Provide a synthesis of your arguments. Given the workplace context and workforce topic
you have chosen, do you think you have chosen the most appropriate leadership approach?
Can you recommend any improvements in leadership for the context and topic you’ve
chosen? (approx. 300 words)
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE
Introduction
The workplace context chosen is a home for the aged. The home comprises of old people
who need basic care due to the inability to perform common motor functions owing to their old
age. Old people often suffer conditions that render them unable to care for themselves. As a
result, they often have to be taken to a home-based care institution where such specialized care
can be offered to them. Within these homes, there is no discrimination as to the gender or age of
the person admitted. A similar criterion is applied to the appointment of employees that offer
care in these institutions (Harris, 2014). No discrimination on any grounds other than
professional qualification can be expected. As a result, the work force is often mixed; with both
male and female employees. This ensures that the old women can have the dignity being taken
care of by the young ladies while the old men get the care from young men; all of the nursing
profession.
Where dominance is realized from one gender, it is often difficult to decide on the right
leader among the less dominant gender. It happens that while there is need to balance between
different leadership styles and even balance between leaders from all gender, it may be
impractical to simply select a leader on the basis that they are of the opposite gender (Silcox,
Boyd & MacNeill, 2015). Regardless, the choice of leadership is a very important aspect to the
success of an institution such as an age care institution. There are many categories to offer
leadership to an age care institution. However, the approach chosen for this paper is distributed
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 3
leadership. In a setting where there is female dominance in an age care institution, distributed
care makes it possible to manage all aspects of such an institution. The rest of the paper assesses
the importance of distributed care in the context of a female dominated age care institution.
Justifications
Workplace Context
In an institution where aged care is offered, there can be a lot of lessons drawn
concerning the topic of nursing leadership. This is because; despite the fact that aged care is
similar to most palliative care models, caring for the aged is often about respecting their feelings
as well as their seniority. Talking to senior citizens is often difficult when one cannot inspire
respect for authority among the elderly (Yuen, Victor & Ng, 2016). As a nurse, one may not be
very used to authority, but they need to know how to deal with patients and understand the
psychology of the patient. It is critical that at all time, there be mutual understanding between the
patient and the nurse. This however happens only when the mutual understanding is borne out of
mutual respect. It is critical to ensure that in an institution such as the age care institutions, such
understanding is guaranteed.
The workplace context of the age care institution presented a challenge to many nurses.
Research has shown that many people find it challenging to deal with persons who are older than
they are (Kangas, Venninen & Ojala, 2016). It is vital that these persons present a situation of
understanding for not only what the authority needs but what the people under the leadership
need. A nurse is meant to be a care giver and not an administrator. However, an institution such
as an aged care center requires a leadership structure to run efficiently. It is thus important to get
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 4
the right leader to run the affairs in such a context (Tian, Risku & 2016). A vital concern for
many leaders (regardless of profession) is the inability to determine the diction to use with
certain groups of people. A nursing leader will likely learn the diction to use with the senior
citizens under their care by experiencing it firsthand. This workplace context is thus a great
learning experience.
Leadership Choice
The choice of leadership for the workplace is the distributed leadership approach. A
distributed leader is one who will have leadership qualities to fit different leadership styles. This
will mean that he or she will not just be a situational leader. They will be bureaucratic, use
traditional approaches and even transformational approaches where need be. Despite these
qualities, no leader is likely to be holistically adept with the skills to handle all situations that
face them (Hayward, 2015). Leadership in the distributed context is thus essentially a measure of
the contextual performance of the leader. There is need to evaluate the performance of the leader
under different contexts. This is the only way to understand how and why they would behave in
such a situation. It also helps to see the number of situations one may have to brace themselves
to face (DeFlaminis, Abdul-Jabbar & Yoak, 2016).
Despite these realities, the perception of society on leadership may not be as anticipated.
