Case study : Traditional Leadership Theories

Traditional Leadership Theories Case-Study
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Traditional Leadership Theories Case-Study

Traditional Leadership Theories Research on leadership has a long history, but the focus has shifted over time from personal traits to behavior and style, to the leadership situation, to change agency (the capacity to trans- form), and to other aspects of leadership. Each phase and focus of research has contributed to managers’ insights and understandings about leadership and its development. Traditional leader- ship theories include trait theories, behavioral theories, and contingency theories.
Case study : Traditional Leadership Theories
In the earliest studies researchers sought to identify inborn traits of successful leaders. Although inconclusive, these early attempts to specify unique leadership traits provided bench- marks by which most leaders continue to be judged.

Research on leadership in the early 1930s focused on what leaders do. In the behavioral view of leadership, personal traits provide only a foundation for leadership; real leaders are made through education, training, and life experiences.

Contingency approaches suggest that managers adapt their leadership styles in relation to changing situations. According to contingency theory, leadership behaviors range from au- thoritarian to permissive and vary in relation to current needs and future probabilities. A nurse manager may use an authoritarian style when responding to an emergency situation such as a cardiac arrest but use a participative style to encourage development of a team strategy to care for patients with multiple system failure.Case study : Traditional Leadership Theories

The most effective leadership style for a nurse manager is the one that best complements the organizational environment, the tasks to be accomplished, and the personal characteristics of the people involved in each situation.

Contemporary Theories Leaders in today’s health care environment place increasing value on collaboration and team- work in all aspects of the organization. They recognize that as health systems become more complex and require integration, personnel who perform the managerial and clinical work must cooperate, coordinate their efforts, and produce joint results. Leaders must use additional skills, especially group and political leadership skills, to create collegial work environments.Case study : Traditional Leadership Theories

Quantum Leadership Quantum leadership is based on the concepts of chaos theory (see Chapter 2). Reality is constantly shifting, and levels of complexity are constantly changing. Movement in one part of the system reverberates throughout the system. Roles are fluid and outcome oriented. It matters little what you did; it only matters what outcome you produced. Within this framework, employees become di- rectly involved in decision making as equitable and accountable partners, and managers assume more of an influential facilitative role, rather than one of control (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2010).

Quantum leadership demands a different way of thinking about work and leadership. Change is expected. Informational power, previously the purview of the leader, is now available to all. Patients and staff alike can access untold amounts of information. The challenge, however, is to assist patients, uneducated about health care, how to evaluate and use the information they have. Because staff have access to information only the leader had in the past, leadership be- comes a shared activity, requiring the leader to possess excellent interpersonal skills.

Transactional Leadership Transactional leadership is based on the principles of social exchange theory. The primary premise of social exchange theory is that individuals engage in social interactions expecting to give and receive social, political, and psychological benefits or rewards. The exchange process between leaders and followers is viewed as essentially economic. Once initiated, a sequence of exchange behavior continues until one or both parties finds that the exchange of performance and rewards is no longer valuable.Case study : Traditional Leadership Theories