Exploring the sustainable leadership of the top managers at Ermelo regional hospital.
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Date
2021
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Abstract
Sustainability as a megatrend is influencing the leadership of different organizations in the
world, including hospitals to maintain and improve the quality of their services. Despite calls
in the literature for guidance on sustaining interventions regarding sustainability in hospitals,
there is a dearth of research on leading and implementing sustainability in a hospital setting.
The primary objective of this qualitative study was to examine the practices of Sustainable
Leadership adopted by the Top Management Team at Ermelo Regional Hospital in Gert
Sibande District in South Africa.
Purposive sampling was utilized to identify and select 8 members of the top management team
who participated in face-to-face, semi-structured, in-depth, and audio-recorded interviews to
collect data. Thematic analysis was used to identify recurring patterns which depict practices
that enable or impede practices of Sustainable Leadership by members of the Top Management
Team. The study’s limitation is that it only included a small sample which makes it not possible
to generalize the findings.
The key results of this exploratory study are that Ermelo Regional Hospital’s Top Management
has got various practices of Sustainable Leadership that they use. These include staff
development through training, encouraging leaders at all levels to be part of the organizational
effort towards sustainability, flexible working and favourable labour relations which creates a
sense of shared responsibility. However, succession planning was found to be influenced by
nepotism and corruption while staff management is mostly crippled by the prevalence of
autocratic leadership. The need for engaging the employees often through regular meetings to
provide up-dates and share hospital performance were also emphasized as critical as they result
in a work setting where effective communication becomes the norm and challenges are
timeously addressed.
The study concludes that while Ermelo Regional Hospital’s Top Management Team is trying
in terms of skill development, the leadership style is less supportive of inclusive, sustainabilityrelated
practices. Furthermore, the pillars of sustainability such as the environment and
community are not given enough attention by the Ermelo Regional Hospital leaders, which
adds challenges to practice effective Sustainable Leadership in a hospital setting. A
few recommendations are provided as well as potential research areas.
Description
Master’s Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.