Frontiers of Health Services Management - Fall 2013 - (Page 43)

Role and Importance of Top Leaders in Setting the Moral Compass Healthcare leaders set the tone for the consistent application of the moral compass throughout the organization. Brinkley writes, “the two most important steps that leaders can take are to deliberately identify and define their organization’s key values and to live by them as examples of their organization’s culture.” i agree that leaders, in collaboration with their governing boards, need to carefully identify the organization’s values, and leaders must model those values. Such steps are an important starting point. as both Brinkley and Donnellan affirm, ethical leadership is essential because leaders influence the decisions and actions of others in the organization. the actions of leaders, therefore, directly and indirectly affect the entire organization’s ethical climate. By leaders, i do not mean just executives but also head nurses, department and section chairs, and committee chairs, all of whom can model ethical values as well as directly guide the behavior of other staff. they provide direction and facilitate processes that enable organizations to achieve a values-based organization. leaders play this crucial role in many ways throughout organizations, providing direction and facilitating processes that enable organizations to achieve a values-based structure. Practicing Values-Based Leadership By consistently exhibiting the organization’s values, its leaders demonstrate that those values are not just abstract concepts or words on the back of someone’s name badge. they are instead a set of clearly defined, living values. no tool is more powerful than one’s own example in demonstrating the importance of ethics and organizational values. it is said that observed behaviors significantly influence the behaviors of others. the leaders’ observed actions are perceived as the standard of appropriate conduct. for example, leaders who explicitly identify and talk about ethics issues or ethics conflicts give others permission to discuss ethical concerns or questions. an executive who stresses during a meeting that a challenging managerial decision has ethical implications communicates an acknowledgment of the importance of ethics in the decision-making process. finally, role-modeling fosters integrated value congruence and influences the organization’s culture through the trust that is held in the leader (grojean et al. 2012). Setting Clear Expectations for ValuesBased Behavior in addition to identifying and modeling the organization’s values, leaders need to promote the integration of those values Wil l ia m A. N e l s on, H FAC H E • 4 3 C o m m e n t a r y harmful. the american Board of internal Medicine’s choosing Wisely campaign, which includes 35 specialty groups, offers a useful guide of beneficial practices (www.choosingwisely.org) that ought to be openly discussed with patients in a shared decision-making process. Such a campaign can foster the appropriate use of interventions, thus aligning care provision with the moral compass. for today’s healthcare leaders, financial concerns pose a significant challenge, yet fulfilling the organization’s values should take priority. actions that are not focused on the primary value of acting in the best interest of the patient pose both patient care and organizational risks, undermining the organization’s values and the professionalism of its healthcare leaders. http://www.choosingwisely.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Frontiers of Health Services Management - Fall 2013

Frontiers of Health Services Management - Fall 2013
Contents
Editorial
The Case for Values as a Basis for Organizational Culture
A Moral Compass for Management Decision Making: A Healthcare CEO’s Reflections
Ethics, Values, and Decision Making
Wanted: Morally Courageous Leaders
The Imperative of a Moral Compass–Driven Healthcare Organization

Frontiers of Health Services Management - Fall 2013