title: Leading an empowered organization (LEO): does it work?
abstract: Leading an empowered organization (LEO) is a three-day course that has been delivered to over 40,000 front-line managers in the NHS, among them many district nurses. The aim of this review was to identify and assess all published literature about LEO; to critically appraise such evidence relating to the impact of LEO on participants' leadership behaviour and to critically appraise any evidence of the need for follow-up activities to sustain participants learning. Because of the limited quantity and quality of research literature (n = 6) it was considered legitimate to also include discussion papers (n = 2) and descriptive papers (n = 4) in the review. All papers are reviewed using a framework devised by the author broadly based on the critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research (Greenhalgh and Donald, 2000). From the available evidence it can be concluded that the LEO programme does have a positive impact on the leadership behaviour of participants, and that follow-up activities are valuable to consolidate and sustain participants' learning.
authors.affiliation: St Mary's NHS Trust (joint appointment with Thames Valley University). kathryn.jones@st-marys.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010559:Personnel Management; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom