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Student: Nariman Zeraatkar
Instructor: Dr. Louis Robino
Course: Leadership in Health Administration Practice
Date: 03/16/2016
Culture and Leadership in Healthcare
Abstract
With a change in times, the healthcare sector has experienced some several changes that
have led to it being more efficient in the delivery of healthcare services. It is in line with this that
scholars have come up with strategies and plans to aid in streamlining the sector. In this case,
they have come up with healthcare leadership practices that have proven to be effective
(Adaptive Leadership).
Moreover, the culture in Middle East is quite different from that in the Western world
and thus the need for effective leadership that takes into account this issue. Such includes
understanding their culture and providing organized support where needed. In this view, this
paper focuses mostly on the Middle-Eastern healthcare system and leadership practices.

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Introduction
Leadership implies authority or power that is used appropriately for the common goals of an
organization or group. Empowered leaders are crucial to organizational development and
success. Culture, on the other hand, is a way of life of a group of people, their behaviors, beliefs
and values that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the
next. Both leadership and culture are an important aspect in modern day healthcare. In this case,
it is the culture that dictates how leadership in healthcare should be administered so as to ensure
that there is smooth integration of the two without one necessarily violating the other. A medical
practitioner is expected to understand the culture of those that he/she serves to ensure that what
they do is acceptable to the society. Those in leadership roles in the medicine field should ensure
that the come up with avenues to create and address an enabling environment between them and
the society that they serve. This may be through forums that encourage interaction such as
creating corporate social responsibility (C.S.R) guidelines. In this case, this paper will have an
in-depth look at the current healthcare leadership practices, and focuses on the Middle East and
have some clear understanding of their healthcare system and the ways in which their culture
affects it as compared to that of the Western world.
LeadershipandCulture
As compared to the Western healthcare culture, the Middle Eastern one is quite different due to
differences in cultural practices and norms. The difference is brought about by the emphasis on

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the importance of family. The Middle Eastern culture tends to have a stronger need for affiliation
among them as compared to that of their American counterparts. For the latter, there is less
emphasis on family culture as it tends to focus more on individuals. Moreover, there is an aspect
of the middle easterners having strong context communicators whereby there is the need to know
more about an individual and developing a relation. On the other hand, the American culture is
more verbal. It is, therefore, in line with this that a medical practitioner should accept this
cultural norm and ensure that he/she creates a rapport with the patients to get to know them
better especially in health matters (Jean 89).
There is also the perception of time control where punctuality in the Middle East is not
really emphasized on, whereas in the American time-discipline culture, lack of punctuality is
regarded as disrespectful. Therefore, an individual from the Middle East may attend to other
pressing issues and disregard any prior plans that he/she had. In addition, in the Middle East,
personal space while conversing is viewed as a way of establishing an understanding, whereas in
the American culture, personal space is critical and being too close may lead to discomfort. It
may, therefore, dictate how an American health practitioner converses with a patient from the
Middle East.
Middle Easterners are not fond of western medicine as they have a belief that an illness
may be caused by an ’evil eye’, and that anything that provokes jealousy leads to misfortunes to
the victims. Such beliefs have been a major hindrance in effective healthcare policy
implementation and disregarding them may also be unethical. Furthermore, there is also the
issue of power distance whereby, a Middle Eastern person may not give information that seems
to be contradictory or shows some disrespect. In addition, a male Middle Eastern patient may not
feel comfortable interacting with a female healthcare professional as a person of real authority.

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Personal privacy is of utmost importance to the Middle Easterners as compared to the
Americans. They tend to resist disclosing detailed personal information to strangers, who in this
case may include healthcare professionals. Therefore, the detailed information requested may be
taken with suspicion until it is clear to one why the inquiry is being made. Medical professionals
should as a result ensure that they create a culture that supports transparency between them and
their patients. Moreover, they tend to have a persistent and demanding behavior. It has been
noted that family members to a patient tend to be confrontational to the medical professionals
offering service to their relative. During illness and especially when attending checkups, an
individual may be accompanied by family members who most often listen carefully and answer
for the patient, but whose behavior is prescribed by the culture and shows that the family cares
for the patient (Juliene and Afaf, 858). More so, this culture should give the medical practitioner
a platform to ensure that they provide patients and family members with reliable information in a
form that is useful to them including access to their medical records. Effective leadership will
also involve sharing the lessons that have been learnt and adopting those from other
organizations.
In matters relating to women’s participation in the healthcare system, America has an
open policy for accepting and holding a high regard for female healthcare practitioners who have
contributed significantly to the healthcare sector. Moreover, the Middle East has now seen an
influx of women participation and notably a name that cannot be left out is Julia Sperling, who is
a founding member of McKinsey’s Middle East Healthcare Practice, and has been charged with
overseeing women’s leadership work in the Middle East. She focuses mainly on creating
academic health and Science systems to build leadership capabilities of hospital top teams. She is
particularly interested in helping remarkable women lead in Saudi Arabia (Mckinsey.com).

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Conclusion
Culture and leadership are critical aspects of the healthcare in all cultures. As seen above, the
main issues that relate to healthcare included the importance of family in the Middle Eastern
culture, how they communicate and develop relationships. Moreover, how they view time in
terms of changing appointments and management of the same; how they communicate
physically; their view in terms of personal privacy should be taken into account by leaders in
healthcare centers. More so, this can be achieved by creating a culture that supports
transparency, how they handle themselves in relaying personal information and ensuring that
they promptly provide patients and families with reliable information that is useful to them, not
forgetting their view of modern medicine in relation to their social beliefs. Western medical
professionals need to adopt the best practices to address them.
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WorksCited
Hartley, Jean, and John Benington. Leadership for Healthcare. Bristol: Policy Press, 2010. Print.
Lipson, Juliene G., and Afaf I. Meleis. "Cross Cultural Medicine: Issues in Health Care of
Middle Eastern patients." Western Journal of Medicine 139.6 (1983): 854.
Mckinsey and Company. "Mckinsey Middle East: Julia Sperling". N.p., 2015. Web. 22 Feb.
2016.

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