How Leadership Approaches and Leader's Characteristics Influence Practice Change

This essay discusses the Contingency Leadership Model and Path-Goal Model theories in nursing practice and how leadership approaches and leader's characteristics influence practice change. The situational factors and leadership behavior are also explored. The essay includes findings from interviews with Nurse 1 and Nurse 2.

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HOW LEADERSHIP APPROACHES AND LEADER’S CHARACTERISTICS INFLUENCE
PRACTICE CHANGE
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Introduction
There have been several theories around leadership, which endeavor to clarify which system is
most operative in the place of work. A universalistic methodology was formerly used to
streamline, and it was supposed that efficacious leaders possessed limited mutual capabilities and
characters. Conversely, today as a result of peripheral aspects such as globalization and
progressive expertise, there has been an advancement in the direction of a novel paradigm of
leadership. Assistants, in this case, junior nursing staff, desire to feel authorized and betrothed at
the place of work and every so often the behaviors and relations concerning leaders and their
assistants become significant to comprehend effe ctive leadership completely. Contingency
theories have been established in which individuals instigated to look at the conduct of leaders in
particular circumstances (Fiedler 2013, p. 8). In this essay, the Contingency Leadership Model
and Path-Goal Model theories will be discussed concerning the nursing practice and the most
effective one in the nursing leadership recommended. Findings from the interviews with Nurse 1
and Nurse 2 will also be incorporated into the discussion.
Contingency Leadership Model
Established by Fiedler, the contingency exemplary of leadership efficacy proposes that the
performance of teams is reliant on the interaction concerning leadership style and situational
favorableness. Nurse 1 wholeheartedly agreed to this proposal by Fiedler and gave an account
she experienced where the performance of the team she led varied based on the leadership style
she used at given circumstances. Similarly, the team would only perform to expectations when
the conditions were favorable.
Leader’s Style

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Fiedler’s investigations steered him to consider that leaders practice either of the following
styles; task-oriented leadership or relationship-oriented leadership. He and his associates spent
several years coming up with a method to quantify a person’s affinity to exercise these two
styles, ultimately settling on a scheme that depends on mental cognitive. Conferring to Fiedler,
persons whose character favors task accomplishment and a sense of achievement would more
probable exercise task-oriented leadership. According to Rae (2018), understanding relationships
with others would probably exercise relationship-oriented leadership for a person whose style
values earnesty. When asked which type of leadership they practiced between the two, Nurse 2
said she applied task-oriented leadership because she likes to see a thing done to completion. For
nursing, I think task-oriented leadership would do because nursing is such a critical field and
there is no much time to nurture relationships.
Furthermore, Mawhinney and Ford (2017) denote that Fiedler’s explorations persuaded him that
people could not be equally task- and relationship-oriented. On the contrary, opinion, when
asked which type of leadership they practiced between the two, Nurse 1 said hers was a
combination of the two. She said that she emphasized on seeing tasks accomplished, but then
again valued fostering relationships with her juniors and subordinates. Persons in leadership
ranks will be more satisfied, genuine, and operative exercising the leadership conduct that goes
with their essentialbasic character. Therefore, the most significant leadership concern is to match
leaders’ traits and styles to the position in which they will be operative. Nursing being a critical
line of work, it would be best if nurse leaders were placed in the befitting locations in regards to
their personalities.
Situational Factors

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Fiedler suggests three situational aspects that conclude whether a task-oriented or relationship-
oriented style is more probable to be operative; leader-follower relationships, duty organization,
and position supremacy. From speculative as well as automatic outlooks, personal leader-
follower relations are expected to be the most significant variable in the circumstances.
The leader-follower relationships aspect denotes to the level of assurance, reliance, and esteem
that members have in the leader. This situational variable mirrors the recognition of the leader.
The leader’s stimulus hinges on in part on approval by followers. If others are ready to follow
due to personality, proficiency, or reciprocated reverence, the leader has pintsized requisite to
depend on task-oriented conduct; the members readily follow the leader. If, conversely, the
leader is not trustworthy and is regarded undesirably by followers, the situation would probably,
but not certainly, demand task-oriented conduct. In the nursing practice, charismatic nurse
leaders are often looked upon by their subordinates, and this makes the workflow in the nursing
environment tranquil, as people do as expected willingly.
The second very significant situational aspect is stated as the task structure. This aspect denotes
precisely to the features of the task to be accomplished. Some of the central task features
comprise The extent to which the work’s responsibilities and obligations are noticeably specified
and well-known to the individuals executing the job. In the nursing practice, upon employment,
every nurse is clearly explained to, both verbally and in writing, all they are expected to do in
their line of work. Both Nurse 1 and Nurse 2 confirmed to have been made mindful of their
duties and roles in their profession upon employment; a range of processes can resolve the extent
to which difficulties faced in the jobprocesses. A nurse solves complications within a methodical
context, while a doctor has several diverse techniques to handle a problem; the extent to which