In the context where there is a dominance of the fairer gender (female nurses), then one has to
have more skills than required. A female nursing leader needs to be able to handle the dominant
male gender and highly gain the appreciation and support from this gender (Corrigan, 2013). It
may not seem necessary to some extend but where this attribute is denied a person; they likely
fail in their leadership. A distributed leader will deal with women differently from the way they
deal with men. Such a leader will handle old people in a different way from the way they deal the
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 5
young nurses at the institution. For instance, dealing with disputes between a nurse and a senior
citizen will require a lot of wisdom. Such wisdom can only be gained from handling several such
situations effectively (Yuen, Chen & Ng, 2016).
Leadership plan
Looking at the aged care institution, a leader needs to effect policy change initiatives.
One such initiative is the appealing of laws that add little value to the institution. However,
deregulation is not as difficult as actual regulation (Göksoy, 2015). In the situation of the aged
care organization, it is often the case that the institution will have many old people suffering
different kinds of ailments associated with old age. One such ailment is the condition of arthritis.
Realizing a spate of arthritic conditions will mean that there is the recommendation of therapy to
treat the condition. As treatment is underway, prevention is important as well. Nevertheless,
there may be need to balance between treatment and prevention. A leader would want to evaluate
the number of people suffering arthritic conditions and treat it if endemic. However, if the
number is low, prevention may require more resources than treatment (Yuen et al, 2016).
A nursing leadership plan must encompass the aspects musculoskeletal injuries among
the aged. Common aspects that contribute to such injuries such as slippery floors need to be
addressed. Aged employees need to be allowed time to walk to places that do not need a lot of
supervision. Within these places, prior investigation should be done to ensure that there is no
apparent danger that may affect them. Some of them are scared of rodents and insects. It is vital
to know the epidemiology of each person in order to know how best to treat or handle them.
While care is taken on the aged, it should also be taken on the rest of the nursing staff. They need
to be abreast with issues regarding threats to old people’s lives and address them with little
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 6
supervision. Getting the right workforce is thus a necessary aspect to the success of such an
institution (Ming-Hsueh, Su-Hua & Mingchuan, 2016).
Empirical research considerations
Empirical research is based on information considering a certain set of data elements. A
data set will likely present certain values, differences and principles that can shape an institution.
As a leader, it is important to survey the general feelings of the members of the institution from
time to time (Farzipour, 2016). Such a survey should be geared towards understanding areas of
improvement, aspects to avoid and even new areas to invest in nursing care initiatives. Empirical
research in an age care institution needs to be accompanied by evidence. The core values in
empirical research include; observation, induction, deduction, testing and evaluation. Such
research should thus be based on a set of facts about an observable phenomenon. It is necessary
that there is no issue with the data collected as the credibility of information in an empirical
context is very central to the organization (Silcox, Boyd & MacNeill, 2015).
Empirical research should be based on certain particular presumptions or hypotheses.
There is no need to invest in research about an item that is not entirely of any value with regard
to policy enactment and change actualization. Research, however must take place to address
questions such as; the cost of healthcare in aged care institutions, the insistence of particular
persons on the values they hold dear as well as the perception of government help among people.
Credible research thus eventually brings to light the concepts of research work that may not be as
popular. There is also concern that while there are a lot of talents, some of these may not be
deemed popular due to inability to offer the old people (senior citizens) an avenue to express
their feelings though games and laughter. This is often the case with recreation facilities. A
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 7
leader ought to know the goal to achieve despite complicated path-goal actualization methods
(Tian, Risku & Collin, 2016).
Challenges of distributed leadership
The challenge with distributed leadership is that such leaders do not have specific
leadership strengths. They are often known for balancing different traits and coming up with the
right situation that benefits everyone or restores parity where peace seems difficult. Arbitration is
a skill almost all leaders need to have. However, it is necessary that where a leader is able to be
good at a particular leadership trait; they should exploit it without any hesitation. It is necessary
that leaders be accorded the right opportunity to effectively achieve a certain goal or objective.
However, leaders in a distributed setting often tend to seek a balance that really does not restore
a situation as it was.
