ABSTRACT
Two puzzling empirical phenomena form the starting point of this chapter. The first phenomenon is the observation of a huge increase in executive leadership/management degrees and educational programmes paid for by public organisations such as hospitals. In Denmark, for instance, an official governmental goal is for the managers of, for example, hospital departments, schools, kindergartens and elderly homes to have at least a bachelor degree in management before 2015. The second phenomenon is the widespread talk in health care (and other public) organisations about personal leadership. Since the late 1990s, this and related concepts are gaining an ever more prominent and positive position in policy documents, strategy papers and the like. Better leadership is promoted as a general solution to all kinds of problems. In an overview article on leadership in health care, Peck writes:
First, the current interest in leadership in UK healthcare is relatively recent. Up until the late 1990s the word ‘leadership’ appeared infrequently in policy pronouncements in healthcare. In contrast, the concept now occupies a prominent position in most major documents issued, for example, by the English Department of Health. In this respect, the UK NHS is merely following a broader trend in the public sector, both nationally and internationally. Storey (2004a charts the explosion in papers, programmes and projects dedicated to leadership in public services over the preceding ten years.
(Peck 2006)