Table 2 Summary of findings (Nvivo Coding)

QI Expertise

 Experience of QI in healthcare

35/36

18/20

  Implementing QI initiatives before

15/36

19/20

  Understand healthcare operations

30/36

20/20

  Understand healthcare issues

34/36

18/20

   Care is the core value

35/36

16/20

 Experience in QI (outside healthcare)

10/36

19/20

  Qualifications in QI/operations management

11/36

20/20

   Process engineering

5/36

20/20

   Six Sigma certifications

5/36

18/20

  Implementing QI initiatives before

9/36

19/20

  Root cause problem solving experience

21/36

20/20

Leadership Competencies

 Sensegiving

22/36

20/20

  Encourage people to adopt QI philosophy

20/36

20/20

  Shows the positives of QI

22/36

20/20

  Link QI objectives to personal values (care)

12/36

18/20

 Long-Term Thinking

21/36

20/20

  Long-term view

18/36

20/20

  Explore unintended consequences of initiatives

10/36

18/20

  Reward power

18/36

19/20

 Motivation

25/36

18/20

  Understand what motivates people

25/36

17/20

  Be creative with incentives

10/36

18/20

  Non-monetary incentives

15/36

15/20

 Systems Thinking

15/36

19/20

  Not part of a single department/division

12/36

19/20

  Understand the needs of the complete organisation

14/36

18/20

  Systems understanding

9/36

20/20

  Link organisational silos and erase them

16/36

20/20

Interpersonal Competencies

 Approachability

20/36

18/20

  Respects different opinions and views

27/36

17/20

  Minimum power distance

22/36

15/20

  Easy to talk to

20/36

16/20

 Supportive

29/36

20/20

  Coach others

15/36

20/20

  Supports QI initiatives everywhere

8/36

20/20

 Trustworthy

25/36

17/20

  High trust among QIMs and frontline staff

24/36

17/20

  Frontline staff sees them as ‘insider’, not ‘outsider’

18/36

20/20