Leadership, Ethics, and Strategic Management in Healthcare
What to know
Understand leadership styles (transactional, transformational, servant), team dynamics, conflict resolution, and change management (Kotter's steps, Lewin's unfreeze-change-refreeze). Know strategic planning components-environmental scanning (SWOT, Porter's five forces), mission/vision, goals, and balanced scorecard. Grasp ethical principles (autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice) and how they apply to resource allocation, informed consent, and end-of-life decisions. Recognize governance structures and stakeholder management.
Traps
Questions often confuse transformational leadership (vision and inspiration) with transactional leadership (rewards and consequences). Another trap is treating SWOT as strategy itself-it is an assessment tool. Watch for ethical dilemmas mislabeled: allocating scarce resources by lottery or need raises justice questions, while respecting a patient's refusal raises autonomy.
Worked example
During a ventilator shortage, a committee uses a transparent, published scoring tool based on likelihood of benefit. This reflects justice and beneficence balanced with transparency. Rule of thumb: autonomy governs the individual patient's choice; justice governs distribution across patients.
Review how change management and stakeholder alignment affect strategy execution, since scenario questions test leadership judgment.