Significance of Transformational Leadership in Nursing Practice - Case Study Example

July 21, 2016

Significance of Transformational Leadership in Nursing Practice

Introduction

Influence over people in an individual’s environment defines leadership and is necessary for ensuring effectiveness and efficiency of individual nurses and a facility. Influencing practitioners to rely on evidence-based practice, to learn use of and to use contemporary technology, and to promote self-care among clients are examples of ways through which leaders can improve outcomes despite challenges in a nursing environment. Besides the influencing capacity of a leader, transformational leadership motivates and empowers individuals into great performers. Transformational leadership is proposed as a strategy to improving outcomes of nursing practitioners and nursing facilities through development of its significance and analysis of its moderator factors.

Significance of Transformational Leadership

Need for Leadership

Nursing leadership has a wide scope that is fundamental to nursing outcomes. It is used to develop leadership competency among nurses right from their introduction to the nursing profession in initial training. The educator assumes a role of educating nursing students of benefits of leadership; need to be a leader, and significance of nurse leaders in evoking change for benefiting the nursing profession. Nurse leadership also involves exemplary service delivery and advocacy for patients and societies, a perspective from which an individual leads by example. Other aspects of nursing leadership identify nurses who “develop, analyze, and interpret policy,” as well as “innovative and visionary administrators” in a nursing environment (Canadian Nurses Association, N.d., p. 1). Not only does the scope identify significance of nursing leadership in influencing nurses towards better outcomes, but also it establishes importance of the leadership as a trait of every nurse. It also notes that as each nurse should strive to be a leader in the profession, he or she should also strive to develop leadership competence in other nurses (Canadian Nurses Association, N.d.).

Leadership, however, do not always yields positive results. Wright (2015, 1) explains the concept of toxic leadership that he associates with negative effects on “subordinates, the organization, and mission performance” and lack of focus on needs of subordinated. This, together with the nursing definition of leadership identifies two extremes of leadership, the good and toxic leadership. Good leadership focuses on subordinates to empower them in leadership and practice, unlike toxic leadership that disregards subordinates. Sometimes, however, a toxic leadership may focus on short-term mission performance and undermine long-term interest of subordinates and the organization. A case study of Stolz’, a military commander, identifies a leader who did not regard the interest of his subordinates and was insensitive to their social and emotional needs. Disempowerment, cancellation of granted offs, and selfish interest in activities and leadership, and requirements that subordinates be available on his demand were some characteristics of the leader’s behavior. Even though his leadership approach could be termed as toxic, he believed that it was for the benefit of the platoon, and the effects were positive. Team support grew under the leader, and his platoon became more united, with better performance and readiness for long-term objectives of the platoon (Wright, 2015). A desire to meet organizational objectives, short-term or long-term, therefore, may require application of different leadership styles, each of which may have its secondary effects.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is one of the leadership styles that the full range leadership model offers. Unlike the toxic approach in which a leader yields to environmental demands to undermine interests of subordinates and the organization in pursuit of organizational goals, transformational leaders are considerate (Breaux, 2014). They are less likely to overlook people’s personal needs and instead focus on improving the environment around subordinates. Transformational leaders also inspire others and apply indirect influence on followers. A case of Jerry Newman of Bronco County in which response efficiency was increased illustrates the leadership approach and its effectiveness. Having noted a problem in response time, the director called for a meeting in which he referred to his subordinates as ‘folks.’ He included himself in the problem and asked the team to deliberate on possible solutions. All opinions were embraced and upon implementation of resolutions, response time reduced to less than half the initial time. Intellectual stimulation that “encourages innovation and creativity” (1) was an aspect of the leadership approach. It shifted power to the subordinates, achieved the desired objective, and motivated the subordinates to the extent that they perceived possibilities of further improvement in response time. Unlike the transactional leadership approach, a leader requires resources for rewarding performance and time and effort for active management, the transformational leadership approach is cost effective and offers a leader time that can be used to improve other aspects of an organization.

