NRS 451 Compare two leadership theories

Two leadership theories I found interesting regarding nursing were the Great Man Theory and Contingency Leadership Theory. Both fall in line with my experience with leaders and my experience being a leader of people. The Great Man Theory is a perspective that leaders have inherited traits that they are born with; compared to the Contingency Leadership Theory is dependent upon a situation that a leader adapts to in response to the situation which makes a leader (Whitney, 2018).

The Contingency Leadership Theory is situational-based. Both are precise as it relates to nursing. An example is when nurses gain experience, they learn different problem-solving skill sets. This can be clinical, occupational, and operational experiences. These experiences provide the nurse to adapt to situations and respond as a leader to challenges. The pitfall of the Contingency Leadership Theory is that if a nurse does not have many challenging experiences, they may not be able to grow as a leader.

The Great Man Theory, however, has many more weaknesses because a nurse would have to be “born” with a leadership trait. This theory suggests that unless you were born with good leadership traits, you might not be a good leader. As nurses, we are all managers of care and leaders of the profession.

Reference:

Whitney, S. (2018). Theories and concepts in leadership and management, Nursing leadership and management leading and serving, Grand Canyon University. https://lc.gcumedia.com

The contingency leadership theory founded by Fred Fielder in the 1960s claims that a good leader adapts to situations (Whitney, 2018). Whitney (2018) says, “This theory supports the idea that success is not due to characteristics of the leaders’ personality, but rather, external factors that influence the leader in certain situations.” One of the benefits of the contingency leadership theory is that it allows leaders and followers to work easier together. Because the leader in this theory does not have any specific characteristics, it allows the individual to be more accommodating. A weakness for the contingency leadership theory is that people in a leadership position are not suitable for every situation, like the theory would suggest. The situational leadership theory was also founded in the 1960s by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard (Whitney, 2018). Like the contingency leadership theory, the situational leadership theory is dependent on the situation. Whitney (2018) defines the situational leadership theory as “…adapting leadership styles based on the situation and predicts the most appropriate leadership style based on the situation and the follower’s maturity level.” According to Gaille (2018), some strengths of the situational leadership theory are the adaptability and flexibility allows for a more comfortable work environment, however, in task-oriented environments—one will be at a disadvantage with this theory”… because they’re being asked to follow a particular set of rules, policies, or regulations that are inflexible”.

Gaille, B. (2018). Situational Leadership Advantages and Disadvantages. Small Business and Marketing Advice.

Whitney, S. (2018). Theories and Concept in Leadership and Management. Grand Canyon University (Ed.). Nursing Leadership and Management: Leading and Serving.

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The Great Man Theory- born to become leaders. Leaders are born with the right traits and abilities for leading. Charisma, intellect, confidence, communication skills, and social skills. At the time it was adopted it was particularly Male and military leaders. Leaders are born not made (Zalani, R. (2019).

Nursing is a female dominated field. Nurses are made and trained. The more experience the better a nurse is. Experience is a virtue in Nursing. Nurses are very intellectual and must have confidence in times of stress. They also must have good communication skills, charisma, and social skills to help win their patients over in trusting them with their care.

Trait Theory- leaders differ from followers. Used to predict effective leadership, compared to as potential leaders to determine their likelihood to lead effectively. Focus on features, age, education, familiar background, intelligence, decisiveness, judgement, and knowledge. Born with certain traits that can make them a leader (Whitney, 2018).

Nurses must have a good sense of judgement and knowledge to do their jobs effectively. Their age though can be young, middle aged, or old. No matter what age a nurse is they are valued. Where the nurse was raised and who their families are does not matter.

Whitney, S. (2018). Nursing Leadership & Management: Leading and Serving. Theories and Concepts in Leadership and Management. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-management-leading-and-serving/v2.1/#/chapter/1

Zalani, R. (2019). 8 major leadership theories: Strengths, weaknesses and examples. Retrieved from https://turnedtwenty.com/leadership-theories/#:~

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What makes a leader and great leader and what contributes to their success? Everyone has their differing opinions on whether leaders are born to be leaders or if it is something that is learned. Two theories that take both opinions into consideration include, the Great Man Theory and Situational Leadership Theory. The Great Man Theory assumes that leaders are born with traits to lead, and they can rise to the occasion when the need for a leader presents itself (Whitney, 2018). The Situational Leadership Theory is based on the follower’s maturity level and depends on the adaptation of leadership styles based on the situation (Whitney, 2018).

