Collaborative Leadership in Integrated Care Systems; Creating Leadership for the Common Good

Jacqueline Moore, Ian Elliott*, Hannah Hesselgreaves

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
126 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a catalyst for change, but such change can only happen through collaborative leadership which maintains a focus on relationships and purpose rather than solely on outputs or outcomes. This conceptual article explores how health and social care integration has been offered as one potential solution to the challenge of health and social care transformation. Specifically, Integrated Care Systems in England are intended to provide regional governance, to provide public services in a coherent and robust way. We explore this development in relation to three key aspects: the macro-level global policy context; the meso-level organizational behaviour and culture; and the micro-level practice of individual leaders and managers. It is found that, whilst the organizational structure of Integrated Care Systems offers great promise, collaborative leadership is critical to realize truly resilient and sustainable collaborative relationships. MAD statement Integrated Care Systems have been developed at the system level with little consideration of the leadership that will be required to implement collaborative action across health and social care. Coming out of the COVID-19 crisis there is an opportunity to create leadership for the common good–but this will require energy, purpose, and courage across all levels of the governance system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)358-373
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Change Management
Volume23
Issue number4
Early online date24 Sept 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Oct 2023

Keywords

  • Integration
  • collaborative governance
  • health and social care
  • leadership

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