Physicians as leaders: a systematic review through the lens of expert leadership

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the current state of physician leadership. Theory of expert leadership (TEL) was applied to explore the effects of physician inherent knowledge, industry experience and leadership capabilities on leader behaviors and outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

This review (August 2011–February 2022) applied the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis strategy. Our search began with 3,537 studies and a final sample of 12 articles.

Findings

The findings offer a number of studies that note the relationship between physician leadership and the three dimensions of TEL. How influential these are on leadership behaviors and health-related outcomes varies. We also found a number of studies that described general physician leadership behaviors that were not directly linked to factors of TEL, as well as two additional themes: leader identity and trust.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review that has applied a highly cited theory (i.e. TEL) to the data and the first that has focused solely on a U.S. population. These findings offer healthcare organizations insight into the potential strengths and challenges of physician leadership.

Citation

Thoebes, G.P., Porter, T.H. and Peck, J.A. (2024), "Physicians as leaders: a systematic review through the lens of expert leadership", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 95-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-02-2023-0008