Nursing leadership in the Ministry of Health hospitals of Saudi Arabia

The purpose of the study was to explore the nursing leadership style of nurse managers working in the Ministry of Health (MoH) hospitals in the Hail region of Saudi Arabia. It evaluates the association of the leadership style with some selected organisational outcomes such as leaders’ effectiveness, staff willingness to exert extra effort and staff satisfaction. It also compared the perception of the staff nurses to those of their leaders regarding their leadership styles.<br>The study was conducted in five public hospitals in the Hail region of Saudi Arabia. Nurse managers (n=33) and staff (n=315) were surveyed using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) Leader and Rater Forms. Data were analysed using SPSS Version 19. Study analysis involved generating statistics to describe the demographics and general profile of the respondents, and frequency distributions were generated for each of the demographic and descriptive variables. The scale scores were then aggregated for each group of staff belonging to the same target leader. Using these aggregated scores, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviations) and bivariate correlations were generated, and an independent samples t-test was run to assess the statistical difference in the mean scores between the staff and leaders. <br>The study results revealed that laissez-faire was the dominant leadership style (m = 3.12) of the nurse managers. However, they also practised leadership styles such as individualised consideration (m = 3.11) and contingent reward (m = 3.11). The transformational leadership style was found to be the most effective (r = 0.82 - r = 0.86) in achieving the leadership outcomes, such as staff satisfaction and willingness to exert extra effort. Moreover, contingent reward (r = 0.85 - r = 0.87) scored positive effects on staff satisfaction and willingness to exert extra effort. Management-by-exception (active) (r = 0.58 - r = 0.62) had a moderately significant positive relationship with extra effort and job satisfaction. In contrast, the transactional category of management-by-exception (passive) and laissez-faire negatively affected the leadership outcomes. Finally, the staff nurses viewed their managers as being less influential than the managers had rated themselves (Staff m = 2.48, Leader m = 2.57).<br><br>