Leadership and innovation in health care

Leadership and Innovation in Health Care
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Leadership and Innovation in Health Care
The development of organizational infrastructure and creative innovations are some of the emerging issues in the health care industry. The industry stands to benefit profoundly through creative innovation and the development of relevant infrastructures. The new set of society needs require organizations in various industries to employ the use of technology to achieve customer satisfaction. The health care industry, for instance, needs to change its infrastructure to serve the new breed of patients who are knowledgeable and aggressive. Several issues must be changed to achieve effectiveness in the development of infrastructure and innovation in the health care industry. First, the traditional system in which health care facilities have been operating needs to change completely to allow innovation to take place in each unit. Hierarchical mode of operation, the superiority of specific disciplines in the industry, compartmentalization, and medically controlled systems in the healthcare industry must change to allow for infrastructural development and innovation (Grady & Malloch, 2010). In addition, equity, decisional structure, and alignment are three contextual characteristics that must be implemented in every health care facility that seeks to achieve innovation and infrastructural development at this age.
Equity brings the appreciation of all disciplines within the industry.

More often than not, some disciplines in the health care industry are glorified at the expense of the others. Health care managers and leaders need to come to a realization that all disciplines in the industry are interconnected and none can operate effectively without the contribution of the other. As such, equity must be exercised in prioritizing and appreciating members from each discipline to promote the unity of purpose at the workplace (Grady & Malloch, 2010). Change is easy to achieve when people are working towards a singular goal without feeling superior or inferior to each other. The system must be converted from subordination to partnership where people from varied discipline work together to achieve infrastructural development and promote innovation. The use of associations and not hierarchies, accountability, and understanding the centrality of nursing are key aspects in the creation of organizational infrastructure.
The decisional structure of an organization also determines the capacity of the firm to achieve innovation and create organizational infrastructure. According to Grady & Malloch (2010), the involvement of the staff in decision-making helps to encourage change and allow easy development of systems. Decisional accountability as opposed to positional authority promotes development and is an important aspect in the creation of organizational infrastructure in the health care industry.
An alignment of motives is an essential tool in the innovation process because it serves to engage employees more than any motivation mechanism. Alignment of motives makes people feel better as opposed to being excited. As such, employees articulate ownership to the organizational change and feel like part of the projects. Alignment, as opposed to motivation, ensures that gains from the innovation and infrastructural development are of mutual advantage (Grady & Malloch, 2010). Health care organizations need to change their staff engagement techniques to achieve the intended innovations.
The health care industry has changed greatly over the last few decades. The need to adopt technology-based systems has pushed the industry to modify some of the traditionally valued practices to serve the new breed of consumers. Infrastructures that allow innovation have been adopted in the healthcare industry today. Equity, decisional structure, and alignment of motives are some of the most important contextual issues that allow for the creation of organizational infrastructure necessary for innovation in the industry. Therefore, organizations need to adopt these factors to ensure effective change and progressive innovation in the health care industry.
References
Grady, T. & Malloch, K. (2010). Innovation Leadership: Creating the Landscape of Health Care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.