Distributed leadership requires a leader to make many decisions from time to time. At the
same time, it requires the leader to balance between different situations where either outcomes of
the situation are unfavorable (Quintana & Morales, 2015). It may not be easy to estimate the true
value of a leader where they keep making half-decisions. An incomplete decision on a matter is
hardly one that can last for long. People often imagine dethroning leaders from the
responsibilities they hold due to the fact that they seek to offer better leadership. Distributed
Leadership is thus not an easy task to achieve. Most of the challenges regarding distributed
leadership are however regarding the inability of leaders to gamble.
Conclusion
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 8
An aged care organization that has a dominance of women requires that a lot of values be
imparted onto the leader that is charged with the responsibility of overall care. Where a leader is
in a situation where there are more women than men yet men do exist as well; they ought to have
sufficient people skills to deal with all the women; both young and old (Abrahamsen & Aas,
2016). It is also critical for the organizations or businesses they run to minimize gender
stereotypes and retrogressive comments about the leadership in place. Supporting the leader of
the day makes them feel motivated to perform better than they actually would. However, such a
leader needs to prove their qualities. This is why a distributed approach is necessary for them.
A distributed leadership approach is appropriate for the situation of feminine dominated
aged care institutions. However, there is a lot of vague information concerning distributed
leadership. For instance; the distribution is not specific to a certain context. More often than not,
a leader will want to exercise authority over diplomacy. Despite coming into a culture of
dominantly distributed leadership, a good leader knows how well to adjust and adapt to different
situations in their leadership responsibilities. It is thus important to always clarify that the values
anticipated of a leader have to do with how well they handle different types of people (Johnston,
2015).
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 9
References
Abrahamsen, H., & Aas, M. (2016). School Leadership for the Future: Heroic or Distributed?
Translating International Discourses in Norwegian Policy Documents. Journal Of
Educational Administration And History, 48(1), 68-88.
Corrigan, J. (2013). Distributed leadership: rhetoric or reality?. Journal Of Higher Education
Policy & Management, 35(1), 66-71.
DeFlaminis, J. A., Abdul-Jabbar, M., & Yoak, E. (2016). Distributed Leadership in Schools : A
Practical Guide for Learning and Improvement. New York, NY: Routledge.
Farzipour, V. (2016). Distributed Leadership and Its Applications in Health Care Settings:
Social Media Perspective. GlobalData Ltd.
Göksoy, S. (2015). Distributed Leadership in Educational Institutions. Journal Of Education And
Training Studies, 3(4), 110-118.
Harris, A. (2014). Distributed Leadership Matters : Perspectives, Practicalities, and Potential.
Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.
Hayward, S. (2015). Success factors in the transition towards distributed leadership in large
organisations.DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 10
Johnston, M. P. (2015). Distributed leadership theory for investigating teacher librarian
leadership. School Libraries Worldwide, (2), 39.
Kangas, J., Venninen, T., & Ojala, M. (2016). Distributed leadership as administrative practice in
Finnish early childhood education and care. Educational Management Administration &
Leadership, 44(4), 617-631.
Liang, J. G., & Sandmann, L. R. (2015). Leadership for Community Engagement–A Distributed
Leadership Perspective. Journal Of Higher Education Outreach And Engagement, 19(1),
35-63.
Ming-Hsueh, T., Su-Hua, C., & Mingchuan, H. (2016). The Impact of Taiwan Elementary
Principal’s Distributed Leadership and Teacher’s Emotional Labor on Teaching
Effectiveness. International Journal Of Intelligent Technologies & Applied
Statistics,9(1), 67-88.
Quintana, M., & Morales, A. (2015). Learning from listservs: Collaboration, knowledge exchang
e, and the formation ofdistributed leadership for farmers’ markets and the food movement. Studie
s In The Education Of Adults, 47(2), 160-175.
Silcox, S., Boyd, R., & MacNeill, N. (2015). The myth of distributed leadership in modern
schooling contexts: Delegation is not distributed leadership. Australian Educational
Leader, 37(4), 27.
Tian, M., Risku, M., & Collin, K. (2016). A meta-analysis of distributed leadership from 2002 to
2013. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(1), 146.
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN FEMALE DOMINATED AGECARE 11
Yuen, J. P., Chen, D., & Ng, D. (2016). Distributed leadership through the lens of Activity
Theory. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(5), 814-836.