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This study investigates the role of leadership and cultural transformation in facilitating Lean Six Sigma (LSS) practices in clinical pharmacy settings to reduce medicine waste within the UK National Health Services (NHS).

A systematic literature review on Lean Six Sigma in health care was conducted to develop an analytical framework. This was followed by a qualitative case study of an English NHS trust to test the framework, exploring pharmacists' adoption of LSS practices and their impact on staff behaviour, focussing on leadership decisions and organisational culture.

The research highlights the significance of leadership’s prioritisation in waste reduction efforts and its influence on staff engagement. It also examines the intricate relationship between leadership decisions, education and training, resource allocation, and the prevailing clinical culture, which shapes pharmacists' behaviours and attitudes towards LSS practices and waste reduction.

The study’s focus on a single NHS trust limits the generalisability of the findings, suggesting the need for further research across different healthcare settings.

The study recommends a cultural transformation, earlier training, and reformation in service strategy to enhance the adoption of LSS practices and contribute to a more sustainable future for the wider health services.

Effective medicine waste management prevents harm and helps address the current NHS medicine shortage. The NHS can allocate resources efficiently, ensure timely treatment, and prepare for future disruptions by implementing the proposed framework.

We developed a leadership model for the NHS to reduce medicine waste, offering a novel approach to addressing the challenge of medicine waste through leadership and cultural transformation.

This study investigated what are the effective leadership styles and practices that boost employees’ work outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of facilities management professionals (FMPs).

Three predominant leadership styles (transformational, transactional contingent reward and disaster management) were operationalized into 38 leadership practices (X variables) and 8 work outcomes (Y variables). The explanatory sequential research design was adopted. Online questionnaire survey was first conducted on FMPs who managed facilities during the critical periods of COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. In-depth interviews were then carried out with subject matter experts to elaborate on the quantitative findings.

During the pandemic, FMPs were significantly stressed at work, but also experienced significant job satisfaction and satisfaction with their leaders/supervisors. Statistical results revealed a range of leadership practices that are significantly correlated with FMPs’ work outcomes. One leadership practice is critical as it affects 4 of the 8 FMPs’ work outcomes - frequently acknowledging employees’ good performance during the pandemic.

The study explored 3 leadership styles. There are other styles like laissez faire and servant leadership that might also affect work outcomes.

Based on the findings, suggestions were provided to organizations that employ FMPs on how to improve their work outcomes during a crisis such as a pandemic.

The novelty is the discovery that in the context of a global disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the most relevant leadership styles to boost employees’ work outcomes are transactional contingent reward and disaster management leadership. The study adds to knowledge by showing that not one leadership style is superior – all 3 styles are complementary, but distinct, forms of leadership that need to work in tandem to boost FMPs’ work outcomes during a crisis such as a pandemic.

This paper aims to investigate the role of collaborative leadership in government digital transformation in the Sultanate of Oman. To analyze collaborative leadership, the research examines four exogenous variables: self-directed team, power-sharing, relational intelligence and agility. The endogenous variable chosen to represent Oman's e-Government performance is organizational performance.

A quantitative method was applied to gather cross-sectional data in a questionnaire survey. Using a stratified sampling technique, the data were collected from 100 information and communication technology and e-government officials who assume leadership responsibilities. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) examined measurement and structural models.

The role of collaborative leadership in the performance of government digital transformation in the Sultanate of Oman was examined in this study. Collaborative leadership was categorized into four exogenous variables: self-directed team, power-sharing, relational intelligence and agility. Oman’s e-government performance operationalized as the organizational performance was selected as the endogenous variable. The results show that the self-directed team and agility components of collaborative leadership significantly positively impacted the performance of government digital transformation in the Sultanate of Oman.

The major limitation of this research was that the study covered only four collaborative leadership attributes: self-directed teams, power-sharing, relational intelligence and agility. The study should have covered building trust, commitment, emotional intelligence, vision and communication skills.

