How might health care leaders establish trust and loyalty in their health care organization? What strategies might health care leaders employ in order to assert themselves as responsible for and capable of leading change forward?

As a current or future health care executive, your ability to articulate motivation, moving a path forward, and leading change will be necessary to ensure the success of your health care organization. A successful health care executive must be mindful of the perceptions of his or her staff and how to best address trust and loyalty when organizing new changes in health care delivery.

For this Discussion, review the mini-case as presented in Chapter 5 of Dye & Garman (2015). Reflect on the case and consider how you, as a current or future health care executive might support or oppose strategic change.

Post your position on whether you support or oppose strategic change based on the mini-case, and explain why. Be sure to justify your position with support from the Learning Resources and outside research. Then, explain how you might implement health care executive leadership strategies for your health care organization or one with which you are familiar. Be specific and provide examples.

Mini Case of Human Resource VP

Consider This:

Human resources VP Jim Batten was talking with Barbara Buczinski, VP of patient care services, about gaining trust with staff. Buczinski stated, ‘it really is all about being yourself. I find that I have to put in a lot of time and help people get to know who I am and what makes me tick. In doing so, I think I will gain their trust”.

Batten replied, How true. And yet so many leaders seem to orchestrate their actions and how they are seen. It is almost like a political campaign. You know that the people who are running for election are not really letting us see their true selves”.

· Debate the two sides of this issue. Should leaders let their guard down and let followers see everything? Or should they be cautious in what is seen and what is known about them? In other words, are there circumstances in which some withholding of information or even manipulation may be best?

Jim Batten, Vice president of human resources, and Elizabeth Parris, CEO, were talking one day about trust. Parris commented, “I just don’t believe that you can measure trust. I know that people say you cannot manage what you do not measure, but trust is one of the concepts that I do not see a way to measure”.

Batten replied, “Well, I think you can measure trust in two ways. The first is quite simple. You ask if there is a trust relationship———and ask for a yes or no answer. In an employee engagement survey, we often include the item ‘ I trust my supervisor’. I also think that you can measure those behaviors that come out of trusting relationships. Again, if we conduct an employee engagement survey, we might include items such as ‘I trust what my supervisor tells me’ or ‘I can trust the information that I receive from senior management”.

Parris commented, “I see what you mean. I only wish there was a deeper level of science to this topic”.

· How might trust be measured? Use your Internet search skills to examine the concept of trust.

Resources

Dye, C. F., & Garman, A. N. (2015). Exceptional leadership: 16 critical competencies for healthcare executives. (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.

Chapter 5, “Competency 5: Earning Trust and Loyalty” (pp. 53–64)