Kent State Interns

Trying to keep finding articles that were recent and related to both management and nutrition, this article was in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics earlier this year.  While a longer article, a survey was created to find out what makes up an advanced RD practitioner.  Of the 28 traits describing the approaches to practice, leadership roles like leader, visionary, preceptor, role model, and change agent were determined to be essential.  The study found that leadership is a core attribute that transcends advanced-level practice instead of being equated with a specific position or title. The article mentions a study that found similar results, with leadership expressed as “the ability to make a contribution or difference", not by a title.  Patient care was also emphasized as a top trait.  Very interesting article, and it goes to show that what we are learning now can really help us grow as leaders as we advance throughout our careers, whateve...

     As a future RD, I often wonder how hospital food service directors who happen to be Registered Dietitians became so proficient in creating a budget(accounting) or human resource management which contains a huge psychological component?  As part of our DPD curriculum, organizational management classes and accounting were required but a semester is hardly long enough to become proficient in topics and I've noticed food service managers typically having backgrounds in hospitality management. Interestingly, this abstract   (journal only available for purchase) from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association strives to answer are RD's adequately prepared to be hospital food service directors? In the study, 500 random hospital food service directors and 500 hospital executives to whom directors report were mailed a questionnaire with competencies listed. These individuals were to first state if they thought the competencies were important for someone i...

     In our management seminar we discussed the difference between transformational and laissez faire leaders. A transformational leader inspires a shared vision with constituents and frequently communicates with team members delegating responsibilities. A laissez faire leader will allow his/her colleagues to get work done independently without supervision.  Interestingly, in this article it was shown that retail managers who were identified as laissez faire leaders based on an MLQ questionnare were likely to score lower on the CMS Questionnare or Conflict Management Resolution Solutions Scale.   Sound leadership with appropriate conflict management skills are necessary in the retail world because conflict can arise at any moment from personnel, customers, and/or competition. Unfortunately, results of this study also showed many of the participants tended to have a laissez faire leadership style. When these leaders are refusing to avoid conflict this c...

Hey everyone! I attended a seminar a few days ago, which covered some new trends in nutrition.  One of the presenters was a wonderful Registered Sanitarian.  She covered additions to the Ohio Food Code that we all should be aware of--because this will apply to some of us in our rotations or at our future job sites! One change is that all supervisors must know the five CDC risk factors and how it applies to their facility.  These five risk factors are:  Purchasing food from an approved source  Using clean and sanitary equipment  Thoroughly cooking food  Holding food out of the temperature danger zone  Employee health and hygiene while prepping food She also discussed an interesting update to the health code.   As we are aware of, some foods—like cut tomatoes—are considered a TCS (time/temperature control for food safety) food.  Starting in January of 2013, there will be another group added to this list: ...

Hello Everyone, I know this is supposed to be more management based, but we sort of were talking about writing rights for dietitians, and this is the page on the Academy's website if you are interested. It is a good thing to know, especially if you do become a clinical nutrition manager. There is a nice PDF that walks through the tips for writing privileges for clincial dietitians. Order Writing and Privileging http://www.eatright.org/HealthProfessionals/content.aspx?id=7079 Rachel~

Having been a Girl Scout for quite some time when I was younger, I happened to find this article on leadership in young girls.  While leadership is a lifelong process, starting early makes a huge difference.  I know I personally have leadership skills from the many things I did as a Scout.  Female leadership in politics is not looked upon as favorably in our society (only 16.6% of Congress was female in 2011; 32 countries in the world have a female leader excluding the US), and so few girls choose to pursue a political career.  There are also gender stereotypes involved.  The article is quite long, but ties in some pop culture like Barbie for President and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blue .  This goes to prove that leadership can truly be found in any setting and is not restricted to a certain age or gender. C. Pfaff

As a future dietitian, it is important to keep up with what is going on in the field of Nutrition and Dietetics.  About a year ago I picked up the book,  Dietetics: Practice and Future Trends,  from my local library.  The authors of this book did a nice job of discussing the past, present and future to the profession of Nutrition and Dietetics.  As a student, I found this book to be beneficial because it provides a great overview of career opportunities that are both traditional and non-traditional.  If you are looking for a book to help guide you in your future career as a dietitian, I highly recommend picking this book up online or from your local library.  Read the books description below. Enjoy!     By Esther Winterfeldt, Margaret Bogle, Lea Ebro  -  Jones & Bartlett Learning  -  2010   Dietetics: Practice and Future Trends includes new and updated information about the profession of diete...

