title: Whither the elephant?: the continuing development of clinical leadership in the UK National Health Services.
abstract: The paper revisits the theme of clinical leadership in UK countries, following an earlier (2009) review. It examines the competency-based approach; considers the emerging voices of clinical leaders; explores the results of evaluation research studies; identifies learning from intra-UK and international comparisons and considers the issue of leader development versus leadership development. It concludes that there is little conceptual clarity; that there continues to be a major disconnect between clinicians and managers; that different approaches to developing clinical leaders are emerging in different parts of the UK and that the major challenge remains to develop leadership, rather than leaders.
authors.affiliation: University of Keele - Centre for Health Planning & Management, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK; MTDS Consultancy, Ripon, North Yorkshire, UK.
authors.forename: John Duncan
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Edmonstone
mesh_terms: D002322:Career Mobility; D006801:Humans; D011361:Professional Competence; D013192:Staff Development; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: clinical leadership; competences; evaluation research; international and UK comparisons; leader development and leadership development