HEALTH SERVICE MANAGER MANAGEMENT STYLES ACCORDING TO WERK PERSON MANAGEMENT STYLE INVENTORY

The goals of managerial personnel in Health Service include: defining duties for personnel teams, initiating and co-ordinating team work, care for development and improvement of potential of workers. Requirements for modern companies do not allow for forcing specific behaviour among personnel but praise the ability to communicate by partnership and co-operation and quality of co-operation between the managing person and personnel. Assuming a thesis that there are preferred goals in management by Health Service managers, an attempt to identify them was made with the model of the Inventory of Person Management Styles WERK. The research was conducted on a group of 60 Health Service managers performing functions on various organizational levels. Respondents were managers hired in the public and non-public health care facilities from the Silesian and Podkarpackie Provinces. The analysis of results points that for the largest group of managers, the managing styles model WERK did not define both the dominating managing style as well as a style least typical for management. The fact indicates that managers in the health care facilities probably use the management style adequate to the situation or have the ability to switch between management styles using the characteristics typical for many management styles or use two or more management behaviors which they consider effective. Probability of existing specific management styles can be assumed as well, which are used by the Health Service managers and which have not been defined by the management styles model WERK.

Challenges in teaching intercultural communication (ICC) for healthcare students

Including the intercultural aspect in classes can pose great challenges for ESP teachers. First of all, when we try to find the balance between language learning and improving intercultural competence, we may face various problems on how to support both without the two counteracting one another. Furthermore, we must see and acknowledge our competences and responsibilities when teaching communication as ESP teachers. Lastly, we have to be knowledgeable in how to gradually improve intercultural communication among learners with different language proficiency levels. In our paper we aim to find answers to these questions based on our experience in teaching intercultural communication to health service manager students.

Analysing a Resilience Development Program: who benefits?

Objective: This article presents findings from an analysis of resilience and resilience development. Design: Convergent, mixed-methods research used an online survey to gather data from participants in a resilience development program, in combination with a small number of semi-structured interviews with managers. Setting: The research was carried out on public sector health and human services managers and staff, during a time of ‘downsizing’ and organisational restructuring. Main outcome measures: The Wagnild Resilience Scale was used to measure resilience levels and their association to respondent demographic, educational and professional groupings. Results: Interviews with senior managers found a consensus of opinion that resilience was important; and the resilience development program either had, or potentially had, benefits for their workforce. Perceptions about exactly who would benefit differed between senior managers and participants in the program. Participant survey results indicated that respondent characteristics (age, occupational group, highest level of education and departmental role) were associated with differing levels of resilience. Conclusions: This study found that resilience development may benefit two groups of employees in particular: non-nursing staff under 50 years of age, and managers. These findings add to the body of knowledge associated with staff resilience development, organisational change management and organisational learning. These results inform health service manager practice by suggesting potential target groups for resilience development.

Wise planning

PLANNING IS AN ESSENTIAL PART of modern organisations and is integral to the role of a health service manager. The planning activity emerges as a consequence of the need to contain costs, manage health outcomes, and be held accountable for the effective, efficient and equitable provision of health services. Amidst the challenge to operate within the current resource (ie, financial, human and time) capacity there is an imperative to explore and develop innovative service delivery models to meet increased demand and expectations. Therefore, textbooks on the subject of planning in health-related topic areas are a valuable resource in these very challenging times in health care.