Adopting Transformational Transactional and Action centered Leadership styles

The Major Leadership Ideas/Theories
Various theories exist to explain the practice and concept of leadership. This section offers a brief overview of the better known or most dominant theories. They include the trait, situational, participative and behavioral leadership theories. The trait assumes that a person is born either with or without certain qualities which predispose them to success in leadership (Dolan & Holt, 2013). Therefore, people inherit certain traits such as cognitive ability and personality which make them effective leaders. The most constantly cited key qualities of a leader include determination, sociability, and intelligence.
The situational theory postulates that different situations call for different leadership approaches. Therefore, an effective leader must have the ability to adjust or adapt the leadership approach to the prevailing circumstances. Further, the basic factors that determine how one should adjust the style are the followers’ commitment and competence levels. Based on the factors, the leader decides whether to adopt a supportive or directive approach.
The participative approach suggests that the leader must consider other people’s input. This leadership style insists on the contributions and participation of team members thus it helps to make followers feel more relevant and committed to the leader. However, in this style, the leader holds the right to allow others’ input (Downe et al., 2011).
Behavioral approach is based on the premise that successful leaders are made and not born. With its roots in behaviorism, this style concentrates on the leader’s actions rather than on the internal states or mental qualities. Overall, one can simply become a leader through observation and teaching.
The Current State of Leadership at Your Organization
In my organization, people have different strategies for approaching their teams. Therefore, transformational, transactional, and action-centered are the most dominant leadership theories (Downe et al., 2011). Some of the people practicing transformational styles are the chief executives, medical officers, nurses and department managers. The leadership style practiced by these individuals is essential to achieving the desired higher levels of patient safety. Nevertheless, if the facility depends solely on the traditional, transactional style, such higher levels of patient safety are likely to be difficult to achieve. For this reason, the facility also uses transactional leadership approach.
For instance, individual nurses desired a great variation in the number of hours they wished to work on a weekly or 24-hour basis. They tried to secure their dedication to the facility by accommodating all such requests. They did so despite knowing or having the evidence that such extended work hours could be not only harmful to patient safety but also unsuccessful and time-consuming. This demonstrates the presence of transactional leadership. In the context of transformational style, the leader would engage the involved employees in a discussion about worker fatigue and patient safety and together. During this discussion, they would come up with work scheduling and work hour policies to prioritize patient safety while responding to employees’ scheduling needs within this construct. It would not only spark a transformational impact on the staff but also on the management because it would involve knowledge sharing (Downe et al. 2011).
The third theory practiced at the healthcare facility is action-oriented leadership. Under this style, the leader takes active action and leads by example (Downe et al. 2011). Such a person has a strong sense of immediacy, concentrates on tasks and sees the tasks through fruition. In this case, the action-oriented leader is the prime achiever hence other employees in the facility believe that their roles support the action-oriented leader (Dolan & Holt, 2013). At my organization, such leaders include the surgeons or the nursing supervisor who leads other nurses when delivering babies. For instance, in a delivery team, the head nurse leads the operation and does the main task while being supported by the rest of the nurses. The junior nurses help comfort the patient so that the head nurse can deliver the baby safely. Still, the work of the rest of the team is to prepare the delivery room and do other post-delivery tasks; as it can be seen, their work is focused on supporting the job of the head nurse.
What Type Of Leadership Theory Should Your Organization Embrace And Why?
In my organization, those involved in our care delivery system (doctors, nurses, patients, family members and others) play interdependent roles. Every day, we see problems arise which do not have singular or easy remedies. In such an organization, leaders who simply issue directions and think that others will follow may not succeed. Therefore, a leadership approach which encourages people working together as full partners in a context of collaboration and mutual respect is needed. In fact, the traditional leadership approaches characterized by top-down management are shifting towards a collaborative approach which blurs the line between the leader and the follower. A collaborative style means that the leader must take an open approach at work (Downe et al. 2011).
This new approach to leadership will flow in all directions at all levels. Everyone from the physician to the bedside nurses to nurse supervisor to the patient must engage with other subordinates to achieve common goals (Barr & Dowding, 2016). The entire team, including the patient and family members, must break the walls of hierarchical silos and work together to reduce preventable medical errors and adverse events.
The collaborative approach is beneficial because it enhances patient outcomes, reduces nurse turnover, and reduces medical errors especially during delivery (Downe et al., 2011). Moreover, it may eliminate the problem of disruptive behavior commonly observed at the healthcare facility (Barr & Dowding, 2016). Although the benefits of a collaborative leadership approach have repeatedly been documented concerning improved patient outcomes and retention among nurses, collaboration among the inter-professionals is frequently not the norm in the field of healthcare. Therefore, it may not be easy for the organization to change this long-standing culture.


References
Barr, J., & Dowding, L. (2016). Leadership in health care. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Dolan, B., & Holt, L. (2013). Accident & Emergency: Theory into practice. Edinburgh: Baillie?re Tindall Elsevier.
Downe, S., Byrom, S., & Simpson, L. (2011). Essential midwifery practice: Leadership, expertise, and collaborative working. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell.