Leadership Style or Skills and Nursing Faculty - Research Paper Example

Research Effective Leadership Style in Controlling the High Employee Turnover Rate within Nursing Faculties Purpose of the Study The main purpose of this study is to identify the most effective leadership style when it comes to controlling the presence of a high employee turnover rate within a nursing faculty. Research Questions The following research questions were used as a guide throughout the process of conducting a literature review: 1. What is the most effective leadership style when it comes to reducing a high employee turnover rate within a nursing faculty? 2. Is the use of transformational leadership style effective in terms of reducing high employee turnover rate within the nursing faculties? Rationale for the Research Topic The shortage of highly qualified nurse educators remains a challenge in some nursing faculty around the world (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2013). In response to the ageing population of nurse educators, a lot of children today are being motivated to pursue a long-term career in the field of nursing. Because of the continuously increasing demand for nursing students, the local colleges and universities are now being challenged on how they can avoid the risk of nursing faculty staff shortage (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2013). Likewise, the local colleges and universities are also being challenged on how they can effectively increase the overall quality of nursing education. As a common knowledge, the use of poor leadership style will increase the risk of high employee turnover rate. Instead of being able to encourage more registered nurses to become a nurse educator, having an ineffective leadership skill will not only discourage our future registered nurses to start a career in nursing education but also lead to the development of a poor nursing educational programmes. For this reason, it is very important for all nurses to fully understand all factors that will contribute to an effective leadership style. By doing so, our future nurses will be able to help reduce the shortage of nursing faculty staff (Royal College of Nurisng, 2010, p. 10). Literature Review The common challenges that most of our nursing faculty leaders are experiencing include recruitment and retention of highly competitive nursing educators (Laschinger et al., 2009). It is important to provide the faculty members with opportunity to participate in a leadership training programme. Failure to do so can make the nursing faculty leaders more dissatisfied and burnt-out with their overall job requirements (Laschinger et al., 2009). By continuously improving the effectiveness of nursing faculty staff recruitment strategies, the leaders of nursing faculty can gradually improve its employee retention rate. To do so, several studies strongly suggest that the leaders of nursing faculty should focus on identifying ways on how they can help them create a healthy and attractive work environment for all registered nurses who wish to pursue a career in teaching (Weberg, 2010). To create a healthy and attractive work environment, the leaders of nursing faculty should be able to improve their leadership skill (Casida and Parker, 2011). Through the use of effective leadership style, the leaders of nursing faculty can easily increase the overall job satisfaction of each nursing faculty staff, increase the nursing faculty staffs’ commitment to their employers, improve the atmosphere within the work environment, and improve the overall nursing staff retention rate (Weberg, 2010). The different leadership style include: authoritative leadership, charismatic leadership, participative leadership, situational leadership, transactional leadership, and transformational leadership (Klainberg and Dirschel, 2010, p. 10). Among the list of different leadership styles, the transformational and transactional leadership styles are commonly used in the field of nursing profession (Cowden, Cummings and Profetto-Mcgrath, 2011; Weberg, 2010). Transformational leadership style encourages leaders to use his/her “vision” and “passion” in inspiring employees to work together towards a single organizational goal, whereas transactional leadership style encourages leaders to use “reward and punishment” when leading a group of employees. In line with this, several studies pointed out that the use of transformational leadership style can help the leaders of nursing faculty increase not only the overall job satisfaction of each nursing faculty staff, but also the recruitment process and retention of highly competitive nursing educators (Cowden, Cummings and Profetto-Mcgrath, 2011; Weberg, 2010). Because of the limitations of transformational leadership style, Codier, Kamikawa and Kooker (2010) suggest the need to combine the use of transformational leadership style with transactional leadership style. In general, effective leadership should be focused on empowerment rather than using too much coercion when directing other people. In line with this, the study of Laschinger, Wilk and Cho (2009) found out that the use of employee empowerment or employee engagement strategy is effective in terms of making experienced nurses feel more effective and highly appreciated at work. Therefore, the transformational leadership style is useful in terms of empowering the members of each nursing faculty to become one of the future leaders. Casida and Parker (2011) conducted a research study which aims to explore the effects of using transformational and transactional leadership style on the “leaders’ extra effort”, “leadership satisfaction”, and “effectiveness”. Unlike the use of transactional leadership style, Casida and Parker (2011) found out that the use of transformational leadership style has strong correlations with “leaders’ extra effort”, “leadership satisfaction”, and “effectiveness”. Likewise, the study of Cowden, Cummings and Profetto-Mcgrath (2011) also revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between the