An investigation into the impact of leadership tenure on organizational performance within the private healthcare sector in Zimbabwe: The Balanced Scorecard perspective

Abstract

The healthcare system in Zimbabwe has state organizations, local authority run services and the private sector with the Ministry of Health and Child Care having the overall control of the health services in the land. The private healthcare sector seeks to improve access, equity and efficiency of health delivery and this research study investigated the impact of leadership tenure on organizational performance in the sector. The survival and success of organizations is centred on its performance. Leadership tenure which is the time an individual has spent as a leader in the organization is an important aspect that determines organizational performance. The balanced scorecard has been used in this research as a performance measurement tool which meets the demands of the global and modern healthcare environment since it takes into account both financial and non-financial performance measures. The study made use of quantitative research methods to understand the phenomenon and the research instrument used was a questionnaire. The targeted population of the study comprised of the management (junior, senior and executives) within the private healthcare sector despite their professional background. 110 questionnaires were administered with 97 successfully completed representing an 88% response rate. In this study, it was evident that most organizations are now adopting both financial and non financial measures of performance. The results indicated that leadership tenure had a negative impact on organizational performance, a unit increase in tenure resulted in decrease in organizational performance. Using the Balanced Score Card model, leadership tenure was significantly correlated to customer satisfaction, learning and growth as well as internal business processes. It was also found that within the financial performance measures, leadership tenure was significantly correlated to productivity measures and not correlated to Return on Investment and CAMEL framework. The researcher then recommended that the leadership within the private healthcare sector should improve human capital by gaining knowledge, skills and abilities that enhances organizational performance during their tenure as leaders. Theoretical and practical implications of tenure on organizational performance, policy recommendations and future research in this subject area were also discussed.