Abstract
Globalization trends have made patients worldwide more aware of quality healthcare. As everyone has equal rights to the same quality of health care, several countries have attempted to  provide and finance universal health coverage. There is a need for re-structuring and re-engineering of health care system in Pakistan to enjoy strategic competitiveness at global level. In healthcare system, a strategic framework of leadership enforce an attempt to systematize and structure a robust and accessible healthcare services. In the light of the fact the need to  determine the problems/gaps reaching the minimum acceptable efficiency of healthcare system, the study made specific investigations. It identifies the importance of various domains of the  strategic leadership framework for healthcare services, suggested by the world health organization (WHO). The study focuses on the top level management of public hospitals in Peshawar  examined the prevailing practices and approaches of strategic leadership in managing health care services. The population for the study purposely confined to respondents from public sector  hospitals of Pakistan located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. From the selected hospitals, the top level management is randomly selected, sample size (N=150), both male and female,  age groups range (1=28-35 years, 2=36-43 years, 3=44-51 years, and 4= 52+ years), having designation of Directors, Chairmen, Medical Superintendents(MS),Deputy Superintendents (DMS),  Chief Executives etc. The investigation is made using a modified leadership framework prescribed by WHO for the top level managers of the Hospitals in Peshawar. The Cronbach Alpha for the reliability of the instrument is calculated (α= 0.891) indicates strong internal consistency, hence an overall reliable scale. The results show that domains of strategic leadership have significant  influence on the performance of managers providing quality healthcare services. The unidirectional analysis using regression is made to check the role of related domains of leadership on  one major domain called Managing Services.  Creating vision is proved as highly influencing domain followed by ability of working with others means that if top management got the  competencies of creating effective vision and involving others as team, the hospital services can be managed effectively and efficiently leading to enhanced quality. The study recommend  strategic leaders of the hospitals to effectively frame, develop, implement and implant the strategy that place patient care as the core services that helps them to align the strategy with  healthcare system requirements.
Keywords: strategic leadership, quality healthcare services, competitiveness