Cultural Differences in Leadership Styles of Pharmacist Preceptors

Abstract

Pharmacists often work in teams and care for patients from a variety of cultures. Pharmacists may have a formal or informal leadership role within the work team. This study allowed a group of pharmacists with responsibility as preceptors for students to assess their own leadership style. This knowledge could be used to increase the cultural competence of pharmacists and improve their leadership effectiveness. A total of 131 pharmacy preceptor responses were received of which about half were from females and half from males. The results of this study found that mean leadership style did vary significantly based upon several attributes. We found that the majority of pharmacist preceptors surveyed have a selling style of leadership, similar to two previous surveys of pharmacy leadership styles. Multilingual preceptors, especially those in management roles, will tend to have higher task expectations than most of the staff and students they interact with on a daily basis. Implications and limitations are also discussed.