Content area
Full text
Introduction
In the 21st century, leading and managing modern health-care organizations toward sustainability has become a strategic requirement. At the macro level, sustainable healthcare has been a growing trend and interest worldwide, and has become a major concern for all nations. In 2015, the United Nations (UN) declared the importance of sustainable healthcare within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly under SDG 3 toward good health and wellbeing. The UN has emphasized the significance of sustainable development in health systems, funding, medical research and in the pharmaceutical industry (United Nations, 2017). WHO South-East Asia Advisory Committee on Health Research (SEA-ACHR) also promotes sustainable development in healthcare (United Nations, 2017). To respond to this call and advance our limited knowledge in this realm, our paper examines what we can do to move health-care organizations toward sustainability.
The health-care sector has become a major contributor to economic growth and is one of the world’s fastest-growing and largest industries (Henry, 2006). It accounts for more than 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) in most developed countries and projected for a faster growth in developing nations (Henry, 2006; Rana et al., 2021), which have played a significant role as key enablers of rapid growth. As a leading medical hub in Asia, the emerging economy of Thailand demonstrates this growth. The health-care industry has thus been a top priority for Thailand. And, the pharmaceutical industry has become the major driver of growth for the whole health-care system (Khanna, 2017). Thailand had experienced dramatic growth in the import value of pharmaceuticals from $1.8 billion in 2014 to more than $2.2 billion in 2016 (Luangpirom, 2016). However, this growth has attracted intense competition from international players and local drug producers. Also, many pharmaceutical companies have struggled with lower profits and even losses (Khanna, 2017). This has led many companies to rethink their leadership, management and strategy, such as workforce restructuring and layoffs. There are negative effects on managerial effectiveness, organizational performance and sustainable growth.
Despite the growing trend toward sustainability in health-care and the pharmaceutical industry, today’s health-care leadership and management practices are also changing at the organizational level. In the recent literature, leadership is highlighted as a strategic element for organizational effectiveness and development in this industry (e.g. Brown, 2020;...