Hazlina Hassan^1♣, Amrizah Kamaluddin², Norman Mohd Saleh³ and Noradiva Hamzah³

¹Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

²Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

³Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

 

ABSTRACT

Healthcare services have emerged as one of the most essential factors in a country's economic growth. The purpose of this study was to provide more insights into why some hospitals do better than others by investigating the influence of leadership styles and the role of knowledge assets handled by hospital top management teams. A mixed method was formed by combining a cross-case research approach with a questionnaire survey. The qualitative technique was used by five private hospitals, and the questionnaire survey was completed by the top management teams in 164 hospitals. The cross-case study research demonstrated that the hospital industry's knowledge assets are extremely unique, particularly in human capital and relational capital. Surprisingly, the survey discovered that physicians are not often direct employees of hospitals. This results in a one-of-a-kind partnership between the hospital and the physicians. Specifically, this study discovered that knowledge assets only mediate the relationship between transactional and transformational leadership styles and hospital performance, but not passive avoidant leadership styles. The study makes a contribution by being one of the first to investigate, from an Upper Echelon viewpoint, the mediating role of knowledge assets in hospital practice in Malaysia, with the findings useful for hospital administration and regulators.

Keywords: “Leadership Styles”, “Knowledge Assets”, “Private Hospitals”, “Hospital Performance”, “Upper Echelon”

^♣Corresponding Author: Hazlina Hassan, Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Tel:+60355444964