Effective healthcare teams require effective team members: defining teamwork competencies

BACKGROUND: Although effective teamwork has been consistently identified as a requirement for enhanced clinical outcomes in the provision of healthcare, there is limited knowledge of what makes health professionals effective team members, and even less information on how to develop skills for teamwork. This study identified critical teamwork competencies for health service managers. METHODS: Members of a state branch of the professional association of Australian health service managers participated in a teamwork survey. RESULTS: The 37% response rate enabled identification of a management teamwork competency set comprising leadership, knowledge of organizational goals and strategies and organizational commitment, respect for others, commitment to working collaboratively and to achieving a quality outcome. CONCLUSION: Although not part of the research question the data suggested that the competencies for effective teamwork are perceived to be different for management and clinical teams, and there are differences in the perceptions of effective teamwork competencies between male and female health service managers. This study adds to the growing evidence that the focus on individual skill development and individual accountability and achievement that results from existing models of health professional training, and which is continually reinforced by human resource management practices within healthcare systems, is not consistent with the competencies required for effective teamwork

Contrasting Uses of Balanced Scorecards: Case Studies at two UK Companies

This article considers two contrasting applications of the balanced scorecard, at EDF Energy and Tesco, where the scorecard is called a steering wheel. A distinction is drawn between a strategic scorecard based on vision and a performance management scorecard based on mission and values. This difference makes the associated balanced scorecards useful to management in different ways. Our model demonstrates how different balanced scorecard approaches can complement each other for effective strategic management. This conceptualization is consistent with a perceived general tendency for large multinationals to use values to strategically manage from the center organization-wide core competences

The Impact of Emotional Intelligent Leadership on Staff Nurse Empowerment: The Moderating Effect of Span of Control

Aim: To test a model linking nurses\u27 perceptions of their nurse manager\u27s emotionally intelligent leadership style and nurses\u27 structural empowerment, and the impact of nurse manager span of control (number of direct reports) on the emotional intelligence/empowerment relationship. Background: Hospital restructuring in the 1990s resulted in a dramatic reduction in nurse manager positions, yet nurse managers are critical to empowering nurses for professional practice. Method(s): A descriptive correlational survey design was used to test the hypothesized model in two community hospitals in Ontario. Two hundred and three nurses from two hospitals retuned useable questionnaires (68% response rate). Results: Span of control was a significant moderator of the relationship between nurses perceptions of their managers\u27 emotionally intelligent behaviour and feelings of workplace empowerment. Conclusion: The results suggest that even managers with strong emotional intelligence may not be able to empower their staff if their span of control is large. Implications for Nursing Management: Every effort must be made to ensure that managers have reasonable spans of control that allow them to develop and use the leadership skill necessary for empowering their staff to practice to the full scope of their professional role