Chapter 3: Leadership Concepts in Health Information Management

Team

A group of people working together to achieve a common goal for which they hold themselves accountable.

Job Enlargement

A horizontal expansion of an employee's duties. Tasks are added to the current job, but employees have the same degree of autonomy and responsibility.

Bridge Employment

A job that an individual takes between leaving their full-time position and beginning full-time retirement. The job could be part-time in the same organization or in the same field, part-time in a new field, self-employment, or even temporary work. It allows a new retiree to transition mentally and physically into full-time retirement status.

Reinforcement Theory

A motivation theory built on the incentive and reward concept. Employees are motivated to perform in relation to incentives or positive reinforcement as well as disincentives or negative reinforcement.

Recorder

A person who creates a meeting agenda, takes and distributes meeting minutes, helps to create charts, and sends out necessary correspondence.

Team Facilitator (or coach)

A person who is present at meetings but is neither the leader nor a member. They understand the team process and is available to assist with the mechanics of the team process, but he or she is not as concerned with the outcomes of the project as much as they are concerned that the team functions productively. They also provide coaching on how to run a meeting, assign tasks, and make decisions.

Timekeeper

A person who is responsible for keeping minutes on track by managing time. They tell all members how much time has been spent on a topic and if too much time is being spent on a particular agenda item.

Social Identity

A person's sense of belonging to a social group. People identify with more than one social group. They also strive to improve the status of the social group with which they identify.

Job Enrichment

A vertical expansion of a person's duties. Generally, a new skill set is required, and responsibility and autonomy are increased.

Goal-Setting Theory

Based on the premise that employees respond best when goals are clearly defined, and feedback is provided about goal progress.

Operant Conditioning

Behavior is associated with a positive or negative reward and is modified or learned over time.

Cognitive Bias

Commonly defined as an error in reasoning, judgment, or decision-making.

Informal Teams

Consists of employees who develop groups around shared interests that may or may not pertain to organizational business.

Hygiene Factors

Elements that can provide job dissatisfaction to employees and consist of company policies, supervision, working conditions, and financial rewards. These items are not motivators but rather indicate whether an employee is happy or unhappy and can act as de-motivators.

Motivators

Elements that can provide job satisfaction to employees and consist of achievement, recognition, the work itself, advancement, and responsibility.

Stereotyping

Generalizations about individuals based on their identity, group membership, or affiliations.

Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory (also known as the Motivation-Hygiene Theory)

He identified two motivational elements--motivators (satisfiers) and hygiene factors (dissatisfiers).

Work-Life Balance

Issues that may also be barriers to creating a diverse workforce. Employees at all levels of an organization strive to maintain a balance between their work and personal life. This is especially difficult for single-parent and dual-income families.

Similarity-Attraction

Means that, overall, people prefer to interact with others who are similar to themselves. When given a choice, people prefer to spend time with others whose attitudes and values are like their own.

Extrinsic (or External)

Motivating factors that are tangible and obvious to others. They might include a promotion or a salary increase.

Intrinsic (or internal)

Motivating factors that come from within the individual. There may be an inner drive to succeed or an intangible feeling of accomplishment in a job done well.

Equity Theory

Motivation theory that suggests employees are motivated by the balance of their inputs in relation to their outputs as compared to both their employer and other workers. In other words, an employee is motivated to do well when they believe what they contribute to a job in the way of effort, skills, loyalty, and trust (inputs) is equally matched by what they receive from a job in the way of salary, benefits, recognition, and job security (outputs)

Job Rotation

Requires employees to rotate among different tasks or jobs, usually at the same level. Employees learn new job tasks and it offers a break from the monotony of a repetitive job.

Virtual Teams

Teams whose members are geographically distributed, requiring them to work together though electronic means with minimal face-to-face contact. They may operate across time zones and are often cross-functional in nature.

Inclusion

The differences between individuals are truly respected and valued in the workplace. It is the result of successful diversity management and enables all employees, regardless of aspects like age, gender, race, or religion to be as productive as possible.

Team Charter

The expectations of the team, details of the mission and vision, provides the scope, sets the boundaries, names the leader and members, and identifies the key outcomes.

Motivation

The forces acting on or within a person that cause the person to behave in a specific, goal-directed manner.

Team Sponsor

The individual who initially brings the team together and assigns their charter.

Morale

The mental and emotional condition (as of enthusiasm, confidence, or loyalty) of an individual or group with regard to the function or tasks at hand.

Workplace Diversity

The set of individual, group, and cultural differences employees bring to an organization. Individual differences refer to the abilities, skills, and qualifications people bring to the workplace and are represented by demographic elements such as race, age, and gender. Physical ability and sexual orientation are also individual differences.

Cross-Functional Team (or Interdisciplinary teams)

They are made up of members from different departments. They work best when the problem to be addressed requires input from different sources.

Formal Teams

They are structured, assigned a charter, and usually proceed with meetings, minutes, and agendas. Members are assigned by the team sponsor. They can be short term, as in the case of planning for a department relocation, or long term, as evidenced by a hospital infection control committee.

Team Members

They do the work of the team such as participating in discussions, putting forth ideas, sharing solutions, carrying out assigned tasks, and supporting team actions in their individual work areas.

Job Design Changes

Used to motivate employees by making their jobs more interesting and increasing an individual's usefulness throughout the organization.

Team Leader

Usually selected by the sponsor, although team members may have input. They are responsible for the administrative aspects of team management like setting and running meetings, assigning tasks, keeping the team focused, resolving conflicts among members, communicating with the team sponsor and making sure that the resources are being used efficiently.

Affinity Groups

Ways for social groups to come together in the workplace. They are formed by employees with common interests. They come together for a specific purpose such as mentoring, continuing education, or participation in a service project.

Bandwagon Effect

When people do something simply because other people are doing it; it's popular or a fad.