Investigation of neuroleadership characteristics of health managers

Health services are provided in a complex structure in order to increase the amount of life to be lived and to ensure the protection of society. Effective management in this process requires critical knowledge of the change of health policies and organizations. With the spread of traditional leadership, the concept of neuroleadership, which arises from the combination of disciplines such as neuroscience and neuroorganizational behavior and neuromanagement, has begun to attract the attention of more and more people day by day. Neuroleadership helps to better understand the human distribution of nerve cells and parts of the brain. In this context, examining neuroleadership practices of health support offers a new perspective in health care and provides contributions to management features. In this context the aim of the study is to examine the relationship between neuroleadership skills and leadership styles of healthcare managers and to reveal the impact of these skills in healthcare services. This study can be considered as a pioneering research examining the determination of neuroleadership characteristics of managers. For this purpose, a quantitative field research was conducted with 101 managers working at Mersin University Faculty of Medicine Hospital. Survey form; It consisted of demographic questions and the "Neuroleadership Scale" developed by Reinhardt (2014) and adapted into Turkish by Aktaş Ercan (2018). The scale has a total of 50 items prepared with a 5-point Likert-type rating and aims to measure 5 sub-dimensions: "status", "clarity", "autonomy", relationality" and "justice". Data was collected from the participants using the face-to-face survey method and analyzed using the statistical program. The research yielded remarkable results. As a result of the findings, it was observed that healthcare managers have high neuroleadership characteristics. It was determined that the neuroleadership characteristics of the participants did not differ significantly according to demographic characteristics such as gender, age, marital status and education. Additionally, it was determined that the participants showed a significant difference in the "Status" sub-dimension of neuroleadership depending on the length of service in the institution. The fact that the research covers managers in the healthcare sector makes the study even more important. There are many advantages to using neuroleadership as an effective management strategy and style in healthcare. First, thanks to neuroleadership, leaders better understand the emotional and mental states of their employees and can provide them with appropriate support. This is of great importance, especially for those working in busy and stressful health services. Employees feel more peaceful and motivated in the work environment, thanks to the empathetic approach of their managers. This is an important factor that increases the overall quality of health services.