Evaluation of an intensive group-process based model of team leadership development: implications for Canadian health care employees

• Main Author: Black, Timothy G.
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Health care teams > British Columbia.; Leadership.; Health services administration > British Columbia.; Cancer > Treatment > British Columbia.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9063

The traditional model of leadership in medicine and health care generally centres around a hierarchical structure of power and influence, resting in the hands of a select few administrators, with limited input from employees. A newly developed Cancer treatment centre in the Province of British Columbia, Canada has attempted to institute a unique, team-based system of shared leadership and decision-making. In order to accomplish this task, the Senior Administrator of the centre hired professional group development experts to facilitate the formation of the newly established Leadership Team. A team of nine individuals participated in a group-process based model of team leadership development, consisting of a series of intensive weekend workshops. This study evaluates the impact of those intensive workshops on the members of the Cancer centre Leadership Team. Qualitative case-study methodology, combined with the use of indepth interviews, illuminated eight categories of shared experience among seven of the nine team members, as a result of having participated in the workshop series.