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A randomised study of leadership interventions for healthcare managers

Caroline Lornudd (Department of Learning, Informatics, Management, and Ethics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden)
David Bergman (Department of Learning, Informatics, Management, and Ethics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden)
Christer Sandahl (Department of Learning, Informatics, Management, and Ethics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden)
Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz (Department of Learning, Informatics, Management, and Ethics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden)

Leadership in Health Services

ISSN: 1751-1879

Article publication date: 3 October 2016

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to assess two different leader development interventions by comparing their effects on leadership behaviour and evaluating their combined impact after two years, from the viewpoints of both the participating managers and external raters.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was a longitudinal randomised controlled trial with a cross-over design. Health care managers (n = 177) were first randomised to either of two 10-month interventions and a year later were switched to the other intervention. Leadership behaviour was rated at pre-test and 12 and 24 months by participating managers and their superiors, colleagues and subordinates using a 360-degree instrument. Analysis of variance and multilevel regression analysis was performed.

Findings

No difference in effect on leadership behaviour was found between the two interventions. The evaluation of the combined effect of the interventions on leadership behaviour showed inconsistent (i.e. both increased and decreased) ratings by the various rater sources.

Practical implications

This study provides some evidence that participation in leadership development programmes can improve managers’ leadership behaviours, but the results also highlight the interpretive challenges connected with using a 360-degree instrument to evaluate such development.

Originality/value

The longitudinal randomised controlled design and the large sample comprising both managers and external raters make this study unusually rigorous in the field of leadership development evaluations.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express gratitude for the financial support from AFA Insurance, grant no. 100073, which made this study and analyses possible. The authors are also grateful for support from Mikael Ohrling, CEO at Stockholm County Council (SCC). Further, they would like to thank Therese Wahlström, Karolinska Institute, for her help with data collection. Finally, the authors would like to thank all respondents for taking their time to answer the questionnaires.

Citation

Lornudd, C., Bergman, D., Sandahl, C. and von Thiele Schwarz, U. (2016), "A randomised study of leadership interventions for healthcare managers", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 358-376. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-06-2015-0017

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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