Social Role of Leadership - Essay Example

Running Head: LEADERSHIP STYLES Leadership styles Name Institution Date Introduction Leadership is a practice of social influence through which a person or a group of people influences the others in the accomplishment of a communal task or achievement of goals and objectives of an organization. Nursing is one of the most sensitive fields as it is responsible for the health of human beings therefore influential skills of leadership are needed in any health center. A clinical leader is directly entitled to care for the patient as well as motivating the other nurses to offer the best. A good leader should have an attitude which portrays his behavior with superior performance for the benefit of the other workers and the representing organization at large. Anyone who has authority over others, for example, a nurse treating a patient can be considered as a leader (Lewinet al, 1999). There are various types of leadership styles which can be considered depending on the size of the group that is being leaders and the level of leadership. For example, a medical doctor who is in charge of the management of the whole hospital or health center may use different style of leadership compared to a nurse in charge of a ward. The beliefs, preferences, and values together with the culture of the individuals involved may determine the type of leadership style which best fit them (Frankel, 2008). Applicability and importance of leadership styles to effective nursing Developing future leaders and determining the best leadership style is one of the greatest challenges facing most of the nursing personnel and the organization at large. The performance of the organization is determined by the leadership styles skills applied or the considered styles. Leadership styles can be categorized into two main types: autocratic and permissive and these are divided into subcategories. The autocratic one uses the dictation method to instruct the others on what to without allowing them to argue while permissive allows the subordinate to give their views. The type considered should be determined by the by the activities under control and the cultural beliefs and preferences of the concern group (Schriesheim, 1999). There are various leadership styles which are recognized as well as theories which are accountable for the existence of these styles. The most commonly used styles are: authoritarian autocratic or authoritarian, democratic or participative and delegative or reign. Authoritarian is where by the leader instructs the employees on what is expected of them without getting involved in the act. This type of style is mostly used in the practice of nursing in case the leader has no enough time to be with the other professionals or in case of workload calling for emergency, for example, if an accident occurs and all the victims are brought to the health center, the leader may instruct the subordinate on what is expected of them and walk around supervising the operations of each of the officers without participating (Antrobus, & Kitson, 1999). Participation or democratic leadership style is whereby the leader not only instructs the subordinate on what to do but also works together with them. It gives a room for the subordinate to make decisions although the leader has the power to make the final judgment. It is the most considered type in the field of nursing as all the nurses are free to apply their skills provided it is according to the policies of the profession and enhances the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization. The leader is not expected to have the skills of performing any duty under management but hence he should allow specialists in other fields to give their views concerning their field and discuss with the leader on what they feel is the best. The leader can guide some knowledge by involving himself in the duties carried by the other workers (Benefield et al, 2000). Delegative or free reign is another style of leadership which is not very common in the field of nursing although it is sometimes considered especially if the leader does not have the knowledge of the activities being undertaken or if he is under control of a large area. The leader leaves the employees to choose what they feel is better and effective for the achievement of the objectives of the organization. In this case the leader chooses well skilled nurses who are able to handle any complication by their own without any instructions or supervision. Sometimes the senior nurses may be engaged in a variety of activities hence they end up not sticking to either of the mentioned styles of leadership based on their daily routine (Laurent, 2000). Leadership in nursing enables the personnel to gain and portray the best characteristics of an effective role model such as aggressiveness, being visionary and so on. These characteristics should be applied to any level of working so as to capture the attention of the subordinates and be able to influence them toward developing the clinical practice. Leadership in nursing enhances the process of making decision since under all the leadership styles the leader has the mandate of making the final judgment of the decision to be considered. The process of organizing and allocation of duties is simplified because it is the responsibility of the leader to assign duties and keep records for monitoring purposes. In most of the health services the nurses work in shifts, some during the day and others at night (Sullivan & Decker, 2001). The leader has to regularly review the roaster to ensure that the individuals are rotated duties and the services are continuous for the achievement of the objectives of service to the public and saving lives at all costs. Being a leader means that one is in tune with the farewell and operations of the staff members, this is important so as to ensure that the staffs are comfortable at work for them to willingly serve the patients. Leaders ensure that all the aims and objectives of the organization are achieved by supervising the operation and performance of each department and ensuring that ways of improving or maintaining their performance are considered. The continuity of leadership is achieved by mentoring or coaching members with the intention of developing the future leaders (Horton-Deutsch, & Mohr, 2001). Kerfoot, (2001) argues that as a new graduate registered nurse in the clinical practice environment the leadership styles are applicable and effective in my future leadership goals as they. The common styles conform to the changes in the manner of taking action. As a good and an influential leader I will consider the three common types of leadership styles and try as much to apply them all together. Some circumstances like lack of enough time may arise forcing the leader to use the authoritarian style while another such as need for motivation of the workers or communal work like emergency needs the leader to work together with the subordinate and there are some activities which I may not have the skills of carrying out or I may not be available and instead of stopping the operations of the health center i will be forced to leave the workers on their own (Milio, 2002). According to Sofarelli & Brown (1998), applying all the styles will be essential for proper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the workers. By working together with them I will have a chance of keenly studying them while leaving them on their own gives an opportunity of portraying their abilities and inabilities and as a leader I will be able to assess their performance hence locate them duties as per their abilities for boosting the performance of the organization and ensuring that the patients get the best services possible. Transformational leadership promotes the cooperation of the leaders and the subordinates hence embrace reforms and dynamic health care. This is necessary in any nursing homes as different complications will be brought by the patients and the new nurses will be able to interact with the old ones and share their new skills in various fields. The subordinates will also have an opportunity of acquiring leadership skills to become future leaders. This leadership styles never changes but they improve their structure to fit in the changing world (Perra, 2000). Conclusion Nursing is the most sensitive field in the globalizing world as everyone is working hard to have it confined to a family or individual service. Those referred to as leaders in this field have a great role to play, there is need to come up with the ways of reducing the occurrences of illness or reducing its effects by promoting the health conditions of all people in the whole world. This means that the leaders should be aggressive not on hiring the most skilled workers but those that can be flexible to handle any new complication (Porter-O’Grady, 2000). Although the nursing policies do not change, the way of carrying out the acthivi6ties should be improved to fit the recent needs of improving the health status and saving as many lives as possible. The leaders should be clinically efficiency for the purpose of teamwork and effectively influencing the workers to achieve the set goals as well as understanding of the objectives of any health service. Reference Lewin, K., LIippit, R., and White, R. (1999). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271-301 Milio N. (2002). A New Leadership Role for Nursing in a Globalized World. North Carolina: Chapel Hill. Schriesheim, A. (1999)The Great High Consideration: High Initiating Structure Leadership Myth: Evidence on its Generalizability. The Journal of Social Psychology, April 1999, 116, pp. 221-228. Sullivan, E. & Decker, P. (2001). Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Frankel, A. (2008) What leadership styles should senior nurses develop? This is an extended version of the article published in Nursing Times; 104: 35, 23-24. Antrobus, S. & Kitson, A., (1999). 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The need for nursing leadership in uncertain times. Journal of Nursing Management, 6(4), 201-207. Read More