Headship theories

Headship theories

Headship theories are the established thoughts that explain why and how particular people become managers. They focus on the attributes, along with the behaviors that people can acquire to enhance their leadership capabilities. The formal leadership theories entail the great man theory, contingency theory, behavioral theory, along with the situational theory. The great man theory suggests that leaders have the inherent traits and abilities for leading, and some of the characteristics include communication skills, confidence, and social skills. Moreover, the theory defines leaders as mythic and ordained to get into leadership when the right situation arises.

Likewise, the contingency theory emphasizes the distinct variables in a specific environment that decide on the best leadership style that suits the situation. The situational leadership theory, on the other side, implies that leadership relies on the situation at hand. It states that leaders should usually correspond their headship to the various situation by evaluating specific variables like the nature of the disciples and the type of tasks performed by the followers. The behavioral leadership theory focuses on the behaviors and actions of the leaders instead of their traits. Based on the behavioral theory, effective leadership is usually an outcome of many learned skills that shapes the behavior of a leader.

The firsthand behaviors I observed involved a nurse offering care to a diabetic patient with a lot of empathy and love. The action corresponds with the behavioral leadership theory since the nurse acquired the behavior after providing care to chronically ill patients for a long duration within the nursing practice. Hence the behavior of offering care with empathy and love depicts the behavioral leadership style of the nurse, which consequently makes the nurse be an effective and great leader within the nursing practice. Moreover, the behaviors correspond with the situational leadership theory since the nurse has to offer care with empathy and love based on the situation of the patient. The theories are effective to the healthcare organization because they assist in enhancing the standard of care services offered by the organization to foster a healthy patient population. For instance, the behavioral theory will induce specific actions and behavior, which will consequently assist in promoting the standard of care offered in the health care organization. The enhanced quality of care provided by the healthcare organization will, therefore, assist in fostering a healthy patient population due to the improved standard of health of the patients.

Furthermore, the additional resources that evaluate the effect of headship behaviors in establishing a healthy work environment entail Boamah’s work on the effect of transformational headship on job satisfaction, Demirta’s work, along with the Breevaart’s article. The resources mainly offer insight into the mandate of transformational headship on patient safety outcomes and work satisfaction. Additionally, the resources have offered insight into the potential of creating an environment that supports nursing practices that encourage high standard patient care by the managers who demonstrate transformational leadership behavior.

I have seen a nurse manager utilizing the transformational leadership skills in the nursing practice to transform the behavior and nursing practice of the nurses to promote high quality patient care. The manager changed the behavior of the nurses by encouraging the nurses to nurture the culture of open communication between them and the patients to promote the health outcome of the patients. For example, the manager encouraged courteous one on one interaction with the patients while offering care to the patient. The transformational leadership skills depicted by the nurse manager were practical because they assisted in enhancing the standard of patient care while also promoting a harmonized work environment.