NURS FPX 5007 Assessment 1 Leadership Styles Application

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Capella university

NURS-FPX 5007 Leadership for Nursing Practice

Prof. Name

Date

Leadership Styles Application

The paper will analyze three leadership styles applicable to a complex managerial challenge in a healthcare setting. In this scenario, Marty, an experienced nurse dealing with challenging personal circumstances, is frequently observed sleeping at her desk, arriving late, and missing work. These behaviors led to concerns among her colleagues, who feel overburdened by covering her responsibilities, and complaints from other departments about her performance.

Although her supervisor knows these issues, significant action has yet to be taken, resulting in a strained work environment. Addressing this issue is essential to ensure a supportive, productive work environment and to prevent potential risks to patient care quality and team morale. By proactively managing workplace challenges, leaders can promote staff well-being, accountability, and optimal patient outcomes (Gashaye et al., 2023).

 Major Tenets of Leadership Styles

Here are three leadership styles relevant to the “Sleeping on the Job” scenario, each with essential characteristics that could address the issues Marty and her team face:

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership aims to bring people to the desired state by creating a positive change. This style calls for a leader to understand the individual attributes of the team members and the specific difficulties they have to face. As for Marty, the support of a transformational leader and the proposal of resources allowing her to overcome the work-life balance problem may stimulate her performance. Providing useful support and encouraging openness in communication, this style can also prevent and solve issues with team morale and help them achieve a deserved appreciation (Tsapnidou et al., 2024). 

Democratic Leadership

 One of the approaches practiced in the democratic leadership system is soliciting ideas from other team members and including the team members in decision-making, thus increasing accountability amongst group members (Qtait, 2023). In this case, a democratic leader can sit down with Marty and the team and find solutions that would translate to personal issues that the female leader is facing without escalating pressure to other members. This method could diminish resentment among workers by allowing them to air their views and develop implementation strategies that reflect the team’s input, thus leading to ownership. 

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership focuses on organization structure, framework, and accountability; it includes working towards acceptable and understandable agreements involving organizational employee rewards given with correspondingly high levels of employee performance anticipated and enforced. Using this style, a transactional leader could first set performance expectations, followed by the repercussions of failure to meet these expectations (Mekonnen & Bayissa, 2023). It could be used here to follow the implementation of specific and measurable goals for addressing Marty’s tendency to be absent from work and sleep during working hours. Compared to other leadership styles depicted herein, transactional leadership could offer Marty the needed direction and consequently view her as meeting organizational standards on a prescribed criterion.

Particular Leadership Styles’ Effectiveness 

The following discussion is how leadership styles could effectively address the “Sleeping on the Job” situation. Firstly, transformational leadership would be effective here because it encourages a supportive, motivational approach. Marty is dealing with personal stressors affecting her work performance, and a transformational leader could connect with her individually, understanding her struggles and offering guidance. By motivating her and recognizing her challenges, this leadership style could help improve her commitment to the team and inspire her to work towards a higher standard, ultimately fostering a more positive and cooperative environment for everyone (Tsapnidou et al., 2024).

Secondly, democratic leadership could be effective because it invites input and collaboration from Marty and her colleagues, making the solution a shared responsibility. This style allows the team to openly discuss the impact of Marty’s actions on their workload and morale, ensuring that her issues are addressed while also balancing the team’s needs. By involving everyone in decision-making, a democratic leader can help reduce resentment, improve trust, and encourage Marty and her coworkers to work together toward a balanced, supportive solution (Qtait, 2023).

Lastly, transactional leadership could also be effective because it establishes clear expectations and consequences, which could help Marty understand the importance of meeting her responsibilities. By setting straightforward rules about attendance and productivity, this style creates a sense of accountability. While it is less personal than other styles, transactional leadership could address Marty’s behavior by setting specific standards. This might motivate her to improve her performance to avoid potential consequences, enhancing her team’s accountability (Mekonnen & Bayissa, 2023).

Positive and Negative Implications of Each Leadership Style

This section is essential for thoroughly analyzing each leadership style and understanding its pros and cons. 

