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Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services

BACKGROUND: In public health, interpersonal influence has been identified as an important factor in the spread of health information, and in understanding and changing health behaviors. However, little is known about influence in public health leadership. Influence is important in leadership setting...

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Autores principales: Harris, Jenine K., Carothers, Bobbi J., Wald, Lana M., Shelton, Sarah C., Leischow, Scott J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PAGEPress Publications 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140316/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25170448
http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2012.e12
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author Harris, Jenine K.
Carothers, Bobbi J.
Wald, Lana M.
Shelton, Sarah C.
Leischow, Scott J.
author_facet Harris, Jenine K.
Carothers, Bobbi J.
Wald, Lana M.
Shelton, Sarah C.
Leischow, Scott J.
author_sort Harris, Jenine K.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In public health, interpersonal influence has been identified as an important factor in the spread of health information, and in understanding and changing health behaviors. However, little is known about influence in public health leadership. Influence is important in leadership settings, where public health professionals contribute to national policy and practice agendas. Drawing on social theory and recent advances in statistical network modeling, we examined influence in a network of tobacco control leaders at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DESIGN AND METHODS: Fifty-four tobacco control leaders across all 11 agencies in the DHHS were identified; 49 (91%) responded to a web-based survey. Participants were asked about communication with other tobacco control leaders, who influenced their work, and general job characteristics. Exponential random graph modeling was used to develop a network model of influence accounting for characteristics of individuals, their relationships, and global network structures. RESULTS: Higher job ranks, more experience in tobacco control, and more time devoted to tobacco control each week increased the likelihood of influence nomination, as did more frequent communication between network members. Being in the same agency and working the same number of hours per week were positively associated with mutual influence nominations. Controlling for these characteristics, the network also exhibited patterns associated with influential clusters of network members. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this unique study provide a perspective on influence within a government agency that both helps to understand decision-making and also can serve to inform organizational efforts that allow for more effective structuring of leadership.
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spelling pubmed-41403162014-08-28 Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services Harris, Jenine K. Carothers, Bobbi J. Wald, Lana M. Shelton, Sarah C. Leischow, Scott J. J Public Health Res Article BACKGROUND: In public health, interpersonal influence has been identified as an important factor in the spread of health information, and in understanding and changing health behaviors. However, little is known about influence in public health leadership. Influence is important in leadership settings, where public health professionals contribute to national policy and practice agendas. Drawing on social theory and recent advances in statistical network modeling, we examined influence in a network of tobacco control leaders at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DESIGN AND METHODS: Fifty-four tobacco control leaders across all 11 agencies in the DHHS were identified; 49 (91%) responded to a web-based survey. Participants were asked about communication with other tobacco control leaders, who influenced their work, and general job characteristics. Exponential random graph modeling was used to develop a network model of influence accounting for characteristics of individuals, their relationships, and global network structures. RESULTS: Higher job ranks, more experience in tobacco control, and more time devoted to tobacco control each week increased the likelihood of influence nomination, as did more frequent communication between network members. Being in the same agency and working the same number of hours per week were positively associated with mutual influence nominations. Controlling for these characteristics, the network also exhibited patterns associated with influential clusters of network members. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this unique study provide a perspective on influence within a government agency that both helps to understand decision-making and also can serve to inform organizational efforts that allow for more effective structuring of leadership. PAGEPress Publications 2012-02-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4140316/ /pubmed/25170448 http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2012.e12 Text en ©Copyright J.K. Harris et al., 2012 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Harris, Jenine K.
Carothers, Bobbi J.
Wald, Lana M.
Shelton, Sarah C.
Leischow, Scott J.
Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services
title Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services
title_full Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services
title_fullStr Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services
title_full_unstemmed Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services
title_short Interpersonal Influence Among Public Health Leaders in the United States Department of Health and Human Services
title_sort interpersonal influence among public health leaders in the united states department of health and human services
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140316/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25170448
http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2012.e12
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