The Role of Leadership in Nursing - Literature review Example

Literature Review on Leadership Literature Review on Leadership Introduction This current study will explore the role of leadership in nursing. Many studies are available on different aspects of leadership in nursing but little has been researched about how nursing leaders can help improve the quality of care that nurses give to patients. Methods of data collection and analysis Data collection methods Ersoy et al (2012) used survey questionnaires as the primary data collection method in studying the effects of cultural orientation and leadership orientation on organizational citizenship. The use of questionnaires to collect information on leadership is one of the earliest and most preferred methods. Similarly, Hartmann et al (2010) used questionnaires on their subjects capturing the impact of leadership approach and performance measures on the attitudes of employees. Mullen et al (2011) used both interviews and questionnaires in exploring the impact of inconsistent leadership styles on the initiative of employees to engage in safe behavior. Solansky (2008), while studying how leadership style relate with team processes in self-managed teams used surveys and structures scales and instruments such as competency measurement tool, relational conflict scale and transactive memory scale. Kelloway et al (2012) used survey questionnaire administered both online and physically to study the mediating role that employee trust plays between transformational leadership and employee wellbeing. Other structured tools helped measure trust in leadership and psychological wellbeing. Mattson et al (2012) advancing the study by Mullen et al (2011) used a three items instrument that incorporated safety climate scale, safety priority scale and safety performance scale. Standard scales and instruments study leadership using certain fixed features. Cole et al (2011) used a survey questionnaire to study how leader behavior links with leadership consensus on the performance of a team. Data analysis Ersoy et al (2012) found it suitable to use a factor analysis strategy on cultural orientation especially because it has a factorial structure. Hartmann et al (2010) used a multivariate analysis in order to capture the salient differences and similarities between work-based attitudes as affected by both leadership styles and performance measures application. Uniquely, it suited Mullen et al (2011) to use a combination of descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. Regression analysis helped analyze effects of leadership pm demographic controls while in the healthcare sample, all analyses were shown as multilevel regression. The concepts collective efficacy, relational conflict, and transactive memory that were investigated by Solansky (2008) were best analyzed using an analysis of variance. Kelloway et al (2012) carried out a cross-level and an individual level analysis for their first study. Transformational leadership was considered a level-2 (cross-level) variable while trust and employee psychological wellbeing was seen as a level-1 (individual level) variable. This study and their second study also used descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Similarly, Mattason et al (2012) used correlation analysis and descriptive statistics to examine their findings. AMOS software was used in this analysis. Like Ersoy et al (2012), Cole et al (2011) used factor analysis and complemented it with regression analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used in this analysis. Critical review of the literature Ersoy et al (2012) used an experimental design in their study and this has the benefit of establishing beyond doubt that cultural orientation and leadership style affect organizational citizenship. Additionally, it is a strength with this design that it allows for the replication of the procedures followed in the study in order to establish the generalizability of the results of that study. However, the artificiality of the set things the subjects may be asked to do may distort behavior. The use of a structured questionnaire fit well for an experimental design because it helped to restrict the behavior of the subjects to the required elements and factors. Whereas the factor analysis used in this study helps in reducing a number of variables into a single factor, it cannot establish causality. Descriptive statistics would have been an alternative analytic strategy. The survey design used by Hartmann et al (2010) has the strength of convenience in data gathering. This is because the survey questionnaire can be administered in several ways including through email, fax and face-to-face. The other strength with this design is the fact that it allows for little or no observer subjectivity hence the bias in the results is minimized. A shortcoming with this design is that it is inflexible in the way in which it is administered in a single study. Additionally, the design is not ideal for controversial issues because of the difficulty associated with reconciling divergent opinions held by the subjects. A grounded theory design can help make up for this shortcoming because it provides a chance for subjects to give their subjective views. Interviews would work better with a grounded theory design than the questionnaires used by Hartmann et al (2010). A strength with the multivariate analysis used in the study is that it allows leadership researchers to look at the relationships between variables from an overarching dimension and quantify these relationships. Additionally, multivariate analysis gives a robust understanding of a leadership phenomenon through the control of association between variables by using multiple regressions, partial correlation and cross tabulation to produce other variables that can help to better understand the association. However, multivariate analysis has the shortcoming of using high level mathematics that requires statistical programs. The cost of these programs and the mathematical skills required make it a costly analytical strategy. To compound this shortcoming, the assumptions used in these mathematical calculations make it difficult to interpret their results. Another shortcoming of multivariate analysis is the large sample required because it involves high standard errors. Large samples yield results of high confidence than small ones. It was appropriate for Mullen et al (2011) to use an experimental design because it clearly captured the causative relationship between inconsistent style of leadership and safety behavior. Interviews might not have been the best data collection method for the experimental designs because it captures much more information that would have sufficed the purpose of a grounded theory research more than an experimental study. Questionnaires were a more appropriate method of data collection for the study. A strength of Mullen et al (2011) that draws from the use of descriptive statistics is the fact that the vast amounts of data and information gathered are managed and organized with relative ease. A problem with descriptive statistics and one that does not fit will with the experimental design is the fact that they do not explain the cause of phenomenon under study. Correlation analysis was suitable for this Mullen et al (2011) study because a correlation indicates a relationship between the variables under study. Regression analysis was particularly suitable for this study because it helps predict future likely scenarios. Read More