LMRJ Volume 2 Issue 1                                                                                                            12 | P a g e  
 

  
Leadership style employed by Nurses’ Directors and Principals at 

Nursing Education Institutes, Hyderabad 
Farah Anil 1*,  Sikandar Munir Memon1, Anil Joseph2, Erum Isaac1, Tasleem Bibi1, Sumera Aftab1 
1People’s Nursing School, LUMHS Jamshoro. 2B.Pharm, MSc (Business Management) 
 

Correspondence: 
Sikandar Munir Memon 
Email: 
drsikander.memon@lumhs.edu.pk 

 

LMRJ.2020:2(1) 

DOI: 10.3810/LMRJ.2020.2.1.03 

 

Received: 10 January 2020 

Revised: 4 February 2020 

Accepted for publication 8 March 

2020 

 
 

Abstract 

Leaders who are able to observe their behavior by themselves as 

well as the effects of their leadership on workforce are capable 

enough to adjust to a better style of leadership. This study was 

intended to evaluate the dominant style of leadership employed 

by nurses’ leaders at nursing education institutes. Overall 10 

Nurse’s leaders were selected from ten Public as well as Private 

School of Nursing as participants by purposive sampling out of 

which one was Director nursing and nine were Principals at their 

respective institutes. A descriptive cross-sectional study was 

conducted by using self-reported questionnaire soughed for 

data collection. For data analysis SPSS for window version 20.0 

was used for descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution 

(x), percentage (%), means (x-) and standard deviation (SD) 

respectively. In the study, four leadership styles were assessed: 

authoritative, democratic, facilitative, and situational. Study 

findings revealed that the leadership styles practiced by greater 

part of the Nurses Leaders are Authoritative in Nursing 

Education Institutes. 
 

 

Keywords: Leadership, Leadership Style, Nurse Leaders, Authoritative leadership style 

Introduction 
According to American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), “Nursing leadership matters in today’s 

healthcare environment, experiencing extraordinary intense reforms. Contrary to the requirements of 

leadership yesterday to achieve stability and growth, the leaders of today must transform their 

organizational values, beliefs and behavior”1. Because it depends upon the demonstration of style or 

performance by supervisors or managers whilst dealing with sub- ordinates. Leadership is a significant 

factor that molds actions of employees for attaining the goals set forth by organizations2. To be an 

effective nurse manager (NM) it is required to continuously enhance the scope of responsibility along 

with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes in depth3. 

Leadership in any organization commences to run with the values, behaviors and attitudes. In case of 

Nurses the entrancement in leadership skills could be a probability, pursuit of career, or for the short-

Research article  

mailto:drsikander.memon@lumhs.edu.pk


LMRJ Volume 2 Issue 1                                                                                                            13 | P a g e  
 

lived basis. Thus for the sake of achieving effective and winning leadership outcomes one of the most 

critical elements is its effective leadership. Among various rational for nurses to turn over or leave the 

jobs in Nursing include excessive workload, non-favorable work setting, however aberrant style of 

leadership is leading concern above all4. By means of adopting the leadership style which is effective 

nurse managers or leaders can offer high-quality and conducive environment to staff nurses that can 

enhance job satisfaction, line of work and intent for retention in an organization 5. The profession of 

nursing is people-oriented which is focused on humanism that may affect the way of leadership6. 

During times of remarkable changes in an organization the role of nursing leader is quite challenging 

and difficult due to complexity and convoluted health system reform. 

The superlative as well as favorable work setting, increases the tendency of leaders to control strategies 

not only in managing conflict but also to enhance people’s ability to work collaboratively with 

efficiency. It turns out to be crucial on behalf of a leader to accomplish organizational goals through 

emphasizing equivalently for rational and expressive aspects of contradictory issues despite the fact 

with the purpose to resolve conflicts or disputes which can happen at any stage within the hierarchy of 

an organization2. This study focuses on evaluation of the pattern of style of leadership used by nurse 

leaders through their self- assessment in order to boost up their awareness regarding an effective style 

of leadership for improved and successful outcomes in nursing education institutions. 

 

Methodology 
Consisted of 10 nurse leaders (04 women and 06 men) from government as well as private nursing 

institutes; the selection of sample was made by means of non- probability purposive sampling method. 

All the participants subjected in the study consented and were well informed concerning the intention 

of the study along with assurance of protecting the provided information confidentially. Overall 10 

questionnaires were distributed and 100 percent returned back with complete information provided. 

The study used Self developed self- report questionnaire comprises of 16 items to facilitate measures of 

constructs with the complete range of leadership behaviors. For the assessment of tools’ validity, pilot 

study was done on three senior nursing instructors. Participants were asked for reading a short 

statement on the subject of a precise leadership behavior, showing the scores in the right-side column 

against each question ascending from (Not me at all= 0 ; A bit like me = 1 point; Much like me = 2 points; 

and Exactly like me = 3 points). Scoring of survey was based on the scoring key provided on the 

questionnaire to encourage the labeling of a leader as Authoritative, Democratic, Facilitative and 

Situational. 

 

Results and discussion 
Descriptive statistics of all variables included in the study shows that the participants were primarily 

males (ie 60%), while 40% were females .The age range of the subjects was between 38 and 63years where 

70% of the participants fall between 38 – 50 years, and 30% were lying between 51 - 63 years (Mean= 46 

and SD±7.05). The maximum educational level as reported by participants was MS Nursing (40%), with 

the greater part of study participants (60%) having experience of below 5 years’ for being principal 

school of nursing (Mean=1.4 and SD= 0.5). The type of institute revealed that 60% of respondents were 

Government employees and 40 % were working in private settings in Hyderabad/ Jamshoro. Further, 



LMRJ Volume 2 Issue 1                                                                                                            14 | P a g e  
 

scrutiny was made determine the leadership ability in order to distinguish Authoritative, Democratic, 

Facilitative and Situational leadership styles and it was found that, greater part 60 % employed 

Autocratic, 20 % Facilitative and 10 % was rated for both 10% Democratic, situational style of leadership. 

