Openness to Change: Experiential and Demographic Components of Change in Local Health Department Leaders

Emmanuel D Jadhav,James W Holsinger,David W Fardo

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2015.00209

Emmanuel D Jadhav, James W Holsinger + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00209

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Abstract

During the 2008-2010 economic recession, Kentucky local health department (LHD) leaders utilized innovative strategies to maintain their programs. A characteristic of innovative strategy is leader openness to change. Leader demographical research in for-profit organizations has yielded valuable insight into leader openness to change. For LHD leaders, the nature of the association between leader demographic and organizational characteristics on leader openness to change is unknown. The objectives of this study are to identify variation in openness to change by leaders' demographic and organizational characteristics and to characterize the underlying relationships. The study utilized Spearman rank correlations test to determine relationships between leader openness to change (ACQ) and leader and LHD characteristics. To identify differences in the distribution of ACQ scores, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric tests were used, and to adjust for potential confounding, linear regression analysis was performed. Local health department leaders in the Commonwealth of Kentucky were the unit of analysis. Expenditure and revenue data were available from the state health department. National census data were utilized for county level population estimates. A cross-sectional survey was performed of KY LHD leaders' observable attributes relating to age, gender, race, educational background, leadership experience, and openness to change. Leaders had relatively high openness to change scores. Spearman correlations between leader ACQ and departmental 2012-2013 revenue and expenditures were statistically significant, as were the differences observed in ACQ by gender and the educational level of the leader. Differences in ACQ score by education level and agency revenue were significant even after adjusting for potential confounders. The analyses imply that there are underlying relationships between leader and LHD characteristics based on leader openness to change.

Highlights

IntroductionA determinant of openness to change is the perception of the leaders [21], which is driven by the leaders’ attitudes and perceived control over their ability to implement change
Local health department (LHD) leaders used innovative strategies to withstand external financial pressures linked to internal quality challenges and service volume during the 2008–2010 economic recession [1]
Analytical Methods The openness to change score is measured on a Likert scale, resulting in the ACQ score being treated as ordinal data with non-parametric tests used for examining the relationships between leader demographics and LHD characteristics

Summary

Introduction

A determinant of openness to change is the perception of the leaders [21], which is driven by the leaders’ attitudes and perceived control over their ability to implement change. This line of inquiry is not without its critics, who suggest that relying on leader demographic characteristics alone [22, 23] without studying their psychological values and attitudes may lead to spurious conclusions [24]. These contrasting perspectives on the importance [25] and non-importance [26] of the individual leader’s attributes suggest that there is no consensus on how demographic attributes drive a leader’s openness to change, the individual leader’s openness to change is important in managing change

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