Leaders’ behavioural change throughout a hospital’s lean implementation

Abstract

This article empirically examines the relationship between leadership behaviours and the implementation level of Lean Healthcare (LH). At three points in time, with a six-month interval between each point, we surveyed and interviewed 12 leaders from a Brazilian public hospital adopting LH. Our findings indicate that leaders who actively adopt LH practices also demonstrate more task- and relations-oriented behaviours, whereas low LH adopters may drop their display of those behaviours over time. This finding parallels with Kübler-Ross’s change curve that describes how an individual’s confidence, morale and effectiveness levels may vary as a change process, such as LH implementation, unfolds