Nursing leadership principles and practice

Nursing -- Leadership

Effective leadership is a prime determinant of work satisfaction. The presence of strong leadership sets the tone for achievement in the work environment. How do you think the work environment can be helped by a strong leader, and how do you think it can be hindered by a weak or ineffective leader?

Generally, one of the most important aspects of vocational leadership relates to the appropriateness of leadership style to the nature of the vocational environment, relationships, and responsibilities (Medley & LaRochelle, 1995). Various approaches to leadership have been compared in nursing, including the transactional, transformational, and management by exception styles, largely, because those are the predominant leadership and management styles in healthcare and other similar professions (Medley & LaRochelle, 1995).

Briefly, transactional leadership refers to the underlying concept that workers perform primarily for the purpose of the contractual transaction (i.e. work for monetary compensation) where their pay is substantially determined by their performance or by their promotion to higher-paying positions by virtue of superior performance in their current responsibilities (Medley & LaRochelle, 1995). Transformational leadership refers to the philosophical transformation in attitudes, perspective, and values in employees by virtue of the leadership of supervisors and/or predominant organizational culture. Finally, management by exception refers to a laissez-faire leadership style wherein only significantly superior and inferior performance generate supervisory attention while acceptable performance is largely ignored (Medley & LaRochelle, 1995). According to Medley & LaRochelle (1995), transformational leadership is significantly more likely to be associated with positive outcomes in terms of employee satisfaction and job performance measures in nursing. Those conclusions are consistent with my observations because nurses whose main concern is their paycheck and nurses who only receive feedback when their performance is significantly above or below expected standards tend to go on "auto-pilot" and to become somewhat disconnected with their work, often performing robotically. Conversely, nurses whose supervisors provide transformational leadership tend to buy-in to a deeper philosophical meaning to their responsibilities and to approach their work more enthusiastically and conscientiously because they become committed to their leaders' (and their organizations') values and missions.

2. Members of the younger generations (i.e. those 18 to 35 years of age) have said that they want to be led, not managed. How do you think that leadership would be different for a person who leads only persons between 18 and 35 years of age compared with a person whose followers are mostly over the age of 40? What strategies would you recommend for a person who becomes the leader of a mixed group?

There are significant differences between employees from various age groups in nursing as well as more generally within vocational environments (Swearingen, 2004). In many respects, those differences are directly attributable to the dominant goals, values, and norms to which individuals were exposed during their formative years and throughout their vocational training and early work experiences (Swearingen, 2004).