Leadership Style Preferences Among Healthcare Professionals: A Departmental Survey in an Indian Hospital
Description
Background: Leadership styles influence team performance and the quality of patient care. Identifying prevailing leadership approaches among healthcare staff can inform leadership development efforts. Objective: To determine the dominant leadership styles among staff in the Patient Care Services department at Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital, and examine associations with demographic factors. Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 30 invited employees, of whom 25 completed the questionnaire (response rate = 83.3%). The instrument assessed authoritarian, democratic, transformational, transactional, and mixed leadership styles. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used for analysis. Results: Of 25 participants, 68% were male and 32% were female; most were aged 30–34 years (48%). Democratic leadership was most prevalent (48%), followed by mixed (28%), transformational (20%), and authoritarian (4%). No participant exhibited a transactional style. The mean coded leadership score was 3.68 (SD = 1.01), indicating a preference toward democratic leadership. No significant associations were found between leadership style and gender (χ² = 3.95, p = 0.27) or age (χ² = 13.87, p = 0.13). Conclusion: Democratic and mixed leadership styles predominated, suggesting a collaborative departmental culture. Leadership tendencies appeared independent of demographic factors, highlighting the role of organizational context in shaping leadership behaviour.
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Institutions
- Amity University