KELeadership Evidence LabExecutive research dashboard

Executive research dashboard

The Tenure Fallacy in Healthcare Leadership

Why twenty years in one hospital is not proof of superior leadership

Kelly Emrick, DHSc, PhD, MBA, BSRT(ARRT)ROpen the board assessment
Healthcare executive walking through a hospital with clinical teams
5-8Years in the proposed renewal interval
2Evidence streams
6PLEI domains
7Research propositions

Primary finding

Tenure is context. Evidence earns the conclusion.

Purposeful movement approximately every five to eight years can widen scope, market knowledge, cultural fluency, adaptive experience, and the repeated testing of whether leadership performance travels.

The conclusion remains conditional. Mobility is not portability, and longevity is not stagnation. Both patterns require verified outcomes, contextual learning, trust formation, consequence ownership, and durable legacy.

Leadership is not a residence history. It is a pattern of reproducible outcomes.Author’s synthesis
Five-to-eight-year leadership advantage infographic
Source figure: cumulative exposure and renewed testing contribute to portable capability.
01

Tenure fallacy

Separate what years can show from what they cannot prove.

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02

Evidence

Explore the two-stream design and anchor studies.

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03

Portable leadership

Follow the path from career variety to verified value.

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04

PLEI assessment

Score the six proposed domains transparently.

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05

Board governance

Apply the five-step evidence test.

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06

Research agenda

Review seven propositions and the proposed study.

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07

References

Open the report evidence register and limitations.

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The Tenure Fallacy in Healthcare LeadershipSource-bound dashboard by Kelly Emrick, DHSc, PhD, MBA, BSRT(ARRT)R
Evidence and references →