To Prepare:
Review the Learning Resources for this week, and reflect on the mechanisms available to evaluate change in healthcare organizations and nursing practice.
How is change management related to change leadership?
Consider how leadership approaches may contribute to evaluation processes for change management, as well as for the support of sustaining changes in healthcare organizations and nursing practice.
What does it mean to sustain changes in healthcare organizations or nursing practice, and how might leadership support these aims?
Reflect on when you should stop measuring change in an organization, and why.
Post a brief comparison between change management and change leadership. Be specific. Explain how leadership approaches may relate to processes for evaluation of and sustainment of change in a healthcare organization or nursing practice. Then, explain the function of leadership in evaluating, maintaining, and sustaining change. What is the influence of leadership on these aims? Be sure to include a brief explanation of whether you should stop measuring change in an organization, and explain why. Be specific and provide examples.
Evaluating and Sustaining Change
Student’s Name
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Evaluating and Sustaining Change
Leadership and management are considered to be important determinants of successful organizational change. They affect change outcomes in different ways. For example, effective leadership and management have been associated with successful change whereas ineffective leadership and management hampers successful change in an organization (Ford et al., 2021). The purpose of this discussion is to describe the relationship between leadership and management and to explain the function of leadership in change evaluation, maintenance, and sustainment. The author will further explain whether one should stop measuring a change in an organization.
Difference Between Change Management and Change Leadership
Doctorally-prepared nurses should understand the difference between change management and leadership. According to Ford et al. (2021), change management refers to the structures and tools that have been put in place to ensure that a particular change initiative is kept under control. On the other hand, change leadership refers to the approaches that are applied to the entire change process to make it move effectively towards the desired direction. Kotter (2017) asserts that while the goal of change management is to minimize distractions from the impacts of a change initiative, the goal of change leadership is to create a vision for change and streamline the driving forces and processes that will fuel large transformations from change efforts.
Leadership in Change Evaluation and Sustainment
It is important to understand the relationship between leadership approaches and the processes that are employed to evaluate and sustain reforms in healthcare organizations and nursing practice. Leadership is related to change evaluation and sustainment in that leaders must employ appropriate leadership approaches to promote successful change evaluation and sustainment in healthcare organizations and nursing practice (Ledlow & Stephens, 2018). For example, a leader must choose a leadership style or model that supports both effective evaluation and sustainment of change.
Functions of Leadership
Leadership plays an essential function in the evaluation, maintenance, and sustainment of change. Change evaluation, maintenance, and sustainment and crucial components of change management. Holten (2016) defines change evaluation as the systematic assessment of an ongoing or completed reform to establish whether the desired objectives have been met. The type of leadership approaches applied during change evaluation should be that which facilitates impact assessment. Silver et al. (2016) define change maintenance and sustainment as the approaches that are applied to adopt change and make it last in an organization going forward. To be able to maintain and sustain change, leaders of healthcare organizations should employ leadership strategies that bring together all stakeholders to support a change (Silver et al., 2016). Generally, leadership influences change evaluation, maintenance, and sustainment by creating a vision and ensuring that activities are accomplished in a manner that encourages the realization of the desired objectives and goals both in the short run and in the long run.
Measuring Change
Once a change has successfully been integrated into an organization, it is not necessary to continue measuring it forever. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement reports that an organization does not have to measure change forever after completion. Rather, it can methodologically review various measures occasionally to determine whether the desired goals are still being met (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2016). For example, after successfully implementing and adopting barcode medication administration (BCMA) technology to reduce rates of medication errors, an organization can evaluate the change after every one month to establish whether rates of medication errors still remain low post-adoption.
Conclusion
Doctorally-prepared nurses should understand the difference between change management and leadership. Additionally, they need to understand the evaluation, maintenance, and sustainment of change. Essentially, an organization should stop measuring change frequently after successful adoption but it should do it occasionally to spot check performance.
References
Errida, A., & Lotfi, B. (2021). The determinants of organizational change management success: Literature review and case study. International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 13, 1-15. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/18479790211016273
Ford, J., Ford, L. & Polin, B. (2021). Leadership in the implementation of change: Functions, sources, and requisite variety. Journal of Change Management, 21(1), 87-119, doi:10.1080/14697017.2021.1861697.
Holten, A. (2016). Leadership style and the process of organizational change. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 36(1), xx. doi:10.1108/LODJ-11-2012-0155.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). (2016). Dear IHI: when can I stop measuring what I’ve already improved? http://www.ihi.org/communities/blogs/_layouts/15/ihi/community/blog/itemview.aspx?List=7d1126ec-8f63-4a3b-9926-c44ea3036813&ID=229
Kotter, J. (2017). Change management vs. change leadership: What’s the difference? https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2011/07/12/change-management-vs-change-leadership-whats-the-difference/?sh=20d51db84cc6
Ledlow, G. & Stephens, J. (2018). Leadership for health professionals: Theory, skills, and applications (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning