Effective Leadership Traits in Correcting Organizational Deficiencies

Effective Leadership Traits in Correcting Organizational Deficiencies Timothy B. Ashby Devry University Leadership and Organizational Behavior GM 591 Professor Faggione January 26, 2011 Introduction Effective Leadership Traits in Correcting Organizational Deficiencies Lexington Country Place is a rehabilitation and long-term care facility that is owned and operated by Five Star Incorporated. Five Star is a relatively new corporation that has made great strides in promoting excellence in the care and rehabilitation of those in need of nursing care that extends beyond acute hospitalization. LCP has had a long-standing reputation of excellence in the Lexington, Kentucky community. Over a period of the past two years that reputation declined as a result of several factors but primarily because of ineffective leadership. My role at LCP is the evening shift RN House Supervisor. Some of my responsibilities include effectively handling any problems that may arise during the 3-11 shift. These problems may include making adjustments in staffing, assisting with admissions, public relation concerns, and using effective nursing assessment skills and making decisions that insure the safety and care of the residents at LCP. The current Director of Nursing, Angela Staiano, RN, BSN, has a proven track record of being an effective leader with a history of improving the quality of long-term care facilities. She was offered and accepted the position of DON at LCP several months ago following a state inspection in which LCP was noted as having several deficiencies. Since inspections are a matter of public record and customers are able to make comparisons with competitors, LCP had a decrease in its census. Problem Identification The problem being addressed in this paper is how ineffective leadership resulted in a decrease in the resident population, a complacent staff who were not committed to providing high standards of care, and as a result, a decreased profit for the organization. The lack of profitability affects not only the corporate center, but also affects the organization’s ability to make improvements to the facility, provide adequate resources to the residents, and to pay wages comparable with competitors in order to retain good employees. Shermerhorn (2010) writes that â€Å"organizations depend for their success on day-to-day decisions made by (leaders). The quality of these decisions influences both the long-term performance of an organization and its day-to-day character—in the eyes of employees, customers, and society at large. The problems at LCP directly resulted from poor decisions that were made of ineffective leaders. Literature Review An search on EBSChost for the phrase â€Å"effective leaderhip† resulted in 6373 results. The term â€Å"leadership traits† resulted in 718 results. A combination of the previous terms â€Å"effective leadership traits† provided too narrow a parameter with only nine research articles. A search for â€Å"types of leaders† generated 787 articles. â€Å"Leadership paths† located 151 results. A search for â€Å"organizational leadership behaviors† generated 23 results which defined a reasonable search parameter with adequate research articles to support this paper.