These results are important for government policy creators and decision-makers aiming to enhance government digital transformation performance by leveraging collaborative leadership.

Addressing collaborative leadership in management can be done through awareness of its importance to critical decision-makers and embedding it in the organization's governance, policies and human resource career path. In particular, it is recommended that public sector leaders continuously monitor self-managing teams and teamwork practices within the organization.

The originality and contribution of the above article lie in its investigation of the role of collaborative leadership in the context of government digital transformation in the Sultanate of Oman. The study contributes to the existing literature by examining the impact of four exogenous variables, self-directed team, power-sharing, relational intelligence and agility, on collaborative leadership. Additionally, the research uses a quantitative approach and uses PLS-SEM to analyze the data. The findings highlight the significant positive impact of self-directed team and agility components of collaborative leadership on the performance of government digital transformation. These insights provide valuable implications for government policy creators and decision-makers aiming to enhance digital transformation in the public sector by effectively implementing collaborative leadership strategies.

This article provides a historical-comparative conceptual analysis of entrepreneurial leadership and transformational leadership, aiming to critically appraise how the latter has informed the former.

A narrative review methodology and three-stage framework is used to develop the analysis and structure the discussion. The framework consists of the following three stages – concept introduction and elaboration, concept evaluation and augmentation and concept consolidation and accommodation.

The key ‘narrative’ emerging from the review concerns how entrepreneurial leadership as a concept has evolved into a re-iteration of the transformational leadership approach, absorbing the conceptual merits, and more significantly, conceptual flaws of the latter. Notable critiques of transformational leadership theory, namely, a lack of conceptual clarity, over-reliance on quantitative methodologies and the ‘heroic bias,’ can similarly be raised against existing research on entrepreneurial leadership. To redress these issues, the conceptual, methodological and practical implications of the historical-comparative analysis are outlined, which includes avenues for further research – with and without key elements of transformational leadership theory.

The article is the first to discuss the historical evolution of entrepreneurial leadership as a concept in relation to transformational leadership theory, which has been influential in research on the former. In particular, the critical analysis illustrates how the conceptual evolution of entrepreneurial leadership has failed to acknowledge the significant limitations associated with transformational leadership theory, despite considerable application of it.

This qualitative study aims to explore the concept of organisational leadership in the context of Quality Management deployments across a variety of business organisations, particularly focusing on the possible relationships between leadership approaches during the implementation and sustaining phases of Quality Management.

The study is based on one-to-one semi-structured virtual interviews with leaders in the quality field.

Four themes (Customers, Leadership, Quality Culture and Sustainability of Quality) emerged from the post-interview data analysis, illustrating the critical role of Leadership in the successful deployment and sustainment of Quality Management and identifying the leadership traits that are most conducive to successful organisational deployments.

Although some of these leadership traits are described in the wider leadership literature as belonging to one or more different leadership styles, there is no existing style of leadership that comprehends all the characteristics; thus, the need for a new leadership paradigm is this paper's theoretical contribution to the literature.

Participative leadership's influence on employee task performance has garnered significant attention in a rapidly evolving organizational landscape. This study explores the multilevel dynamics of participative leadership congruence between unit managers and direct supervisors and its effects on employee task performance.

Drawing on two longitudinal studies based on the firms randomly selected from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) database, the research observes the mediating role of Person-Unit fit and the moderating influence of Unit-Member Exchange in the participative leadership-performance relationship.

The findings reveal how participative leadership congruence enhances person-unit fit, which in turn benefits employee task performance. Unit-member exchange plays a critical role in augmenting the participative leadership congruence? Person-unit fit? Employee task performance relationship.

The study extends leadership literature by highlighting the significance of leadership alignment across levels and the interplay between psychological and social factors in improving employee performance.

In the current context of change, leadership is significant in developing employees' commitment to change. In this work, the authors analysed the relationship between inclusive leadership and commitment to change and the mediating effect of job satisfaction between inclusive leadership and commitment to change.

