Chaleffs Perception of Leaders and Followers - Essay Example

Chaleff’s (1995) Perception of Leaders and Followers Introduction Many studies have been implemented to explore the influence of leadership styles on the behaviour of followers. The focus in this case has been the behaviour of leaders with followers being reduced to mere receivers of a leader’s input. However, it is important to consider followers in an organization from the perspective of their identities and values they uphold while at the same time examining their perceptions of leaders. This is accompanied by in-depth research into a follower’s self-will and determination through a theory referred as intrinsic motivation (Chaleff, 2009). Leadership styles are an important component of a medical organization, but it is important to note that followers are responsible and determine their behaviour, which has an effect on service delivery. The relationship between a leader and a follower should be interrogated to ensure it is follower-centred for effectiveness and efficiency at a medical centre. Follower’s behaviours bear significant impacts owing to a leader’s style that is mediated by the self-determination of a follower. The confident demeanour of a leader can be cited as a factor contributing to their competence, but it can also be misconstrued to indicate a leader who stifles the participation of followers. It can be deduced that exhibition of nonverbal confident demeanour on the side of leaders contributes to decreased participation of followers in discussions (Chaleff, 2009). Clinical situations involving staff nurses Staff nurses form an important component in any medical organization owing to the immense responsibilities they shoulder as they dedicate their services towards patient care. Nurses provide the direct contact between a medical organization and patients. This contact point is therefore, of immense importance in the promotion of values and policies upheld by hospital organizations. This in mind, the nursing fraternity within the organization is bound by some established structure, which is responsible for the oversight of responsibilities assigned to individual nurses. This hierarchal structure has clearly identified nurse leaders who work in tandem with other departments and report to the management of the organization (Chaleff, 2009). The clinical example to be cited is the routine activities of staff nurses who take care of the sick daily and are tasked with the responsibility of responding to emergencies. These staff nurses bear immense power collectively and as individuals and they determine the success or failure of a medical organization. The management of hospitals including nurse leaders should understand that nurses possess some significant form of power while viewed from the follower’s perspective. It is therefore, the responsibility of nurse leaders and other leaders in the medical hierarchy to ensure consideration is placed on the needs of nurses with the aim of increasing their productivity (Chaleff, 2009). Nurse leaders are deemed to reap heavily from their nonverbal display of confidence from gaining the faith of patients as well as ensuring nurses carry out their responsibilities effectively and in line with established hospital guidelines. The display of confidence is accentuated by the tone of voice used, direct and frequent eye contact, and an expanded posture (Meindl & Shamir, 2007). This display of confidence in a nonverbal manner can have a downside when applied to nurses at a medical organization as it limits the participation of nurses in deliberations and thus is a contributor to poor communications that ultimately yield suboptimal decisions. It is important for nurse leaders to ensure their demeanour promotes the perception of their competence as opposed to representing oppression and a judgmental person. Nurses are less likely to implement decisions proposed by nurse leaders who seem to carry themselves on a higher pedestal than their peers. This leads to a situation where individual nurses when carrying out their duties apply self-determination. Some of the undesirable features that can be deduced in service implementation are the presence of hostile nurses who do not respond to patient’s needs and only carry out their assigned tasks without application of humanity. Remarkably, such an approach could be unfavourable to the hospital’s image due to perceptions of lack of incorporation in decision-making processes. Joint-decisions are difficult to be conducted because the nursing staff does not meet eye-to-eye with the leadership and hence their actions are left to their own discretion. Leader in the hospital setting has some connotations of the individuals that play supervisory roles while the followers in this case are staff nurses (Meindl & Shamir, 2007). The supervisory role is supposed to be concerned with increasing the effectiveness of followers on their tasks and this cannot be achieved through self-engrossed leaders. It is important that leaders attain the approval, respect, and understanding of their subordinates for effective implementation of common goals. Nurses can increase their effectiveness if their views are incorporated and are in tandem with the organization’s leadership (Chaleff, 2009). This translates to better services being offered to patients with increased care, dedication, and attention from