Governance, Leadership and Culture
Published: 13 October 2022
Published: 13 October 2022
Governance, leadership and culture drive the way a facility is managed and experienced by both staff and consumers. The effects of governance and leadership trickle from the top down and affect every aspect of an organisation, ultimately determining its overall culture.
Governance, leadership and culture relate to the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards: Standard 1 Clinical Governance, in which:
‘Leaders of a health service organisation have a responsibility to the community for continuous improvement of the safety and quality of their services, and ensuring that they are person centred, safe and effective.’
(ACSQHC 2021)
Governance, in this context, is defined as the way organisations are managed at the highest level. Governance is not only about control and management but also relates to the specific systems and mechanisms that hold it to account (Cambridge Dictionary n.d.a; Governance Institute of Australia 2019).
Leadership is defined as both the position or fact of being the leader, and a set of characteristics that make a good leader (Cambridge Dictionary n.d.b). This definition makes clear that leadership is not just purely based on rank, but something that is a practised skill.
The culture of an organisation is its character and atmosphere. Culture is a combination of an organisation’s values, attitudes, traditions, beliefs, interactions and behaviours, on both a visible and intrinsic level (ERC 2019).
Improving the safety and quality of healthcare for patients should be the focus of all aspects of governance, leadership and culture. Those in leadership positions are required to develop and use clinical governance systems to achieve this aim.
Broadly speaking, an organisation’s governance, leadership and culture can be measured by:
(Business Dictionary, as cited in Clark 2016)
The governing body of an organisation should create a culture of safety and quality improvement in partnership with patients, carers and consumers. Priorities and strategic directions for safe and high-quality healthcare should be communicated (ACSQHC 2021).
There is ample research to link high-quality clinical governance to health service performance and outcomes (ACSQHC 2021; Bismark et al. 2014).
Beyond what has been mentioned in this section, the NSQHS Standards recommend that through leadership, governance and culture, organisations should:
(ACSQHC 2021)
Question 1 of 3
True or false: Staff commitment to an organisation’s goals says a lot about the culture of an organisation.