Original article
Impact of Organizational Leadership on Physician Burnout and Satisfaction

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.01.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the impact of organizational leadership on the professional satisfaction and burnout of individual physicians working for a large health care organization.

Participants and Methods

We surveyed physicians and scientists working for a large health care organization in October 2013. Validated tools were used to assess burnout. Physicians also rated the leadership qualities of their immediate supervisor in 12 specific dimensions on a 5-point Likert scale. All supervisors were themselves physicians/scientists. A composite leadership score was calculated by summing scores for the 12 individual items (range, 12-60; higher scores indicate more effective leadership).

Results

Of the 3896 physicians surveyed, 2813 (72.2%) responded. Supervisor scores in each of the 12 leadership dimensions and composite leadership score strongly correlated with the burnout and satisfaction scores of individual physicians (all P<.001). On multivariate analysis adjusting for age, sex, duration of employment at Mayo Clinic, and specialty, each 1-point increase in composite leadership score was associated with a 3.3% decrease in the likelihood of burnout (P<.001) and a 9.0% increase in the likelihood of satisfaction (P<.001) of the physicians supervised. The mean composite leadership rating of each division/department chair (n=128) also correlated with the prevalence of burnout (correlation=–0.330; r2=0.11; P<.001) and satisfaction (correlation=0.684; r2=0.47; P<.001) at the division/department level.

Conclusion

The leadership qualities of physician supervisors appear to impact the well-being and satisfaction of individual physicians working in health care organizations. These findings have important implications for the selection and training of physician leaders and provide new insights into organizational factors that affect physician well-being.

Section snippets

Participants

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit, physician-led health care organization with 3 large academic campuses (Rochester, Minnesota; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Jacksonville, Florida) and an integrated group of community-based hospitals and health care facilities serving more than 70 communities in Iowa, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. As part of its efforts to foster a cohesive organization, Mayo Clinic surveys its physicians, scientists, allied health staff, and all other employees approximately every 24

Results

Of the 3896 physicians/scientists surveyed, 2813 (72.2%) responded (2684 physicians and 129 scientists), of whom 2540 (90.3%) were engaged in direct patient care activities. The demographic characteristics, professional characteristics, rates of burnout, and satisfaction of responders are shown in Table 2. The median age was 45 to 54 years, 71% were men, and half had been in practice for more than 10 years. No statistically significant differences were observed between responders and

Discussion

These findings demonstrate the importance of frontline leadership on the well-being and professional satisfaction of physicians working for a large health care organization. Leadership ratings demonstrated a strong association with burnout and satisfaction at the level of individual physicians after adjusting for age, sex, duration of employment at Mayo Clinic, and specialty area. At the work unit level, 11% of the variation in burnout and 47% of the variation in satisfaction with the

Conclusion

The leadership qualities of physician supervisors have a direct effect on the personal well-being of the physicians they lead. These findings have important implications for the selection and training of physician leaders. The results also provide new insights into organizational factors that impact physician well-being.

Acknowledgments

We thank Michelle Mungo for her administrative support related to this analysis.

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    For editorial comment, See page 425

    Grant Support: Funding for this study was provided by the Mayo Clinic Office of Organization and Leadership Development and the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine Program on Physician Well-being.

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