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Leadership can positively affect the work environment and health. Communication and dialogue are an important part in leadership. Studies of how dialogue is valued and handled in first‐line leadership have not so far been found. The aim of this study is to develop a theoretical understanding of how first‐line leaders at hospitals in western Sweden value and handle dialogue in the organisation.

The study design was explorative and based on grounded theory. Data collection consisted of interviews and observations. A total of 11 first‐line leaders at two hospitals in western Sweden were chosen as informants, and for four of them observation was also used.

One core category emerged in the analysis: leaders' communicative actions, which could be strategically or understanding‐oriented, and experienced as equal or unequal and performed equitably or inequitably, within a power relationship. Four different types of communicative actions emerged: collaborative, nurturing, controlling, and confrontational. Leaders had strategies for creating arenas and relationships for dialogue, but dialogue could be constrained by external circumstances or ignorance of the frameworks needed to conduct and accomplish dialogue.

First‐line leaders should be offered guidance in understanding the consequences of consciously choosing and strengthening the communication component in leadership.

The positive valuation of dialogue was not always manifest in practical action. One significant consequence of not using dialogue was that information with impact on organisational efficiency and finances was not communicated upwards in the management system.

This paper aims to examine the leadership competencies of first-line nurse managers (FLNMs) at the unit level in the eastern region of Ghana.

The paper is a quantitative cross-section design.

Nurse managers exhibited a moderate level of knowledge and ability to apply leadership competencies. Gender, rank, qualification, professional experience, management experience and management training jointly predicted the leadership competencies of FLNMs [(R² = 0.158, p = 0.016]. However, only management training was a significant predictor in the model.

Inappropriate leadership competencies have severe consequences for patients and staff outcomes. This situation necessitates a call for a well-structured program for the appointment of FLNMs based on competencies.

This study is the first in Ghana which we are aware of that examined the leadership competencies at the unit level that identifies predictors of leadership competencies.

The purpose of the paper is to look at how investing in the skills development of first-line leaders can improve overall business performance. First-line leaders are the largest and arguably the most important group of leaders in any organization; yet recent research shows that they are one of the most neglected in terms of training and development, which is impacting businesses’ bottom line.

This study involves literature review and Forum Europe, Middle East and Africa’s own survey data.

It is the companies that take the time to invest in developing the essential skills of their first-line leaders that will reap the rewards generated through their ability to create a highly motivated, engaged and results-driven team.

Focusses on the skills required by first-line leaders, and the five “engagement needs” they must understand in order to motivate the workforce.

The purpose of the this study was to explore the development of commitment to change among leaders in the home help services during organizational change and to study this development in relation to workload and stress. During organizational change initiatives, commitment to change among leaders is important to ensure the implementation of the change. However, little is known of development of commitment of change over time.

The study used a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews with ten leaders by the time an organizational change initiative was launched and follow-up one year later. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the interviews.

Commitment to change is not static, but seems to develop over time and during organizational change. At the first interview, leaders had a varied pattern reflecting different dimensions of commitment to change. One year later, the differences between leaders’ commitment to change was less obvious. Differences in commitment to change had no apparent relationship with workload or stress.

The data were collected from one organization, and the number of participants were small which could affect the results on workload and stress in relation to commitment to change.

It is important to support leaders during organizational change initiatives to maintain their commitment. One way to accomplish this is to use management team meetings to monitor how leaders perceive their situation.

Qualitative, longitudinal and leader studies on commitment to change are all unusual, and taken together, this study shows new aspects of commitment.

The purpose of this article is to revisit data from a previous study of leadership in an industrial company that was in the process of implementing a process‐oriented, team‐based form of organisation. Based on these data, it aims to explore the assumption that process‐orientation implies “new” leadership behaviours and relationships with co‐workers. More specifically, it aims to focus on analysing how the managers and co‐workers understood and practised the ideas about leadership for learning and development that were introduced in connection with the new production organisation. The purpose is also to determine what factors constrained and facilitated these leadership practises.

The study was conducted with a large industrial company using case study methodology. The empirical material consists of 35 qualitative interviews with production managers (n=4), first‐line managers (n=14), and operators (n=17).

The results indicate that performance‐oriented leadership with a focus on facilitating adaptive learning is emphasised more than development‐oriented leadership, which facilitates critical reflection and innovative learning. Furthermore, the study suggests that the administrative workload greatly limits the potential for development‐oriented leadership. Overall, first‐line managers appear to have more in common with system administrators than leaders.

This study highlights the need to find a balance between performance and development in organisations. Specifically, there is a need for leaders to create opportunities and support for increased developmental learning at work. It is also necessary to emphasise critical reflection both in connection with daily operations and in the formal education of co‐workers and leaders.

This study demonstrates the gap between the rhetoric of new leadership and the organisational realities that leaders experience in their daily work. At the same time, the study points to the dual nature of leadership for learning and the constraints on its realisations in practise.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results from a study that investigates first-line healthcare managers’ views on their role and the conditions that influence their ability to drive improvement work based on Lean.

A questionnaire was sent to all first-line managers in a healthcare organization to investigate their views on their role, conditions and ability to create change according to Lean. The results from four of the questions are presented, which focus on how crucial they consider their role to be for managing improvement work based on Lean, what work tasks their time is spent on, what factors they consider to be important to their ability to drive change and what factors best describe what Lean provides.

