that have been highly debated. Many people use the two terms interchangeably, although they represent different concepts. Management is viewed as a social discipline whose focus is the behavior of people and human institutions. The role of a manager is to set objectives, organize teams, and ensure that the resources of production remain highly productive. Managers must be able to ensure that all the employees can exhibit harmony and use the available resources to achieve the identified goals. Management is a process that involves the determination of objectives using human, financial, and physical resources. Managers must make sure that they adopt an appropriate approach of combining all these resources to achieve organizational goals (Shortell & Kaluzny, 2006). Other authors have categorized the roles of a manager as informational, interpersonal, and decisional. In summary, management involves functions such as planning, organizing, evaluating, budgeting, and controlling.
On the other hand, leadership involves influencing followers so that they can get on the right track or direction. Therefore, leaders must define strategies and visions for an organization. Therefore, leadership is defined by visions, ideologies, and direction that must be used to influence the followers. The objectives of leaders are to inspire and motivate followers so that they can achieve an identified goal. In the view of many authors, leadership is both goals oriented, and highly inspirational. Currently, there are many leadership theories that describe how leaders use different strategies to influence their followers. In the healthcare sector, both leaders and managers play a critical role. The purpose of many healthcare institutions is to promote the healthcare status of the community while delivering quality services. Leadership serves to define the visions and goals of each healthcare institution (Burns, Bradley, Weiner, Shortell, & Kaluzny, 2012). On the other hand, the managers serve to organize all the employees, teams within the health care system so that they can utilize the available resources, and achieve organizational goals. Managers are tasked with producing, systems movements and management control, system networking, and budgeting.
References
Burns, L. R., Bradley, E. H., Weiner, B. J., Shortell, S. M., & Kaluzny, A. D. (2012). Shortell and Kaluznys health care management: Organization, design, and behavior. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
Shortell, S. M., & Kaluzny, A. D. (2006). Health care management: Organization, design, and behavior. Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning.