Effects of Leadership Styles on Quality of Health Services
Abstract Background Leadership and quality of services have been linked together, where both influence each other in a significant manner. Effective leadership in the field of healthcare has attracted research attention over the last few years. One of the key areas of focus by the Cameroon government, which is believed to better the country's health care sector, has been the quality of leadership. Claims have been made that the most effective way of achieving high-quality service delivery would be through strong leadership. On the other hand, the strength of the leadership within an organization was linked to the type of leadership style adopted by the organization. Therefore, it is paramount that research is conducted to assess the link between the type of leadership style and the quality of services among health workers. Methods The study used a descriptive research design with a simple random size of 150 health workers of the CBCHS. Data were collected using closed-ended questions and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics™ Version 20. Inferential statistics were used to determine the effects of leadership style on the performance of health workers. The mean comparison of quality scores across the different types of leadership styles was using One Way ANOVA. Results The most common leadership style among the hospitals of the CBCHS is the transformational leadership style followed by task-focused, person-focused, transactional, and passive-laissez-faire. Transformational leadership style was associated with higher scores for maintaining good public relations and customer care than other leadership styles. The effect of leadership styles on the quality of work was not confirmed as the results were not statistically significant. Conclusion Leadership styles play a critical role in improving the quality of work in healthcare settings. Health-related outcomes differ from one setting to another based on the different leadership styles. Although the effect of leadership style on the quality of work was not statistically significant, further studies should explore the role of leadership in influencing other organizational parameters such as motivation and quality of care expectations.