Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.

Leadership in public health is necessary, relevant, and important as it enables the engagement, management, and transformation of complex public health challenges at a national level, as well as collaborating with internal stakeholders to address global public health threats. The research literature...

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Main Authors: Sudarshan Subedi, Colin MacDougall, Darlene McNaughton, Udoy Saikia, Tara Brabazon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259256
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author Sudarshan Subedi
Colin MacDougall
Darlene McNaughton
Udoy Saikia
Tara Brabazon
author_facet Sudarshan Subedi
Colin MacDougall
Darlene McNaughton
Udoy Saikia
Tara Brabazon
author_sort Sudarshan Subedi
collection DOAJ
description Leadership in public health is necessary, relevant, and important as it enables the engagement, management, and transformation of complex public health challenges at a national level, as well as collaborating with internal stakeholders to address global public health threats. The research literature recommends exploring the journey of public health leaders and the factors influencing leadership development, especially in developing countries. Thus, we aimed to develop a grounded theory on individual leadership development in the Nepalese context. For this, we adopted constructivist grounded theory, and conducted 46 intensive interviews with 22 public health officials working under the Ministry of Health, Nepal. Data were analysed by adopting the principles of Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory. The theory developed from this study illustrates four phases of leadership development within an individual-initiation, identification, development, and expansion. The 'initial phase' is about an individual's wishes to be a leader without a formal role or acknowledgement, where family environment, social environment and individual characteristics play a role in influencing the actualisation of leadership behaviours. The 'identification phase' involves being identified as a public health official after having formal position in health-related organisations. The 'development' phase is about developing core leadership capabilities mostly through exposure and experiences. The 'expansion' phase describes expanding leadership capabilities and recognition mostly by continuous self-directed learning. The grounded theory provides insights into the meaning and actions of participants' professional experiences and highlighted the role of individual characteristics, family and socio-cultural environment, and workplace settings in the development of leadership capabilities. It has implications for academia to fulfill the absence of leadership theory in public health and is significant to fulfill the need of leadership models grounded in the local context of Asian countries.
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spelling doaj.art-1a55dccab4514520b1c01a78839245da2022-12-22T04:03:32ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-011611e025925610.1371/journal.pone.0259256Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.Sudarshan SubediColin MacDougallDarlene McNaughtonUdoy SaikiaTara BrabazonLeadership in public health is necessary, relevant, and important as it enables the engagement, management, and transformation of complex public health challenges at a national level, as well as collaborating with internal stakeholders to address global public health threats. The research literature recommends exploring the journey of public health leaders and the factors influencing leadership development, especially in developing countries. Thus, we aimed to develop a grounded theory on individual leadership development in the Nepalese context. For this, we adopted constructivist grounded theory, and conducted 46 intensive interviews with 22 public health officials working under the Ministry of Health, Nepal. Data were analysed by adopting the principles of Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory. The theory developed from this study illustrates four phases of leadership development within an individual-initiation, identification, development, and expansion. The 'initial phase' is about an individual's wishes to be a leader without a formal role or acknowledgement, where family environment, social environment and individual characteristics play a role in influencing the actualisation of leadership behaviours. The 'identification phase' involves being identified as a public health official after having formal position in health-related organisations. The 'development' phase is about developing core leadership capabilities mostly through exposure and experiences. The 'expansion' phase describes expanding leadership capabilities and recognition mostly by continuous self-directed learning. The grounded theory provides insights into the meaning and actions of participants' professional experiences and highlighted the role of individual characteristics, family and socio-cultural environment, and workplace settings in the development of leadership capabilities. It has implications for academia to fulfill the absence of leadership theory in public health and is significant to fulfill the need of leadership models grounded in the local context of Asian countries.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259256
spellingShingle Sudarshan Subedi
Colin MacDougall
Darlene McNaughton
Udoy Saikia
Tara Brabazon
Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.
PLoS ONE
title Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.
title_full Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.
title_fullStr Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.
title_full_unstemmed Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.
title_short Leadership development among public health officials in Nepal: A grounded theory.
title_sort leadership development among public health officials in nepal a grounded theory
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259256
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