Empirical results also support effectiveness of transformational leadership style, especially in the healthcare environment. The style that is more profound among nurse managers than is among nurse staff, in the United States, has been associated with positive results in nursing. Data on 2617 nurses in Belgium also identify effectiveness of the transformational leadership style and notes stimulator effects of the style. Some of the effects are motivation from which subordinates offer more input, positive attitude towards leaders, job satisfaction among employees, focus on realization of goals, and low employee turnover. An independent study from Norway, according to Breaux (2014), shows that intellectual stimulation that is an aspect of the transformation leadership style influences rationale of followers. Focus on rationale together with a problem-solution approach was also identified in Minnesota as effects of the transformational leadership’s intellectual stimuli (Breaux, 2014). Implementation of the intellectual stimuli model, of the leadership style, in the healthcare environment, therefore, offers benefits to different stakeholders such as patients, practitioners, care organizations, and partners.

Inspirational motivation is another aspect of the transformational leadership style and has demonstrated effectiveness the Sunset County’s health sector. A new leader was hired to improve condition of the county that had witnessed poor employee morale, high rate of absenteeism, high rate of employee turnover and poor services patients and hospital staff. The new leader was visionary, valued subordinates, and motivated them. Breaux1 (2014) associated the reported leadership traits of the leader with inspirational motivational model of the transformational leadership. Empirical studies from different regions and across time, according to the author, have also supported effectiveness of the leadership model. A study from Netherlands, for example, identifies the model with success in healthcare and welfare organizations. Results from Israel also associate transformational leadership with organizational success and welfare of nurse leaders. In addition, the results identify nurse awareness of their transformational leadership roles. The author also associates the leadership style with individuals who offer absolute support to their subordinates, promote intra and inter-team relationships, and promote individual participation in teams. Another effect of transformational leadership that also identifies its effects on nursing outcomes, according to Deschamps, Rinfret, Lagace, and Prive (2016) is promotion of different forms of justice in an organization. Effects of these such as a sense of equality are likely environments that can motivate employees in a work environment.

Factors Affecting Transformational Leadership

Motivation is one of the effects of transformational leadership and forms of justice around it moderate its effects. Procedural justice is an example of the moderating forms and the moderator effects of the different forms of justice vary. Procedural justice, for example and within the context of Quebec's’ healthcare environment, has greater moderator effects on the motivational effects of transformational leadership than is distributive justice (Deschamps, Rinfret, Lagace, and Prive, 2016). The level of intellectual capital that an organization has also influences effectiveness of its transformational in the positive direction (Amjadi, Mahmoud, & Hosseinzadeh, 2014). The authors note that even though intellectual capital also influences effects of transactional leadership style, it is more significant on effects of the transformational approach. Use of technology such as computers, involvement in professional development events, and computer skills, according to Afshari, Bakar, Luan and Siraj (2012) who investigated leaders in Iran’s educational sector, increases effectiveness of the transformational leadership style.

Conclusion

The discussion identifies significance of leadership in the nursing environment with a wide scope of leadership that includes development of leadership among nurses, leadership in nursing practice, advocacy, and policy development. The transformational leadership is one of the leadership approaches that the wide-range model offers and is effective, especially in the nursing and healthcare environments. The leadership style, however, is more profound among nurse managers than among nursing staff. The leadership style leads to benefits to different stakeholders such as patients, practitioners, care organizations, and partners. Justice to stakeholders, improved health outcomes, and improved work environment are some of the direct benefits of the leadership approach. Its effectiveness is not only theoretical because observations together with empirical results support it. Forms of justice in an environment moderate the motivational effects of transformational leadership and factors such as intellectual capital, use of technology, and computer competence increases the overall effectiveness of the style. A recommendation, therefore, is made for promotion of transformational leadership style among nurses at all levels of an organization. In addition, moderator factors such as intellectual capacity, use of technology, and computer competencies should be promoted among all nurses to boost their effectiveness in leadership, especially in transformational leadership.