Leadership Study of Clinician Managers: Individual or Post-Individual?

Abstract

The paper reports on the first phase of a three part study of leadership and clinician management in the public hospital system in Australia. While many studies of leadership in health focus on its individual aspects, this paper argues, along with others, that leadership in the clinician management context cannot be understood from such a perspective alone. Clinician managers are described as "hybrid-professional managers" for whom most leadership theories do not easily apply. The paper examines the organizational and institutional contexts in which the clinician manager is instantiated and uses this to identify some problematical aspects of individualizing leadership in this context. It draws on empirical material from an Australian study to interrogate the individualistic approach and concludes by outlining how a post-individualist interpretation of leadership might be advanced in the clinician management domain.