Healthcare Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE The authors report on the evaluation of an intervention administered to a group of Canadian nurses designed to assist participants to value leadership and to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for effective leadership.
METHODOLOGY A one-group pre-post-test quasi-experiment design guided the study. All participants received a five-day residential leadership development intervention, and they attended with a partner from their institution (aspirant and established nursing leader). Participant acted as their own controls and were assessed both immediately prior to and three months following the intervention. Both the LPI Self and LPI Observer forms were completed, as well as self-reported levels of burnout (Maslack, Jackson & Leitner, 1996) by 92 percent of the participants (N = 67) at time one and by 87 percent of these in time two (N = 58). The typical nurse administrator was 44 years old, female (99%), with their current organization for 11.6 years, and in their current position 3.3 years. She had averaged nearly 22 years as a RN, and over 78 percent had a nursing baccalaureate degree.
In this study, internal reliabilities at time one on the LPI self ranged from .46 (Modeling) to .84 (Encouraging) and at time two ranged from .74 (Modeling) to .89 (Inspiring). Reliabilities for the LPI-Observer at time one and two, for dyad partners, supervisors and peers, averaged .87, and ranged between .74 and .95.
KEY FINDINGS Established leaders rated themselves significantly higher than aspirants on Challenging, Inspiring, and Encouraging. While all changes in self-reports increased from time one (pre) to time two (post), the changes were not statistically significant. Dyad partners reported a statistically significant change from time one to time two for the leadership practices of Challenging and Inspiring. Likewise, supervisors reported statistically significant increases over time for participants in Challenging and Inspiring. Peer observers reported statistically significant increases from pre-test to post-test time periods for all five leadership practices. No evidence was found of participant levels of emotional exhaustion decreasing or levels of personal accomplishment increasing from pre¬to post-test time periods.
The authors conclude: "The results of this study indicate that a concentrated residential leadership development intervention can be effective in strengthening leadership behaviors performed by both established and aspiring nurse leaders." Changes in leadership behaviors, however, were more noticeable through the eyes of observers (peers especially) than they were through self-reports. The authors suggest that "this may be the result of processes that allow for changes in one's self-concept or in how we see ourselves. Changes in how we view ourselves might take more time and may even require large changes (i.e., effect sizes) for us to alter how we see ourselves."