The results show that first-line managers claim that their role is crucial in improvement work, but when they defined their work tasks, the time spent on improvements was not frequently described. Time, support from coworkers, and a clear vision and clear goals were the three factors that they considered to be most important to their ability to drive improvement work. Considering their leadership, Lean contributed to the structure with tools and supportive methods.

The questions can be used separately or as part of the entire questionnaire before and along a Lean process to obtain a better understanding of how to create a sustainable Lean approach in healthcare. Understanding the factors that first-line managers consider supporting their ability in improvement work and what they consider Lean provides is important in creating a development force in Swedish healthcare.

First-line leaders across the emergency services are instrumental in leading the development of a workforce fit to face current and future challenges. As such in addition to utilising their specific craft, leaders need to be equipped to understand and apply evidence-based practices. With a focus on first-line leadership in policing, this paper will have both national and international resonance for those organisations attempting to embed an evidence-based culture.

The paper utilises a review of literature to develop a viewpoint identifying challenges and benefits of the adoption of evidence-based policing (EBP) by first-line leaders.

First-line leaders, whether police officers, police staff or volunteers, require opportunities to develop their own knowledge, understanding and skills of applying EBP in the workplace. Acknowledging challenges exist in the widespread adoption of EBP, such learning, at the appropriate educational level, will enable leaders to effectively champion the adoption of EBP, informing both their own decision-making and professional practices as well as those across their teams.

The first-line leader role is highly influential, as such, it is essential that these leaders develop their knowledge, understanding and application of EBP in the workplace in order to lead the expected cultural change.

This paper provides a current framework for the understanding of the context and potential impact of educationally levelled formal leadership learning required to champion the broad adoption of EBP across policing.

The increasingly demanding psychosocial working conditions in Swedish public sector workplaces call for implementation of workplace health promotion (WHP) interventions. There is a need to increase first-line public sector managers’ capacities for health-promoting leadership. The purpose of this paper is to investigate first-line managers’ experiences of participating in an intervention aimed at strengthening health-promoting leadership. More precisely, the aim is to study what obstacles and prerequisites the intervention have for their learning processes to become health-promoting managers.

A qualitative study in Northern Sweden at workplaces in the county council and municipalities was conducted. The data were gathered through individual interviews with 18 participating first-line managers. Inductive-content analysis was used to analyse the data.

The results identify time for reflection and collegial discussions about leadership as prerequisites for learning about health-promoting leadership. Managers experienced the intervention as a confirmation of the leadership behaviours already gained. However, the health-promoting leadership intervention was seen as a contradiction, since organisational prerequisites to implement WHP measures were perceived to be lacking. The managers were not involved in the planning of the intervention and questioned why the organisation did not involve them more when the educational activities were created.

When the organisation understands how and when its managers learn, what they need and want to learn about WHP, and what they already know, tailored participatory interventions can be facilitated that consider the unique prerequisites for the particular organisation.

The purpose of this paper is to present the supportive conditions that the first-line health-care managers claim that they need from their own managers and what they experience as their own roles and responsibilities in relation to their coworkers when applying Lean principles and practices.

A survey with a Web-based questionnaire was designed and used in a Swedish health-care organization two years after the initiation of Lean to investigate the managers’ views on their role, conditions and ability to create change according to Lean. The result from two of the questions will be presented where one focuses on the relationship to the first-line managers’ own manager and the second on the relationship to their coworkers.

The results show that to initiate improvement, work based on Lean first-line managers ask for own managers who are assured about Lean, include them in discussions and ask for follow-ups and results about Lean. Concerning first-line managers’ relation to their coworkers they experience themselves as responsible for leading toward creating a culture where problems and mistakes are viewed as possibilities to improve, for encouraging that new work procedures are tested and for creating commitment and inspiration in relation to their coworkers.

The questions can be used separately or as part of an entire questionnaire before and along the Lean process to highlight organizational issues such as shared responsibility and supportive relations when developing health care.

The purpose of this descriptive and cross‐sectional study is to explore the relationships between managers' leadership styles and employees' job satisfaction in Isfahan University Hospitals, Isfahan, Iran, 2004.

The data were collected through the distribution of two questionnaires among the 814 employees, first line, middle and senior managers of these hospitals through a stratified random sampling.

The dominant leadership style of managers was participative. The mean score of employee‐oriented dimension of leadership style in first line, middle and senior managers were 52, 54, and 54 (from 75 credit) respectively. The mean score of task‐oriented dimension of leadership style in first line, middle and senior managers were 68, 69, and 70 (from 100 credit) respectively. The mean score of employee's job satisfaction was 3.26±0.56 on a 6 scale (moderate satisfaction), 1.9, 26.1, 64.7, and 7.3 percent of hospital employees had respectively very low, low, moderate, and high satisfaction with their job. Employees demonstrated less satisfaction with salaries, benefits, work conditions, promotion and communication as satisfier factors and more satisfaction with factors such as the nature of the job, co‐workers and supervision type factors. There was significant correlation (p<0.001) between the use of leadership behaviors and employees and job satisfaction.

Employee job satisfaction depends upon the leadership style of managers. Nevertheless, participative management is not always a good management style. Managers should select the best leadership style according to the organizational culture and employees' organizational maturity.

Although this study conducted in Iran, it is anticipated that the findings may have relevance on a broader scale. By replicating this study in different countries and contexts the results of could be very helpful for developing a new model of leadership with new implementation techniques that can be implemented easily and successfully in a cross cultural context.