Health and social care for leadership and management Essay

Health and social care for leadership and management - Essay Example An extensive review of the literature on management and leadership of health and social care confirms that effective leadership and management is essential for health and social care provision. Both the management and leadership ensure higher quality, consistent safety, and streamlined efficiency. Effective leadership is essential for driving health and social care delivery. The care manager needs to have the ability to exercise the leadership skills that required in their job role for effective and efficient management of care. The health and social care provision success or failure depends upon the leaders. All care professionals are considered to play an important part in leading in some certain aspects of care. The National Health Services UK The UK National Health Services was established in 1948 in the aftermath of the Second World War. During this time, healthcare was a luxury, and not everyone could afford it. However, it was based on the principles that everyone was eligible for care. Since then, NHS has undergone a lot of changes and transformations. The National Health Service delivers healthcare to a total population of over 62 million people in the United Kingdom. According to Gopee & Galloway, NHS’s total expenditure amounted to  £106 billion out of the total public expenditure of approximately  £700 billion for the UK. Therefore, the total expenditure on healthcare accounts for 16 percent of the total annual expenditure for the United Kingdom. NHS plays a key role in providing leadership in the health.   ... Despite this desirability, the theory faces criticism from C.L. Graeff, who claims that there is conceptual ambiguity that limits the practical application of the theory’s prescriptive model. One such problem is the situational leadership theorist’s argument that a motivated person without ability is less mature than an unmotivated person with ability is, against which a number of logical arguments could be made (Graeff, 1983, p. 287). Situational leadership, which attempts to impose categorical classifications onto people and groups, often fails in empirical support as well. Task-relevant maturity suffers from conceptual ambiguity and thus offers little help in a real-life approach to solving management and leadership problems (Graeff, 1983, p. 290). Escaping the kinds of theoretical problems with situation leadership, some theorists prefer to discuss a notion of â€Å"transformational leadership.† Transformational, in this case, refers to the idea that leadersh ip should inspire and cause change in individuals as well as institutions. This notion of transformation first arose in 1978 with the writings of James MacGregor Burns, who defined the concept as â€Å"a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents† (Wren, 1995, p. 102). Defined in another way, transformation means not only instilling a new idea and motivation in one’s followers, but to empower them to become leaders (and proselytizers) themselves. In addition, leaders are turned into â€Å"moral agents,† by which Burns means they advance from one stage of development to another, fulfilling their higher human needs for esteem and