Traditional notions of leadership involve more centralized power at the senior
levels, with the expectation that vision and strategy will trickle down to operational levels.
This type of leadership may work well in smaller organizations, but the complexity of
integrated health models involving large inter-organizational networks may challenge this
notion of leadership. To date, the evidence on how traditional centralized leadership impacts
the implementation and functioning of integrated care networks is unclear. There is a need to
understand different forms of leadership within and across organizations that are involved in
integrated care networks.