Responsibilising Managers and Clinicians, Neglecting System Health? What Kind of Healthcare Leadership Development Do We Want? Comment on “Leadership and Leadership Development in Healthcare Settings - A Simplistic Solution to Complex Problems?”

Abstract

Responding to Ruth McDonald's editorial on the rise of leadership and leadership development programmes in healthcare, this paper offers three arguments. Firstly, care is needed in evaluating impact of leadership development, since achievement of organisational goals is not necessarily an appropriate measure of good leadership. Secondly, the proliferation of styles of leadership might be understood in part as a means of retaining control over public services while distributing responsibility for their success and failure. Thirdly, it makes a plea for the continued utility of good administrative skills for clinicians and managers, which are likely to become all-the-more important given recent developments in healthcare policy and governance. Keywords: Leadership, Healthcare, Evaluation, Training, Quality, Patient Safety Copyright: © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences Citation: Martin GP. Responsibilising managers and clinicians, neglecting system health? What kind of healthcare leadership development do we want? Comment on "Leadership and leadership development in healthcare settings -a simplistic solution to complex problems?"

Analysing a Chinese Regional Integrated Healthcare Organisation Reform Failure using a Complex Adaptive System Approach

“…Using D’Amour’s collaboration model, we examined nine types of organisational cooperative behaviours, to ensure collaboration mechanisms were built (see Table 1 ). We included questions to this questionnaire according to expert opinions, covering topics such as mutual trust, cultural cultivation, financial incentives, capacity development, clinical guidelines, team communications, and environment adaptability [ 34 35 ] (see Table 2 ). Then we investigated cooperation frequency and content inter-professionally using the questionnaire for individual members (see Table 3 and Table 4 ).…”

Does leadership development alter the perspectives of NHS managers?

“…Martin and Waring (2013) suggest that there are many barriers (for example, hierarchy) within NHS organisations that prevent leadership behaviours and skills from being implemented. Further research from large NHS organisations suggest that a disconnect, between those with the power to authorise change and those with the capacity to deliver it, results in diminished leadership capability (Martin et al, 2015). The debate around how the NHS develops leaders suggests that there is a need for further exploration of NHS LDPs, as an increased evidence base will provide a wider understanding on the efficacy of leadership development.…”