Investing in healthcare middle-managers: how a leadership development program can improve employee engagement within healthcare.

Abstract

Purpose: Middle managers play a crucial role in health care, as they are responsible for executing decisions made by upper management and supervising frontline staff. Enhancing their ability to implement these decisions is essential for effective health-care delivery. The purpose of this case study is to describe a leadership development program was designed to improve employee engagement scores among health-care middle managers. The program used employee engagement survey data, experiential learning, reflection and coaching.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyzed annual employee engagement survey data to develop a series of leadership training sessions for health-care middle managers. Three leadership development series were conducted, each featuring diverse experiential learning methods facilitated by subject matter experts. Participants' feedback was collected through open-ended surveys at the end of each series, focusing on key outcomes such as their understanding and application of leadership concepts. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the results from the annual 2021 and 2022 engagement surveys.

Findings: A total of 45 middle managers with various middle management roles and from different backgrounds (clinical and non-clinical) reported significant improvements in their engagement scores, with the overall score increasing from 80.02 to 81.98 (p = 0.045). Participants also reported improved team trust, valuing employee input and enhanced leadership effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications: This study's limitations include that this study took place at a not-for-profit health-care system during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021-2022) and that not all participants' demographic information was collected.

Practical implications: Structured, data-driven leadership development programs can enhance middle managers' skills, engagement and satisfaction in health-care organizations.

Originality/value: This case study used employee engagement survey data to design a leadership development program for middle managers in health care, a group often overlooked in traditional leadership development programs.