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 maintain the health of the people. The World Health Organization recognizes leadership and governance as one of the major pillars of an efficient healthcare delivery system. Effective leadership is integral to organizational success. The World Bank rates the healthcare delivery systems in sub-Saharan Africa as one of the worst globally. Previous studies have demonstrated that poor leadership has a substantial 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 which are bound to happen in sociological systems. Transformational leaders motivate and empower the subordinates who can misuse the authority given to them. Contingency leaders analyze situations before taking critical decisions but there are many unknown variables. The traits theory says that great leaders are born. This however discourages inclusivity and diversity. Additionally, leaders can be trained but they don’t turn out to have the same effectiveness despite undergoing similar training. Functional leaders aim to eliminate bureaucracy and prioritize organization’s goals but 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 to advance healthcare delivery in sub-Saharan Africa and found different leadership styles with the associated merits and demerits but the hybrid approach that analyzes relevant variables would be the optimal approach to reinvigorate healthcare delivery in sub-Sahara Africa.