Discuss and Analyze Leadership Styles in Nursing

Running Head: NURSING LEADERSHIP 1
Discuss and Analyses the Use of the Following 4 Leadership Styles (Authoritarian/Autocratic
Leadership, Laissez Faire Leadership, Transactional Leadership and Transformational
Leadership) In The Registered Nurse’s Role When Leading Others in A Clinical Context.
Provide at Least One Clear Clinical Example for Each Leadership Style.
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Tutor
Submission Date

NURSING LEADERSHIP 2
Introduction
It is the role of any registered nurse to ensure that he or she is able to lead and manage the
staff effectively. This should be performed in all situations of the professional scope and
practice. It requires a sound understanding so that one can lead others effectively. In this
theoretical and practical approaches should be applied so that one can meet the mission of
leadership. In these, the registered nurses can use the four leadership styles in the clinical
context. In that, as a nurse, one should apply either of the four leadership styles to lead the staff,
patients and other people. In the discussion, all the leadership styles will be discussed. How the
registered nurses in practice apply them and in each situation giving an example of how a
registered nurse can use the leadership style (Crisp, 2016).
In autocratic leadership, leaders seek to be tough to their followers and hence lead
through intimidation. In this, the leaders are only concerned to accomplish their mission not
focusing on people’s happiness or satisfaction. In these, in case of any poor performer in the
workplace, the leaders opt to punish them accordingly. These type of leadership has advantages
in that the organization being led by this kind of leadership style is very complex and well
organized because the followers follow rules to the letter. These means the organization meet its
standards very effectively due to the complex conditions being applied (Thompson and Hyrkas,
2014)
This type of leadership can be applied where the nurse leaders apply benevolent
dictatorship where the team being lead have the freedom to send their messages or the
information to the chain of command. When using this method, the members of the staff may
fear the leader but on top of that, they perform their duties in the right manner (Moorley and
Chinn, 2016). One example where this leadership style is applied in the health sector is where the

NURSING LEADERSHIP 3
physicians give the medical orders. This is because they don’t consult anyone but they apply
dictatorship not minding if the patient will be satisfied or not. Moreover, another example is
when the manager makes shifts allocated to other nurses. In this, he or she uses the autocratic
leadership style because he or she doesn’t ask for their views but he allocates according to his
wish. Moreover, there is another instance when the nurse leaders make hard decisions without
consulting other team members in these it becomes pure autocratic because in these the other
members may bring conflict due to the decision organized by their leader (Clarke and
Hassmiller, 2013).
In case of an emergency, the nurses require the autocratic dictatorship so that they can
manage the overloaded patients in the hospital. Most of them avoid working in a hostile
environment but by use of this leadership style, they are expected to carry out their routines so
that they can save the life of the individuals involved in the crisis. Other instances in health care
involve most of the health officers being reluctant about their work. This means any nurse can
rise up their voice so that others can start working accordingly (Pepin et al., 2011). This means
that in this type of leadership there is no voting and this implies that anybody can be an effective
leader to make an organization moving. In this type of leadership concentrating on the decision
making is more essential so that the treatment measures cannot be complicated hence posing risk
to the health of the patient. In this, for the autocratic nurses, they need to be organized and ensure
that all the employees are following the standard procedures in health care. For instance, in the
hospital settings, when admitting the patients or discharging the medical practitioner uses the
autocratic leadership style (Wong, Cummings and Ducharme, 2013).
The other type of leadership is laissez-faire. This goes contrary to other types of
leadership like the autocratic and democratic leadership. This type of leaders gives priority to the