Harris Jenine K, Carothers Bobbi J, Wald Lana M, Shelton Sarah C, Leischow Scott J
George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, MO, USA.
University of Arizona Cancer Center , Tucson, AZ, USA.
J Public Health Res. 2012 Feb 14;1(1):67-74. doi: 10.4081/jphr.2012.e12. eCollection 2012 Feb 17.
In public health, interpersonal influence has been identified as an important factor in the spread of health information, and in understanding and changing health behaviors. However, little is known about influence in public health leadership. Influence is important in leadership settings, where public health professionals contribute to national policy and practice agendas. Drawing on social theory and recent advances in statistical network modeling, we examined influence in a network of tobacco control leaders at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Fifty-four tobacco control leaders across all 11 agencies in the DHHS were identified; 49 (91%) responded to a web-based survey. Participants were asked about communication with other tobacco control leaders, who influenced their work, and general job characteristics. Exponential random graph modeling was used to develop a network model of influence accounting for characteristics of individuals, their relationships, and global network structures.
Higher job ranks, more experience in tobacco control, and more time devoted to tobacco control each week increased the likelihood of influence nomination, as did more frequent communication between network members. Being in the same agency and working the same number of hours per week were positively associated with mutual influence nominations. Controlling for these characteristics, the network also exhibited patterns associated with influential clusters of network members.
Findings from this unique study provide a perspective on influence within a government agency that both helps to understand decision-making and also can serve to inform organizational efforts that allow for more effective structuring of leadership.
在公共卫生领域，人际影响已被视为健康信息传播、理解和改变健康行为的一个重要因素。然而，对于公共卫生领导力方面的影响却知之甚少。在公共卫生专业人员为国家政策和实践议程做出贡献的领导环境中，影响至关重要。借鉴社会理论和统计网络建模的最新进展，我们研究了美国卫生与公众服务部（DHHS）烟草控制领导者网络中的影响。
确定了DHHS所有11个机构中的54位烟草控制领导者；49位（91%）回复了基于网络的调查。参与者被问及与其他烟草控制领导者的沟通情况、谁影响了他们的工作以及一般工作特征。使用指数随机图模型来开发一个影响网络模型，该模型考虑了个体特征、他们的关系以及全球网络结构。
较高的职位级别、更多的烟草控制经验以及每周投入到烟草控制的时间增加了被提名有影响力的可能性，网络成员之间更频繁的沟通也是如此。在同一个机构以及每周工作时长相同与相互提名有影响力呈正相关。在控制这些特征后，该网络还呈现出与有影响力的网络成员集群相关的模式。
这项独特研究的结果提供了一个关于政府机构内部影响的视角，这既有助于理解决策制定，也可为组织工作提供参考，从而实现更有效的领导力结构安排。