Study variable 

(n = Participants for Question) 
Frequenc

y (%) 

Gender 06 (60%) 

Male 

Femal

e 

04 (40%) 

Age 07 (70%) 

38 – 50 

51 – 63 

03 (30%) 

Length of service as Nurse leader 
 

<5 years 06(60%) 

>5 years 04(40%) 

Title of designation 
 

Director 01 (10%) 

Principal 09 (90%) 

Type of institute  

Government 06 (60%) 

Private 04 (40%) 

Qualification 
 

Bachelor in Nursing 06 (60%) 

Masters in Nursing 04 (40%) 

Style of leadership 
 

Authoritative 06(60%) 

Democratic 01 (01%) 

Facilitative 02 (02%) 

Situational 01(10%) 
 

 
Figure 1: Length of service 

 

Table 1: Demographic Tabulation 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



LMRJ Volume 2 Issue 1                                                                                                            15 | P a g e  
 

Table 3: Scale7,8 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: Scale rating  

 

Conclusion 
Several styles of leadership have appeared to portray how leaders act in order to achieve an affluent 

product. There is no any single style of leadership that can be considered as the best suited for one 

individual or one situation. It is vital for nurse leaders to recognize the pattern of training that already 

have the affinity to generate Autocratic leadership style9. Nurse leader can be well fitted in place to lead 

Descriptive Statistics 

 Mean Std. Deviation N 

Style of leadership 1.8 1.13529 10 

I’m glad to act as the spokesperson for our group 2.4 0.69921 10 

I’m determined to push projects forward and get results 2.3 0.82327 10 

I am good at organizing other people 2.2 0.91894 10 

I set myself high standards and expect others to do the same for themselves 2.4 0.69921 10 

I believe teams work best when everyone is involved in taking decisions 2 0.8165 10 

I enjoy working on committees 2 0.8165 10 

I don’t mind how long discussions last, so long as we consider every angle 2.1 0.73786 10 

I think all group members should abide by formal decisions, so long as we follow 

proper procedures 

2 0.94281 10 

I’m good at bringing out the best in other people 1.7 0.67495 10 

I think people should be allowed to make mistakes in order to learn 1.8 0.78881 10 

To me well-being of the members is the most important thing for a group 1.9 0.56765 10 

Love helping other people to develop 1.6 0.84327 10 

I don’t consider myself as a ‘leader’but can take on a leadership role when required 1.6 0.69921 10 

Good adaptability to different situations 1.8 0.63246 10 

Can see situations from many different perspectives 1.7 0.67495 10 

 



LMRJ Volume 2 Issue 1                                                                                                            16 | P a g e  
 

only by means of education and training about various theories and styles of leadership. 
 

Limitations 
While assessing manager’s style of leadership, it was unlikely to manage some of the perplexing factors 

such as the impact of organizational environment, structure as well as the availability of leaders 

themselves. Additionally, study results were entirely based on self-report by participants. The likeli- 

hood of variation along with the desirability of social aspect for response selection on the scales of 

research variables could not be reduced. 

 

Recommendations 

Further it is recommended that educational programs for nursing ought to incorporate training of nurse 

managers in order to recover leadership skills and their mirror image, in the course of which they prove 

themselves through better leadership style respectively. 
 

References 
 

1. Edmunds, E. A. (2014). Leader- ship Style of Nurse Managers in a Designated Magnet Hospital. 

Retrieved from http://rave.ohio- lin k . e d u / e t d c / v ie w c_num=walsh1398030398. 

2. Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G.(2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict 

management styles. International Journal of Conflict Management, 25(3),214-225.      

3. Tyczkowski, B., Vandenhouten, C., Reilly, J., Bansal, G., Kubsch, S. M., & Jakkola, R. (2015). 

Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Nursing Leadership Styles among Nurse Managers. Nursing Admin- 

istration Quarterly, 39(2), 172–180 

4. Perez, J. W. L. (2014). Impact of Nurse Managers â€TM Leader- ship Styles on Staff Nurses â€TM 

Intent to Turnover by. Nursing Thesis and Capstone Projects, 31 

5. Naseer, A., Perveen, K., Afzal, M., Waqas, A., & Gillani, S. A. (2017). The impact of leadership styles 

on staff nurses’ turnover intention. Journal of Medical and Pharma- ceutical Sciences, 3(10), 1133– 1138. 

6. Azaare, J., & Gross, J. (2011). The nature of leadership style in nursing management. British Journal 

of Nursing, 20(11), 672– 680. 

7. Asiri, S. A., Rohrer,W. W., Al-Surimi, K., Da’ar, O. O., & Ahmed,A. (2016). The association of 

leadership styles and empower- ment with nurses’ organizational commitment in an acute health care 

setting: A cross-sectional study. BMC Nursing, 15(1), 1–10.  

8. Konstantinou, C., & Prezerakos, P. (2018). Relationship Between Nurse Managers â€TM Leader- 

ship Styles and Staff Nurses â€TM Job Satisfaction in a Greek NHS Hospital,7,45–50.   

9. Sfantou, D., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A., Sifaki- Pistolla, D., Matallio- takis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). 

Importance of Leadership Style towards Quality of Care Measures in Healthcare Settings: A System- 

atic Review. Healthcare, 5(4), 73.