Abstract
Background
Among various types of leadership, educational leadership has established a privileged position for itself. This is attributable to its major contribution to effective learning and teaching processes, along with changes in social structures and ideas. Recent studies have underscored the educational leaders' pivotal role in organizational success. In addition, the literature highlights various factors-including environmental and social influences-that impact leaders' performance. The present study aimed to identify and categorize the factors and parameters influencing the performance of educational leaders within the medical education setting.
Methods
This study adopts a scoping review approach, akin to a systematic review but with slight differences in the comprehensive search and quality assessment procedures. Medline, Embase, APA PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, and CINAHL ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Completed were searched using advanced search options and Boolean operators "AND" and "OR" to retrieve the most relevant records.
Results
Of the total records obtained from 6081 online data sources, after removing duplicates and the records featuring irrelevant titles, abstracts, titles, or full papers, 17 articles were chosen for data extraction. We analyzed the challenges faced by educational leaders across 5 primary categories-organizational structure, human resources, education system, leadership characteristics, and external factors.
Conclusion
Leaders in medical education operate in a complex system that includes academic settings, health care organizations, and other regulatory and professional bodies. Medical education institutions must help address the critical needs of leaders and leadership development. It is suggested that the developments in the field of academic leadership should be founded based on the following threeelements-knowledge and individual leadership skills, organizational improvement, and strategic position of the organization.
