Influence of leadership skills on effectiveness of departmental leadership in Mogotio Sub County hospitals in Kenya

Previous work in Kenyan public hospitals has revealed leadership gaps and poor communication between senior administration and lower cadres as an impediment to achieving better practice. Management training for senior health professionals has been recognized as a priority and is now being provided. The research study explored the influence of leadership skills on effective departmental leadership in Mogotio Sub County. The study used descriptive designs and targeted 32 hospitals consisting of 185 managerial staff in Mogotio Sub County. The stratified random sampling method was used to generate a sample of 126 respondents. Data was collected from this sample using questionnaires and analyzed descriptively and inferentially with the use of SPSS version 24. The correlation analysis determined there is a positive and statistically significant association between leadership skills and effective departmental leadership (r=756, p=.000). This verdict was reinforced by the linear regression results (?=.286, p=.001). The study concludes that leadership skill greatly helps improve effective departmental leadership in the public health sector. The study recommends that hospitals ought to emphasize mentoring leaders in the clinical setup in order to improve the effectiveness of leadership at the departmental level. There is a need to inculcate leadership training into the hospitals’ culture.