Through a questionnaire, 256 employees from Brazil and Spain were interviewed. The hypotheses were tested through structural equations.

The results indicated that inclusive leadership is related to individuals' commitment to change and that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between leadership and commitment to change.

This research contributes to the literature on organisational change behaviour and the relationship between two critical contents – leadership and commitment to change – and points out the role of job satisfaction in this relationship. In addition, this work incorporates the variable country culture into the analysis model; however, it is not found to be statistically significant.

在目前改革的環境裡,若要培育僱員負起改革的承諾,領導者的素質和能力是甚為重要的。本研究擬探討並分析包容性領導與改革承諾之間的關係,以及工作滿足感在包容性領導與改革承諾之間的中介效應。

研究人員透過問卷、訪問了256名來自巴西和西班牙的僱員。各假設均以結構方程式來進行測試。

研究結果顯示、包容性領導與個別員工的改革承諾是有關聯的; 另外,工作滿足感是會於領導與員工的改革承諾之間起中介效應。

本研究在關於組織變革行為與兩個關鍵內容 (分別為領導和改革承諾) 之間的關係的學術文獻上作出了貢獻。研究亦指出、工作滿足感在領導與改革承諾之間所扮演的角色。再者,本研究把國家的文化這個變數納入研究的分析模型內; 唯研究結果顯示、國家的文化在統計學上不成立。

The ethical requirement for nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic reached the peak. Healthcare professionals were asked to provide creative services to patients while making ethical decisions. This study aims to understand how ethical leadership and ethical climate interact with help seeking behavior to influence nurses’ creativity.

In this longitudinal study, the authors employed 193 nurses from a large hospital in China. Eligible nurses completed two surveys (one month apart) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study found that help seeking during problem-solving mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and creativity while ethical climate moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and help seeking in nurses.

Scholars have rarely studied the relationship between ethical leadership and creativity in the healthcare setting. More importantly, this study unveiled the compounded effect of ethical leadership and ethical climate on creativity via nurses’ help seeking behavior in China.

The emergence of COVID-19 has exacerbated and spurred the growth of mental health issues in ways that have challenged mental health workers tremendously. The complex nature of COVID-19 has made the need of mental health professionals extremely important. Hospital ward overcrowding, social distancing requirements, sequestrations, limits to face-to-face consultations have created barriers to mental health access, especially those in need of Certified Peer Recovery Specialists. Certified Peer Recovery Specialists play a critical role in the treatment of mental illness through their support and engagement of those recovering from substance abuse. Many in this role are hired because they have a strong skillset for help-oriented clinical work but are often challenged, especially in times like this to development and demonstrate leadership skills. This paper explores the nature and need to develop leadership skills and leadership challenges for people in this field through interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and a content analysis of the current and seminal literature.

This paper explores the nature and need to develop leadership skills and leadership challenges for people in mental health through IPA and a content analysis of the current and seminal literature.

The essential necessity to invest in the cultivation of peer recovery specialists and mental health professionals as organizational leaders.

Hospital ward overcrowding, social distancing requirements, sequestrations, limits to face- to- face consultations have created barriers to mental health access, especially those in need of Certified Peer Recovery Specialists. Certified Peer Recovery Specialists play a critical role in the treatment of mental illness through their support and engagement of those recovering from substance abuse.

This paper aims to explore virtual simulations, merging artificial intelligence with real-world simulations, supporting Canadian armed forces (CAF) junior military leaders (JMLs) leadership development. Our research questions are: (1) How do virtual simulations support CAF junior military leadership development within a globalized and complex environment in the 21st century? (2) Could virtual simulations support a leadership culture change through efficacious “soft skills” training? In this paper, we explore the efficacy of virtual simulations for enhancing or developing leadership in JMLs in the CAF through a four-day pilot project with twenty JMLs (n = 20).

