Power and Physician Leadership

What is it about?

This paper adds to the literature on power and leadership by physicians by incorporating structuralist, feminist and Foucauldian perspectives on power and providing a framework for integrating and reconciling power with leadership theories. This topic is relevant in view of the increasing roles for physicians as formal leaders in healthcare, the expectation of resource stewardship by all physicians, complex power dynamics in interprofessional education and healthcare and the role of leaders in physician well-being with its implications for patient care. It describes the current status and propositions for the use of power (inappropriate and appropriate use of power, avoiding abuse of power and holding physician leaders accountable) at personal, interpersonal and organizational levels.

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Why is it important?

With increasing leadership by physicians in healthcare, there are a number of issues that implore us to explicitly discuss power in relation to leadership.

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