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Leadership in Collaborative Community Health Partnerships
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ARTICLE | PLeadership in Collaborative Community Health Partnerships

Collaborative Leadership, Articles

This article examines key leadership issues in community health partnerships. We assert that leadership in a partnership is differentiated from that in a traditional, hierarchical organization in that participation is voluntary and egalitarian and often entails cooperation by organizations with different cultures and agendas. Partnership leaders, accordingly, often lack formal control over members and their actions. Using qualitative analysis of 115 site visit interviews of participants in four partnerships in the Community Care Networks demonstration program, we identify and discuss five themes of collaborative leadership: systems thinking, vision-based leadership, collateral leadership, power sharing, and process-based leadership. We then discuss the multiple challenges that collaborative leadership faces in a community health partnership.

Jeffrey A. Alexander, Maureen E. Comfort, Bryan J. Weiner & Richard Bogue

By Jeffrey A. Alexander, Maureen E. Comfort, Bryan J. Weiner & Richard Bogue

JEFFREY A. ALEXANDER is Richard Carl Jelinek Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health, University of Michigan; faculty associate at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research; and research scientist at the VA Health Services Research and Development Center. MAUREEN E. COMFORT is a doctoral candidate in health services organi- zation and policy at the University of Michigan. BRYAN J. WEINER is assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. RICHARD BOGUE taught communication and health policy at universities in the United States and Mexico and led many programs on community- responsive health system improvement for the American Hospital Association; he now consults with governing boards and community partnerships to evaluate and improve their performance.

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