Different Types of Leadership Styles and Their Significance in Nursing

This article discusses the importance of different types of leadership styles in nursing and their significance in healthcare. It explores authoritarian, transactional, transformational, and laissez faire leadership styles, providing examples and highlighting their impact on patient care and staff satisfaction.

Running head: NURSING
Topic: NURSING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
Leadership skills are skills which are required for the proper organisation of people
under work settings. These are required and the most important qualities in a leader for the
successful achievement of their required goals. It is an agglomeration of skills like empathy,
patient, active participation, effective feedback, flexibility, excellent team building capacity
(Renko et al., 2015). Most researchers have the consideration that leadership qualities are
most of the times genetic and inherited from genetic factors and thus are difficult to learn.
Lee Kuan Lew, an eminent leader believes that there is an intellective verve along with extra
patience and tenacity for overcome the hurdles faced by the group and to ensure the
successful progression of the work (Strom, Sears & Kelly, 2014). According to Kase et al
(2017), over the years complexities in the healthcare have increased long with expansion of
knowledge especially in the field of nursing. Hence all the nurses within a magnetic
institution are required to practice various leadership behaviours (Choi, 2015). The following
paragraphs would encompass the importance of the different types of leadership styles and
their significance among nurses for effective leadership in healthcare. Moreover the
discussions are supported with proper examples from clinical practice highlighting the
practice of leadership in nursing.
Authoritarian leadership and its significance in nursing
According to Davis et al (2018), Authoritative leadership is not one of the most
popular means of leadership among a hospital setting as it cause chaos and discord among the
subordinate members. Referring to the importance of leadership in nursing, newly graduated
nurses following authoritative leadership along with registered nurses are required to show
competent leadership skills. There is a particular time and setting for the leadership style and
a registered nurse should have the ideal knowledge of using at the right place. Authoritarian

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leader often makes a proper decision which is based upon the available information and there
is little contribution or support of the team. Significance of this leadership lies in the fact that
a registered nurse often has the most important role of guiding her sub-ordinate which
ultimately leads to contribution in the basic welfare of the patients especially within a specific
nursing unit (Rhee & Sigler, 2015).
According to Thomas, Tois, Heerden (2014), the authoritarian leader styles if
followed by the RN or registered nurse then it has a rigid impact on the basic care and culture
on the organisation. Contemporary nursing education skills require nurses to hone their
existing skills, improve their understanding, knowledge skills, competence as well as skills
for reflection and critical thinking. Moreover, such leaders should take control and aim their
goals apart from the benefit aimed for their organisation. Thus, such nurses are more focussed
about the task they have at hand than the people they are working with. Hence, the
authoritarian leader’s aim is indicated at the lower levels of the Maslow’s needs of hierarchy
addressing personal needs of food, shelter and safety (Shu, 2015).
There are various examples when the authoritarian leadership style is the most
effective means of leadership in a hospital setting. Authoritarian leadership is of use
especially when physicians often issue the medical orders and when nurse manager make
arrangements for the shift timings among the staff members, It is the preferred leadership
among various healthcare professionals in terms of emergencies as at that time there is no
scope for considering the opinion of other staff members and such decisions are not made
democratically. In cases involving critical emergencies, wasted time often involves the cost
of lives of the patients, so this leadership is the best choice.
Transactional leadership and its significance in nursing

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Transactional leadership requires the proper value as well as structure in terms of
leadership styles. Transactional leaders often have the ability to command various large
operations and lead the international projects. Thus they can lead projects requiring
punctuality of the rules and regulations fulfilled within due time. Transactional leadership is
not applicable to creativity and innovative ideas in the workplace. According to
Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swami (2014), transformational leadership have helped in
enhancing the roles of a registered nurse where complex dynamic systems are required. Irsan,
Escan & Nartiyok (2014), have further explained that studies conducted on the patients
responses where the nurses used authoritarian leadership styles show that patient’s
satisfaction levels have been excellent and the practice of the nursing professional have been
rated highly. It is based on the setting of basic and clear goals and objectives as well as
rewards and various penalties for the motivation of the staff. In this kind of leadership, the
leader provides a positive reward like time of health benefits and pay check in exchange of
fulfilling a target and successful completion of a task. Among studies done for determining
the job satisfaction of nurses under the rule of registered nurse following transactional
leadership, it has been seen that they are satisfied which has the potential of enhancing the
patient’s perception of the quality of care given. Moreover, it contributes to various
comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of job satisfaction which increase the
quality of patient care simultaneously (Salim, 2015).
Nursing is denoted as a progressive way of preparing nurses as appropriate decision
makers as well as drivers in the healthcare services. For an example in a clinical setting, the
unit director of nursing can propose a reward as well as punishment statement or the nursing
staff can also reach a consensus. Thus the nurses who get good review from their patients are
awarded accordingly (Lievens & Vlerick, 2015). Similarly the registered head nurse may give
penalties for nurses who sleep during the night shifts or cause any kind of harm to the units or

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nurses who fail to meet the job requirements properly (Weng et al., 2015). Thus the
transactional leadership style follows and ensures a proper culture within the medical unit
where there are strict rules and regulations to be maintained but unlike the authoritarian
leaderships, they are rewards and penalties as additional factors for motivation (Lu, Zhao &
While, 2014).
Transformational leadership and its significance in nursing
Transformational leaderships is the kind of leadership where leaders inspire other
people with their vision as well as collaborate with their team for the identification of their
common values. It is basically based on the contingent rewards and thus often this form of
leadership is known to have a positive effect on the satisfaction and performance of the
followers. Four basic components of this kind of leadership is strong motivation, ideal
impact, intellectual stimulation as well as personal consideration (McClescky, 2014). Thus
this acts as a motivational factor for nurses in future. This kind of leadership is a kind of
social influence which has broad application in nursing. It is the kind of leadership where the
Registered Nurse would inspire her staff members and her followers would be empowered
transcending various individual self-interests simultaneously aligning the various goals and
objectives of the associate’s staffs, among the leaders, followers, as well as the organisation.
This model fosters organizational as well as personal changes in the nursing backdrop. The
main role of the nurse in following a proper leadership style would be inspiring a proper and
shared vision about the future aims and goals, challenging the various processes, enabling
other including subordinate staffs and nurse to act and simultaneously encouraging the fellow
nurses for better achievement related to the care given to the patients (Hayati, Chakharbi &
Naami, 2014).

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For example the head nurse can keep open lines of communication where the
subordinate staff as well as other nurses would feel free to share the issues and discuss the
same in a proper manner. Moreover the nurses can be motivated and supported for inspiration
and so that it has a proper impact on the behavioural changes.
Laissez faire leadership and its significance in nursing
Laissez faire leadership is also known as delegative leadership style. Here, the leaders
are usually and off and often they allow the decision making process to be done by their
group members (Tyczkowski et al., 2015). According to studies conducted by researchers,
this leadership style often leads to the lowest productivity among members of a particular
organisation. Among the various characteristics of the leaders following a Laissez Faire style
of leadership, one of the most important characteristics includes limited guidance from the
leaders. However there is complete independence regarding decision making as followers are
allowed to make decisions. Moreover this is the kind of leadership where there is full
cooperation form the leaders and they provide the members with the required sources and
materials. Although there is enough power among the followers, leaders play the main role in
taking the group decisions as well as actions (Merill, 2015).
Regarding the effectiveness of the laissez faire leadership in nursing it has been found
that it is often the most effective means of showing leadership among highly skilled as well
as motivated personnel. Professional associations of nursing have the opportunity of creating
and amalgamating cultures which can lead to the promotion and value of the virtues of
leadership. This notion is moreover supported by other researchers claiming that the given
leadership style is empowering to the group members and enhances the motivation of team
work. In the field of nursing empowering team members is always not necessary as there is
no need of managers to control the work of the registered nurse or he staffs every minute.

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This type of leadership is most of the times contradictory to the role and ideology of the
autocratic nurse (Zareen, Razzaq & Mujtaba, 2015). This style is usually preferred when
there is always enough experienced gained by the nurse and the nursing leader or the
registered nurse is self-directed and thus does not necessarily need generalized orders.
However, this style does not work generally in the nursing backdrop when team members
lack the experience of taking decisions on their own and often a specific set of decisions need
to be implemented or made.
For an example, in the duties of a Registered nurse in following the laissez faire
leadership, the RN is a leader who usually does not take the decision regarding critical
decision making processes and it is taken by the staffs and the nurses. This approach results
in rare changes in the healthcare industry (Sfabtau et al., 2016).
Conclusion
From the following paragraphs it can be under stood that the various types of leader
ship play an important role in nursing. Thus such values incorporated within nurses would
maximise the efficiency for the achievement of organisational goals. Here four of the
leadership qualities has been considered along with their significance in the hospital setting,
transformational, transactional, laissez faire and authoritarian leadership. It is considered as a
business where the prioritization of the leads as well as tasks which are based on the
importance of the organization. Thus, they can be learned by leaders seeking to increase and
strengthen their personal abilities a so that they easily adaptable among the members of the
work environment. Strong nursing leadership helps in the encouragement of other nurses
which ultimately help them to function as small units. Thus, nurses should adopt leadership
qualities along with strong interpersonal skills to be apt in their communication with
subordinates. Promotion of a friendly environment would help effective nurses to be more

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enthusiastic as well as passionate to their work. The styles which have been discussed are
autocratic, Laizze faire transformational as well as transactional leadership. Thus with the
amalgamation of basic nursing leadership qualities the environment within a hospital setting
would be enhanced.

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