Amir Dan Rubin: Success from the Beginning
Question 1: Leadership Styles
Rubin utilized several leadership styles to address
the challenges that faced Stanford hospital. Years of experience in several
organizations taught him important techniques of earning respect and loyalty
from the workforce. On joining the organization, he made was categorical that
his interest was establishing a professional relationship with all the employees
and to foster growth and development of the organizations. Therefore, he
employed authoritarian leadership style to send a clear message that he was in
control though he was a new leader to most of the employees. Rubin understood
that the first impression especially for a leader moving to a different
organization ought to be lasting and definitive. Resultantly, he laid down his
goals and intentions for reversing the downward trajectory that Standard
Hospital was headed.
He held regular meetings with the staff to understand
their needs and the causative agents of poor performance of the hospital. Most
importantly, he steered clear of tackling complicated issues at the beginning
of his tenure. However, as his leadership took hold, he incorporated a democratic
leadership style, where employees were involved in decision making. He also
encouraged the practice of social equality to promote the interests of the
workforce and to empower them. He made periodic visits to all the hospital
departments and encouraged the departmental heads to focus on attainment of
annual goals of the institution (Barnas, 2014). Besides, he became a role model
by keeping time and pursuing his C-I-CARE
policy intended to improve the welfare of patients.
Question 2: Leading Change
When Rubin joined Stanford Hospital as a leader, the
medical facility was on a brink of collapse. The hospital experienced financial
problems, resulting in an incomplete hospital construction project. In
addition, the corporation had failed for two years in its attempt to merge with
California-San Francisco hospital. Therefore, it is undeniable that Rubin
inherited a myriad of problems as a new CEO. However, his intention was to
ensure full recovery and restoration of the hospital's reputation. In his initial
address to the mid-level management, he ensured that all the managers of
various departments were on board with regards to his new plans and renewed
vision of the organization. Secondly, he pushed for improvement of patient care
as a core objective in the short run. It resulted in the introduction of the C-I-CARE strategy to remind the workers
of their priority in Stanford Hospital.
Over time, Rubin learned of existing gaps within the
internal environment that were detrimental to the achievement of annual goals
and objectives, they included incompetent workforce, poor research and
development, and poor relations between the employees and the management. It
prompted for a complete overhaul of the organizational culture to fix
organizational irritants like recognizing and rewarding hardworking employees,
training the workers periodically to impart them with specialized skills
required in their distinct department for better service provision, and
enhancing the relationship between them and the leadership. Problems such as
these were prioritized, given that they demanded lesser resources to implement
and could not lead to organizational collapse, but in the long-run, Rubin
encouraged the workers unable to keep up with his revolutionary pace to quit.
In fact, some of the most hardworking employees were promoted to replace the
retiring and outgoing workforce. The
change was conducted successfully because the employee performances were
measured by merit, qualification, and effort rather than a relationship with the
leaders, or corrupt deals.
Question 3: Resistance to Change
It is worth noting that Rubin was a new face to the
organization. The workers hardly knew his leadership style or plans on the
future of the corporation. Incompetent workers became uncomfortable on
realizing that the new leader was goal-oriented and self-driven, thus their
jobs were on the line (Barnas, 2014). In addition, other workers that engaged
in unethical business practices feared that their shoddy deals would be
uncovered. Rubin was young and energetic and intended to inject energy into the
system, which most of the aging workers were not ready and well prepared. His
focus on patient affairs led to an assumption that the welfare of employees and
other stakeholders would be neglected. However, as Rubin gained a clear
understanding of Stanford Hospital’s organizational structure, he introduced
multiple techniques to arrest fears and to reiterate his vision, focus, and
long-term plan.
As a first step, Rubin encouraged the workers to
participate in brainstorming and idea generation. He also sourced for their
personal views on the future of the organization. His democratic leadership
style coupled with rewards and motivation altered the employee's mindset and
the organizational culture hence resulting in a positive change that was
mutually beneficial to the patients and the employees. Furthermore, set himself
as a role model, making it easier for the corporate fraternity to emulate his
deeds and to adopt his style.
Question 4: Norms
During Rubin’s four
years of leadership, the organization adopted several group norms. First, the
employees gained personal and organizational pride, given that the firm's
performance improved as it recovered its reputation. It cannot be denied that
other corporations in the medical sector sought to benchmark from Stanford
Hospital's success, operations, and its leadership strategy, thus earning pride
to the workers and the management as well. The restored confidence energized
the staff to strive even harder to maintain the stability and to set up a trend
in the internal and external environment.
Secondly, Stanford Hospital excelled because the
leader encouraged teamwork and constant communication as a norm. Establishment
of functional horizontal and vertical communication channels assisted in
strengthening relations between the leadership and the staff thus resulting in
tighter bond and ties for better teamwork and cooperation. Third, Rubin
introduced training as a new norm to impart knowledge and to sharpen the skills
of the employees. The move encouraged efficiency in service delivery and muted
instances of dissatisfaction among the patients (Barnas, 2014). Lastly,
creativity and innovation were established by introduction of four-pronged
strategies. Rubin intentionally changed the corporate structure and the people
holding leadership position to enable younger minds full of ideas to take over
the leadership mantle and to overcome complex challenges by designing a new
approach to patient care through its virtualization and employing information
technology. Besides, he introduced total quality management and lean production
to ensure efficient utilization of resources for optimal output.
Question 5: Action Plan
The initial success of the organization is inspired by
the leader through his effective use of leadership style, the establishment of
relationships and employee motivation. However, it is clear that the four-year
performance has resulted in the expansion of the organization to the new
regions. As operations move to a new environment, chances are that Rubin will
fail to supervise the activities and transactions in distinct branches.
Therefore, there is a need for the introduction of a new generation of leaders
that can continue Rubin's mission in the newly set subsidiary healthcare
centers.
Rubin should select a group of new leaders from the
existing workforce and provide mentorship programs in preparation for their
assumption of leadership roles in the new environments. In addition, he should
delegate the authority to these young and energized leaders for them to execute
first-hand leadership responsibility. Opportunities such as these should test
the competency level of the potential leaders for early decisions and
alternation if need be. Over the next
two years, Rubin should observe and select talented staff for the new
challenge. It implies that as a leader, Rubin should minimize his input into
the organization to allow for new ideas to be introduced and to ensure a smooth
transition should he opt to exit Stanford Hospital in the near future.
References
Barnas, K. (2014). Beyond Heroes: A Lean Management
System for Healthcare. ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value.
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