There are very many ways to lead and each and every leader has been found to have his or her style of leadership. This leadership styles include Autocratic, Democratic, Laissez- faire or free reign and Bureaucratic. These are known to be the four major leadership styles. Other additional leadership styles are transactional, transformational, charismatic, servant leadership, situational, relation-oriented and task-oriented. Most emphasis is put on the four major leadership styles as they are commonly used.

Autocratic Leadership

In this type of leadership it is the leader who solely carries out the role of making decisions. This kind of leadership will be used where the managing team has to keep close supervision on the employees as they cannot work well without it. In this situation the employees usually need to be pushed to do the work well has they cannot be involved in the decision making of the firm or the business entity. In this type of leadership, the manager has full authority and power to make any decision without consulting the employees (Singh 1999). The employees are expected to obey the orders of the manager without adding any input. The only way to motivate them through this leadership style is by setting punishments and rewards according to the results of the work done.

This type of leadership has been highly opposed and criticized as those working under this authority feel like they are treated as slaves. They claim that they should have a say and also allowed to participate in the decision making. Employees feel that their managers do not trust them therefore there may be a very bad relationship between the management and the employees is poor.

Democratic Leadership

It is also known as participative leadership. This can be termed to be the best leadership style as the employees are allowed to be part of the decision making though the manager has the final say. This may highly influence the decision made as many opinions help to make better decisions. The manager keeps his or her employees informed about the issues affecting the business and also make them part of the problem solving. This already acts as a motivation to the employees as they know they have been trusted by their employer. There is team spirit in this kind of leadership and the employees always respond with cooperation (Singh 1999).

In participative leadership the work production is of high quality and quantity. The employees will always be looking forward to work as they are appreciated. The manager also enjoys working with them and will reward them through promotions.

Laissez-faire Leadership

It is also known as free reign or hands off. This means that the manager does not have control over the employees but leaves them to have the power and authority in decision making. Employees are also left to determine the goals and resolve the problems on their own. This may also encourage team spirit as every is their own boss therefore easy to cooperate.

The only problem is that this kind of leadership can only be applicable where the employees are highly skilled for effective decision making. They must be in a position to fully understand the responsibilities properly. The other disadvantage is that there is no manager to recommend the employees on the work done so there is little motivation. This kind of leadership should not be used where the employees are insecure because of lack of a manager and where they are not sure whether the decisions they have made are worth (Singh 1999).

Bureaucratic Leadership

A bureaucratic leader is one who ensures that the standards that have been set are followed properly by the team members. In this kind of leadership the scope for deriving new problem solving measure is ruled out hence reducing project performance. Here the manager is more of a police than a leader as he or she always goes by the policies that have been set to ensure that they are followed. Employees cannot disagree with anything and are not allowed to make any contributions towards the set policies.

This is not a good type of leadership also especially where the employees lose their interest toward their job due to the many restrictions. They are not free to do anything more than what is expected therefore this lowers their morale. This type of leadership is best used where employees are dealing with equipment that may put their life in danger if not handled with care.

How two of these styles are applicable in the nursing profession.

In hospitals there are different types of employees ranging from those that are highly skilled to those who are unskilled. These include professionals, nurses & paramedics and non-medical. Professionals are the doctors, specialists and surgeons who are highly qualified and skilled for the job they do. To them money is not the issue but rather their psychological needs being met (Singh 1999). Their psychological needs include participation in the decision making process. With that they feel a sense of belonging and achievement in their work. Therefore the best kind of leadership style to use on the professionals is democratic.

The nurses and paramedics are a group of semiskilled workers that have a lower social status than that of the professionals. As they begin, the type of leadership that should be applied should be autocratic. As they get used they get a sense of direction and are able to do good work without great supervision. This is where democratic kind of leadership may come in handy and here they are given the chance to participate in the decision making (Feldman 2008). Therefore both autocratic and democratic leadership styles will apply for them.

The non-medical employees group contains the unskilled workers with very little education. They also have a low socio-economic status therefore to them money and other material benefits will satisfy their needs. For them job security is the important issue therefore using autocratic leadership on them would be the best (Singh 1999).

There are two situations in a hospital which include normal and crisis. When the situation is normal, the best kind of style to use on professionals, nurses and paramedics is the democratic style. They may all come together to discus the hospital disasters and the solutions to their problems through democratic leadership. This is because they are skilled and it is easy for them to handle situations on their own because of the skills they have acquired. Non medical staff is better of governed with autocratic leadership even in the normal situations. The other situation is that of a crisis where there is a wide spread disturbance. It is at such a situation that the hospital disaster plan is activated and it may not be easy to have control over it if autocratic leadership is not used (Singh 1999).

Effective leadership is indispensable and is required in utilization of scarce resources in a hospital. It is clear that the type of leadership highly used is democratic for professionals, nurses and paramedics and very little autocratic for the non medicals. The factor of job satisfaction is very important especially to the skilled workers. In hospitals the doctors, specialists and nurses want to feel that they have delivered the patient care satisfaction showing that they enjoy the work they are doing (Ramey 2002). This can only be driven through the application of democratic leadership.

Example of a practice and how one of the styles affects it

Clinical nursing is one of the hospital practices which require a lot of attention and skills. The nurses should be capable of providing quality healthcare to the patients concerned. Leadership skills are very important for ethical and critical decision making. They are also fundamental in the initiation and maintenance of working relations with the other working mates. The vital nursing leadership is being aware of the healthcare systems present to be able to provide effective and high quality healthcare (ACCN Board 2008). For this to be possible they should apply the democratic leadership because the nurses have the freedom to participate in the decision making process.

For example, if the nurses are given the opportunity to look after their patient and out of the skills they have, they are able to know which medication to administer. They do not require supervision from other doctors to do that because they have the self drive that makes them do so. This kind of leadership present is democratic and the results of the practice turn out to be positive. The patients will enjoy the services of the nurse while the nurse will get their satisfaction from the job after seeing the progress of the patients. For effective results the nurses should have the skills and knowledge of the levels of Microsystems for the changing healthcare.

Reference:

Singh, J., (1999), Effective Leadership for Better Management of Hospital, Government Medical Hospital, India.

HYPERLINK “http://www.jkscience.org/archive/volume13/Effective%20Leadeship.pdf” http://www.jkscience.org/archive/volume13/Effective%20Leadeship.pdf

ACCN Board, (2008), The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice, Retrieved September 3, 2010 from HYPERLINK “http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education/pdf/baccessentials08.pdf” http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education/pdf/baccessentials08.pdf.

Ramey, J. W., (2002), The Relationship Between Leadership Styles of Nursing Managers and Staff Nurse Job Satisfaction in Hospital settings, Marshall University College of Nursing and Health Professions, West Virginia.

HYPERLINK “http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.8276&rep=rep1&type=pdf” http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.8276&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Feldman, H. R., (2008), Nursing Leadership, Springer Publishing Company.

HYPERLINK “http://www.springerpub.com/samples/9780826102584_chapter.pdf” http://www.springerpub.com/samples/9780826102584_chapter.pdf