A study and comparative analysis of managerial and leadership effectiveness in the National Health Service: an empirical factor analytic study within an NHS Trust hospital

Abstract

The research described in this article was concerned primarily with identifying the criteria of managerial/leadership effectiveness applying at the middle and front line levels of management within an NHS Trust Hospital using critical incident technique and factor analysis methods. The findings suggest that the self-perceptions of managers and the perceptions of superiors and subordinates are very similar, and only differ on a limited number of criteria. This challenges the 'perspective-specific' models of managerial effectiveness advocated by some researchers. The results are compared against those from a near identical study carried out by the author within one part of the British Civil Service, and the results from a different but comparable factor analytic study carried out by other researchers elsewhere in the NHS. The results suggest the existence of generalized criteria of managerial effectiveness, which lend considerable support to the notion of the 'universally effective manager'. This challenges the 'contingent models' of managerial effectiveness advocated by various expert commentators. In addition, the research supports the new model of transformational leadership offered by Alimo-Metcalfe and Alban-Metcalfe for application within both the NHS and local government, and adds to the empirical base supporting the current drive towards evidence-based practice in management within the healthcare sector.

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