The quality of healthcare around the world has been improving for many years but further transformations are necessary at present. Nursing leaders, doctors, and other health workers, regardless of their position, should attempt to undertake the leading role. Healthcare workers do not only make the main decisions concerning the treatment of patients and define the quality and efficiency of the medical care but also have the professional knowledge necessary for the adoption of strategic measures for the development of the medical care models in a long term. The increasing numbers of researches confirm the thesis that the correctly organized participation of doctors in the management of the healthcare institutions promotes the improvement of the results of the work of these organizations. Partners HealthCare Boston is one of the healthcare facilities which effectively organizes its work and manages the mentoring and succession process. The center was founded on the basis of the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1994 (Partners HealthCare, 2017). The given coursework will identify the role of an organizational leader in a healthcare setting of this type, represent the mentoring and succession plan in Partners Healthcare, and describe its impact on the sustainability of the organization, its operational quality, and safety.
Leadership plays an important role in the modern economic relations and is a guarantor of the companys success and prosperity. Leadership is the process of the improvement of the organizational culture which allows developing its key elements and increasing the efficiency of the organizational activity for the realization of the strategic objectives. The leaders set a certain tone and form the accents of the organizational culture which will influence the companys performance. The success of it depends on the leader who foresees the prospects of the organizational development, employs his or her strategical thinking, and shapes the companys culture to achieve the set goals.
1. The Role and Setting for the Creation of the Plan
Mentoring and succession planning are tasked with identifying and developing the companys employees. Robinson (2015) states that mentoring represents the special relationship between two individuals:
Mentoring is a special partnership between two people based on commitment to the mentoring process, common goals and expectations, focus, mutual trust and respect. Mentoring can also encompass activities that allow for transfer of knowledge and skills from one employee to others. Both the mentor and the mentee give and grow in the mentoring process (p.7).
The creation of the mentoring plan manifests a necessary condition for the realization of the organizational strategy which at the same time provides the vital support of the companys productivity. If the measures for filling all key positions with the qualified employees are properly taken, they compose the reliable basis for the efficiency of the whole organization. According to Reeves (2010), the successful mentoring and succession plan is the possibility of the stable growth for the company. In its turn, the steady and solid structure of the leading and other key positions allow the institution to use the financial and human resources more effectively. Stability is salutary for the involvement of employees, as well as for the set of the other functions. The current plan reflects the succession and mentoring process of the retired employee to the perspective one.
The hospital Partners HealthCare applies such types of mentoring as supervision, formal, situational and informal mentoring. The supervision presupposes the sharing of the data on the organization and forming the prospects of the development of the main skills. The relationships are founded on the control principle. The formal mentoring consists in the explanation of the purposes of work and learning in the specially organized training setting. The situational mentoring includes the provision of the necessary assistance to the mentee in difficult situations. The informal mentoring presumes the assumption of the whole responsibility for the mentee by the mentor without any financial remuneration (United States Office of Personnel Management, 2008, p. 4). The voluntarily retired or resigned mentors mostly apply supervision and informal types of mentoring, while those forced to resign adhere to the formal mentorship due to the lack of motivation or stimuli (Robinson, 2015, p.8). In most cases, the forced to resign employees are not interested in the mentorship and succession at all, and, as a result, the mentees are left without any support or assistance.
2. The Succession Plan for Leader Retirements or Resignations
Partners HealthCare widely implements the mentoring and succession planning. Moreover, they announce the forthcoming competition and the opportunity to be promoted, expecting that the employees with healthy ambitions will make all efforts to prove out. The company balances the mentees with the other employees in order not to demoralize those workers who were not included in the list. On the other hand, though the mentees can reduce the rate of work, it will motivate the other worthy candidates to work with even bigger diligence to accelerate the companys growth (Partners HealthCare, 2017). At the same time, waiting for someones retirement or transition to the other company can lead to the formation of the climate of uncertainty in a team and even to the ruthless competition among employees.
Partners HealthCare is focused on the training and enhancement of the personnel both for the promotion of business and income growth and for the successful development of the succession programs. The company applies the approach of game planning to the succession process. The annual meetings of the company contain the discussion of the identification of the candidates ready to occupy the leading positions by the top managers.
At present, there is no general formula for the assessment of the future possible leaders but there are the techniques which can help to define the existence o