What is leadership? Leadership rises up a variety of thoughts, reflections and images.

These may include power, influence, followership, dynamic personality, charisma, goals,
autocratic behaviour, innovation, cleverness, warmth and kindness. We may also think about
leaders we have worked with in the past, or are currently working with, and reflect on the
qualities and behaviour of an effective leader (Jewell, 1998; Daft, 2004; Muchinsky, 2006).
Over the years, researchers have explored different dimensions of leadership as is evidenced
by the many definitions that exist, including Leadership is the ability to influence people
toward attainment of goals. (Daft, 2000) and Leadership is defined as influence, that is, the
art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically
toward the achievement of group goals. (Weihrich and Koontz, 2005) and lastly leadership
involves the use of interpersonal skills to influence others to accomplish a specific goal.
(Sullivan and Garland, 2010)
A common theme that seems to run through many definitions is that leadership
involves influencing the attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and feelings of other people (Spector,
2006).
In the 1930s, Kurt Lewin and associates at the Iowa State University conducted a
research on leadership and suggested a finding about three leadership styles that are
inclusively acknowledged today. The three styles are autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire
leadership, in which would further be elaborated as to what these three styles which are.
Firstly, Autocratic Leadership style blooms in highly structured, hierarchical chain-ofcommand environments such as the military or very bureaucratic organizations. This type of
leader exercises almost absolute power and commands strict compliance and conformity. This
leader determines prescribed policies, procedures, rules, and goals. He or she is the decision
maker and such self-directed decisions are final (Conger & Benjamin, 1999). In nursing, this
particular style is used by the appointed leader in situations that calls for staffs to execute
simple tasks ordered by a higher authority such as taking patients temperature.

Secondly, Democratic Leadership also is known as participatory where the authority

is often entrusted to others. An individual manifesting this type of leadership recognizes each
persons self-worth and esteem. The leaders actions are based upon trust, integrity, honesty,
equality, openness and mutual respect. Democratic leaders show consideration and concern
for others by empathetic listening and understanding. They foster open communication
among all employees at all levels. Reasons and circumstances pertaining to decisions that
affect the employees, department, or organization are shared in a timely fashion. Under such
leadership, a highly positive, motivation-oriented environment is established to help satisfy
the higher-level self-esteem and self-actualization needs as defined by Abraham Maslow
(1998) in his hierarchy of needs. The democratic or enlightened leader practices employee
involvement in considering important issues and exercises influence in reaching consensual
decisions. The ultimate goal is to democratically attain commitment to and ownership of
decisions
Thirdly, it is the Laissez-faire Leadership. This style of leadership is usually passive
and permissive. Also tries to avoid in decision making. Such a leader provides basic but
minimal information and resources. There is virtually no participation, involvement, or
communication within the workforce. Understanding of job requirements, policies, and
procedures are generally exchanged from employee to employee. Because of this, many
processes are out of control. No direction is given and the laissez-faire leader functions in a
crisis or reaction mode. If there are goals and objectives, employee agreement or commitment
is just assumed. Even if goals and objectives are shared, rarely is there a defined plan to
accomplish them.
Each style was weigh in order to determine which one is the best and Lewis (1938)
summarised that autocratic leaders were linked with high-performing groups but that close
supervision was essential and hostility feelings were always present. Low productivity and
frustrations was associated with laissez-faire leaders.

A leader isnt appointed merely to lead an organization to ensure the followers are not
astray or live in utter confusion. Leadership are made up of three fundamental basic
characteristics that guarantee the steadiness as well as stableness of a union.
The first characteristic is the guiding vision. It converges on a professional and
purposeful vision that provides direction towards the preferred future. Leadership requires a
vision. Not just a photograph or an image in the leaders head, but a complete understanding
for the big picture of where the leader wants to be. It should be a clearly communicable
picture of the future, steeped in value, and philosophy, as well as structure. A clear vision
provides direction and establishes purpose so they know what it will look like three years
from now. When a problem arises, their vision facilitates them toward a solution. When their
vision is challenged by outside forces, they have the structural strength to defend it. A clear
vision is not always completely agreed on by all followers; it doesnt have to be. The vision
belongs to the leader, and the followers work with the leader to find the best way to get to it.
Great visionary thinking utilizes a symbiotic relationship between the leader and the follower,
fostering collaboration, innovation, and camaraderie.
Finally, leaders have a set of values that set the standard for how they will attain their
vision. True values need to contain a deeper meaning, an application within the context of the
organization, and a passion for adhering to them. The exercise of generating values
organizationally is pointless unless the leaders organization is willing to change its cult to fit
the values, or conversely, the values are actual descriptions of the current organizational
culture.
Next on the list is passion. A leader must be passionate in what they are doing and
possesses the ability to aspire and align people towards lifes goals. A leader also brings great
passion to his or her work. A leader is not afraid to express emotions or exhibit great
enthusiasm for the organization. This is especially true in an educational setting, where
people follow the example of its leader. Educational leaders desire faculty who are passionate
about their subjects and students, who are passionate about learning. They also want staff to
be passionate about the services they render and alumni to be passionate in their support.
Faculty, students, and staff, in turn, want to see great passion in the leader of the institution.

Lastly, integrity. It is critical for effective leadership. People expect their leader to be
honest. A leader must be aware that nearly every action or decision is being closely observed
and assessed by those within the organization and often beyond the organization especially by
constituents, customers, and the public. If integrity is lacking, or perceived to be in question,
then employees and stakeholders alike will lose confidence in the leader and, ultimately, the
organization.
Over the past two decades, transformational leadership compentencies has emerged as
one of the most popular approaches to understanding leader effectiveness. Transformational
leadership rests on the assertion that certain leader behaviours can arouse followers to a
higher level of thinking (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978).
By appealing to followers ideals and values, transformational leaders enhance
commitment to a well-articulated vision and inspire followers to develop new ways of
thinking about problems. Indeed, the positive association between transformational
leadership and follower behaviours is well documented (Fuller, Patterson, Hester, & Stringer,
1996; Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996), and studies have
begun to examine the process by which those effects are ultimately realized (e.g., Bono &
Judge, 2003; Dvir, Eden, Avolio, & Shamir, 2002; Kark, Shamir, & Chen, 2003).
Transformational element as comprising three behavioural components (Gurka, 1995)
which are charisma or idealized influence where the leader engenders in the members a sense
of pride, respect, faith and respect, together with a sense of purpose/mission. Next is
individualized consideration. It is the leader manifests a deep concern for the well-being of
the members, and provides mentoring and thirdly is intellectual stimulation in which the
leader stimulates members to think in original ways, emphasising the triumph of reason over
irrationality, and challenging established ways of thinking.

According to Bass (1985), transformational leaders provide constructive feedback to

their followers, convince followers to exhibit extra effort, and encourage followers to think
creatively about complex problems. As a result, followers tend to behave in ways that
facilitate high levels of task performance. In addition, transformational leaders make their
organizations missions salient and persuade followers to forgo personal interests for the sake
of the collective. When followers equate their own success with that of their organizations
and identify with the organizations values and goals, they become more willing to cooperate
in order to make a positive contribution to the work context (Podsakoff et al., 1990).
Transformational leaders may play a particularly strong role in the management of
meaning and social information. Shamir and his co-authors (1993) suggested that leaders who
exhibit transformational behaviours can influence how followers judge a work environment
by using verbal persuasion and by clearly communicating the value of an organizations
mission. Similarly, Bono and Judge (2003) suggested that transformational leaders help
followers view work goals as congruent with their own values. There are reasons to expect
that the same management of meaning processes may be used to influence job perceptions.

The answer to what makes an effective leader has long been the holy grail of
business research. By and large, theorists have abandoned trait and behaviour approaches in
favour of situational leadership theories. Popular press gurus, however, continue to focus on a
leader ethic (traits and behavior) as the foundation to effective leadership. Further, gurus
such as Goleman (emotional intelligence) and Covey (eight habits) believe that this
fundamental ethic is universal to mankind.
As such, some researchers use Stephen Coveys eight habits of effectiveness to
explore how leaders from various cultures rank popular traits and behaviours that make up a
leader ethic. First in the list of the eight habits of the effective leader as described by
Stephen R.Covey is Put First Things First or Time Management. It emphasize daily planning
and the ability to develop priorities and to delegate appropriate tasks. Focus on activities that
support your values and personal mission. Understand what is urgent and important in your
life. Balance todays production with long-term development. A nurse who wants to be in the
line of nursing for a very long time must be able to stay focus on it and minimise their time
for insignificant distractions by straightening their priorities, organise, and finally execute. It
is a difficult test for nurses to utilize almost all their time solely for urgent matters such as
health promotion.
Secondly, Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood or Empathic
Communication. Focus on listening carefully to others to understand their frame of reference
and appreciate their perceptions before the presentation of ones own ideas. This particular
principle displays the habit of empathy. The ability to focus on the clients reality to
experiences is vital to positive communication.
Next is Have a Balanced, Systematic Programme for Self-Renewal. It emphasize the
continuous and balanced investment of time to maintaining or improving ones physical,
social, spiritual and mental health. This attribute suggests the importance of continuous
personal growth on effective leadership. The leadership aptitude of nursing is able to go far if
they uniformly involve in tasks that renew the four aspects of self: physical, mental,
emotional-social and moral being.

Fourth is Begin with the End in Mind or Personal Leadership. It possesses a clear
understanding of your desired destinations and the development of strategies to accomplish
personal objectives. Ensure that actions are in line with objectives. This principle suggests
that nurses ought to distinguish what is important and strive to perform what matters the most
every day.
Fifth is Be Proactive or Personal Vision. Take responsibility of your own life. Develop
a keen sense of awareness and the initiative to influence outcomes. Choose behaviours that
match your value system. Nurses need to set goals and work to achieve them. They agree to
be response-able in dealing with clients whole human responses to their health concerns.
They believe that its not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that
hurts us.
Sixth is Find your own voice and inspire others to find theirs or Intellectual Growth of
Employees. It is to focus on helping followers rethink rational ways to examine a situation.
Encourage employees to expand their capabilities, paradigms and creativity through
intellectual stimulation.
Continuing the list is Create Win/Win Solutions or Conflict Resolution. Seek and
create mutually beneficial solutions to conflicts between individuals or groups. Understand
that too much conflict causes organizational turbulence. A client has the advantage from
being permitted by a professional nurse offers informational support whereas the nurse
benefits by having the interventions authorized and the sense of presence with the client
valued.
Lastly, Value differences and bring all perspective together or Employee
Commitment. Create employee motivation through their emotional commitment to your
values, beliefs and vision. This attribute involves a combination of charm and personal
magnetism that contribute to the ability to create change and to get people to passionately
endorse your ideas. The key habit for a nurse to adapt this principle is respect. It goes as far
as the nurse expediting respect for the male or female perspectives so the client is more likely
to feel freer in seeking potential possibilities.

Planning
Organising
Staffing
Directing
Controlling
Figure 1: Principles of Management
Nurse managers are more likely to be involved in the operational planning, which is
done in conjunction with budgeting, usually a few months before the new fiscal year. It
develops the departmental maintenance and improvement goals for the coming year.
Strategic planning is designed to respond effectively to their new situations. It is a
disciplined effort to produce fundamenta1 decisions and actions shaping the nature and
direction of an organizations (or other entitys) activities within legal bounds. These
decisions typically concern the organizations mandates, mission and product or service level
and mix, cost, financing, management or organizational design. Strategic planning was
designed originally for use by organizations. In this article we will concentrate on its
applicability to nursing. In strategic planning, there are two environments that need to be
assessed; Internal and External environments.

Intern
al

Markets
Competition
Healthcare Trends
Economic Factors
Technology
Social Factors
Educational Factors

Extern
al

Patient care
Financial Resources
Human Resources
Information Systems
Research and
Development
Capabilities
Educational Systems

To understand further as to what is internal and external represent, internal

environment is an assessment of the organization itself in order to identify its strengths and
weaknesses. External Environment is exploration of the environment outside the organization
in order to identify the opportunities and threats the organization faces.
Once both environments are established that determine the strength, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats, nurse managers are able to scheme Objectives, Strategies, Plans,
Implementation, and Evaluation.
Organising is a SWOT analysis which is the identification of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats are very important in strategic planning because every effective
strategy will build on strengths and take advantage of opportunities, while it overcomes or
minimizes weaknesses and threats.

Strength:

Management Development
Qualifications of Staff
Medical Staff Expertise
Facilities
Location
Quality of Service

Weakness:

Scarcity of Staff
Financial Situation
Cash Flow Position
Marketing Efforts
Marketing Share

Opportunities:
Nurse Recruitment
Physician Recruitment
Referral patterns
New Programmers
New Markets
Diversification
Population Growth
Improved Technology
New Facilities
Threats:

Shortage of Nurses
Decrease in patient satisfaction
Increase in accounts receivable
Decrease in demands for services
Competitions
Regulations
Litigation
Unionization
Loss of Accreditation

Once the situation inspect is completed, the management team reviews the
philosophy, identifies vision and values, writes a purpose or mission statement, identifies
organisational goals and objectives, plans strategies to accomplish the objectives, identifies
required resources and determines priorities and accountability while setting the time frames
(Huber, 2006, Swansburg & Swansburg, 2006; Sullivan & Decker, 2005; Yoder Wise, 2007).

Staffing is the third phase of the management process. In staffing, the leader
manager recruits, selects, places, indoctrinates, and promotes personnel development to
accomplish the goals of the organization. Healthcare managers have long been sensitive to

the importance of physical resources and financial resources to the success of service
delivery.
During the last several decades, the value and potential for development of a third
e l e m e n t , t h e h u m a n r e s o u r c e h a s g a i n e d n e w r e c o g n i t i o n . The importance
of viewing personnel as a critical resource is crucial to meet challenges faced in a
rapidly changing healthcare environment with limited resources. Staffing is an especially
important phase of the management process in health care organizations because such
organizations are usually labour intensive.
Additionally, this large workforce must be composed of highly skilled, competent
professionals. Ensuring the adequacy of skilled staff to accomplish organizational goals is an
important management function. The human resource management is the department that
handles staffing usually such as recruiting, interviewing, testing, selecting, orienting, training,
developing, transferring, caring for, evaluating, rewarding, disciplining, promotion, and
dismissing employees.

Turnover is the rate at which employees leave their jobs for reasons other than death
or retirement. Turnover is expensive because of the resulting recruitment and orientation
costs of hiring new staff to fill the vacancies.

In staffing, there is a way to plan when shortage of nurses happens. There are two
aspects to weigh namely; leadership roles and management functions associated with
preliminary staffing functions.

Leadership Roles
Plans for future staffing needs
proactively by being knowledgeable

Management Functions
Ensures that there is an
adequate skilled workforce to

regarding current and historical

staffing events.
Identifies and recruits talented

people to the organization.

Seeks diversity in staffing, which

the recruitment of staff with

organization recruiters.
Plans and structures

appropriate interview
activities
Uses techniques that increase

reflects the diversity of the population

being served.
Is self-aware regarding personal biases

during the pre-employment process.

Seeks to find the best possible fit
between employees unique talents and

meet the goals of the organization.

Shares responsibility for

the validity and reliability of the

interview process.
Applies knowledge of the
legal requirements of interviewing

organizational staffing needs.

Periodically reviews induction and

and selection to ensure that the

orientation programs to ascertain they

organization is not unfair in its

are meeting unit needs.

Ensures that each new employee

hiring practices.
Develops established criteria

for selection.
Uses knowledge of organizational

understands appropriate organizational

policies.
Continually aspires to create a

needs and employee strengths

work environment that

promotes retention and worker

satisfaction

to make placement decisions.

Interprets information in
employee handbook and provides

input for handbook revisions.

Participates actively in
employee orientation

Accurately predicting staffing needs is a valuable management skill because it enables

the manager to avoid staffing crises. Managers should know the source of their nursing pool,
how many students are currently enrolled in local nursing schools, the usual length of
employment of new hires, peak staff resignation periods, and times when patient census is
highest. Analysing historical patterns, using computers to sort personnel statistics, and
keeping accurate unit records are examples of proactive planning.

Directing includes several staffing functions. Directing entails human resource

management responsibilities such as motivating, managing conflict, counselling, delegating,
communicating,

and facilitating

collaboration.

Nurses

should be equipped with

communication skills in order to provide correct information on what the patient needs to
know, so that the patient can make decisions, reduce his/her anxiety and feel safe and secure.
Counselling is important in helping patients share their problems with nurses.

Delegation can be defined simply as getting work done through others or as directing
the performance of one or more people to accomplish organizational goals. It is an essential
element of the directing phase of the management process because much of the work
accomplished by and occurs not only through their efforts but also through those of their
subordinates. For the manager, delegation is not an option but a necessity. Frequently, there is
too much work to be accomplished by one person. In these situations, delegation often
becomes synonymous with productivity.

However, there are some usual errors in delegation might happen like failure to
delegate, failure to release control, inadequate or unclear direction/miscommunication, lack
of follow-up or supervision, incompetent personnel, and lastly inadequate authority
(empowerment).

During the controlling phase of the management process, performance is measured

against predetermined standards and action is taken to correct discrepancies between these
standards and actual performance. Employees who feel they can influence the quality of
outcomes in their work environment experience higher levels of motivation and job
satisfaction. Organizations also need some control over productivity, innovation, and quality
outcomes. Controlling then should not be viewed as a means of determining success or
failure but as a way to learn and grow, both personally and professionally.
Four steps in Controlling

Establishing performance standards

Measuring individual and organizational

performance
Comparing actual performance to planned

performance standards
Taking corrective actions

Because the management process, like the nursing process, is cyclic, controlling is not
an end in itself; it is implemented throughout all phases of management. Examples of
management controlling functions include the periodic evaluation of unit philosophy,
mission, goals, and objectives; the measurement of individual and group performance against
pre-established standards; the monitoring of expenses and use of supplies; and the auditing of
patient goals and outcomes.

In conclusion, it is often stated that there is a need for leadership skills in nursing
because nurses are responsible for leading and managing the care environment and must
exercise leadership during their interactions with patients and their families and colleagues
(Heller et al, 2004). Moreover, leadership has a positive impact on employee satisfaction and
patient care (Paterson et al, 2010).
In addition to this, it is frequently emphasized that the need for knowledgeable and
skilled nurse leaders within healthcare organizations is increasing (Scoble and Russell, 2003;
Huston, 2008). Words of warning have even been directed at nurses, that if they want their
views and opinions to make a significant contribution to the future of health care they must
develop leadership skills and take on leadership positions (Mahoney, 2001).
Clarke (2000), cited in Mahoney (2001), also reported a shortage of both leaders and
leadership in nursing, a viewpoint supported by Wolfe et al (2005), Woodring (2004) in the
USA, and Carney (1999) in the Republic of Ireland. Woodring (2004) further proposes that
developing leaders and leadership potential in both clinical and academic arenas is vital to the
profession and demands urgent attention. A common recommendation is that the challenges
of clinical care, nursing leadership and management duties be met through education and
training (Kleinman, 2003). More specifically, Mahoney (2001) advises that leadership skills
can be advanced through leadership programmes, workshops and professional education
seminars.

Further research by Glasman et al (2002) has shown that leadership development

programmes have a positive impact on new leaders and that leadership training has a positive
impact on institutions. Hughes et al (2006) also believe that experience makes a valuable
contribution to leadership development, but that formal education makes a significant
contribution as well.

References
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