Comparing Leadership Styles: Laissez-Faire vs. Transformational

This essay delves into the realm of leadership and management, exploring various leadership styles and their implications within an organizational setting, particularly focusing on clinical practice. It begins by defining leadership and highlighting different styles, including autocratic, laissez-faire, democratic, transformational, transactional, and authentic leadership. The essay then concentrates on the laissez-faire leadership style, its origins, and its practical application, including its impact on the healthcare setting. The author, adopting a laissez-faire leadership approach, reflects on its advantages, such as promoting free will and motivation among employees, as well as its potential drawbacks, such as a lack of control. The essay contrasts laissez-faire with transformational leadership, which emphasizes leading by example and inspiring followers. The author advocates for transformational leadership within clinical settings, emphasizing the importance of motivating and guiding healthcare workers. The essay further discusses the arguments presented in a group discussion about the effectiveness of laissez-faire leadership, emphasizing the balance between individual autonomy and organizational control. In conclusion, the essay highlights the importance of leadership in shaping healthcare outcomes and suggests that a transformational approach may be more suitable for fostering improvements in patient care.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT 1
Leadership and Management
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Leadership and Management
Leadership is a means through which leaders provide direction, implement plans and
strategies, and inspire their followers to work towards achieving defined objectives. Various
scholars have propounded different styles of leadership with the purpose of engendering
organizational performance through context-based leadership. In the words of
Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014), leadership styles include autocratic, laissez-faire,
democratic, transformational, transactional, and authentic. Indeed, all these styles of leadership
envision engendering conducive working environment for leaders and their followers. However,
every means of controlling people have a different implication on the stakeholders and the
objectives of the organization (Sfantou et al., 2017). Therefore, it is advisable for leaders to
assess their situation before deciding how to give direction to their followers. Notably, there is a
peculiar association between autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles in that
Kurt Lewin provided the foundation for their formation (Cox, 2016). Consequently, these
leadership styles are prevalent in many organizations including the clinical practice where
laissez-faire leaders have a significant implication on the profession.
The notion of laissez-faire comes from a French phrase analogous to “leave alone”. The
term came into existence with the need to allow business people in France to be free while
carrying out their daily jobs. Therefore, laissez-faire envisioned on one’s ability to pursue their
wishes without the interference of others (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). The idea of
this model of leadership is that the natural world is self-regulating, therefore, letting nature take
its course is better than instituting rules to govern people. Unlike authoritarian leadership,
laissez-faire leaders hardly have any control in decision-making and offering guidelines within
the work setting (Pullen Jr, 2016). Therefore, everyone does what they prefer and goes where

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nature leads them. For instance, in a clinical setting the flow of resources and other social
amenities coupled with the willing of the nurses to work will determine the performance of the
nurses.
My leadership style is laissez-faire. I love to see people motivated to work and do their
best not because rules are governing them but because they have the willingness and freedom to
choose their course. Laissez-faire leadership helps me in making sure that clinical practice is
guided by free will and all resources required to facilitate the effectiveness in practice are in
place (Leggat, Balding & Schiftan, 2015). However, the leadership style leads crisis in the
provision of services because there is no locus of control and the freedom given to workers
creates unnecessary misunderstanding. Therefore, the preferred method of leadership in a clinical
setting is transformational leadership. According to Clough and McClellan (2016),
transformational leaders lead by example. Therefore, they can help clinical workers through
motivation and practical guidance to facilitate high performance of nurses and other workers in
the field. Transformational leaders compel nurse leaders to educate their followers to become
leaders in their work environment to develop realistic solutions in their respective departments
(Pullen Jr., 2016). Therefore, as a transformative leader, I would engender a situation where
nurse leaders will feel appreciated for the position they hold in the clinical setting and inspire
them to inspire others for quality health outcomes.
The group presented compelling information on the effectiveness of laissez-faire
leadership in transforming clinical services. Most of the group members agreed that nursing
leaders who choose to apply laissez-faire leadership style find it easy to have the work done
because nurses perform their duties out of free will. However, other members deemed the
leadership style as contingent to fracas and chaos in clinical practice setting owing to lack of

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locus of control. My contribution was that laissez-faire leaders are alienated from controlling
nurses making them independent in their decisions, something that helps them work with
responsibility rather than duty. Therefore, leaders are as puppets who oversee nurses respond to
natural stimuli other than forcing them to perform roles (Leggat et al., 2015). In light of the
arguments propounded in the discussion, laissez-faire leadership is imperative in ensuring that
nurses make personal decisions that will lead to improvement of care and health outcomes. The
value and significance laid on the nurses and their leaders engenders sufficient communication
that facilitates an environment to help mitigate pressing issues that may hamper the ability of
health facility to offer quality care to patients (Clough & McClellan, 2016). Indeed, laissez-faire
leaders are contingent to facilitating innovation in the provision of health services where nurses
can use their unique experiences and expertise to treat certain conditions that will eventually
become an element of practice.

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References
Clough, J. D., & McClellan, M. (2016). Implementing MACRA: implications for physicians and
for physician leadership. Jama, 315(22), 2397-2398.
Cox, J. A. (2016). Leadership and Management Roles: Challenges and Success
Strategies. AORN journal, 104(2), 154-160.
Leggat, S. G., Balding, C., & Schiftan, D. (2015). Developing clinical leaders: the impact of an
action learning mentoring programme for advanced practice nurses. Journal of clinical
nursing, 24(11-12), 1576-1584.
Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in
management, 7(2), 57-62.
Pullen Jr, R. L. (2016). Leadership in nursing practice. Nursing made Incredibly Easy, 14(3), 26-
31.
Sfantou, D. F., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A. E., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou,
E. (2017). Importance of Leadership Style towards Quality of Care Measures in
Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review. In Healthcare 5, (4), 1-17. Multidisciplinary
Digital Publishing Institute.