NCM 119

NURSING
LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT
LEADERSHIP THEORIES
 Historical Development of
Leadership Theory
• Early works focused on broad conceptualizations
of leadership, such as the traits or behaviors of
the leader.
• To better understand newer views about
leadership, it is necessary to look at how
leadership theory has evolved over the last
century.
 Historical Development of
Leadership Theory
• Theories in leadership may be classified as early and
contemporary according to its emergence in history.
The Early Leadership Theories Include:
• Trait Theories / Great Man Theory
• Behavioral Theories
• Contingency Theories
• Situational Theories
 Great Man/Trait Theory
• The Great Man and Trait Theories were the
basis for most leadership research until the mid
1940s.
• The great man theory, from Aristotelian
philosophy, asserts that some people are born
to lead, whereas others are born to be led.
• Trait theories assume that some people have
certain characteristics or personality traits that
make them better leaders than others.
 Great Man/Trait Theory
• “Great Man Theory” – This theory assumes that the
capacity for leadership is inherent, that great leaders are
born, not made. These theories often portray great
leaders as heroic, mythic and destined to rise to
leadership when needed.
• The term “Great Man” was used because, at the time,
leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality,
especially in terms of military leadership.
• Ex. Abraham Lincoln, Aristotle, Kings of Great Britain
 Great Man/Trait Theory
• Trait Theory assumes that people inherit extra ordinary
qualities and traits that make them better suited to
leadership. They have special traits that make them
leaders like tireless ambition, zest for life, great orator
skills, irrisistible good looks and extremely persuasive.
• Ex. Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela
and Gandhi.
 Traits Related To Leadership
Effectiveness
•According to Swansburg (1993) there
are some traits that are common to
good leaders.
•These traits are related to
intelligence, personality, and
abilities.
 Traits Related To Leadership
Effectiveness
•1. Intelligence Traits – judgment,
decisiveness, knowledge, and fluency of
speech are intelligence traits that a nurse
manager is perceived to possess. Having
them enables the nurse manager to relate
well and inspire subordinates to perform
well.
 Traits Related To Leadership
Effectiveness
• 2. Personality Traits – adaptability, alertness,
creativity, cooperativeness, personal integrity, self
confidence, emotional balance and control and
independence are the perceived personality traits
of a nurse manager. These traits facilitate the
leadership capability of a nurse manager as he or
she is able to motivate the people so that the
goals of the organization are achieved.
 Traits Related To Leadership
Effectiveness
•3. Ability Traits – ability to enlist
cooperation, popularity and prestige,
sociability (interpersonal skills), social
participation, tact, and diplomacy fall under
ability traits of a leader.
•Collective unity among members of the
system should be the focus of a leader to
achieve its goals. This could only be
possible when the leader possesses the
aforementioned ability traits.
 Behavioral Theory
• The behavioral theory of leadership underscores
the significance of understanding human
behavior.
• A nurse manager must understand human beings
as the behavior of people is at the core of
leadership and management in nursing.
• People in the organization are very complex and
a leader’s genuine understanding of them is
invaluable in having them to work together to
achieve the purposes of the organization.
 Situational and Contingency
Theories
• The idea that leadership style should vary
according to the situation or the individuals
involved was first suggested almost 100 years
ago by Mary Parker Follett.
• Her law of the situation, which said that the
situation should determine the directives given
after allowing everyone to know the problem, was
contingency leadership in its humble origins.
 Situational and Contingency
Theories
• Fiedler’s (1967) contingency approach suggests
that no one leadership style is ideal for every
situation.
• Fiedler felt that the interrelationships between the
group’s leader and its members were most
influenced by the manager’s ability to be a good
leader.
 Situational and Contingency
Theories
• In contrast to the continuum from autocratic to
democratic, Blake and Mouton’s (1964) grid
showed various combinations of concern or focus
that managers had for or on productivity, tasks,
people, and relationships. In each of these areas,
the leader-manager may rank high or low,
resulting in numerous combinations of leadership
behaviors. Various formations can be effective
depending on the situation and the needs of the
worker.
Situational and Contingency
Theories
• Hersey and Blanchard (1977) also developed a
situational approach to leadership. Their
tri-dimensional leadership effectiveness model
predicts which leadership style is most
appropriate in each situation on the basis of the
level of the followers’ maturity. As people mature,
leadership style becomes less task focused and
more relationship oriented.
