Manager’s in A Health Care Discussion Response
Main Question;
- Explain what is meant by a manager’s power base and the ways managers in a healthcare setting develop it.
Student response;
Manager’s in a health care setting can develop power base in multiple ways. Power base is defined by Borkowski & Meese (2021), as “influence over beliefs, emotions, and behaviors of people (pg. 164).” Managers can gain this type of power by learning people and knowing your team. Your influence as a manager can be beneficial if you know and understand a person’s drive, goals, experience, and mindset. This talent of knowing who you work with can be the key to getting the job done as a team and ensuring patients are taken care of. Managers also have to understand that in order to successfully use this type of power, they themselves must know their job, get things done, fair to all employees equally, and listen when concerns/or issues arises. Borkowski & Meese describes this as expert power: “the expert is seen as having superior knowledge or ability in a very specific area (2021, pg 165).” To use the base of power for managers, they have to have connections with others or network with others outside of their team that can get things done as well. Networking and knowing who or where to go to to find equipment, informations, or policies can be the many attributes of a manager that can set them aside from other teammates. Everyday interface between and across different health professionals is characterised by power relations that define managerial functions and healthcare delivery. Power play and power sources have thus become fundamental to understanding how health systems function to achieve equity, responsive, effective and efficient care (Bawontuo, V., 2022) The ability to be a leader and a manager takes hard work and must constantly evolve for the better. Managers should be a person that employees want to follow, learn from, and eventually take their place. This requires open communication and transparency between the team and the manager. Scientific analysis and practical experience certainly suggests that the manager of human resources must possess a number true values, qualities and abilities (Esmerova, E., & Stojcevska, I., 2022). The power that can be gained by a manager that possess these traits shows employees that they are knowledgeable and have the abilities to lead and manage others. Employees have faith that manages will have their best interest as a priority, Directors and Chiefs of departments will know that the managers are leading the company or unit in the right direction that goes in order with policy. The overall end-game is the patients when it comes to power base managers. Although some managers use their power in a negative way, there are avenues and steps to take to prevent the mistreatment of employees.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-022-01678-y
