STUDY EXAMINES LEADERSHIP SKILLS OF DOCTORS
Successful managers in health care settings have significantly different leadership skill profiles than ineffective managers.
That's according to research by Frank Shipper, professor of management at Salisbury State University in Salisbury, MD. He co-authored a study on the topic, "A Study and Comparative Analysis of Effective and Ineffective Leadership Skills of Physician and Non- physician Health Care Administrators," with David A. Pearson, professor of health management and policy at the University of New Hampshire, and Donna Singer, an organization and management consultant in Durham, NH.
The researchers found that successful managers in health care settings possess structuring skills, the ability to initiate and sequence tasks required to accomplish goals. They also possess interpersonal skills, the ability to conduct meaningful communication or "coaching" related to goal accomplishment; or pressuring skills, the ability to selectively apply punishment such as verbal reprimands to employees not fulfilling their obligations.
"Apparently, to be successful requires a combination of structuring skills and either interpersonal or pressuring skills, or all three," says Shipper.
The study examined the leadership skills of physician and non-physician health care administrators, too. Supposedly, non-physician health care administrators, who constitute the largest number administrators, have been trained in leadership skills whereas this is not part of the medical curriculum.
"We found that physician administrators have approximately the same skills as non- physician administrators. We also found that their standards of performance were significantly higher than the non-physician health care administrators. Professional administrators have no formal training advantage over the physicians."
The target sample for the study consisted of 229 managers in a large, for-profit, urban medical center with teaching responsibilities in the northeast United States. The sample was 54 percent female and 46 percent male. In addition, 21 percent of those surveyed were physician administrators and 79 percent were non-physician health care administrators.
The researchers administered a 106-item questionnaire to measure typical skills such as creating a vision, goal setting, planning, and providing feedback. To measure the effectiveness of the administrators, their superiors were asked to rate them from 1 to 7 on five performance items. Examples of these items are "Is a productive executive," "He/she gets things done and done well," and "Is effective in converting ideas into practical reality." ###
Editors: The study is under consideration at the journal, Health Services Management Research. If you're interested in pursing the topic, you can reach Shipper at 410-543-6333 (office) or 410-548-5620 (home). For a copy of the study, please contact Steve Infanti of Dick Jones Communications at 814-867-1963. DJC helps SSU with its public affairs work.
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