In Search of Capable Health Managers: what is distinctive about health management and why does it matter?

There is no widespread agreement as to a definitive way to describe, let alone define the health manager's role and required capabilities. This is despite the fact that they have unique roles and are engaged in complex, professionally dominated, politically driven systems experiencing constant change. The role is highly variable and management roles, given this variability, cannot be easily described or codified. Attempts at codifying the role are often focused on competencies required but this article argues that capabilities of the health management role have a higher order of importance in defining and codifying the role. In the focus on capabilities, the context of health systems, its complexity, the uniqueness of the health management role and its distinguishing characteristics are described. The potential for focusing on the utility of capability frameworks is addressed as a means to suggest challenges the authors describe, as being required to be debated if we are to advance the education, training and professional development of health service managers in their leadership roles. The authors leave the reader with some challenging practicebased research questions and invite their responses.