nurses who feel motivated inn carrying out their assigned tasks. Some of the decisions that need consultations in the hospital setting include establishment of a routine chart that is accommodative of nurses’ opinions as opposed to the assignment of responsibilities randomly and at the discretion of nurse leaders. The followers perception and in this case the staff nurses on their role within the medical facility is an imperative factor that contributes to service delivery. As indicated earlier, nurses have some form of power related to service delivery within the hospital setup even though the power might not be explicit. The power at their hand is effected on perceptions related to their position and role in the organization. Followers have the power to operate according to their own determination in cases where the nurse leader and other management organs seem to disregard their services and this can have far-reaching consequences on the organization in its entirety. The follower’s perception linked to a leader’s behaviour has adversarial effects on a follower’s feelings towards the autonomy and competence of the leader and this contributes to the nurses’ motivation (Chaleff, 2009). The motivation amongst nurses is reduced in instances where leaders are perceived to be less competent and lack autonomy in their decisions as opposed to scenario is where the perception of autonomy and competence is high (Meindl & Shamir, 2007). Nurses are challenged as followers to implement positive changes in their behaviours by competent leaders and this translates to improved service delivery to patients. Positive outcomes are recorded in hospitals where staff nurses have increased self-determination as opposed to scenarios in which nurses are used as mere tools for the implementation of an organization’s policies (Meindl & Shamir, 2007). The leader’s behaviour has a direct correlation with the conduct of a follower and thus it is essential for nurse leaders to set practical examples to be followed as opposed to leaning on directing. Leadership can be approached from two perspectives that include transactional nurse leaders and transformational nurse leaders. The two types of leadership styles have produced differing results in the nursing profession. It is important to note that staff nurses who have perceptions of their leaders as decision-makers fail to contribute towards decision-making process and this effectively hampers their role and ability of implementing single-sided decisions. Nurse leaders should increase initiatives aimed at increasing the autonomy of nurses to ensure that nurses are motivated to initiate their actions as opposed to depending on nurse leaders’ direction (Chaleff, 2009). The staff nurses as the followers in the hospital setting are confronted with tough decisions that require prompt action when dealing with patients and it is only at their discretion that tasks can be implemented effectively. Followers should be encouraged to pursue internal motivation, which will contribute to the increased perception of their nurse leaders as partners. This type of view is advantageous to the medical organization because nurses despite their position, make sound judgment when dealing with patients for example in the administration of drugs. Positive mentalities increase the effectiveness and power of staff nurses and this rubs off on their ability to perform under different circumstances. Transformational leadership in the hospital setup departs from authoritarian and directing principles to be accommodative of subordinates’ perspectives on varied issues (Chaleff, 2009). Transformational leadership encourages the self-determination of staff nurses and hence positive behaviours are noted. Transactional leadership style in the nursing profession can have detrimental effects on the performance of employees and their perception of nurse leaders. Transactional nurse leaders offer examples of a dictatorial regime where the views of staff nurses are not incorporated in decision-making and this posits a challenge to service delivery, which is the core mandate of nurses (Meindl & Shamir, 2007). The nurses’ perception of their leaders is reduced significantly as well as denting a blow on the attribute of staff nurses as followers. Follower’s carry out their tasks with the negative perception of their leader’s abilities and this disillusions them and thus affects the delivery of services. Conclusion Transformational leadership practice amongst nurse leaders can be described as leadership that communicates and articulates a clear organizational vision with well-thought out plans of achieving the vision. The leaders practicing the transformational style lead at the front setting examples to staff nurses to emulate while they empower staff nurses to work for the achievement of the established vision. The vision serves the purpose of empowering staff nurses towards working harder and giving their work some meaning and direction. The empowerment of staff nurses creates an environment in which some degree of autonomy is applied and thus increasing their effectiveness and participation within the organization (Chaleff, 2009). References Chaleff, I. (2009). The courageous follower. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Meindl, J. R. & Shamir, B. (2007). Follower-centred perspectives on leadership. Greenwich, Conn.: IAP. Read More