Unlocking medical leadership’s potential: a multilevel virtuous circle?

Abstract

Medical leadership (ML) has been introduced in many countries, promising to support healthcare services improvement and help further system reform through effective leadership behaviours. Despite some evidence of its success, such lofty promises remain unfulfilled. This paper provides a conceptual framework to analyse ML's potential in the context of healthcare's complex, multi-faceted setting. We identify four interrelated levels of analysis, or domains, that influence ML's potential to transform healthcare delivery. These are: the healthcare ecosystem domain; the professional domain; the organizational domain; and individual doctor domain. We discuss the tensions between the various actors working in and across these domains and argue that greater multi-level and multi-stakeholder collaborative working in healthcare is necessary to reprofessionalize and transform healthcare ecosystems.

Changing Logics in Healthcare and Their Effects on the Identity Motives and Identity Work of Doctors

“…Medical professional bodies and leading doctors have sought to redefine medical professionalism to integrate new institutional logics into their daily functioning (Keijser & Martin, 2019). However, even this literature and proponents of hybrid medical leaders recognize the hold of traditional medical professionalism on doctors (McGivern et al, 2015; Spurgeon et al, 2011).…”