Change, Chaos, Adaptation: The Effects of Leadership on a Work Group

Abstract

As nurses, we are very familiar with the environmental factors associated with change, the impact of chaos on working relationships, and the general milieu of a nursing unit. This story relates how a student in a leadership practicum was encouraged to look at change through an organizational lens when the leadership dynamics changed in a work group. The Roy Adaptation Model and chaos theory were applied as frameworks for this assessment as a way to organize and foster learning. Through this serendipitous opportunity, the student gained an insight into the dynamics of group process and an appreciation of the work it takes for leaders and managers to keep the work group in a healthy functional state.

A scoping review of complexity science in nursing

“…From this perspective, organizational issues were resistant to being managed through use of classical problem‐solving approaches (Anderson, Corazzini, & McDaniel, 2004; Brocklehurst, 2004; Bungay & Stevenson, 2013; Penprase & Norris, 2005; Priesmeyer & Sharp, 1995; Rowe & Hogarth, 2005; Sanares‐Carreon, 2016; Scott & Steinbinder, 2009; Scott & Van Norman, 2009; Sharp & Priesmeyer, 1995; Walls & McDaniels, 1999). Several studies have shown that changes in leadership provide the stimulus for chaos, giving nurses opportunities to grow together as a team (Colón‐Emeric, Ammarell, et al, 2006; Forbes‐Thompson, Leiker, & Bleich, 2007; Otten & Chen, 2011). Ross, Ilic, Kiyoshi‐Teo, and Lee (2018) developed the leadership environment scale, which is based on complexity science concepts.…”

Bringing a Little Order to the Chaos: From the Operating Room, and Beyond

“…If uncertainty and the potential for chaos exist in the operating room then surely they exit for a larger organization such as a hospital (of which the operating room is just a small part) or a health care system (of which a hospital is just a small part). What often frustrates stakeholders such as patients, physicians, nursing staff, allied health care workers and hospital administrators is the uncertainty as to whether any framework at all is being used to guide important decisions and mitigate chaos 6 . As Daniels and Sabin state: "Accountability for reasonableness is the idea that the rationales for important managed care plan decisions should not only be publicly available, but should also be those that 'fair-minded' people can agree are relevant to pursuing appropriate patient care under necessary resource constraints" 2,7 .…”