There are a lot of resources out there to continue to build our leadership skills. I came across this one:  The Eagle's Lair:  Resources for Leaders and Their Quest for Personal Development .  It has lots of  leadership articles, guides, and skill development exercises. A lot are free. For the ones that aren't, the intros are interesting and have smaller bits of thought provoking and usable info. ~jackie   

"Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional" -Max Lucade Even though conflict is inevitably going to occur in a work setting, how an individual responds and resolves this conflict will determine their success.  Check out this post on "Five Conflict Management Styles at a Glance". http://sourcesofinsight.com/conflict-management-styles-at-a-glance/ Lindsay Skiba

Throughout our graduate and internship program, we've learned about the various leadership styles.  Transactional, transformational, laissez-faire, etc.  Each has it's own pros and cons.  Does one's gender really play a role in how he or she leads? We are certainly in modern times and more and more females are in upper-management positions and serving as leaders.  However, even in 2012, do some women still internalize messages about how society thinks they should behave in a leadership role? In this study,  Leadership Styles and Gender Role , by Jennifer J. Young of South University examined if internalization of gender roles affected females' leadership styles.  The researcher specifically looked at differences between transactional and transformational styles of leadership. While the sample size was small (100 female managers) and there were limitations identified, the researcher found some correlations between internalization of gender roles and cert...

According to a the thesis " Leadership Characteristics of Dietetic Professionals in Ohio " by Diane Weaver in 2008, the higher level of education the RD's have, the more likely they were to implement Pouzes and Posner’s five leadership practices.  Also, the dietitians identified with being in business/entrepreneurial specialty also scored higher as having implemented more leadership practices.  An interesting read specifically looking at RD's leadership styles in Ohio and very relevant to what we have been learning over the last year! -Stacey Weaver, D. 2008. Leadership Characteristics of Dietetic Professionals in Ohio . Masters Thesis, Ohio University, p. 60.  

Another way to learn management concepts is through watching popular movies – who knew!                 Pandey (2012) published a new study promoting popular movies as ways to teach cross-cultural management. Films provide a way to witness good (and bad) leaders that you may not have the opportunity to observe in action in your own career. The visual context is often easier to take away and remember then text.   In addition to the movies listed in his article, here is another  list of movies   just for this purpose.   Stringfield (1999) posted a good list of questions to ask, to get the most out of “seeing” the management and leadership “lessons”: 1. Identify the managers/leaders. 2. What leadership traits do they display? 3. What do they use as decision-making guides (what influences their decisions)? 4. What management style is used by the managers/leaders (whether delibe...

This is a different take on leadership, people, and management, with this study looking at health promotion in the workplace.  While done in Sweden, managers in this case help to guide the process of health promotion. It's a qualitative, perception-based study, but the results are interesting; leadership styles, models, job satisfaction, middle managers, and theories are in here and this article provides a nice application of them.   "Health promoting leadership was described as good leadership..." --C. Pfaff

An older article published by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (The Academy) has an article about clinical nutrition managers and sources of empowerment. Ultimately, we should take steps in increase our power at our institution or facility that we will work in the future. Being assertive in gaining greater access to power, support, information and resources and opportunities is the key to success.   Also, continue with education, strengthen skills and use of information technology. JEFFREY M MISLEVY M.ROSITA SCHILLER , KAYN WOLF , SUSAN C FINN . (2000). Clinical Nutrition Managers have Access to Sources of Empowerment. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 100, 1038-1043 RP.

Taking to heart the direction for the blog - anything on management and people - I find it interesting that   Peter Drucker  , well  known in business classes as " the man who invented management" and the "father of management", recognized the importance of leadership!  Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. ~Peter Drucker Thank goodness for all of us striving to improve our management and leadership skills, Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge (2008) approach leadership as a learnable (and teachable) set of five core behaviors! ~jackie

I was leafing through this month's Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and came across this article (you can read it here or on pages 1662-1669 in your paper copy).  While sort of similar to what we had to do for the assignment that was due on the 27th, I feel that the clinical aspect of management would be most applicable to the majority of our class, since the main interest is clinical.  The article also touches on how to integrate the Standards of Professional Performance with the Professional Development Portfolio Process - something that can help us all in the future, regardless of specific practice area. --C. Pfaff