Healthcare delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa: exploring the impact of leadership theories and styles

Abstract

Health care delivery involves the dispensation and provision of services that promote and maintainthe health of the people. The World Health Organization recognizes leadership and governance asone of the major pillars of an efficient healthcare delivery system. Effective leadership is integralto organizational success. The World Bank rates the healthcare delivery systems in sub-SaharanAfrica as one of the worst globally. Previous studies have demonstrated that poor leadership has asubstantial contribution to the moribund state of healthcare delivery in the sub-continent.Transactional leaders incentivize workers to boost their morale but gives no room for errors whichare bound to happen in sociological systems. Transformational leaders motivate and empower thesubordinates who can misuse the authority given to them. Contingency leaders analyze situationsbefore taking critical decisions but there are many unknown variables. The traits theory says thatgreat leaders are born. This however discourages inclusivity and diversity. Additionally, leaderscan be trained but they don’t turn out to have the same effectiveness despite undergoing similartraining. Functional leaders aim to eliminate bureaucracy and prioritize organization’s goalsbut organizational change management is complicated in reality. For the integrated approach,everything matters but nobody knows everything.This narrative review aims to examine how each leadership theory and style could be applied toadvance healthcare delivery in sub-Saharan Africa and found different leadership styles with theassociated merits and demerits but the hybrid approach that analyzes relevant variables would bethe optimal approach to reinvigorate healthcare delivery in sub-Sahara Africa.