Head nurses’ perceptions of leadership in a community hospital

• Main Author: Giglio, Vivian L.
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/5276

Decentralization and changes in the health care industry in British Columbia are forces which have precipitated changes in the head nurse role. Head nurses are in a pivotal leadership position within today’s nursing organizations and serve to intergrate staff nurses’ needs with the organizational goals and vision. However, there are few studies based on head nurses’ perceptions of their leadership. The purpose of this study was to describe head nurses’ perceptions of their leadership by using the transformational leadership framework (Bass, 1985b) to identify leadership styles and outcome factors. Specifically, this descriptive study examined head nurses’ perceptions of their leadership from transformational and transactional perspectives. The study was conducted in an acute care hospital in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. A sample of 16 head nurses completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The scores obtained were used to provide a profile for each head nurse, the head nurses as a group, and to compare data for the sample and normative groups. Generally, head nurses perceived their leadership to be transformational and, to a lesser degree, transactional. In transformational leadership, the head nurses reported using high levels of individualized consideration and inspirational behaviors. In transactional leadership, they reported using contingent reward behaviors, and to a much lesser extent, management-by-exception behaviors. In terms of outcomes, the group of head nurses perceived that their leadership style positively influenced organizational outcomes. Implications of the findings for nursing administration, education, and research are presented.