Commitment to Change In Pharmacy Schools: Does Leadership Matter?

Abstract

The challenges of achieving the new vision in pharmacy education have been cited as an important reason for advocating transformational leadership as the kind of educational leadership that is required to assist the pharmacy profession in creating a patient centered practice. Based upon Bass’s transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire model of leadership, change leader behaviors and follower involvement in the change were hypothesized to determine followers’ commitment to organizational change and commitment outcomes. A total of 190 faculty members in 24 US pharmacy schools undergoing substantive changes participated in this study. Results from structural equation modeling analysis revealed that faculty members’ recognition of the value of the change (affective commitment) and their sense of duty in supporting the change (normative commitment) were best predicted by their level of involvement in the change (participation in decision making, communication, and freedom to express doubts), rather than by the transformational behaviors of the change leader. Transactional contingent reward behaviors strongly predicted change involvement, and indirectly predicted affective and normative commitments. In addition, affective commitment was diminished by avoidant behaviors of the change leader (failure to intervene when problems become serious), and normative commitment was diminished by the leader’s active management by exception behaviors (monitoring subordinates’ failures). Faculty members’ behavioral support of the change had strong positive associations with both their affective and normative commitments. Implications of these results for research and practice are also discussed.