Critical Reflection on Democratic Leadership in Clinical Practices

This report provides a critical reflection on democratic leadership within clinical practices. It begins by defining democratic leadership (also known as participative leadership) as the redistribution of authority and empowering clinical staff in decision-making. The report highlights the characteristics of this leadership style, including employee empowerment, open communication, teamwork, and shared practices, and discusses their benefits for efficient performance outcomes. The report references several studies, including those by Bobbio et al. (2012) and Jie-Hui (2017), to support the effectiveness of democratic leadership in promoting staff participation, knowledge sharing, and improved patient care. It also addresses potential limitations, such as the time-consuming nature of decision-making and the need for leaders to manage diverse opinions. The report references studies by Middleton (2017), Dorgham and Al. Mahmoud (2013), Reichenpfader, Carlfjord, & Nilsen (2015), and Mannix, Wilkes, & Daly (2013) to support the effectiveness of democratic leadership in promoting staff participation, knowledge sharing, and improved patient care.

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Critical Reflection on Democratic Leadership in Clinical Practices

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Critical Reflection on the democratic leadership style in the clinical practices
 Focus on Democratic Leadership Presented
My group will be presented on the Democratic leadership in the clinics….
 Include Definition, characteristics, and benefits of this leadership style……
According to Bobbioet. al (2012), Democraticleadership (also known as participative
leadership) is defined as the redistribution of the rights and authority between the managers and
employees and empowering the clinical staffs for the participation in the decision-making
process. The democratic leadership style comprises the characteristics, like employee
empowerment and participation in the decision-making, effective and open communication,
learning and flexible environment, shared practices, teamwork, and group activities that could be
beneficial to deliver the efficient and better performance outcomes from the
staffs(Bobbio,Bellan, &Manganelli, 2012). In the views of Jie-Hui (2017), Democratic leader is
who promotes the participation and engagement of the working staffs in the clinical decision-
making process and provides an open culture of learning, flexibility, and support in which the
clinical staffs including doctors and nurses share their ideas, knowledge and valuable
experiences with each other for the achievement of the common goals.The democratic leadership
is related to the effective clinical leadership that will be beneficial in ensuring the high-quality
healthcare system consistently for providing the quality care and safe and efficient treatment to
the patients through the shared activities, informed decisions, committed staffs, and group work
(Jie-Hui, 2017).
Middleton (2017) further argues that this type of leadership style in the clinical practices
could be effective to bring all participants or staffs together for sharing knowledge and
supporting others in accomplishing the job tasks and activities. It also encourages the

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participation of the staffs in the team meetings and decision-making process and moreover,
considering their views, opinions, and ideas in the final decision-making. Democratic leaders in
the healthcare organizations support the teamwork, group activities, shared practices, and
informed decisions for the job satisfaction and enhancement of the morale and motivation level
of the nursing staffs. This leadership style could also be effective in the healthcare organizations
or clinics in getting the consistent performance reports for the feedback on the performance
levels of the staffs. The positive feedbacks or good performance outcomes in the form of quality
service and effective patient care will be appreciated and awarded with the performance
appraisal and awards (Middleton, 2017). While the negative performance or poor care service
outcomes will be considered by thinking about new plans or agendafor further improvement.
Moreover, the democratic leaders consider the equality, diversity, and inclusion for treating the
diverse staffs (from different cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and professional backgrounds) in the
same respect, and valuing them equally and encouraging them to feel free to express their ideas,
feelings, and insights with each other.
According to Dorgham and Al. Mahmoud (2013), the role-play is related to applying the
democratic leadership in determining what is right and what wrong, taking quick decisions for
the treatment in the emergent situations for the patients, and implement actions in resolving the
conflicts of staffs. The democratic clinical can play the key leadership role in thinking the best
interests of the subordinates, promoting the effective communication between the staffs so that
they could understand the concerns of each other and support in finding the solutions to the
problems faced through the collective efforts and shared practices.The effective communication
could lead to the good working relationship between different healthcare professionals based on
mutual understanding, trust, and respect for maintaining the healthy and positive work

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environment(Dorgham and Al. Mahmoud, 2013). Due to the effective communication, there may
be fewer medication errors as well as low chances of the conflict of interests because of the
confident and comfortable nurses to work freely and speak up or consult with othersThe
democratic leaders are likely to distribute the job responsibilities by assigning the job tasks to the
staffs, empower them to accomplish the job tasks by providing the learning culture and training
and skills development programs for developing or improving the skills, knowledge, and job
competence of the staffs.
The democratic leadership assists in the creation of the supportive and positive work
environment that is comprised of the engaged staffs, deeply satisfied, and highly committed
nursing staffs to the goals, and more motivated to work efficiently with the shared values and
knowledge for improving the quality of care. The democratic or participative leadership brings
positive and better productivity outcomes, effective and quality care, greater teamwork,
collaboration, greater job satisfaction of the staffs through the great sense of their participation
and empowerment in the clinical practices(Reichenpfader, Carlfjord, &Nilsen, 2015).
In my personal views, alike from the transformational clinical leadership, the democratic
leadership not more focuses on transforming effective and radical changes in the clinical
practices as well as the advancement of the healthcare practices and operations through the
technological breakthroughs and innovations. The effective leaders should have capabilities to
manage the resistance to changes for the implementation of effective changes by empowering the
staffs to the change efforts in the healthcare settings of the clinical practices. Additionally, the
democratic leaders do not promote the creativity and innovation at the higher levels that may be
required to support the creative ideas of the nursing staffs for the improvement of the quality
treatment and better care services to the patients(Mannix, Wilkes, & Daly, 2013).

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Sometimes, it becomes difficult for the democratic leaders to bring the different ideas, views,
opinions, and arguments of the staffs and convincing them to agree on a single solution is a
really difficult task. Sometimes, the democratic leadership may not be more useful because it can
result in a long time in decision-making as well as it does not provide the specific solution to the
problems in the current scenario alike from the situational leadership. This leadership does not
greater focus on communicating vision, transforming changes in the clinics as well as not
supports the creative ideas, innovations, and new ways of working of the staffs.

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References
Bobbio, A., Bellan, M., &Manganelli, A. (2012).‘Empowering leadership, perceived
organizational support, trust, and job burnout for nurses: A study in an Italian general
hospital’, Health Care Manage Rev, Vol. 37 (1), pp. 77-87.
Dorgham, R.S. &Al.Mahmoud, A.S. (2013). ‘Leadership Styles and Clinical Decision-Making
Autonomy among Critical Care Nurses: A Comparative Study’, IOSR Journal of Nursing
and Health Science, Vol. 1(4), pp. 71-83.
Jie-Hui, X. (2017). ‘Leadership Theory in Clinical Practice’, Chinese Nursing Research, Vol.
4(4), pp. 155-157.
Mannix, J., Wilkes, L., & Daly, J. (2013).‘Attributes of clinical leadership in contemporary
nursing: an integrative review’Contemporary Nursing, Vol. 45, pp. 10-21.
Middleton, J. (2017). Leadership Skills for Nurses.Retrieved From:
https://www.nursingtimes.net/Journals/2011/08/24/j/n/i/Leadership-Skills-for-Nurses.pdf.
Reichenpfader, U., Carlfjord, S., &Nilsen, P. (2015).Leadership in Evidence-Based Practices: A
Systematic Review. Retrieved From:
http://liu.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:849949/FULLTEXT01.pdf.