MEASURING EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAMING DYNAMICS FOR LEADING LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

In 2007 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) embarked on a transformational journey to distinguish Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as a “learning organization” to enhance organizational performance, employee engagement, and overall quality and safety for patients, in the context of team-based care and services (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2013). In response, the VHA’s National Center for Organization Development developed the Executive Team Assessment (ETA) to evaluate executive leadership teaming behaviors that aligned with learning organization principles. The aims of this article were (a) to confirm the psychometric properties of the revised ETA tool (recently administered to 139 teams across VHA) and (b) to explore associations between ETA scores and relevant responses from senior leader direct reports as measured by the annual VA All Employee Survey. We hypothesized that higher favorable ETA scores would have positive correlations with constructs measuring direct reports’ engagement, learning environment, and healthy workplace. We found that the ETA evidences a strong three-factor model measuring elements of Relationships, Foundations, and Functions. All three factors were significantly related to perceptions of employee engagement, favorable observations of senior leaders, and job satisfaction among senior leader direct reports. In addition, the Functions factor was also significantly related to perceptions of psychological safety and learning (i.e., Safe Learning Environment) and support from leaders who set managers up for success (i.e., Supporting High Performance). Consulting implications are provided.

Duke Scholars

Author Mira Brancu Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychia ...