Personal and organisational attributes that support transformational leadership in acute healthcare: scoping review

Julie Considine; Jenny Dempster; Nga Man Wendy Wong; Noelleen Kiprillis; Leanne Boyd

doi:10.1071/AH23179

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Personal and organisational attributes that support transformational leadership in acute healthcare: scoping review

Julie Considine

^A ^B ^* , Jenny Dempster

^C , Nga Man Wendy Wong ^C , Noelleen Kiprillis

^C and Leanne Boyd

^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Nursing and Midwifery and Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in the Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Geelong, Vic., Australia.

^B Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research – Eastern Health Partnership, Box Hill, Vic., Australia.

^C Eastern Health, Box Hill, Vic., Australia.

^* Correspondence to: julie.considine@deakin.edu.au

Australian Health Review 48(3) 274-282 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH23179

Submitted: 24 August 2023 Accepted: 13 February 2024 Published: 7 March 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Objective

Transformational leadership benefits both patients and staff. The objective of this scoping review was to explore personal and organisational attributes that support transformational leadership in acute health care.

Methods

A scoping review was undertaken using Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Complete, Medline Complete, PsycInfo and Emerald Insight databases. Search terms were related to transformational leadership and acute care hospitals.

Results

A total of 18 studies were included: 14 reported personal attributes and 8 reported organisational attributes supporting transformational leadership. The most common personal attributes were manager educational preparation (n = 5), years of management experience (n = 4), age (n = 3) and emotional intelligence (n = 3). The most common organisational attributes reported were larger organisational size (n = 2) and culture (n = 2). Personal (manager) attributes were synthesised into the following categories: demographics, role characteristics, leadership preparation and traits. Organisational attributes were categorised as manager support, organisational characteristics and organisational processes.

Conclusions

Despite the beneficial outcomes of transformational leadership for patients, staff and organisations, the personal and organisational attributes supporting transformation leadership are not well understood.

Keywords: health services management, health services research, human resource, leadership, management, performance and evaluation, scoping review, transformational leadership, workforce.

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