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Ahmed Al Ansari, Ph.D. is a 2022 graduate of the PHD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.

Ahmed Al Ansari at his Dissertation Defense.

From L-R: Dr. Elizabeth Holloway, Committee Chair, Dr. Beth Mabry, Committee Member, Dr. Reginald Sequeira, Committee Member.

Dissertation Committee

  • Elizabeth Holloway, Ph.D., Committee Chair
  • Beth Mabry, Ph.D., Committee Member
  • Reginald Sequeira, Ph.D., Committee Member

Keywords

leadership, managerial competency, medical education, health care, management, middle management, lower management, scale development, middle managers

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the Kingdom of Bahrain (KB) are currently in the process of the rapid transformation of health care to a self-sustained autonomous system. Middle managers play a pivotal role in achieving this goal. The aim of this study is to develop a feasible, reliable, and valid scale for measuring the leadership and managerial competencies of MM in KSA and KB. Zhou’s (2019) conceptual framework using a mixed-method approach was followed. After procuring ethical clearance from concerned authorities and informed consent from all the participants (n = 27), semi-structured interviews were conducted across three groups: Top Management (TM), Middle Management comprising of Middle Managers (MM), and Lower Management (LM) for the creation of items for the scale, which were later approved by five experts. Two hundred two participants from medical education (ME) and health care (HC) responded to the new scale. Cronbach's alpha and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to confirm internal consistency and validity. The model fit was adequate with a good GFI (0.90), TLI (0.96), and RMSEA (0.06). Seven major themes emerged from the thematic analysis, while a structural model with three inter-related constructs—“professionalism and problem solving,” “team management and adaptation,” and “time management and expertise” were recognized based on factor analysis. Both TM and LM identified the ability to motivate (70.8%) as comprising one of the most significant characteristics of MM. TM also indicated that concern and consideration of subordinates (68.8%) were important. LM considered being active (71.6%) as important for MM. Interestingly, MM had scored these attributes lower, illustrating the different ways in which MM is perceived across the three levels of management. Importantly, MM acknowledged concern for employee well-being, relationship, communication, and being active as crucial competencies, representing a mix of all competencies identified by the three levels of management. The “Leadership and Managerial Competency Scale for Middle Managers in Gulf Region (LMCS-MM Gulf Region)” developed under this study reflects what people in the three levels of management (lower, middle, and top) across ME and HC value in a (hypothetical) middle manager. This scale has several implications for the selection, training, and appraisal of MM in ME and HC. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Comments

Ahmed Al Ansari

ORCID Scholar ID #: #0000-0001-7229-2960

Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Al Ansari

CEO of Government Hospitals

Kingdom of Bahrain

MBBCh, MRCSI, MHPE, MLC, PhD

Experience

• Dr. Al Ansari serves as CEO of Government Hospitals since December 2020

• He was the Director of Training and Planning at the Supreme Council of Health from 2019 till 2020

• He was appointed as Director of Government Hospitals’ Autonomy Project and Acting Director of Training at the Ministry of Health in 2019

• He acquired the position of Honorary Associate Professor in Medical Education from the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI), Dublin in 2019, and is currently an Associate Professor of General Surgery and Medical Education in Arabian Gulf University

• He was an adviser for the Medical Education Department at King Fahad Medical City, Saudi Arabia in 2016, and a consultant for the Medical Education Department at Prince Sattam Bin AbdulAziz University from 2014 to 2018

Education

• He obtained a PhD in Leadership and Change in the Healthcare Sector from Antioch University in 2021.

• He obtained his Master’s degree in Leadership and Change in the Healthcare Sector from Antioch University in 2019.

• He obtained a PhD in Medical Education from University of Ambrosiana, in collaboration with University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 2013.

• He obtained his Fellowship in Cardiac Surgery from Maastricht, Netherlands in 2009 and obtained a Master’s degree in Health Profession Education from the same University in 2010.

• He obtained his Membership in General Surgery from RCSI, Dublin in 2004.

Research

• He is a reviewer in several international journals and the Associate Editor for the Canadian Medical Education Journal CMAJ from 2012 till 2016. He is currently a Member of Editorial Board for the World Journal of Emergency Surgery.

• He has published over 48 papers in respectable peer-review journals such as Academic Medicine, Professional Psychology, Advances in Health Science Education, BMC Medical Education, and the Journal of Surgical Education.

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