The Great Man Theory will allow for an individual to be put into any leadership position and be able to get the job done to for the organization. But it also prevents the leader from being to build a relationship with other team members. In nursing practice this type of leader only has the organizations best interest in mind and does not allow for the focus to be on the patients. In the same sense, this leader can also just be put into any department and may also purely focus on the patient and best nursing practicing. The Situational Leader could easily adapt to their role in any situation. But on the other hand, their role is affected by their followers. Therefore, if their followers or the staff do not like or approve of them, then it will have an affect on the role they play and the accomplishments that can be made.

An organization’s projects and ability to realize its goals and aspirations depend on the fundamental quality of leadership. Different leadership theories exist. I’m going to talk about two different leadership philosophies in this project: transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership theory states that leaders can motivate their followers to perform well by using rewards and penalties in a transactional setting. (Garcia, 2019). You can be sure that your employees will stay motivated to generate high-quality results over the long run if you provide them an incentive program. Sanctions are appropriate because they help to lessen the exhaustion that comes with prolonged exposure to stressful circumstances at work. However, there is a “promise” that no subpar work will be produced as a result of this policy, even if employees lose their motivation to do work of extremely high quality. Since it is imperative to avoid doing any work of poor quality, this may be quite advantageous in the practice of nursing. Threats of compensation and other forms of punishment may be employed to stop the delivery of subpar clinical care.

However, the idea of transformational leadership entails a very “committed” leadership approach that requires managers to work with their staff to identify areas that need change and to come up with effective strategies for making those changes together (Charalambous, 2019). This is a very effective leadership style because employees are motivated to be more interested in and impactful than their boss features when leaders are involved at the “ground level.” This demonstrates that increasing employee engagement may have a greater impact on a leader’s ability to influence their workforce than any other strategy. This strategy may be very helpful for a nurse working in a nursing environment because it promotes better cooperation among nurses. Engaging transformation theory-based, nurses in the planning process would boost their excitement for their profession and enable them to improve their problem-solving skills in the area of health. This leadership approach is associated with some unfavorable traits, such as the idea that employees and managers would work together to produce solutions that, in the end, would be advantageous for everyone concerned. Conflict is likely to arise if some people feel that their opinions are not being heard and their ideas are rejected.

References

Charalambous, M., (2019, Dec). The Pros and Cons of Transformational Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.startingbusiness.com/blog/transformational-pros-cons

Garcia, C., (2019, Jun). Transactional Leadership: Strengths and Weaknesses. Retrieved from https://www.konsyse.com/articles/transactional-leadership-strengths-and-weaknesses/

Leadership is a multifaceted subject, and a combination of various factors determine why some people are successful leaders (Zalani, 2019). A leader is crucial and important to the success of every team. Strong nurse leaders and managers are needed and important to meet nurses’ challenges and advocate for their patients and influence change in the healthcare system (Whitney, 2018).

There are different types of leadership theory which I will talk about two, which include Great man theory of leadership and servant leadership.

Great man leadership was founded by Thomas Carlyle, in the 19th Century (Whitney, 2018). This theory stated that great leaders are born with specific traits that allow them to rise up and lead others, also that great leaders can rise up when the need for them is great (Whitney, 2018). He suggested that the best leaders are born, not made. The strength of the theory is that the leaders already have the quality in them, and they can function as a leader without been trained. They can even be performing the duty i\naturally, which will identify them for a greater position. Its weakness is that the theory only assumes that leaders are born with it not knowing that lots of people are trained and some have the skills through experience. This theory might be good in nursing profession because it will help the leader to do things willingly and be a good example, because if they are born with it, it will be easy for them to show it without been forced or persuaded.

Servant Leadership was founded in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf, this theory believes that through serving others, one may be called to lead (Whitney, 2018). The theory calls for leaders to act in a Christ-like manner, while listening to others without judgment, thinking before reacting, using foresight and intuition, and choosing words wisely (Whitney, 2018). While acting as a servant, the management will note the way the person is acting and they can decide to make him or her a leader, also acting as a servant will help one gain more knowledge and how to care, behave, react and treat people. The theory weakness is that people might want to take them for granted because of their simplicity. And their strength is that it will be easy for them to work with mostly everyone.

Whitney, S. (2018). Nursing leadership & management: Leading and serving. Theories and concepts in leadership and management. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-management-leading-and-serving/v2.1/#/chapter/1:

Zalani, R. (2019). 8 major leadership theories: Strengths, weaknesses and examples. Retrieved from https://turnedtwenty.com/leadership-theories/#:~

NRS 451 Compare two leadership theories