Predicting healthcare leaders readiness to lead the implementation of change

Abstract

A key challenge facing healthcare leaders is how to implement changes successfully. For change to occur in healthcare, leaders must be proactive, and they must have an ability to adapt to new policies and practices. Data from 105 healthcare leaders were used to address the question of to what extent leadership style, leader efficacy, seniority, and gender predict healthcare leaders’ readiness to lead change. The healthcare leaders were panel members of Centiment, an online survey research company that specializes in surveying hard-to-reach participants. A correlation analysis using Spearman’s rho tested the relationship between leadership style and leader efficacy, and multiple regression analyses predicted the readiness of healthcare leaders in leading the implementation of change. The results of the multiple regression analysis show that transformational leadership and leader efficacy are statistically significant in change implementation. However, the results also reveal that transactional and passive leadership, seniority, and gender are not statistically significance. The results suggest that seniority does not moderate the relationship between the leadership styles and organizational readiness for implementing change, and gender does not moderate the interaction between leader efficacy and organizational readiness for implementing change. Healthcare leaders can use the results of this study to mitigate the rate of failure while implementing change.   Key words: Organizational change, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, passive-avoidant leadership, leader efficacy, organizational readiness for implementing change, healthcare leadership.