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the “accuracy” of the resolutions or assessments characteristically faced in a job can be validated
by entreaty to power, by a rational process, or by a reaction. A junior nurse can clearly explain to
the senior nurse why a patient is not fit to be discharged based on her observations of the patient;
the extent to which there is usually more than one accurate elucidation. A junior nurse with little
experience may have no choice but to consider an expectant patient to undergo a cesarean
operation, whereas a senior nurse with more experience would still give more time for the patient
to labor.
If we consider merging these four features to designate any job, duty, or task, we can determine
that they do differ from high task structure to low task structure. Therefore, the second very
significant situational variable mentions the nature of the job allocated to the leader and the team.
Position power in the contingency model states the power intrinsic in the leadership rank. This
situational distinctive takes into an interpretation that leadership happens in a range of various
establishments and groups distinguished conferring to how much recognized authority the leader
has to make resolutions as well as to gain submission from juniors. To ascertain leader position
power, we probe questions such as; can the overseer commend subsidiary recompenses and
reprimands to the manager? Can the superior reprimand or recompense juniors on their own?
Can the overseer acclaim elevation or relegation of juniors? Fiedler proposes that such inquiries
offer a profile of strong or feeble position power.
Critique of Fiedler’s Contingency Model
Fiedler’s manner and investigation have prompted keen objections and issues. First, Graen and
acquaintances present proof that exploration backing for the exemplary is feeble, particularly if
investigations piloted by investigators not allied to Fiedler are scrutinized. The prior support and

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interest for the model emanated from Fiedler and his apprentices, who tested several explorations
of leaders.
Second, investigators have called responsiveness to the uncertain measurement of desired
leadership style; these investigators propose that the dependability and rationality of the survey
procedures are stumpy. Third, the connotation of the variables offered by Fiedler is not clear.
For instance, at what situation does a structured assignment turn out to be an unstructured
assignment? Who can state or show this instance?
Lastly, decriers claim that Fiedler’s model can put up with non-supportive outcomes. This point
is precisely made by one decrier who stated that Fiedler had exposed his intellect two times; first
in inventing the exemplary, which stood like calculus to mathematics likened with prior
leadership prototypes, and second, in his aptitude to incorporate novel discoveries into his
prototypes. Regardless of enthusiasts and critics, Fiedler’s contingency exemplary has made
noteworthy influences on the learning and usage of leadership philosophies. Fiedler called
undeviating responsiveness to the situational aspect of leadership. His outlook of leadership
enthused many investigation studies and much-needed discussion on the crescendos of leader
conduct.
Fiedler has played one of the very protuberant roles in inspiring the logical exploration of
leadership in work environments. He showed the way and made others disturbingly alert of the
intricacies of the leadership practice. On being asked whether Fiedler's exemplary of leadership
was useful in the nursing practice leadership, both nurses alluded that it is ineffective due to the
limited research available on the same and the uncertainties arising with the model.
Path-Goal Model

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Like the other contingency or situational leadership styles, the path-goal leadership exemplary
endeavors to envisage leadership efficacy in diverse situations. Conferring to this model
established by Robert J. House, Szilagyi and Sims (2017) denote that leaders are operatively
owing to their positive influence on supporters’ enthusiasm, the capacity to accomplish, and
fulfillment. The theory is titled path – a goal since it centers on how the leader affects the
followers’ discernments of work goals, self-development goals, and paths to goal
accomplishment.
The basis of the path-goal theory is the expectancy motivation concept (Keller 2011, p. 78).
Specific initial work on the path-goal model proclaims that leaders turn out to be operative by
making recompenses offered to juniors and by making those payments dependent on juniors’
completion of particular goals. It is claimed that an imperative fragment of the leader’s job is to
explain for juniors the conduct most probable to outcome in goal achievement. This action is
mentioned to as path elucidation or clarification. It is necessary for nurse leaders to guide their
juniors on ways they can deliver proper services including treatment and care to the patients. On
being asked whether they guided their juniors towards task accomplishment, both nurses said
that; that was like a core value in their leadership. This means that they embraced the idea of
path clarification or elucidation.
Leadership Behavior
The initial path–goal work steered to the establishment of a multifaceted concept concerning four
definite leaders, conducts (supportive, directive, achievement, and participative) and three junior
outlooks (job contentment, recognition of the leader, and anticipations on effort-performance-
reward connections). Schriesheim and Neider (2014) denote that a supportive leader deals with