transformational leadership style and the provision of a “supportive work environment” with the nurses’ desire to stay in their current work position. For these reasons, the use of transformational leadership style is seen as a better option in terms of motivating the leaders of nursing faculty to work better to reach the organizational goal. There are other leadership styles that can equally work well in terms of improving the nursing faculty’s recruitment and retention of highly competitive nurse educators. Aside from the transformational leadership style, the study of Tomey (2009) found out that the use of participative leadership style is also equally effective for creating a “healthy workplace environments and healthy patients and personnel”, increasing the overall work satisfaction of each nurse, improving the retention rate of the nurses and the quality service given to the customers. Basically, participative leadership style is more focused on encouraging the nursing faculty staff to participate and become more involved in all major and minor decision-making processes with regards to the nursing students’ curriculum. The nursing course is unique in the sense that the students are required to gain knowledge both inside the classroom and within the hospital or clinical setting. It is the duty and responsibility of all clinical instructors to make use of effective leadership style in order to be able to increase the learning experience of the nursing students. To increase the students’ learning experience, there is a need to combine the use of situational leadership style with Hersey-Blanchard’s four (4) leadership styles known as: telling, selling, participating, and delegating (Lunenburg, 2012, p. 122). Aside from the need to supervise the nursing faculty staff closely, the use of Hersey-Blanchard’s telling style strongly suggests the nursing faculty leader should provide the staff with specific instructions on how they ought to deliver a new curriculum to the nursing students. For this reason, the telling style is more applicable to new nursing staff who would require more guidance from the nursing faculty members who have been with the same organization for a long time (Lunenburg, 2012, p. 122). In case the new nursing faculty staff has been with the same organization for 2 to 3 years, it is best to use the selling style. Basically, the nursing faculty leaders who use the selling style is expected to “explain decisions and solicit sugegstions from followers but continue to direct tasks” (Lunenburg, 2012, p. 122). Participating style means that the nursing faculty leader will “make decisions together with the nursing faculty members”, whereas the delegating style means that the nursing faculty leader will allow the nursing faculty members to make and implement decisions (Lunenburg, 2012, p. 122). It means that the use of Hersey-Blanchard’s situational leadership style is highly dependent on the work exposure and experiences of each nursing faculty staff (Ledlow and Coppola, 2011, p. 73). Conclusion The title of this study is “Effective Leadership Style in Controlling the High Employee Turnover Rate within the Nursing Faculties”. The future demand for nurse educators is expected to increase over the next few years. However, the number of ageing nurse educators is also increasing. To prevent the shortage of nurse educators, the nursing faculty should continuously motivate nurses who are newly graduates to consider a career as a nurse educator. The use of effective leadership style is one factor that can motivate the young individuals to stay loyal to their employers. It will also motivate them to continuously improve their knowledge and skills as a nurse educator and a member of the nursing staff. Considering the importance of improving the nursing faculty’s recruitment and retention of highly competitive nurse educator, I intentionally chose this title for my research study. Works cited American Association of Colleges of Nursing. “Nursing Faculty Shortage”. American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2013. Web. 13 February 2013. Casida, Jesus and Jessica Parker. "Staff nurse perceptions of nurse manager leadership styles and outcomes." Journal of Nursing Management 19.4 (2011): 478-486. Print Codier, Estelle, Cindy Kamikawa and Barbara Molina Kooker. "The impact of emotional intelligence development on nurse managers." Nursing Administration Quarterly 35.3 (2011): 270-276. Print Cowden, Tracy, Greta Cummings and Joanne Profetto-Mcgrath. "Leadership practices and staff nurses intent to stay: a systematic review." Journal of Nursing Management 19.4 (2011): pp. 461-477. Print Farag, Amany A., Susan Tullai-Mcguiness and Mary K. Anthony. "Nurses perception of their managers leadership style and unit climate: are there generational differences?" Journal of Nursing Management 17.1 (2009): 26-34. Print Klainberg, Marilyn and Kathleen Dirschel. Todays Nursing Leader: Managing, Succeeding, Excelling: Managing, Succeeding, Excelling. London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers International, 2010. Print Laschinger, Heather S., P. Wilk, J. Cho and P. Greco. Empowerment, engagement and perceived effectiveness in nursing work environments: does experience matter? Journal of Nursing Management, 17.5 (2009): 636–646. Print Ledlow, Gerald and Nicholas Coppola. Leadership for Health Professionals. London: Jones & Bartlett Learning International, 2011. Print Lunenburg, Fred C. Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices. 6th Edition. CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print Royal College of Nurisng. “Guidance on safe nurse staffing levels in the UK”. Royal College of Nurisng, 2010. Web. 10 February 2013 . Tomey, Ann Marriner. "Nursing leadership and management effects work environments." Journal of Nursing Management 17.1 (2009): 15-25. Print Weberg, Dan. "Transformational leadership and staff retention: an evidence review with implications for healthcare systems." Nursing Administration Quarterly 34.3 (2010): 246-258. Print Read More