An assessment of management competencies for primary health care managers in Timor-Leste

Suggesting a holistic framework for understanding healthcare services leadership competence - a critical interpretive synthesis

PURPOSE

Healthcare providers are under pressure due to increasing and more complex demands for services. Increased pressure on budgets and human resources adds to an ever-growing problem set. Competent leaders are in demand to ensure effective and well-performing healthcare organisations that deliver balanced results and high-quality services. Researchers have made significant efforts to identify and define determining competencies for healthcare leadership. Broad terms such as competence are, however, inherently at risk of becoming too generic to add analytical value. The purpose of this study is to suggest a holistic framework for understanding healthcare leadership competence, that can be crucial for operationalising important healthcare leadership competencies for researchers, decision-makers as well as practitioners.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

In the present study, a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) was conducted to analyse competency descriptions for healthcare leaders. The descriptions were retrieved from peer reviewed empirical studies published between 2010 and 2022 that aimed to identify healthcare services leadership competencies. Grounded theory was utilised to code the data and inductively develop new categories of healthcare leadership competencies. The categorisation was then analysed to suggest a holistic framework for healthcare leadership competence.

FINDINGS

Forty-one papers were included in the review. Coding and analysing the competence descriptions resulted in 12 healthcare leadership competence categories: (1) character, (2) interpersonal relations, (3) leadership, (4) professionalism, (5) soft HRM, (6) management, (7) organisational knowledge, (8) technology, (9) knowledge of the healthcare environment, (10) change and innovation, (11) knowledge transformation and (12) boundary spanning. Based on this result, a holistic framework for understanding and analysing healthcare services leadership competencies was suggested. This framework suggests that the 12 categories of healthcare leadership competencies include a range of knowledge, skills and abilities that can be understood across the dimension personal - and technical, and organisational internal and - external competencies.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS

This literature review was conducted with the results of searching only two electronic databases. Because of this, there is a chance that there exist empirical studies that could have added to the development of the competence categories or could have contradicted some of the descriptions used in this analysis that were assessed as quite harmonised. A CIS also opens for a broader search, including the grey literature, books, policy documents and so on, but this study was limited to peer-reviewed empirical studies. This limitation could also have affected the result, as complex phenomenon such as competence might have been disclosed in greater details in, for example, books.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The holistic framework for healthcare leadership competences offers a common understanding of a "fuzzy" concept such as competence and can be used to identify specific competency needs in healthcare organisations, to develop strategic competency plans and educational programmes for healthcare leaders.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

This study reveals a lack of consensus regarding the use and understanding of the concept of competence, and that key competencies addressed in the included papers are described vastly different in terms of what knowledge, skills and abilities they entail. This challenges the operationalisation of healthcare services leadership competencies. The proposed framework for healthcare services leadership competencies offers a common understanding of work-related competencies and a possibility to analyse key leadership competencies based on a holistic framework.

An explorative and confirmative factor analysis of the Leadership and Management Inventory-II among staff working in elderly care

PURPOSE

The Purpose of the study was to investigate the construct validity and internal consistency of the LaMI among staff in the context of elderly care in Sweden.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

Questionnaire data from a longitudinal study of staff working in elderly care were used. Data were collected using the Leadership and Management Inventory. First data collection was for explorative factor analysis (n = 1,149), and the second collection, one year later, was for confirmatory factor analysis (n = 1,061).

FINDINGS

The explorative factor analysis resulted in a two-factor solution that explained 70.2% of the total variance. Different models were tested in the confirmatory factor analysis. The final model, a two-factor solution where three items were omitted, showed acceptable results.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

The instrument measures both leadership and management performance and can be used to continually measure managers' performances as perceived by staff to identify areas for development.

Guidance for management competency identification and development in the health context: a systematic scoping review

BACKGROUND

Using management competency-based frameworks to guide developing and delivering training and formal education to managers has been increasingly recognized as a key strategy in building management capacity. Hence, interest in identifying and confirming the competency requirements in various contexts have been witnessed. Therefore, learnings from how competency studies were designed and conducted, how competencies were identified, and strategies in ensuring success in competency identification are of great value to researchers planning and conducting competency studies in their own country.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted guided by the Arksey and O'Malley framework and reported according to the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). All papers that published empirical studies aiming at identifying and assessing manager's competencies at the peer-reviewed journals were identified from Web of sciences, PubMed, Scopus and Emerald Management between 2000 and 2021. In order to maximize learning, studies focusing on health and non-health sectors are all included.

