Leadership competencies and behaviours in pharmacy: A qualitative content analysis

Across complex healthcare systems, effective leadership rises as a cornerstone for improving patient care, promoting innovation, and maintaining a thriving professional landscape. As with most healthcare professions, pharmacists are confronted with medication complexity, changing legislation, and technological integration into healthcare delivery. Lack of leadership in a pharmacy can lead to unorganized medicine dispensing, patient care, and stagnant innovation. Effective leadership requires competencies that blend knowledge, abilities, and behaviours to achieve tasks successfully. Leadership competencies empower pharmacists to lead change in their profession and healthcare system. Despite extensive research and development in various industries, the development of pharmacy leadership competencies and frameworks is limited due to specific challenges. It is essential for the pharmacy profession to continue investing in the development of leadership competencies to drive innovation and improve patient outcomes.

The objective of the document analysis is to identify pharmacy leadership competencies and analyse related behaviour statements from a global perspective.

This study employs an integrative review utilizing a document analysis to conduct a qualitative content analysis on various sources to identify leadership competencies and behaviours within the pharmacy sector. A systematic approach was followed by searching five electronic databases (Medline, CINAHL, SCOPUS, ERIC, and Google Scholar) in addition to grey literature, policy documents and seeking experts for related documents to ensure comprehensive coverage of relevant field-based literature.

Forty-eight documents were selected for analysis from the literature, most of which originated from Western countries with few representing the Middle East and African countries. Eighteen pharmacy frameworks incorporating leadership competencies were identified, two of which were healthcare frameworks encompassing pharmacists. A total of 96 competencies and 155 behaviour statements were identified from the documents. When grouped and similar competencies conjoined, 8 themes with 34 competencies emerged.

The document analysis portrays a comprehensive picture of the multifaceted landscape of pharmacy leadership competencies. By exploring the eight themes, their associated competencies and behaviour statements this study offers a roadmap for pharmacists to embark on their own leadership journeys. Future research, armed with the clarity and action-oriented language of effective behaviours, can bridge the gap between leadership and tangible impact.