LUMINOUS LEADERSHIP: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF NURSING ADMINISTRATION PRACTICE (LEADERSHIP).
Contributors: University of St. Thomas (Saint Paul, Minn.)
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 208
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.
Description: In the time since James MacGregor Burns first introduced his work on transformational leadership in 1978, a variety of authors and scholars have reflected on the significance of this concept. Some have suggested strategies to implement transformational leadership. Others have suggested ways to measure it. Still others purport descriptive case studies are needed to demonstrate transformational leadership in practice, to enhance our ability to know more about transformational leaders, and to know what transformational leadership looks like when it occurs so that we may use this knowledge in our search for new leadership.

This research study provides a set of transformational leadership portraits in nursing. Each case study is a descriptive account of a nurse leader. It includes her characteristics, qualities, thoughts, philosophies, practices, espoused theories and theories-in-use. These case studies are not only pictures of transformational leadership in nursing; they also provide empirical evidence to support the theoretical constructs of transformational leadership in action.

This research provides a new perspective on the effectiveness of nursing administrators as leaders. It contributes to the knowledge regarding effective nursing leadership and how transformational leadership supports the overall vision, mission, and goals of health care organizations. It identifies how these leaders have effectively implemented non-traditional nursing structures and cultures within typically bureaucratic organizations. It identifies what is different about this leadership, why it is different, and what makes it work. The value of the research is its ability to provide descriptive accounts which provoke further questions, new leadership strategies, and subsequent qualitative studies.

This provocative topic should engender the hearts and souls of nurse executives, hospital executives, and students of administration alike.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: B, page: 3816.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS (ST. PAUL), 1994.

School code: 1064.