Advancing Clinical Education: Implementing Transformational Leadership Behaviors for Achieving Focused Outcomes

Allison Kellish, Doreen Stiskal
Purpose:

This study’s purposes were to discern the SCCEs’ self-rated use of transformational leadership style and their utilization of specific transformational leadership behaviors, as well as the correlation of leadership effectiveness based on three leadership outcomes.

Methods:

Fifty-eight SCCEs recruited from an APTA listserv answered the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form-5X (MLQTM-5X) that measures leadership styles including transformational and its behaviors: idealized influence-attributed, idealized influence-behavioral, individual consideration inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation and on three outcomes: extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Following the MLQ Manual instructions, results were calculated with statistical analyses performed utilizing Microsoft Excel to determine the mean and standard deviations survey scores. These data subsequently were used to determine correlations with using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient, with post hoc analyses using paired t-test with a corrected Bonferroni (p 05/3 = .017). Additionally, one-way ANOVA was employed to compare the perceived utilization of individual leadership behaviors against the three leadership outcomes, with the same post hoc analyses applied to assess group differences. All statistical procedures were conducted using Prism GraphPad Scientific Software.

Results:

Results of SCCEs' self-rated leadership ratings showed that positive relationships (p 0.05) occurred between their transformational leadership style and behaviors. The mean scores for the SCCEs' transformational behaviors were between 3.02 and 3.27, with a three representing the behavior displayed as “fairly often”, except for idealized influence - attributed with the lowest score of 2.40. The behavior with the highest mean score (3.27) was individual consideration. The findings derived from the ANOVAs indicated utilizing these behaviors significantly affected all three leadership outcomes: extra effort (p = 0.01), effectiveness (p 0.001), and satisfaction (p 0.001). Corrected post hoc Bonferroni analysis indicated SCCEs who most frequently utilized these transformational behaviors achieved best outcomes (p 0.001), indicating that this leadership style positively correlated with all three outcomes, showing better outcomes with greater utilization of behaviors.

Conclusion(s):

This study found that SCCEs, as transformational leaders, employed all transformational leadership behaviors while managing the site’s clinical education program. There was a positive correlation between transformational leadership and its behaviors with outcomes such as extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Equipping SCCEs with these leadership tools could enhance outcomes and strengthen management for the clinical education program.

Implications:

These findings elucidate leadership styles of experienced, successful SCCEs and may serve as a pathway for SCCE leadership development.

Funding acknowledgements:
Unfunded
Keywords:
Clinical education
Leadership
Outcomes
Primary topic:
Education: clinical
Second topic:
Education
Third topic:
Professional issues: business skills, leadership, advocacy and change management
Did this work require ethics approval?:
Yes
Name the institution and ethics committee that approved your work:
Seton Hall University Internal Review Board
Provide the ethics approval number:
No number issued; only approval letter
Has any of this material been/due to be published or presented at another national or international conference prior to the World Physiotherapy Congress 2025?:
No

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