Leadership Practices of Supervisory Employees: An Exploration of Current Practices at a Southeastern Veterans Affairs Medical Center

• Main Author: Zimmerman, Melissa M
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2016
• Subjects: transformational leadership; organizational climate; organizational culture; nurse job satisfaction; nursing leadership; Nursing Administration; Other Nursing
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3149; https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4561&context=etd

As the nation’s healthcare system moves through the 21st century, unprecedented changes are occurring on both a local and global stage. Healthcare organizations are faced with creating and implementing leadership strategies to enhance the overall patient experience. When coupled with the need to ensure increased nurse job satisfaction, improved cost-effectiveness and healthy organizational cultures with fiscally sound budgets, improvement work has led efforts to ensure effective leadership techniques are used across an agency. This task may be viewed as commonplace for some organizations, while others may perceive this process as a complete paradigm shift from historical practices related to leadership style, behaviors and performance. A successful transition during this time of unprecedented change may depend on an organization’s ability to accept and implement the tenets of transformational leadership. Empirical research illustrates that transformational leadership empowers staff, increases job satisfaction and facilitates cost-effectiveness while constructing an environment conducive to the development of a supportive organizational culture. In an effort to ascertain the current state of leadership at a southeastern Veterans Affair Medical Center, this research study explored the self-reporting leadership practices of all supervisory staff employed at the facility. As a means of measurement, the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) was coupled by demographic questionnaire developed by the researcher. Both measurement tools were used to collect the data.