Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine
Abstract Background Recently, there has been increasing evidence that reducing burnout in healthcare providers requires significant organizational efforts that include the integration of leadership strategies. Methods Focus groups were conducted across four health systems within the University of Co...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2022-05-01
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| Series: | BMC Health Services Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08034-x |
| _version_ | 1818203064332451840 |
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| author | Katie McPherson Juliana G. Barnard Martha Tenney Brooke Dorsey Holliman Katherine Morrison Patrick Kneeland Chen-Tan Lin Marc Moss |
| author_facet | Katie McPherson Juliana G. Barnard Martha Tenney Brooke Dorsey Holliman Katherine Morrison Patrick Kneeland Chen-Tan Lin Marc Moss |
| author_sort | Katie McPherson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Recently, there has been increasing evidence that reducing burnout in healthcare providers requires significant organizational efforts that include the integration of leadership strategies. Methods Focus groups were conducted across four health systems within the University of Colorado Department of Medicine in four affinity groups (administrative staff, medical trainees, research faculty, and clinical faculty). Authentic leadership theory was used for analysis to advance the understanding of the role of leadership style upon participants’ work experiences and preferences, and to identify opportunities for translation of site-specific results to other academic medical settings. Results Study participants from each affinity group believed their clinical leaders lacked objectivity with decision-making (lacking “balancing processing”), which contributed to their overall feeling of powerlessness. The experience of increasing work demands was salient throughout all twelve focus groups, and participants identified leadership that interacted in a more open and self-disclosing manner (“relational transparency”) as alleviating at least some of this burden. Strong preference discernable alignment between their leaders’ decision-making and their internal moral compass of values (demonstrating “internalized moral perspective”) was described, as was clinical leaders demonstrating “self-awareness” (having a self-reflective process that informs the leader’s decision-making). Comparing affinity group experiences within each authentic leadership theory construct identified the relevance of contextual factors, such as work setting and roles, upon employees’ perceptions and expectations of their leaders. Conclusions Use of authentic leadership theory advanced the understanding of the association between leadership traits and experiences of burnout amongst a large group of academic clinicians, researchers, trainees, and administrative staff. Leadership styles that promoted relationship transparency, openness, and support were preferred and fostering these traits may help address the demands in academic medicine, including symptoms of burnout. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:19:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a559f5b74b6a498f9991668319f7361b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1472-6963 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:19:24Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Health Services Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-a559f5b74b6a498f9991668319f7361b2022-12-22T00:40:13ZengBMCBMC Health Services Research1472-69632022-05-012211910.1186/s12913-022-08034-xBurnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicineKatie McPherson0Juliana G. Barnard1Martha Tenney2Brooke Dorsey Holliman3Katherine Morrison4Patrick Kneeland5Chen-Tan Lin6Marc Moss7Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt UniversityAdult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS), University of ColoradoMined Insights Consulting LLCAdult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS), University of ColoradoDepartment of Medicine, University of ColoradoDepartment of Medicine, University of ColoradoDepartment of Medicine, University of ColoradoDepartment of Medicine, University of ColoradoAbstract Background Recently, there has been increasing evidence that reducing burnout in healthcare providers requires significant organizational efforts that include the integration of leadership strategies. Methods Focus groups were conducted across four health systems within the University of Colorado Department of Medicine in four affinity groups (administrative staff, medical trainees, research faculty, and clinical faculty). Authentic leadership theory was used for analysis to advance the understanding of the role of leadership style upon participants’ work experiences and preferences, and to identify opportunities for translation of site-specific results to other academic medical settings. Results Study participants from each affinity group believed their clinical leaders lacked objectivity with decision-making (lacking “balancing processing”), which contributed to their overall feeling of powerlessness. The experience of increasing work demands was salient throughout all twelve focus groups, and participants identified leadership that interacted in a more open and self-disclosing manner (“relational transparency”) as alleviating at least some of this burden. Strong preference discernable alignment between their leaders’ decision-making and their internal moral compass of values (demonstrating “internalized moral perspective”) was described, as was clinical leaders demonstrating “self-awareness” (having a self-reflective process that informs the leader’s decision-making). Comparing affinity group experiences within each authentic leadership theory construct identified the relevance of contextual factors, such as work setting and roles, upon employees’ perceptions and expectations of their leaders. Conclusions Use of authentic leadership theory advanced the understanding of the association between leadership traits and experiences of burnout amongst a large group of academic clinicians, researchers, trainees, and administrative staff. Leadership styles that promoted relationship transparency, openness, and support were preferred and fostering these traits may help address the demands in academic medicine, including symptoms of burnout.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08034-xAuthentic leadershipHealthcare workers burnout |
| spellingShingle | Katie McPherson Juliana G. Barnard Martha Tenney Brooke Dorsey Holliman Katherine Morrison Patrick Kneeland Chen-Tan Lin Marc Moss Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine BMC Health Services Research Authentic leadership Healthcare workers burnout |
| title | Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine |
| title_full | Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine |
| title_fullStr | Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine |
| title_full_unstemmed | Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine |
| title_short | Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine |
| title_sort | burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine |
| topic | Authentic leadership Healthcare workers burnout |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08034-x |
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