Mary Arrived Twenty Minutes As Per Writer

In this assignment, you will analyze Fiedler’s Contingency Theory and
learn to identify the most effective leadership style to use in
different situations.
Using the South University Online Library or
the Internet, conduct research to gain a greater understanding of
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory.

John, a health management student completing an internship at
Memorial Hospital, has been appointed chair of a multidisciplinary
clinical taskforce by the hospital’s CEO. The taskforce will design a
new operational system to reduce the waiting time of patients entering
the hospital’s emergency room (ER). Although John had no clinical
experience, he had successfully completed a course in operations
management prior to beginning his internship and was excited to apply
his new knowledge for solving a “real” problem for the hospital. The
hospital CEO told John that when a patient entered the hospital’s ER, it
could take up to eight hours from the time the patient was initially
triaged by a nurse to the time the patient was either discharged home or
admitted as an inpatient by the physician. The CEO said, “Due to
quality of patient care issues, this timeframe is unacceptable and the
taskforce needs to come up with solutions to this problem. My goal is to
reduce the “turnaround” time for the patient from eight hours to two
hours.” Prior to being assigned as the chair of this taskforce, John had
informally observed the operations of the hospital’s ER and noted that
many of the bottlenecks causing patient care delays were caused by
operational issues such as nurses filling out duplicate forms and a lack
of communication between the hospital departments (for example,
radiology) when the ER physicians ordered tests or were waiting for test
results to confirm their diagnoses. These bottlenecks caused a slow
turnover of the ER’s examination rooms and unnecessary paperwork
resulting in the ineffective use of both the physicians’ and nurses’
time. In addition to John, the CEO assigned Dr. Smith, the medical
director of the hospital’s ER, and Mary, the ER nurse manager, to the
taskforce. As chair of the taskforce, John scheduled an initial meeting
for 10:00 a.m., the following Monday. John was surprised that both Dr.
Smith and Mary arrived twenty minutes late to the meeting saying that
this was “taking valuable time away from their normal assignments.” John
started the meeting by first introducing himself. Before this meeting,
he had no interactions with Dr. Smith and Mary. He then reviewed the
current statistics of the average wait time for a patient presenting to
the ER and the hospital’s CEO desire to reduce this time. He then opened
the meeting for comments and suggestions. Dr. Smith spoke first, “In my
opinion, the current operational systems that we have in place are just
fine. We just need more ER physicians and examination rooms so that
more patients can be seen.” Dr. Smith told John to recommend that the
operational systems were good enough and that the hospital should build a
new wing for additional ER exam rooms and hire more physicians.
Interrupting Dr. Smith, John said, “The hospital has a very limited
capital budget and no funds have been allocated for building more
facilities. We need to redesign the operational system to be more
efficient and effective.” Dr. Smith gave John a stern look and reminded
him that he, not John, was the medical director and therefore, knew what
is needed and what is best for the hospital’s ER. Mary was the next to
speak. She recommended that more nurses be hired so patients could be
triaged quicker when they first present themselves in the ER. Dr. Smith
disagreed, saying, “Hiring more nurses is not the solution because even
if patients were triaged quicker, there aren’t enough examination rooms
to move the patients to!”

John was just about to remind them of the taskforce’s purpose, when
an overhead page indicated that both Dr. Smith and Mary were needed in
the ER immediately. By now, patients were lined up in the hallways
waiting to be seen in the ER. Dr. Smith told John to make the hiring and
building recommendations to the CEO. The meeting adjourned, with Dr.
Smith and Mary running off to the ER where patients were waiting to be
seen. John sat in the empty meeting room and thought, “The CEO is not
going to be happy with the taskforce’s recommendations.” He wondered,
“As chair of this taskforce, what could I have done to produce the
desired outcome?” John knew that hiring more physicians and nurses and
building more examination rooms was not the answer. The answer was
better coordination and integration of the ER’s operating systems.

• What is Fiedler’s Contingency Theory? How did it develop? What are its applications? What are its pros and cons?
• Does everyone have just one leadership style or can it vary? Why?
  What factors exert pressure to influence a shift in leadership style?
  Are the factors exerting pressure to influence a shift in leadership
  style appropriate with respect to merit and measure? Why or why not?
• What factors influence a leader to adopt a specific style (personal traits, characteristics, environment, and so on)?
• What role do communications, dynamic listening, and conflict resolution play for a leader?
• Using Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, how would you help John determine what leadership style he should use? Why?
• What would be the most effective leadership style in the above case scenario using Fiedler’s Contingency Theory? Why?

Submissions Details:

• To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also
  use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite
  your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in
  APA format.