Leadership Competences in Slovenian Health Care

BACKGROUND: Leadership competences play an important role for the success of effective leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine leadership competences of managers in the healthcare sector in Slovenia. METHODS: Data were collected in 2008. The research included 265 employees in healthcare and 267 business managers. Respondents assessed their level of 16 leadership relevant competences on a 7-point Likert-type scale. RESULTS: Test of differences between competences and leader position of health care professionals yielded statistically significant differences between leader and non-leader positions. Leaders gave strongest emphasis to interpersonal and informational competences, while regarding decision making competences, the differences between leaders and other employees are not that significant. When comparing competences of healthcare managers with those of business managers, results show that healthcare managers tend to give weaker emphasis to competences related to all three managerial roles than business managers. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that in Slovenian health care, leaders distinguish themselves from other employees in some leadership competences. In addition, all three dimensions of leadership competences significantly distinguished the group of healthcare managers from the business managers, which indicates a serious lag in leadership competences among leaders in Slovenian healthcare.