How are different leadership behaviours perceived and enacted in emergency medical departments in Saudi Arabian public hospitals?

Leadership behaviours play a key role in achieving organisational success. Leadership is commonly perceived as a world-wide concept throughout different countries; however, the way in which it is conceptualised and operationalised is viewed as culturally specific. Existing leadership research often overlooks the impact of context (Bryman et al. 1996; Denise and Yitzhak 2001; Osborn et al. 2002) and culture (Hofstede 2001; House et al. 2004) on leadership and its effectiveness. Leadership research is mainly the product of models and constructions developed in Western cultures, while little is understood about leadership in other cultures (Tsui 2004). Dickson et al. (2012) argue that most leadership models have a North-American bias, an orientation which has caused many academics to recognise the importance of investigating leadership approaches and characteristics in non-Western contexts. The current research aims to identify, characterise and explain the dynamics of leadership behaviours as these are understood and operationalised by the managers of hospital emergency departments in Saudi Arabia. A constructionist research philosophy is adopted in this research. This study employs qualitative research methods to investigate the leadership behaviours used by managers in hospital-based emergency departments. The research employed a purposive sampling method to recruit participants from five hospital emergency departments located in three urban cities in Saudi Arabia. A total of 30 participants were recruited for the study between May and September, 2015; data were gathered via semi-structured interviews. The participants were 15 managers and 15 medical staff. Managers included the heads of emergency departments, their deputies and head nurses. Medical staff included physicians and nursing staff. Data were analysed using thematic analysis techniques. The findings which emerge from this study are grounded in the data. The themes explored were: a) rewarding leadership, b) responsive leadership, c) role-modelling, d) democratic leadership, e) staff-development leadership, f) recognition leadership, g) supportive leadership, h) lenient leadership and i) strict leadership. Managers use these leadership behaviours to address several contextual factors in emergency departments, including pressure, stress, over-crowding, staff related conflicts, staff-patient-related conflicts, responding to unexpected situations and disciplining staff members who make mistakes that might harm staff or patients. It was found that these different leadership behaviours are mainly influenced by the context of the emergency department and the culture of Saudi Arabia, based on Islamic religion and social norms