NURS FPX 5007 Assessment 1 Leadership Styles Application

LEADERSHIP STYLES APPLICATION

Leadership plays a critical role in any setting, but it is particularly vital in healthcare. Leaders in this field significantly influence patient care. Effective leaders foster a positive work environment, crucial for managing departmental workflow, ensuring staff well-being, imparting knowledge, and achieving superior patient care outcomes. Part of a leader’s responsibilities also includes counseling and guiding staff to maintain a safe and constructive environment. Leadership in healthcare often demands making informed decisions on a case-by-case basis and proactive planning for potential future challenges.

Case Study Scenario

The case study “Sleeping on the Job: A Managerial Challenge” illustrates a problematic work environment. The scenario involves Marty, an African American woman with extensive experience in healthcare. She previously worked in a university hospital, attending to rehabilitation patients’ needs across the city, a role that required a high degree of autonomy. For the past two years, Marty has been working in an office from Monday to Friday. Her personal life changed significantly three years ago when her mother was diagnosed with dementia and became dependent on assistance for daily activities. Marty took the responsibility of moving her parents into her home. She manages their care outside of her working hours and on weekends, with some daytime support from home health aides, as her parents’ health continues to decline.

Marty has been late for work daily, and leaves work early for a year now and her co-

workers are frustrated with the chronic behavior. Marty has also been sleeping on the job, telling

staff she was diagnosed with sleep apnea but refuses to wear the CPAP machine when they

expressed their concern. Her co-workers are tired of doing her work and their own. More about NURS 5007 assessmentnt 2

The nurses view Marty as being lazy and taking advantage of her mother’s condition.

Marty frequently calls in sick often along with taking multiple extended leaves of absence from

work for different reasons, such as, three weeks of bereavement for her sister then twelve weeks

for back pain. Marty’s supervisor has received multiple complaints from staff and from other

case managers, who are requesting another nurse knowing the job will not get completed when

Marty is assigned. The supervisor is aware of the hostile work environment it is creating and has

not acted on the complaints due to Marty’s application for Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Capella NURS FPX 5007 Assessment 1 Leadership Styles Application

awareness to Marty as someone who is not following the policies and is taking a large amount of

time off, sleeping at work, and being late/leaving early each day. The supervisor must intervene

to inspire and encourage the staff, listen to their concerns and act upon them in order to build

trust. Trust must be built not only within the staff members but also between the staff and the

supervisor since their concerns were disregarded for so long, allowing Marty to break the rules

for over a year. Marty should also be counseled on what is expected of her. Having an open

conversation about Marty’s needs could motivate Marty to follow the guidelines.

A positive implication of applying the transformational leadership style to this scenario is

creating a positive work environment due each employee having their concerns or ideas heard

and acted on. Staff are not ignored or made to feel their concerns are not important. In the

scenario, the supervisor was aware of the issues and did not act on the complaints. Marty’s issues

needed to be addressed long before the one to two years they were occurring. A negative

implication of applying this leadership style is that, at this point, it will be difficult to build back

trust and motivate all staff members. Employees will have lost faith in the leadership capabilities

of the supervisor consequently for allowing it to go on for so long.

Effectiveness of Leadership Styles in Scenario

A transactional leadership approach is applicable to this scenario due to the reward

system used, with clearly identified goals to enhance the workplace into a fair, task-focused

environment which improves outcomes. In this scenario, the employees that are upset with

Marty’s work ethic, are able to gain rewards out of doing extra work. For Marty, this reward

system could motivate her to be timely and reduce call offs or leaves of absence. These rewards

for all employees could be an extra vacation day earned over a certain period of time or gift cards

for good performance. As with the transformational leadership style, Marty’s behaviors must be

completely addressed and dealt with.

LEADERSHIP STYLES APPLICATION

A positive implication of applying this leadership style to the scenario is that employees

are being rewarded for their extra work and achievements, creating an optimistic work

environment. This style also increases skills, experience in other roles, such as, projects. The

supervisor could delegate tasks to ensure involvement by all members for an equal opportunity to

be rewarded. A negative issue using the transactional leadership style is that it could increase

employee burnout from being consistently expected to go above and beyond in the workplace to

receive the reward. This could be accelerated by Marty not putting in the extra effort for the

reward system resulting in other staff members continuing to pick up her work that has not been

completed.

A democratic leadership approach is applicable to this scenario because it gives staff the

ability to make decisions in their environment. Their opinions are heard and valued, for example,

their concerns about Marty’s lack of work ethic and timeliness. Marty, being more involved with

decision making, may regain her work ethic and become more involved in her role. The

empowerment should give her a purpose, as she may feel her independence was taken from her,

not only at home but at work as well. Democratic leadership boosts morale in the workplace,

which is something each employee needs at this point.

A positive implication of applying this leadership style to the scenario is that it could

strengthen relationships between Marty and her co-workers while improving communication

within the workplace. A negative implication of democratic leadership is that having these

meetings and conversations to consult staff members and provide feedback is time consuming.

The staff in this scenario are busy and it appears they do not have a large amount of extra time to

spend on participation in the discussions.

References

Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T.H., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout, and social loafing: A mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6(1), 40. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8Richards, A. (2020). Exploring the benefits and limitations of transactional leadership in healthcare. Nursing Standard, 35(12), 46-50. Retrieved from Amanda’s Downloads Folder“Sleeping on the Job: A Managerial Challenge.” Capella University Case Study. No date.U.S. Department of Labor. (n.d.). Family and Medical Leave (FMLA). Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmlaYunarsih, N., Rahayu, S., Fatoni, Asra, Sustiyono, A., Anwar, T., Sri, N., & Purwanto, A. (2020). Develop leadership style model for nurses in Indonesian hospitals. Systemic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(8), 352-361. Available at: https://www.sysrevpharm.org/articles/develop-leadership-style-model-for-nurse-in-indonesian-hospital.pdf