Roles and Functions in the Health Care Industry

Roles and Functions in the Health Care Industry There are four major functions of management in a health care setting. They are organizing, planning, controlling, and leading. Organizing, as one of the most important parts to leadership (Ekaterini, 2010), is the process of handing over tasks, distributing resources, and assembling and coordinating the activities of both groups and individuals for implementing plans (Lombardi & Schermerhorn, 2007). Planning is the “process of setting performance objectives and determining what actions should be taken to accomplish them.” Controlling means to measure job performance, evaluating results and comparing them to objectives while making sure to take any necessary corrective actions. Finally, leading is “the process of arousing people’s enthusiasm to work hard to fulfill plans and accomplish objectives” (Lombardi & Schermerhorn). In any position within any job, these four functions are very important. In one of my previous jobs, I worked in a hotel and while this is very different than most jobs in the health care industry, these basic functions applied to my daily work there as well. Without all of these functions, there could be plenty of miscommunication between the group leaders and employees. Leading was one of the most important as we needed good quality and strong leaders to provide guidance and ownership to difficult situations. More often than not, change was a huge factor we encountered and I know that this could easily occur in the health care industry as well. Management had to be capable of dealing with change and supporting the skeptical employees who were sometimes resistant to change (Mariana & Violeta, 2011). Strong leadership ultimately uses the other three functions in order to run a successful business. In all honesty, I feel there is not just one role that is the most important for a health care manager or leader in the diversified health care industry. Interpersonal, informational,

References: Ekaterini, G. (2010). The impact of leadership styles on four variables of executives workforce. International journal of business & management, 5(6), 3-16. Lombardi, D. N., & Schermerhorn, J. R. (2007). Health care management: Tools and techniques for managing in a health care environment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Mariana, P., & Violeta, S. (2011). Opportunity to reduce resistance to change in a process of organizational change. Annals of the University Of Oradea, Economic Science Series, 20(2), 698-702.