Chapter 3: Influence of Leadership Style on Staff Nurse Retention

Leadership has been widely researched in various behavioral sciences. The broad research here is because the success of social, economic, and organizational systems usually depends on the general efficiency and effectiveness of the guidance that leaders provide. Organizations are traditionally classified as social frameworks within which human resources are considered as the essential components for effectiveness and proficiency. Great leadership has received considerable attention within the popular press, and renowned authors on organizational management have discussed its benefits on organizational performance and employee satisfaction and retention. Literature conceptualized great leadership as a way of life and not as a management technique. Perhaps this has slowed the overall acceptance of this leadership theory in academia. Organizations always need great leadership together with employees who are highly satisfied for them to accomplish their goals. By registering some individual capabilities, abilities, and authorities, it is expected of leaders to have a higher capacity of developing a more clear leadership style to help the organizations realize their intended objectives.

Using a sample of 520 staff nurses, Lartey, Cummings & Profetto‐McGrath (2014) did

examine if psychological empowerment mediated the effects that transformational leadership has on the general organizational commitment. The study also examined the structural distance between the leaders and the immediate followers moderated the relationship which is there between transformational leadership and overall organizational commitment. The cross-sectional study design was used in this case, with the result from HLM analysis showing that

psychological empowerment to mediate the relationship which is there between transformational leadership and overall commitment of the employee to the organization.

Existing evidence has also shown that transformational leadership is positively correlated with work behaviors and attitudes at both the organizational and individual level. It is important to note, however, that the process and mechanisms through which transformational leaders exert their influence on the performance and motivation of their juniors are yet to be adequately addressed by the existing literature. It is noted that indeed, there is a great need for much attention being put forward to understand the general process and mechanisms through which transformational leadership tends to influence the attitude of employees and their subsequent intention to remain at the place of work. Literature indicates that one organizational and personal factor that affects organizational performance and subsequently the purpose of the employees to continue staying in the organization is a commitment by leadership. Transformational leaders influence the commitment that junior nurses have towards the organization by encouraging the aspect of critical thinking and involving them in essential decision making — a direction that answers to the desire of the junior nurses to experience very minimal cases of nurse turnover. Such views had been supported by the previous study which indicated that organizational commitment is higher among nurses whose leaders encourage the aspect of participation in the whole process of decision making.

In transformational leadership, for instance, “the main motivational forces rely on the desire to treat members of an organization with the greatest dignity they deserve.” Frederick (2014) stated that most health institutions in the US practice transformational leadership at all times. This leadership style is based on “giving supportive support and being involved with the people.” Hence, most managers use transformational leadership to impact the wellbeing of their

employees effectively. Blake, Leach, Robbins, Pike & Needleman (2013) defines leadership culture of an organization as “necessary for the successful development and growth of a modern institution.” They describe the four primary constructs associated with transformational leadership in an organization: (1) persuasive mapping, (2) emotional healing, (3) altruistic calling, and (4) transparency.

Al‐Hamdan, Nussera & Masa'deh (2016) carried out a study to describe the perceptions

on managerial leadership behaviors that are related to the staff nurse turnover and to make a comparison of the nurse manager leadership behaviors as assumed by the nurses as well as nurse managers. The descriptive, correlational study, in this case, was carried out at a 465-bed community hospital in the north of the United States. All the staff nurse managers that had been employed in both the ambulatory and acute care nursing units were called together to take part in the study. It is worth to note that the study sample, in this case, did compri