Effective hospital leadership for quality: theory and practice

Hospitals need excellent leadership to be efficient in the use of scarce stakeholder resources and to be effective in the competitive provision of services to multiple customers. This study was conducted with the cooperation of the executive team at a large government-funded hospital in Brisbane. It focused on understanding the conceptual models of leadership held by members of the executive and comparing this model with an externally derived model of leadership. Performance on the local model was estimated by cross-linking performance assessment on the external model. Members of the executive espoused, and were also rated by others in the hospital as practising, to a moderate degree, a transformational style of leadership. An overall evaluation of quality practice in the hospital revealed the use of data, the understanding of processes and the formation of supplier partnerships as the areas of hospital activity most limiting the ability to improve. The implications of the conceptual model and performance levels are discussed in relation to the introduction of quality management practice in the hospital, and in terms of management development. A complementary paper focusing on quality implementation as perceived at different staff levels in the hospital is in preparation.