RESULTS

In total, 186 studies were included in the review including slightly more than half of the studies conducted in health sector (54.5%). 60% of the studies focused on mid to senior level managers. Surveys and Interviews were the two most commonly used methods either solely or as part of the mix-method in the studies. Half of the studies used mixed methods approach (51.1%). Large proportion of the papers failed to include all information that is necessary to contribute to learning and improvement in future study design. Based on the results of the scoping review a four steps framework was developed that can guide designing and implementing management competency studies in specific country vs. sector context and to ensure benefits of the studies are maximised.

CONCLUSION

The review confirmed the increasing trend in investing in management competency studies and that the management competency identification and development process varied substantially, in the choice of methods and processes. The identification of missing information in majority of the published studies calls for the development of more rigorous guidelines for the peer-review process of journal publications. The proposed framework of improving the quality and impact of the future management competency study provides clear guidance to management competency identification and development that promotes the functional alignment of methods and strategies with intended uses and contexts.

The association of management and leadership competencies with work satisfaction among pharmacists in Lebanon

BACKGROUND

Pharmacists are at the core of the healthcare system and are the most accessible healthcare professionals. Their new roles involve leadership skills, among others. Work satisfaction of pharmacists might affect the quality of the services they provide. Hence, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate the management/leadership skills and work satisfaction of pharmacists and working pharmacy students. The secondary objective was to establish the relationship between management/leadership competencies and work satisfaction.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study enrolled 415 Lebanese pharmacists and fifth-year pharmacy students (undergraduates) working in different pharmacy sectors across Lebanon from August 2021 through October 2021 using the snowball sampling technique and validated tools to assess management/leadership competencies and work satisfaction.

RESULTS

Management/leadership competencies were significantly correlated with work satisfaction (B = 0.288) and inversely associated with being engaged/married (B = - 2.825) and living outside Beirut or Mount Lebanon (B = - 1.873). Pharmacy students did not significantly differ in their leadership/management level from graduate pharmacists. Work satisfaction was significantly associated with management/leadership competencies (B = 0.062) and inversely related to education level (B = - 0.644).

CONCLUSIONS

Pharmacists' work satisfaction and management/leadership competencies are interrelated, although the level of satisfaction seemed lower than the declared level of competencies. These concepts are differentially affected by personal and work-related characteristics. More efforts should be exerted to improve both the satisfaction and management/leadership competencies of pharmacists in Lebanon.

Managerial Strategies for Long-Term Care Organization Professionals: COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts

This paper aims to analyze the strategies that healthcare professionals have adopted during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in long-term care organizations in Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil, by investigating their competencies—mainly managerial ones. To reach its goals, this paper performs empirical research and theoretical research. For the empirical research, the plans of professionals during COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care organizations are observed, and a questionnaire is applied to analyze observed data integrity. The data are analyzed through the Python and IBM SPSS Statistic programming languages, and descriptive analyses use descriptive statistic proportions, rates, minimum, maximum, mean, median, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation (CV). A non-parametric approach performs repeated measure comparisons using Wilcoxon’s test, while the McNemmar test is used to repeat the categorical variables. Statistical significance is assumed at the 5% level. For the theoretical research, a literature review is developed using scientific databases. The results show that for the searched period, the number of deaths and the number of people infected by COVID-19 in these organizations are low when compared to general statistics of Rio de Janeiro city. This paper concludes that these strategical adoptions have brought significant benefits to long-term care organizations, and it might motivate researchers to develop future studies related to long-term care organizations, helping to fill the literature gap on the subject.

Leadership and Management Competencies for Hospital Managers: A Systematic Review and Best-Fit Framework Synthesis

OBJECTIVE

Competent managers are vital to the productivity and service quality of healthcare organizations and the sustainability of the healthcare system. To improve their management competence, understanding of management competency requirements is important. The purpose of this study was to synthesize the evidence related to the leadership and management competencies in healthcare organizations through the best-fit method.

METHODS

A systematic review of literature published between 2000 and 2020 was performed to identify studies focusing on confirming and/or identifying the competency requirements of hospital managers. The best-fit framework synthesis method was used to map the identified competencies and associated behavioral items against the validated management competency assessment program (MCAP) management competency framework.

RESULTS

Twelve studies were identified for inclusion in the review. The mapping of the identified competencies and behavioral items generated a competency model for hospital managers that can apply for different healthcare context. The new competency model includes the following seven core leadership and management competencies: evidence-informed decision-making, operations, administration and resource management, knowledge of healthcare environment and the organization, interpersonal, communication qualities and relationship management, leading people and organisation, enabling and managing change, and professionalism.

CONCLUSION

This review and the mapping of the competencies identified in previous studies against the validated MCAP framework has resulted in the recommendation for an extended leadership and management competency framework for health service managers. It provides guidance for the formulation of training and development directions for the health service management workforce in a different healthcare context.