To assess the efficacy of virtual simulations for leadership development, we designed and studied a four-day leadership workshop for JMLs in the CAF using several virtual artificial intelligence leadership role-play simulations developed by McGraw Hill in their smart book textbook (Manning & Curtis, 2022) and several non-virtual in-class simulations for comparison. We selected four twenty to thirty-minute virtual role-play simulations that synergized with the in-person morning leadership workshop. We facilitated the three-hour leadership workshops and virtual/in-class simulations over four consecutive days. We emulated the ELESS model (De Freitas & Routledge, 2013) to assess soft and leadership skills.

The participants (JMLs) reported beneficial learning utility associated with the virtual simulations. Participants also expressed that further utility might be leveraged through virtual simulations incorporating greater complexity with multiple potential outcomes. They also suggested that leadership simulations designed around military situations would prove highly beneficial, something that was outside of the scope of this small pilot project.

Since this phase of our research is a pilot project, we secured a small amount of funding to test our hypothesis that simulations enhance leadership development for JMLs. These funding limitations resulted in several constraints in the research, such as the availability of virtual simulations articulating leadership from a military perspective. However, we believed the assigned organizational leadership simulations in the McGraw Hill Smart Book ecosystem would approximate generic leadership situations enough to test the hypothesis with the JMLs. As a pilot project, our sample size was relatively small (n = 20 JMLs) since participation was voluntary amidst a busy spring season for the JMLs. Since this is a pilot project, we suggest that twenty JMLs are an adequate sampling to test the hypothesis that simulations enhance JML leadership development. We will expand the sample size in the next phase of our research as we work with the CAF to expand the pool of participants to at least forty JML participants (n = 40). We also plan to secure further funding to collaborate with subject matter experts to design virtual simulations based on Canadian military leadership scenarios.

The CAF host robust simulations capabilities for combat training, but have not exploited the potential training and analytical capacity of virtual leadership simulations for leadership development within the CAF. We believe that virtual simulations provide an opportunity for the CAF to effect desired culture change through leadership development that leverages the substantial pedagogical benefits of simulations.

The CAF encountered several detrimental leadership scandals that eroded the reputational capital of the CAF. In the current geo-political climate of an expanding North American Treaty Organization (NATO) and threats from several international actors, the CAF seeks to expand its capabilities by adding and enhancing its human capital. However, the CAF currently experiences a significant gap in its human capital aspirations. There is a unanimous consensus that the endemic traditional culture of the CAF, as expressed in the recent explosive leadership scandals, is a deterrent to recruitment and thus weakens the CAF’s capability. The CAF targets leadership development with new leadership paradigms as pivotal to culture change. The CAF suggests that by enhancing leadership development in the CAF the new cadre of leadership will change the culture of the CAF and thereby enhance the reputational capital of the CAF. It is believed that this rejuvenated culture will lead to greater recruitment and retention, leading to a strengthened military. A strengthened military is important to provide effective support and protection for the Canadian people in these volatile and uncertain times. This expanded capacity will enable the CAF to address external military threats more effectively and also the increasing operations other than war (OOTW), such as the military support of long-term care facilities during COVID-19 or the military’s support in fighting record wildfires and the military’s support in climate change related disasters such as flooding.

The satisfaction measures indicated by the participants are typical evaluative measures of leadership development (Noe, 2023). These satisfaction ratings do not, however, indicate whether training has produced a change in behaviour (Brown, 2022). The implications of these outcomes for leadership education are that role-player simulations are useful leadership education and development tools because they provide a theatre of practice in which mistakes are not detrimental and serve as learning moments (Moore, 2012; Piro and O’Callaghan, 2021; Riotto, 2021). Further, the importance of role-player simulations that closely approximate the sector where leadership is experienced and practiced is perceived to enhance the experience. While the CAF invest in combat related simulations, but leadership development simulations are not as evident in the training and development array. This study seeks to assess their potential value as a leadership development tool within the wider context of character development as a leadership competency.