Literature Review on Transformational Leadership on Nursing

Literature Review on Transformational Leadership on Nursing

Managers need practical leadership skills to lead their followers towards achieving common objectives. Business organizations also need effective Leadership for the attainment of the overall goals. Improved organizational performance is often associated with transformational leadership approaches, which impact positively on employee engagement (Tonvongal, 2013). According to Valentinov (2014), a transformational leader works towards supporting his or her business by actively engaging the employees and promoting their creativity.

Additionally, Rowold (2014) has offered tips on how managers can exercise their transformational leadership skills. He suggests that managers can use a Leizzes fare approach of Leadership in which members are free to contribute and engage in organizational activities. Such assertions signify the importance of engaging nursing employee in a transformational leadership to boost their creativity and overall practice. Moreover, people’s empowerment through the enhancement of their achievement and growth is an essential aspect of transformational Leadership.

Also, such Leadership involves influencing the overall culture of an organization such that there is a sense of family. In such as setting, individuals feel encouraged to pursue personal goals as well as business improvement (Morgenson, Mitchell, & Liu, 2015). Transformational Leadership goes beyond the internal business structures of an organization to external factors such as the physical business environment. In this regard, Rowold (2014) has suggested that enhancing the external environment of an organization is essential to promoting employees’ commitment and boosting performance. Furthermore, he suggests that as a part of strategic planning for their organizations, leaders should work towards environmental monitoring, which will impact on the overall organization’s performance and ranking.

Additionally, Rowold (2014) argues that promoting environmental sustainability is an essential aspect of transformational Leadership since it motivates employees towards achieving more for the organization. Also, they tend to be loyal due to environmentally sound working conditions. For this reason, the application of the transformational leadership approach in the nursing sector can be useful in terms of assisting healthcare practitioners in developing strategies that enhance employees’ creativity. Furthermore, they can facilitate organizational effectiveness. Such effectiveness, based on the literature analysis, can be attained by improving both internal and external business environments.

Moreover, employee motivation is a critical function of practical and Transformational Leadership. Different studies have found out that different individuals respond differently to varying leadership styles (Sarwar, 2015). This finding denotes the importance of transformational Leadership in terms of improving personal leadership acumen. For instance, Sarwar, (2015) argues that specific leadership styles such as Leizzes fare and participative leadership approaches are critical factors in determining employee-motivation levels. Furthermore, Sarwar (2015) notes that employees’ response to these leadership styles, especially the transformational Leadership approaches such as participative and Leizzes fare, contributes to improved performance.

Also, individuals in an organization respond differently to various leadership approaches based on the leaders’ traits. For instance, Antonikas & House (2014) argue that employees efficiently respond to leadership qualities such as sharpness, appealing personality, emotional intelligence, and ethical standards. Moreover, the study of Leadership has been applied in understanding changes and performance in areas such as the military, healthcare, psychology, business, and nursing.

These professional fields, according to Bass, Riggio (2017) and Bryman, (2007), have been used by leaders such as supervisors in these fields. In this case, leaders in the nursing profession can utilize transformational leadership approaches to influence the nursing practice as well as the outcome of patients.

Organizations also need to implement Transformational leadership initiatives to achieve specific business outcomes. Such outcomes that organizations should implement include cost reduction strategies, reducing errors in processing, increasing revenue, and improving general workflow (Walters, 2002). Successful policymaking and implementation in an organization, therefore, entails understanding more volatile areas and those that require changes. Understanding these different areas helps managers to implement changes that will improve individual and organizational outcomes (Jones, 2013). Such areas that need improvements in an organization vary from one organization to another. According to Bohmer (2011), different approaches can be used to transform healthcare systems based on their varied structures, culture, and resources. For instance, specific high-end healthcare organizations may implement different transformational policies based on their culture, size, and resource capability.

Literature Review on Emotional Intelligence in Nursing

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been defined as the ability to manage one’s emotions and feelings as well as the emotions and feelings of others, and use the awareness to direct and control one’s actions. Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p.189 have argued that one needs EI to evaluate their own actions and the influence that these actions have on others. EI was initially associated with social intelligence; however it has been transformed to include specific models of measurements that distinguish it from social intelligence (Goleman, 2006). Such models, as suggested by Mayer & Salovey (1999), are based on individuals’ cognition. In this case, therefore EI can be regarded as a type of intelligence. Other models include the Seminal model of defining EI, which denotes the ability of a person to receive emotional stimuli from other people’s emotional expressions, bodily expressions, and voices while taking note of their emotional feelings. Nurses, in this case, need to be sensitive to their emotions such as happiness or any other form of distress while being careful to respond appropriately towards similar emotional expressions from their patients.

