Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to MedCram. Today we shall be looking at health systems management.

Speaker 2: A health system or a health care system is an organization of people, institutions and resources that deliver health care services to meet the health needs of the target population. The reason why you study management is that this concept will enable you to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes which are necessary to provide effective leadership and management in meeting the challenges of health care professionals. Health care professionals today need to appreciate that health care is a business and its success depends on their participation in changing the systems for delivering cost-effective care and creating strategies to ensure that clients receive quality care. Health care workers occupy managerial positions and they need to teach those who are under them to perform the job, match the employees to the job, provide motivational incentives

Speaker 1: to workers and also to ensure organization fulfills its objectives.

Speaker 2: And before we go any further we need to understand the difference between leadership and management. Management is the process of working with and through people to effectively and efficiently achieve organizational objectives utilizing the available resources carefully in a changing environment. And on the other hand, leadership is an act of exerting one's influence upon others so that one is able to command their respect, confidence and obedience. The use of one's skill to influence others to perform the best of their ability towards

Speaker 1: achievement of goals is what we call leadership. What do managers really do?

Speaker 2: Managers manage three M's, T and I, we can say manpower which is human resources, materials

Speaker 1: and equipments, money, time and information. How can you differentiate between effectiveness and efficiency?

Speaker 2: Effectiveness is the degree to which objectives are achieved and the extent to which targeted problems are solved. So effectiveness is determined without reference to the cost. On the other hand, efficiency increases the productivity and saves both time and money. For example, a manager can use an email rather than sending letters to each of the individuals. Efficient employees and managers complete tasks in the least amount of time and resources which are available following the right process.

Speaker 1: What levels of managers are there in an organization?

Speaker 2: There are normally three distinct levels, the top managerial level, the middle level

Speaker 1: and the lower level known as supervisory level. Top level managers.

Speaker 2: This level consists of board of directors or their equivalents, the chief executive officers of an institution, managing directors, general managers, presidents and this is the ultimate source of management authority. These members engage extensively in the formulation of policies and they provide leadership and control, the direction the organization is moving in an effort to accomplish the direction

Speaker 1: of goals.

Speaker 2: And their main functions are to analyze, evaluate and deal with environmental forces, for example competitors, establish overall long-term goals, strategic plans and operating policies of the institution, appointment of key personnel to the institution, reviewing and controlling the institution's operation. The top management is the one that is accountable for the stakeholders and shareholders or their equivalent. The next level of managers are middle level managers or middle level management. This level consists of general managers, branch managers, departmental managers in an organization. They are responsible for the efficient and coordinated functioning of their departments in accordance with the basic objectives and implementing the plans which have been laid down by the top management. This middle level managers interpret policies from top management to the lower management and inspire others to perform better towards achieving a better performance. The next level of management is the supervisory or the lower level managers. These lower level managers are situated at the lowest level of the managerial hierarchy and they are the ones responsible for operations and job implementation. So they are the operating managers and job implementers in other words. These lower level managers or supervisors serve as a link between the workers and the higher level management and they make recommendations, suggestions and communicate with employee problems to the higher levels. Some of the managers here go by the titles as the foreman, the supervisors, superintendent or sales or accounts officers. What are the defined functions of supervisory managers? These are the managers who do planning of day to day production, assign jobs to the workers, they are responsible for explaining work procedures, supervising and controlling workers because they spend most of their time supervising subordinates and they also maintain

Speaker 1: discipline and solve workers' problems.

Speaker 2: What are the qualities of a manager or what are the attributes of a good manager? A good manager must have an acceptable level of formal education, intellectual capability by qualification, they should have a good understanding of the goals or objectives of an organization, they should have an understanding of top management, they should be visionary and desired oriented, a good manager must have leadership qualities and good communication skills with a stable character, and this manager must be hardworking for others to embrace and follow him or her, and willing to accept responsibility, morally they should be upright

Speaker 1: and people of integrity. Then what are the skills of an effective manager?

Speaker 2: An effective manager should have these three skills, the technical skills, human skill and conceptual skills. Under technical skills, these are the prominent skills that are at operational levels or lower level management, and they usually the people who possess advanced technical skills at the hands of people. And under the human skill, they consist of the ability to work efficiently with other people to win their cooperation and build effective work teams, and good interpersonal relations, communication, delegation, motivation, and others are examples of human skills. And lastly, the conceptual skills that an effective manager should have, they relate to the manager's ability to think abstractly by the use of analytical thinking, their ability to make global perspective of the organization and its environment so that they can be able to see a big picture. And this conceptual skill is the most important of the top management.