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Fostering the healthcare workforce during the COVID ‐19 pandemic: Shared leadership, social capital, and contagion among health professionals
Author(s) -
SalasVallina Andrés,
FerrerFranco Anna,
Herrera Justo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.3035
Subject(s) - social capital , workforce , emotional contagion , health care , business , public relations , pandemic , covid-19 , human capital , psychology , demographic economics , social psychology , political science , disease , economics , medicine , economic growth , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
Summary Health professionals managing patients with COVID‐19 disease are at high risk of contagion. All medical personnel involved in caring for patients need coordination, knowledge and trust. Empirical work on human resources has tended to focus on the effects of human resource practices on performance, whereas leadership and social interactions have been overlooked. Based upon interviews with medical staff working in specialised medical units, this study uses the social capital theory to examine relationships among shared leadership, social capital, and contagion rates. First, shared leadership was found to positively affect COVID‐19 contagion among health professionals. Second, by sharing information and a common language, and showing high levels of trust, namely social capital, medical units seem to reduce contagion rates of COVID‐19. In other words, shared leadership plays a fundamental role in improving performance in healthcare by means of social capital.