Emotional intelligence has been found to have profound significance on the performance of various practitioners. For instance, based on the ability model of EI, emotional intelligence, of practitioners can be measured by their potential to receive and digest information relating to emotion and to harness further or strengthens one’s feelings (Mayer & Salovery, 1997). According to the mixed model of EI, an individual is able to process emotions based on individual traits. In this case, a practitioner can evaluate his or her feelings and decide how one will direct them to others based on his or her attributes (Goleman, 1998; Bar-On, 1997). The conception of Mayer & Salovery (1997) with regards to explaining the meaning of emotional intelligence can be used by practitioners to identify situational factors that call for them to act in specific ways based on the emotions that they are experiencing or that their clients are experiencing. As Goleman, 1998; Bar-On, (1997) suggests, the ability to harness one’s emotions can be useful in helping nursing practitioners to improve their performance by being more considerate of other people’s emotions and feelings especially those under their care. Moreover, nurses can analyze any given situation to get tips on the emotional language of their clients so that they can act appropriately. For instance, Locke (2005) has suggested that practitioners can assess the emotional patterns generated by patients’ behaviors and regulate their own emotions either positively or negatively to handle the particular situations that have confronted them. Being able to control one’s own emotions determines how one responds to other people’s feelings. (Locke, 2005). This notion is asserted by Goleman (2005), who argues that one’s skillfulness determines a practitioner’s emotional intelligence in terms of self-awareness and regulation of one’s emotions, individual motivation, empathy, and the ability to express oneself to others socially. Therefore, according to the arguments of Goleman (2005) nursing practitioners need to have the self-awareness skills help them in monitoring their own emotions. Self-regulation skills will be useful in deciding how they react to other people’s feelings. One’s empathy will help a practitioner to learn from other people’s experiences by feeling the way they think (Goleman, 2005). In this case, understanding helps an individual to act appropriately towards another person.

Additionally, social skills help a practitioner to develop positive relations that will lead to a closeness and more sensitivity towards others. For instance, Goleman (2005) has suggested in his fourth determinant of EI as the ability to master specific social skills. In this model, EI can be expressed by practitioners through developing meaningful social interactions and lasting relationships with their clients. Community nurses particularly need these social skills as a necessary social work practice (Johnson, 2006). Such skills include the ability to form lasting commitments with clients after being discharged from the institutions of care. Self-regulation denotes the ability practitioners to recognize and control disruptive emotions, which can help them predict the potential of any unbecoming behavior such as violence (Goleman, 2017). Also, the ability to motivate oneself is an essential component of emotional intelligence. An individual’s motivation helps him or her to set goals and to remain committed. Chambers (2017) argues that to have self-commitment means to have the inner drive to accomplish something and can determine one’s actions towards oneself and others.

The majority of other scholars have demonstrated how EI can affect someone’s ability to receive accurately, evaluate, and express their emotions. For instance, Salovey & Mayer (1997), p. 10 has suggested that EI is needed when one is in situations that demand them to process and accurately respond to other people’s emotions in a manner that promotes growth. In this case, an individual’s ability to reflect upon his or her thoughts, feelings, and actions is considered as part of emotional intelligence (Salovey & Mayer, 1997). As an act of self-reflection, therefore, practitioners need to take time and evaluate their thoughts and the potential impact they have on their clients. their intentions on the response of their clients. In this regard, it is believed that they will be acting responsibly towards promoting the growth of the profession.

Literature Review on High Rates of Labor Turnover in Nursing

Labor turnover is a phenomenon that continues to intrigue most scholars. Most scholars believe that an organization that functions to its fullest in terms of net returns is likely to retain its workforce (). In this case, most organizations focus on developing strategies that will boost their performance and ensure a higher marginal return. Statistically, most employees prefer to be employed in organizations that have higher output in revenue since it assures them of job security. Most nurses also have considered working for institutions and nursing homes that do well in terms of general return on investment and the scaling of employees’ welfare. Labor turnover in the nursing profession, therefore, has been alluded to lack of financial capacity to manage facilities, which translates to poor performance.

Additionally, labor turnover in the nursing profession has historically been associated with a lack of capacity for sustaining the increasing number of patients. The lack of adequate human resource capacity in most health facilities has also led to work overload, which contributes to an overwhelmed workforce (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Lake & Cheney, 2008). According to Aiken et al. (2008), when Employee workload is more significant than their capacity to handle the tasks assigned, most facilities experience labor turnover. Furthermore, () assert that when these facilities do not provide their employees with a conducive working atmosphere such as day-offs and comfortable leaves, labor turnover is likely to increase. This labor turnover due to work overload is often exacerbated by poor remuneration of nursing practitioners (Han, Trinkoff & Gurses, 2015).

Additionally, better remuneration packages for nursing employees boost their motivational levels; hence they will perform better and have low turnover intentions. Han et al. (2015) have further argued in support of the notion of improving the remuneration of nursing workers by stating that there is a high correlation between employee performance and their level of compensation. Lack of a motivated workforce leads to low morale, which translates to high turnover intentions.

Also, work overload on nursing practitioners leads to employee burnout, which translates to high turnover intentions. In this regard, some human resource practitioners have developed a framework that will assist in distributing work fairly among personnel such that burnout is reduced (Helfat & Martin, 2015). Most human resource practitioners in the nursing profession also believe that reducing workload, improving working conditions, and promoting employee’s welfare translates to high performance as a result of increased motivation levels. Also, high motivation levels contribute to low turnover intentions.

Furthermore, most employees in the nursing profession have cited good Leadership as a reason to remain in their employing institutions. For instance, Afshari & Gibson (2016) have mentioned the significance of transactional Leadership on the motivational level and performance of employees. The scholars have analyzed the relationship between leadership style and commitment of employees and came up with interesting findings. The scholars found out that the use of transactional Leadership was particularly useful in generating commitment from nursing employees (Afshari & Gibson, 2016). The transactional approach uses a reward-based approach to managing employees in which practitioners are rewarded for their performance. Such reward schemes lead to improved commitment levels, which results in lower turnover intentions.