Transformational Leadership

• Positive Implication: A transformational approach could create a supportive and motivating environment for Marty – sometimes because of caregiving and sometimes because she needs care. By expressing empathy and encouraging Marty to have some goals to renovate herself at work, the leader can make her feel appreciated and increase her organizational commitment and work performance. This could also improve staff or team pride since others may get motivated by positive energy within a group.
• Negative Implication: However, the disadvantage is that all these steps may appear to other staff as partiality because they see Marty, for instance, as being favored due to her problems. The outcome might be resentment toward her coworkers because they are forced to handle her job with similar treatment that is not reciprocated. This perception may cause a lack of group identity and frustration if the leader’s support of one employee is perceived to have been negotiated on the backs of others (Lin et al., 2020).

Democratic Leadership

• Positive Implication: Democratic leadership could help to decrease tension and consequently improve the situation in the work environment, as it implies engaging the team in discussion and problem-solving activities (Qtait, 2023). If Marty listened to the objections of her coworkers, everybody would have a chance to express themselves, and most people’s hatred toward her would lessen, and employees would start to feel more unified. Furthermore, Marty will be motivated by the fact that everyone on the team is interested in the result of the process. 
• Negative Implication: While using this style may help some people save time and produce good results, it may also be less efficient in decision-making, especially when people become rather emotional during discussions and the atmosphere becomes tense. Marty may get the impression that she is being singled out if her performance is publicly debated, worsening her stress and morale. Furthermore, due to the identification of conflicting objectives, this approach may provoke no specific changes, thereby not resolving the core of the problem and frustrating the entire team.

Transactional Leadership

 

• Positive Implication: Transactional leadership might bring some advantages for both Marty and her team due to the structure and clarity of this organizational management style. In Marty’s case, defining the roles, responsibilities, and consequences makes it easy for the victim to understand what is expected of her and what will happen if she does not meet those expectations. Such an approach may assist her in changing her behavior where and when it is wrong and ensure that everyone within the team is working objectively. 

• Negative Implication: However, more on a technical note, it does not necessarily mean that they could meet all these needs in a way that helps them overcome their deep-rooted problems, such as stress due to caregiving or sleep apnea, respectively. If the leader concentrates only on the rules and punishment, Marty can hardly feel that someone cares about her, and her health and productivity can deteriorate. Moreover, this approach could cause problems within a team if her subordinates consider it too formal and severe, especially if the line of work is care-related (Richards, 2020). 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, addressing Marty’s performance issues through appropriate leadership styles is essential for maintaining a supportive, productive healthcare environment. Transformational leadership offers empathy and motivation, while democratic leadership fosters team collaboration and accountability. Transactional leadership brings structure and clarity to expectations. By carefully balancing these approaches, the leader can create a fair solution that benefits Marty and her colleagues and ultimately enhances patient care quality.

References

Gashaye, M., Tilahun, D., Belay, A., & Bereka, B. (2023). Perceived utilization of leadership styles among nurses. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, Volume 16(1), 215–224. https://doi.org/10.2147/rmhp.s388966 

Lin, C. pei, Xian, J., Li, B., & Huang, H. (2020). Transformational leadership and employees’ thriving at work: The mediating roles of challenge-hindrance stressors. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(1), 1–19. NCBI. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01400 

NURS FPX 5007 Assessment 1 Leadership Styles Application

Mekonnen, M., & Bayissa, Z. (2023). The effect of transformational and transactional leadership styles on organizational readiness for change among health professionals. Sage Open Nursing, 9(9). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10336755/ 

Qtait, M. (2023). Head nurses’ leadership styles and nurses’ performance systematic review. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 18(1), 100564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2023.100564 

Richards, A. (2020). Exploring the benefits and limitations of transactional leadership in healthcare. Nursing Standard, 35(12), 46–50. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.2020.e11593 

NURS FPX 5007 Assessment 1 Leadership Styles Application

Tsapnidou, E., Kelesi, M., Rovithis, M., Katharakis, G., Gerogianni, G., Dafogianni, C., Toylia, G., Fasoi, G., & Stavropoulou, A. (2024). Transformational leadership—quality achievements and benefits for the healthcare organizations: A scoping review. Hospitals, 1(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.3390/hospitals1010008