Strategic leadership and management factors driving sustainability in health-care organizations in Thailand

Abstract

Purpose: This empirical study aims to identify the essential strategic leadership and management factors underlying sustainability in healthcare. It also examines which factors drive sustainability performance outcomes (SPO) in health-care organizations, an analysis lacking to date. It provides a strategic leadership and management perspective toward sustainable healthcare, responding to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Design/methodology/approach: The investigation adopted Sustainable Leadership as its research framework. Using a cross-sectional survey, 543 employees working in health-care and pharmaceutical companies in Thailand voluntarily provided responses. Factor analyses and structural equation modeling were employed. Findings: The results revealed an emergent research model and identified 20 unidimensional strategic leadership and management factors toward sustainability in healthcare. The findings indicate significant positive effects on SPO in health-care organizations. Significant factors include human resource management/development, ethics, quality, environment and social responsibility, and stakeholder considerations. Research limitations/implications: The study was conducted in one country. Future studies should examine these relationships in diverse contexts. In practice, health-care firms should foster significant strategic leadership and management practices to improve performance outcomes for sustainability in healthcare. Originality/value: This paper is the first empirical, multidisciplinary study with a focus on strategic leadership, health-care management and organizational sustainability. It identifies a proxy for measuring the effects of essential strategic leadership and managerial factors for sustainability in pharmaceutical health-care companies. It advances our currently limited knowledge and provides managerial implications for improving performance outcomes toward sustainable healthcare.