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1 – 4 of 4Anja Terkamo-Moisio, Elsa Paronen, Arja Häggman-Laitila and Johanna Lammintakanen
The purpose of this study was to describe health and social care leaders’ and employees’ perceptions of remote leadership and the associated factors.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to describe health and social care leaders’ and employees’ perceptions of remote leadership and the associated factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 45 leaders and 177 employees from one Finnish health and social care organization completed an electronic questionnaire between October and November 2020. The questionnaire included questions related to background information, along with structured and open-ended questions addressing remote leadership and the associated factors. The collected quantitative data was analyzed with statistical methods, while inductive content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.
Findings
Remote leadership emerged as a developing form of leadership that was part of everyday life at a regional health and social care organization. However, it was also considered by some as a distanced and authoritarian form of leadership that reduced communication to a one-way flow of information. Remote leadership and digitalization in health and social care were generally perceived positively, especially among higher educated participants and those working mainly in a remote context. However, digitalization was also perceived as a burden and remote leadership as a source of uncertainty at work, especially among lower educated participants and those who worked mainly in traditional contexts.
Originality/value
This study expands the little-researched area and provides insights that can be used to further develop remote leadership and the related education.
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Keywords
Minna Hurmekoski, Arja Häggman-Laitila, Johanna Lammintakanen and Anja Terkamo-Moisio
This study aimed to describe nurse leaders’ experiences of remote leadership in health care sector.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to describe nurse leaders’ experiences of remote leadership in health care sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Semistructured interviews were conducted among nurse leaders (N = 12) between January and March 2022. All of the interviewees had experiences of remote leadership and worked as immediate – (n = 5) or middle-level (n = 7) leaders in health care organizations across four provinces in Finland. The collected data were analyzed by inductive content analysis.
Findings
The leaders had experienced a rapid transition to remote leadership and highlighted the need for guidelines and joint discussions with different stakeholders. The interviewees felt that working life has changed in the last two years and that remote leadership will now be a key part of leadership in health care. The leaders’ experiences highlighted how important trust is in remote leadership. Furthermore, the interviewees pointed out a need for face-to-face contact and described other good practices for remote leadership. Overseeing work-related well-being was also stressed as important in the remote context; however, the interviewees expressed a need for instructions and tools concerning the management of employee well-being. The sudden change to remote leadership was not only described as interesting but also challenging, which has affected the leaders’ work-related well-being. Support – both from the organization and other employees – was found to be crucial to health care leaders’ work-related well-being.
Originality/value
The current study complements the little-researched topic of remote leadership in the health care sector. The results provide insights that can be used to develop remote leadership and/or guide future research.
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Sari Hirvi, Sanna Laulainen, Kristiina Junttila and Johanna Lammintakanen
This study aims to make visible the dynamic nature of leader–member exchange (LMX) in the changing realm of health-care leadership.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to make visible the dynamic nature of leader–member exchange (LMX) in the changing realm of health-care leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative study used an open questionnaire, which was distributed amongst nursing staff and managers at a Finnish public university hospital.
Findings
The participants described partly LMX theory, but the leader-member relationship was also influenced by the organizational culture and the existing management practices. Nursing staff were found to have a more variable and dynamic role in the LMX relationship than has previously been reported. The research therefore provided novel information for the field of health-care research.
Research limitations/implications
The presented research was limited by the content of the data, as the collected single narratives were rather short; however, the fact that a large number of narratives were collected from diverse participants strengthened the ability to reliably answer the research questions.
Practical implications
Although the participants described partly LMX theory, the leader–member relationship is also influenced by the organizational culture and existing management practices; the finding that nurses have more variable roles in LMX relationships in the health-care context was new insight in this field. Therefore, the presented findings can help decision-makers change the current, perhaps antiquated, leadership practices at health-care organizations.
Originality/value
This study provides new insight into the field of LMX research in terms of the important role of nursing staff, the organizational factors that influence the LMX relationship and the dynamic nature of LMX relationships.
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