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juniors as colleagues. Nurse 1 claimed that she was a supportive leader in her leadership practice;
she assumed that there were no boundaries between her and the junior nurse. The directive leader
inclines towards letting juniors discern what is anticipated of them. The achievement-oriented
leader puts forward stimulating objectives, expects juniors to achieve at the uppermost level, and
recurrently pursues upgrading in performance. Nurse 2 said that she was an achievement-
oriented leader, which her focus was on the junior nurses delivering a better quality of care in
their practice every day. The participative leader checks with juniors and contemplates their
proposals and thoughts before making a decision. In the nursing practice, all four leader
behaviors need to be considered as nursing is a multifaceted field. However, boundaries need to
be drawn regarding the supportive leader practice.
A study of expert personnel from investigation and development establishments scrutinized the
path-goal model. The outcomes designated that requisite for simplicity weakened the relationship
concerning a leader’s path elucidation and workers’ fulfillment (Evans 2017). The greater the
requisite for simplicity amongst juniors, the sturdier the relationship between the leader’s
instigating scheme and job contentment. Exploration studies similarly propose that the same
leader can exercise these four conducts in several circumstances. These discoveries are opposing
to Fiedler’s concept regarding the difficulty of varying style. The path-goal method proposes
more suppleness than the Fiedler contingency exemplary.
The Main Path–Goal Propositions
The path-goal theory has steered to the establishment of two significant propositions. Chemers
(2017) denotes that a leaders’ conduct is operative to the degree that juniors remark such
behavior as a basis of instantaneous fulfillment or as influential to imminent fulfillment.

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However, the conduct should be motivational to the degree that it makes fulfillment of juniors’
desires dependent on operative enactment and that it supplements the setting of juniors by
offering the direction, clarity of course, and recompenses needed for operative performance
(McMahon 2017, p. 603).
Conferring to the path-goal model, leaders ought to upsurge the number of types of payments
offered to juniors (Hosking and Schriesheim 2017, p. 90). Besides, the leaders ought to provide
help and advice to elucidate the mode in which these payments can be attained. This means that
the leader had better help juniors explain certain expectations and lessen the hurdles to the
achievement of valued objectives. For instance, advising staffs on their odds for elevation and
assisting them in eradicating ability insufficiencies so that an elevation becomes a further
genuine likelihood is a proper leadership conducts. Nurse leaders ought to occasionally brief
their juniors on available promotion vacancies and what can be done for the junior nurses to be
elevated. The leader aims at making the path to goals as unblemished as conceivable for juniors.
The style superior fit to achieve this is chosen and put into usage. Therefore, the path-goal
outlook obliges suppleness from the leader to use any manner which is proper in a particular
situation.
Situational Factors
Dual situational, or crisis, variables are deliberated in the path-goal theory; individual features of
juniors and environmental stresses and demands with which juniors should handle to achieve
work objectives and develop contentment. A vital individual typical is juniors’ discernment of
their capability (Lord 2017). The greater the degree of supposed capability comparative to task
weights, the less likely the junior is to assent a directive leader’s manner. This directive style of

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leadership would be regarded as unreasonably close. Also, an individual’s locus of regulation
likewise affects reactions (Rice and Kastenbaum 2015, p. 274). Persons with an internal locus of
control are usually more contented with a participative approach, while people who have an
exterior locus of control are often more contented with a directive approach. When asked which
of these two approaches they would prefer if they were subordinates, both Nurse 1 and Nurse 2
alluded that they would settle for a participative approach of leadership with reason that nursing
practice requires regular consultation and feedback from all levels; the juniors and seniors alike.
Environmental variables comprise aspects that are not in the control of the junior but are
significant to fulfillment or to the capacity to perform efficiently (Utecht and Heier 2017, p.
604). These include the responsibilities, the official power system of the body, and the job group.
Any of these environmental influences can encourage or restrain the minor. Environmental
forces might likewise function as recompenses for conventional degrees of performance. For
instance, the junior could be enthused by the job group and get fulfillment from colleagues’
approval for executing a task conferring to group standards.
The path-goal model suggests that leader conduct is motivational to the degree that it assists
juniors in dealing with environmental qualms (Campbell 2014). A leader who lessens the doubts
of the task is regarded to be a motivator since he/she escalates juniors’ anticipations that their
determinations result in anticipated recompenses.
Critique of the Path-Goal Model
There are some questions on the extrapolative influence of the path-goal exemplary. One
investigator proposed that junior performance may be the reason for changes in leader conduct as
an alternative of, as projected by the model, the complete opposite. An analysis of the path-goal