 Situational and Contingency
Theories
• Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) built on the
work of Lewin (1951) as well as White and
Lippitt (1960), suggesting that managers need
varying mixtures of autocratic and democratic
leadership behavior. They believed that the
primary determinants of leadership style should
include the nature of the situation, the skills of the
manager, and the abilities of the group members.
 Situational and Contingency
Theories
• Although situational and contingency theories
added necessary complexity to leadership theory
and continue to be applied effectively by
managers, by the late 1970s, theorists began
arguing that effective leadership depended on an
even greater number of variables, including
organizational culture, the values of the leader
and the followers, the work, the environment,
the influence of the leader-manager, and the
complexities of the situation.
 Historical Development of
Leadership Theory
Contemporary Leadership Theories Include:
• Transactional
• Transformational
• Servant leadership
• Emotional intelligence driven leadership
• Quantum leadership
Transactional Leadership Theory
• This type of leadership in nursing requires skills in the
day-to-day running of a team. The person in charge has to
be qualified as a leader with clinical competence and
good communication skills. While the concept of
transactional leadership does not involve micromanaging
a nursing team, a leader must be able to delegate some
duties to individual team members to lead certain
aspects of a project, based on the areas of expertise.
The overall leader must remain part of the team by
participating in teamwork and keeping close to the
operations and understanding each team member's
perspective.
Transformational Leadership Theory
• The concept of transformational leadership in nursing is
founded on the premise of activities that inspire followers
to discharge their duties to the best of their abilities. A
leader must influence change by providing a sense of
direction. You must be able to articulate a shared vision
to your followers and challenge the status quo. You will
earn respect from your followers through exemplary
behavior. Each team member must be treated as an
individual. Innovation in problem-solving and transmission
of values and ethical principles are important in this type
of leadership.
 Contemporary Theories of
Leadership
Transactional Leader Transformational Leader
Focuses on management tasks Identifies common values
Is a caretaker Is committed
Uses trade-offs to meet goals Inspires others with vision
Shared values not identified Has long term vision
Examines causes Looks at effects
Uses contingency reward Empowers others
 Interactional Theory
• The basic premise of interactional theory is that
leadership behavior is generally determined by the
relationship between the leader’s personality and the
specific situation.
• Schein (1970), an interactional theorist, was the first to
propose a model of humans as complex beings whose
working environment was an open system to which they
responded.
• A system may be defined as a set of objects, with
relationships between the objects and between their
attributes. A system is considered open if it exchanges
matter, energy, or information with its environment.
 Interactional Theory
Schein’s model, based on systems theory, had the following
assumptions:
• People are very complex and highly variable. They have
multiple motives for doing things. For example, a pay raise
might mean status to one person, security to another, and
both to a third.
• People’s motives do not stay constant; instead, they change
over time.
• Goals can differ in various situations. For example, an informal
group’s goals may be quite distinct from a formal group’s
goals.
• A person’s performance and productivity are affected by the
nature of the task and by his or her ability, experience, and
motivation.
• No single leadership strategy is effective in every situation.
 Servant Leadership Theory
• Coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970, the term refers
to leaders that are drawn to serve first, which aspires
them to lead.
• Servant Leadership refers to leaders who influence and
motivate others by building relationships and developing
the skills of individual team members.
• Servant Leadership in nursing implies that a leader
naturally cares about ensuring each team member has
the resources and tools they need to succeed.
Characteristics of a Servant Leader
• Listening
• Empathy
• Healing
• Awareness
• Persuasion
• Conceptualization
• Foresight
• Stewardship
• Commitment to the growth of people
• Building community
 Emotional Intelligence in Nursing
Leadership
• Emotional Intelligence is defined as a person’s
self-awareness, self-confidence, self-control, commitment
and integrity, and a person’s ability to communicate,
influence, initiate change and accept change (Goleman,
1998).
• Leadership in nursing demands emotional stability. It
requires the ability to relate to others if the leader truly
wants to achieve the desired results.
 Quantum Leadership
• Quantum leadership in nursing was described by Porter
O’Grady and Malloch (2003) as new leadership for new
age. They think most leaders are neither fully prepared
nor equipped to change outmoded models because the
foundations of their leadership concepts are based in the
past.
• In quantum leadership, control is not the issue; rather,
change dominate the climate.
• The quantum leader recognizes continual movement
and change occur in reality and creativity and
innovation are at the core of good work performance.
 END OF SLIDES
• Source:
Leadership and Management in Nursing By: Asperas
Bautista and Galang 1st Ed.
Leadership and Management in Nursing By: Tan and
Beltran 1st Ed.