An Introduction to High-Reliability Leadership Style in Healthcare

Abstract

Hospitals, urgent care units, outpatient clinics, and long-term care facilities constantly keep tightening their safety measures by adopting new interventions. As a result of these efforts, nowadays, fewer patients injure or die from accidental injections, medication errors, falls, or serious healthcare-acquired infections. Yet, many service providers still frequently find themselves at the center of criticism by the media and advocacy groups for their inefficacy in making drastic systematic changes that last. More recent advancements in the field have called for the emulation of the principles of High-Reliability Organizations (HROs) for creating safer services through more radical changes. Building upon this research and juxtaposing it with the leadership literature, our study takes this call one step further by introducing and conceptualizing a leadership style which we call high-reliability leadership style. The chapter also provides a starting point for the advancement of research and practice in healthcare by providing an in-depth exploration of the characteristics of high-reliability leaders. Healthcare organizations can use the findings presented in this chapter for selecting and developing individuals into leadership roles capable of ensuring the sustainable reliability of their care delivery systems.

Empowering leadership and organizational exploration: the role of preoccupation with failure and leader gender

“…, 2023) and encourage employees to ask questions, report mistakes, and make suggestions for improvement (Murray et al. , 2022), as well as inhibit the simplification of presumptions that may lead to minor system weaknesses and near-misses (Memar Zadeh, 2023).…”

“…These organizations can diagnose and accentuate undesirable mistakes when they occur (Rotteau et al, 2022). Memar Zadeh (2023) proposes that leaders' empowering and engaging tendencies are prerequisites to inhibit the simplification of presumptions that may permit minor system weaknesses and near-misses to manifest. Based on this perspective, we go one step forward and support that organizations with empowering leaders are better positioned to rectify any near misses and mishaps before they intensify into more significant problems.…”

“…Nonetheless, to our knowledge, there is a gap regarding the relationship between empowering leadership and preoccupation with failure. Recent studies argue that leaders' empowering behaviors promote psychological safety (Joo et al, 2023) and encourage employees to ask questions, report mistakes, and make suggestions for improvement (Murray et al, 2022), as well as inhibit the simplification of presumptions that may lead to minor system weaknesses and near-misses (Memar Zadeh, 2023).…”