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method proposed that the exemplary had resulted in the establishment of merely a few
postulates. These assessors also point to the number of unreliable exploration outcomes
connected with the prototype (Fiedler 2013, p. 8). They approve that investigation has steadily
revealed that the higher the job structure of junior tasks, the greater the connection concerning
supportive leader conduct and subordinate contentment. Conversely, they retain that the second
core assumption of the path-goal exemplary has not received strong backing. This assumption—
the higher the job structure, the inferior the relationship amid directive leader conduct and minor
satisfaction—has received merely less support.
On the affirmative side, Bons and Fiedler (2014) denotes that one should confess that the path-
goal exemplary is upgrading over the personal and individual behavioral concepts. Its efforts to
specify which issues influence motivation to perform. Also, the path-goal method presents both
situational aspects and individual dissimilarities when scrutinizing leader conduct and aftermaths
such as contentment and performance. The methodology is determined to expound on why a
specific way of leadership works preeminent in a particular situation. As more investigation
amasses, this kind of clarification will have applied usefulness for those concerned in the
leadership course in work environments. When asked whether the Path-Goal model is ideal in
the nursing practice leadership, both Nurse 1 and Nurse 2 proposed it as the most suitable model
that should be employed in all the nursing environments. They concluded that adopting this
exemplary would allow a better quality of care for patients and further foster better working
relationships between the senior nurses and their subordinates.
Conclusion

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From my point of view, I think the Path-Goal model of leadership is the most effective one in
nursing leadership practice as compared to the Fiedler’s contingency leadership exemplary. This
is because the former model presumes that leaders are supple and can adjust their leadership
style to the circumstances. This is true since individuals are generally flexible to changes.
Furthermore, in regards to the nursing environment, which is prone to changes now and then, this
is the best leadership approach to be adapted to guarantee superior quality of care to the patients.
Another reason for my preference of the Path-Goal model in the nursing practice leadership is
because the model guarantees that leaders can improve the productivity of their institute
by manipulating their staffs and directing them to their objective. To discern what inspires their
teams, it is prudent to scrutinize characteristics such as; are the workers inherently or
extrinsically driven? Does the worker have a robust desire for association in the group and does
he/she have a preference to work in a team, or does he/she need an exceptional level of
individuality? Would the worker like to execute his/her task individually or is it significant to
him/her to be led and supervised? By responding to these queries, leaders are well capable of
understanding the motivational prerequisites of their personnel and modify their leadership style
because of that.

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List of References
Bons, P. M. and Fiedler, F. E. (2014) ‘Changes in Organizational Leadership and the Behavior of
Relationship- and Task-Motivated Leaders’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 21(3), pp. 453–
473. doi: 10.2307/2391854.
Campbell, R. N. (2014) ‘A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness,' Administrative Science
Quarterly, 13(2), pp. 344–348. doi: 10.2307/2391461.
Chemers, M. M. (2010) ‘Leadership research and theory: A functional integration,' Group
Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice. (One Hundred Years of Groups Research), 4(1), pp.
27–43. doi: 10.1037/1089-2699.4.1.27.
Evans, M. G. (2016) ‘R.J. House’s `a path-goal theory of leader effectiveness.’’, Leadership
Quarterly, 7(3), p. 305. doi: 10.1016/S1048-9843(96)90021-1.
Fiedler, F. E. (2013) ‘The Leadership Game: Matching the Man to the Situation,' Organizational
Dynamics, 4(3), pp. 6–16. doi: 10.1016/0090-2616(76)90032-2.
Hosking, D. and Schriesheim, C. (2012) ‘Improving Leadership Effectiveness: The Leader
Match Concept,' Administrative Science Quarterly, 23(3), pp. 496–505. doi: 10.2307/2392426.
Keller, R. T. (2011) ‘A Test of the Path-Goal Theory of Leadership With Need for Clarity as a
Moderator in Research..’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(2), p. 208. doi: 10.1037/0021-
9010.74.2.208.

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Lord, R. G. (2017) ‘Leadership in applied psychology: Three waves of theory and research,'
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Operant Interpretation,' Academy of Management Review, 2(3), pp. 398–411. doi:
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Appendix
Interview questions
1. Do you agree with Fiedler that performance of teams is reliant on the interaction
concerning leadership style and situational favorableness?
2. Which type of leadership do you practice between task-oriented leadership and
relationship-oriented leadership?
3. Were you informed of your duties and responsibilities upon employment as a nurse?
4. Do you think Fiedler's model is useful in nursing practice leadership?
5. In your experience as a nurse leader, do you clarify the means or ways to goal
attainment to your juniors?
6. Which one between participative leadership and directive leadership would you
prefer, assuming you were a subordinate nurse?
7. Do you think the Path-Goal model is useful in nursing practice leadership?