Relevance of Lewin, White and Lippitts Leadership Styles in Current Organization - Essay Example

Leadership in nursing is required in order to efficiently manage the challenges and obstacles which result due to healthcare workforce and workplace problems. A lot of research has been done on the leadership styles to be adapted in the changing organizations of today (Cummings et al. 2009). Here we will examine the leadership styles proposed by Lewin, White & Lippitt and their relevance in nursing leadership.

Lewis, White, and Lippitt made a study of the leadership styles. According to them, leaders acted in three main ways, laissez-faire, democratic, and autocratic leadership style. Autocratic leaders dictated terms and people had to obey them blindly. Democratic leaders discussed all probabilities and also made followers take their own decisions. Laissez-faire is the extreme opposite of the autocratic leadership style. They completely parted with all responsibilities to the followers. The experiments conducted by Lewin on planned change and styles of leadership spurred the launch of group dynamics research and change programs implementation (Burnes 2004).

Nursing is basically a people-oriented profession and hence there is considerable focus on humanity and this is one of the basic factors influencing nursing leadership. In order to deal with daily work routines and situations, nursing managers need to make the most use of situational leadership. For this, the manager must be aware of the leadership styles employed, tasks and the processes and systems followed in the healthcare organization. Nursing managers who can successfully combine the above-mentioned attributes attain maximum success in handling challenging situations (Sellgren, Ekvall & Tomson 2006).

However, the traditional leadership styles experimented on a group of children by Lewin, Lippitt, and White may not be the most popular leadership style adapted by nurse managers. In fact, on the basis of these behavioral forced leadership styles, transformational leadership was subsequently developed and is still considered one of the most popular leadership styles adapted by nurse managers. Transformational leadership styles take on all the aspects of democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire styles and apply it depending on the situation warranted. Hence, in today’s changing healthcare organizations, nurse managers have to utilize all the three leadership styles proposed by White, Lippitt, and Lewin depending on the situation (Molero et al. 2007).

Changes made in the organizational structure also affect the leadership style to be adopted by nurse managers. Also, the diverse phases of development that an organization goes through warrants diverse management efforts and the leadership style should be in compliance with the particular stage through which the organization runs through. The current changes in the environment affecting the culture in the organization also spur nurse managers to create a specific leadership style of their own in order to handle tasks efficiently (Lindholm, Sivberg & Uden 2000). Hence, most nurse managers employ all three styles of democratic, laissez-faire, and authoritative depending on the situation.

The leadership style adopted by nursing managers depends on the climate of the group. The manager needs to find out whether the needs of the group are meted out and whether the group is so formed in order to handle group goals. In this case, the nurse leader needs to first make a retrospect of his or her behavioral traits. Accordingly, the current situation in the organization should be taken into consideration and the nurse manager should change her leadership style as per the situation.

A nurse’s personality may not suit the particular role assigned. Hence, the nurse manager needs to find out the differences in her personality and change them according to the role focus. Secondly, nursing managers must be capable of directing and planning the group effectively and efficiently. Nurse Managers must positively motivate the team to perform tasks efficiently. In this case, democratic nurse managers are considered to be more efficient and task-oriented than those who adopt an authoritative or a laissez-faire style of leadership.  The group task also determines the appropriate leader and at times the style of leadership needed to be followed by the leader. In all the above instances, the leadership styles proposed by Lippitt, White, and Lewin are still used by nurse managers in most healthcare organizations.