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Leadership in Professional Nursing Essay

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Leadership in Professional Nursing
Introduction
Every day, a set team of nurses and nursing managers set out to ensure the health and well-being of their patients. To achieve this goal, a nurse manager must adhere to a specific style of nursing leadership. There are many different styles of leadership in the healthcare field. Bass and Barnes (1985) stated that the two most common are transformational and transactional (as cited in Frankel, 2008, p.24). This paper will define leadership, the two different styles, how each are executed, as well as pros and cons of each.
Review of Professional Nursing Literature
Stogdill (1950) defines leadership as the process of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts …show more content…

The boss must be careful and narrow down the areas in which improvement is needed and explain why the improvements are needed. When utilizing this method, Sutton suggested that they (bosses) consciously break out of the power bubble by asking for direct input and feedback (as cited in Flora, 2010, p.50). By doing this, nurses are allowed to hold a functioning role in the development of policies. Bass (1985), found that “the transformational leadership factors were more highly correlated with perceived group effectiveness and job satisfaction, and contributed more to individual performance and motivation, than transactional leaders” (as cited in Frankel, 2008, p.23). This type of leader is often found empowering their employees and giving them a sense self worth within the company. Steers (1977) found “commitment improves work performance and reduces absenteeism and turnover which are costly to organizations (as cited in Loke, 2001). Transactional leadership is built on reciprocity, the ways in which leaders and followers influence one another, and the idea that the relationship between leader and their followers develops from the exchange of some reward, such as performance rating’s, pay, recognition, or praise (Marturano, 2004). This style of leadership does not promote a close relationship amongst the boss

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