Patch 1 Leadership
TRANSITION TO PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
PATCH 1 LEVEL 5
Student Number: 08080770
Cohort: September 2008
Submission Date: 3rd May 2011
Word count 747
Leadership
As this assignment is a reflective piece of work it will be done in the first person (Webb, 1992). I’ve been asked to complete a leadership style survey to determine my preferred leadership style, then by using a reflective model I need to analyse any areas for improvement and development.
The model of reflection I’ve chosen to use is Gibbs Reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) the reason being is that it encourages a clear description, feelings, analysis and evaluation of your experience therefore helping you the reflective practitioner to make sense of your experiences and examine your practice. On reflection you then need to put into practice what you’ve learnt and let this process develop and improve your practice in the future.
Description
After completing the leadership style survey I discovered that my style of leadership was participative also known as democratic with a score of 45. There were two other styles in the survey which were Authoritarian Style (autocratic) and Delegative Style (free reign) of these I scored 30 and 39 respectively. (See appendix 1).
In nursing this style of leadership (democratic) is effective because nurses work together for extended lengths of time; according to (Marquis & Huston, 2009) it also promotes autonomy in individual workers. This style of leadership works well in nursing because co-ordination and co-operation is needed in promoting the smooth running of a hospital ward. The democratic leader is a leader who will involve staff in decision making even though they will have the final say (Clark, 2009). Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect, because this style is of mutual benefit — it allows the employee to become part of the team and allows the employer to
PATCH 1 LEVEL 5
Student Number: 08080770
Cohort: September 2008
Submission Date: 3rd May 2011
Word count 747
Leadership
As this assignment is a reflective piece of work it will be done in the first person (Webb, 1992). I’ve been asked to complete a leadership style survey to determine my preferred leadership style, then by using a reflective model I need to analyse any areas for improvement and development.
The model of reflection I’ve chosen to use is Gibbs Reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) the reason being is that it encourages a clear description, feelings, analysis and evaluation of your experience therefore helping you the reflective practitioner to make sense of your experiences and examine your practice. On reflection you then need to put into practice what you’ve learnt and let this process develop and improve your practice in the future.
Description
After completing the leadership style survey I discovered that my style of leadership was participative also known as democratic with a score of 45. There were two other styles in the survey which were Authoritarian Style (autocratic) and Delegative Style (free reign) of these I scored 30 and 39 respectively. (See appendix 1).
In nursing this style of leadership (democratic) is effective because nurses work together for extended lengths of time; according to (Marquis & Huston, 2009) it also promotes autonomy in individual workers. This style of leadership works well in nursing because co-ordination and co-operation is needed in promoting the smooth running of a hospital ward. The democratic leader is a leader who will involve staff in decision making even though they will have the final say (Clark, 2009). Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect, because this style is of mutual benefit — it allows the employee to become part of the team and allows the employer to
References: Barman, K. (2009) Leadership management : achieving breakthroughs. New Delhi : Global India Clark, C, C. (2009) Creative nursing leadership & management. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett. Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford. Marquis, B, L; Huston, C, J. (2009) Leadership roles and management functions in nursing : theory and application. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Oates, S. (2010) Leadership Styles – Autocratic vs Democratic vs Bureaucratic. Available: http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/leadership-styles/. Last accessed 30th Apr 2011. Roussel, L; Swansburg, R, C. (2006) Management and leadership for nurse administrators. 4th ed. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett. Webb, C. (1992) The use of the first person in academic writing: objective language and gate keeping, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol 17, pp 741-752. West, A. (2002) Reflexivity and work group effectiveness: a conceptual integration. Cited in West, A. The Handbook of work group psychology. Chichester: John Wiley.