Autocratic and Transformative Leadership: Staff Inclusivity

Good leadership is an essential factor in a clinical environment for effective and efficient management of a clinic. On the other hand, the attributes of the management approach, how management is executed and the associated outcomes, depending on the system of leadership chosen. An approach also relates to job satisfaction, staff retention, and quality of care (Saleh et al., 2018). The autocratic and transformative leadership styles are two approaches that can be selected in clinical settings, but the latter is more effective at encouraging staff to be more involved with the daily running of the organization.

In a clinical environment, trust and teamwork are essential to work effectively. When staff are free to think out of the box and find new ways of creatively working and tackling problems, it stimulates the intellect, and work becomes enjoyable. Transformative leaders not only challenge the status quo, but also offer support and encouragement to staff, thus fostering a healthy working and supportive relationships. An autocratic leader, on the other hand, being in complete control, establishes rules that are clearly outlined and communicated. By discouraging creativity by and not taking input from staff regarding decisions, this results with the team feeling left out and untrustworthy.

Although both styles are valuable, I would want to be a transformative leader. A transformative leader plays a critical role in positively impacting the organizational commitment and influencing employee performance through inclusivity (Xu, 2017). As a leader, I recognize I am more autocratic, hogging all the decision making. The highly structured and rigid environment resulting thereby, as effective as it is, impact on employee performance, and job satisfaction, is low. A leader ought to affirm a clear statement of principles, aspirations, and pursuit of the institution (Pishgooie et al., 2019). Staff are inclined to work harder to achieve organizational objectives, when included in the decision making process that a transformative leader accords to them.

References

Pishgooie, A. H., Atashzadeh‐Shoorideh, F., Falcó‐Pegueroles, A., & Lotfi, Z. (2019). Correlation between nursing managers’ leadership styles and nurses’ job stress and anticipated turnover. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(3), 527-534. Web.

Saleh, U., O’Connor, T., Al-Subhi, H., Alkattan, R., Al-Harbi, S., & Patton, D. (2018). The impact of nurse managers’ leadership styles on ward staff. British Journal of Nursing, 27(4), 197-203. Web.

Xu, J. H. (2017). Leadership theory in clinical practice. Chinese Nursing Research, 4(4), 155-157. Web.