Developing collective leadership for health care

This paper from The King’s Fund in the UK argues that collective leadership – as opposed to command-and-control structures – provides the optimum basis for caring cultures. Collective leadership means everyone taking responsibility for the success of the organisation as a whole – not just for their own jobs or area. This contrasts with traditional approaches focused on developing individual capability.  It also implies that all staff welcome feedback, and treat complaints and errors as opportunities for learning.  There should be collective openness to and learning from errors, near misses and incidents.

The interaction between collective leadership and cultures that value compassionate care are explained by drawing on wider literature and case studies of good organisational practice. The main characteristics of a collective leadership strategy and the way to develop it are outlined.