Can leadership be taught? An evaluation of a health care corporation's leadership development program

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20005044

Over the last twenty years, organizations have begun to realize the importance of developing employees into leaders to ensure employees have the skill sets necessary to grow into leadership roles. Health care is one industry that has realized the importance of implementing leadership development programs to enhance employee leadership abilities especially with the passing of health care reform in 2010. The goal of this study was to answer the question of: to what extent does a leadership program in the health care industry prepare managers with the competencies necessary to lead in that industry? This question was addressed by focusing on an academic medical center and their leadership development program through interviewing the employees who have undertaken the leadership program, the chief learning officer (CLO) who created the program and the program educators who instructed the leadership skills. Leadership experts Kouzes and Posner (2003) and their five leadership practices aid in this research study as does trait theory (Galton, 1869).