Managerial and Leadership Styles of Teaching Hospital Pharmacists in Nigeria

Purpose of this paper: To identify types of managerial and leadership styles used by teaching hospital pharmacists; and assess the influence of such leadership styles on managerial practice. Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using a pre-tested questionnaire on a sample of 137 randomly selected hospital pharmacists in five teaching hospitals. Findings: A total of 130 pharmacists responded to the questionnaire, with a 94.9% response rate 94.9%. The study revealed that conceptual (4.54) human (3.46), and technical skills (1.73), were the dominant skill types which were measured on a 5-point Likert Scale. The identified leadership styles were transformational (85.4%) and transactional (14.6%). There was a significant positive correlation (0.396) between human and technical skills at P=0.03. Negative correlations were observed between transformational and transactional leadership style components. Research limitations/implications: Not all pharmacists in teaching hospitals in other parts of Nigeria were studied. Therefore, the research findings cannot be generalized. Future studies should be undertaken to cover more teaching hospital pharmacists. Social implications: The outcome of the study would influence policy changes because it would provide more information on what managerial features to watch out for while recruiting management staffs in hospitals. What is original/value of paper: It is a novel study which would enrich existing literature on managerial practices in hospitals. Conclusion: The pharmacists’ managers used more of transformational than transactional styles of leadership. Majority of the hospital pharmacists’ managers had more of conceptual than human skills. However, the influence of leadership styles on managerial practice was high.