Personal and organisational attributes that support transformational leadership in acute healthcare: scoping review

Objective Transformational leadership benefits both patients and staff. The objective of this scoping review was to explore personal and organisational attributes that support transformational leadership in acute health care. Methods A scoping review was undertaken using Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Complete, Medline Complete, PsycInfo and Emerald Insight databases. Search terms were related to transformational leadership and acute care hospitals. Results A total of 18 studies were included: 14 reported personal attributes and 8 reported organisational attributes supporting transformational leadership. The most common personal attributes were manager educational preparation (n  = 5), years of management experience (n  = 4), age (n  = 3) and emotional intelligence (n  = 3). The most common organisational attributes reported were larger organisational size (n  = 2) and culture (n  = 2). Personal (manager) attributes were synthesised into the following categories: demographics, role characteristics, leadership preparation and traits. Organisational attributes were categorised as manager support, organisational characteristics and organisational processes. Conclusions Despite the beneficial outcomes of transformational leadership for patients, staff and organisations, the personal and organisational attributes supporting transformation leadership are not well understood.