Leadership styles and their outcomes: a study of a Nigerian hospital middle management nurses

Purpose This study was conducted to identify and explore the leadership styles and the leadership outcomes of the middle management nurses in a large tertiary hospital in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state of Nigeria. This study aims to explore and describe the perception of staff nurses (SNs) about their nurse managers’ (NMs) leadership styles, to investigate the leadership outcomes of NMs as perceived by their SNs and to investigate what are the best predictors of the leadership outcomes among the perceived leadership styles. Design/methodology/approach Thirty-six variables of the MLQ-5X were compressed into the nine psychological constructs, as proposed by Avolio and Bass (2004). Four items of each of the nine sub-scales were combined together, to form the independent variables. The nine items of the leadership outcomes were compressed into three composite variables as: the Leader’s perceived influence as being effective in leading the group variable, it has four items; the Leader’s perceived influence as being satisfactory to the group being led variable, it has two items; and lastly, the Leader’s perceived influence to encourage the staff. Findings When all the three leadership sub-scales were combined as one total leadership outcome, the regression analysis showed that four leadership constructs were the predictors of the leadership outcome, that is, idealized attribute (ß = 0.173, p = 0.011), intellectual stimulation (ß = 0.171, p = 0.016), individualized consideration (ß = 0.240, p = 0.001) and contingent reward (ß = 0.194, p = 0.006). The coefficients and the p-values of the remaining five leadership constructs are as shown in Table 1. Research limitations/implications This study has many limitations. One, the respondents were not randomly sampled, so the results cannot be generalized outside of UCH, Nigeria. It is also a one-time survey. Practical implications Managers who regularly practice transformational leadership (TFL) would be able to encourage their SNs to put in their best for the greater good of the organization. In this study, three sub-scales of the TFL, that is, idealized attribute, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration were found to be strong predictors of leadership outcomes. Leaders who are able to treat their staff with care and concern for the individual, able to mentor, advise, coach and develop their staff are likely to also see improved staff satisfaction and extra effort in staff performance. This is especially necessary in sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria. Social implications It is therefore strongly recommended that middle management nurses in UCH should continue to strive and improve on their TFL skills as well as their contingent reward styles of leadership. Vesterinen et al. (2012) said that NMs who can observe their own behaviour and its effects on employees can adjust to a better leadership style. In particular, individualized consideration skills such as coaching, mentoring, advising, developing and showing concern for the individual needs of their staff would encourage SNs to put in extra effort and be more satisfied with their leaders. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is his original research work and it has never been published elsewhere. The whole work was however submitted for a PhD thesis to the University of Salford.