Authentic leadership among nursing professionals: knowledge and profile

analytical study, conducted between August and December 2015, involving 84 nursing professionals working in a public and tertiary hospital. We used two instruments: Sociodemographic Questionnaire with questions about leadership and the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire.

Results:

both nurses and nursing technicians were unaware of authentic leadership. Both pointed to communication, planning, and organization as competencies of the leader (n = 58, 95%). Regarding the authentic leadership profile, we observed that the score was “high” among nurses and “low” among technicians. Holding a leadership position and professionally upgrading has positively influenced the highest-profile of authentic leadership.

Conclusions:

nurses demonstrated to know behavioral leadership, while nursing technicians showed knowledge about situational leadership. Nurses had a high score of authentic leadership behaviors, while nursing technicians had a low score, but we found no significant difference between them. Holding a leadership position and professionally upgrading has positively influenced the highest profile of authentic leadership.

Descriptors:
Leadership; Nursing; Nursing Technicians; Competence; Occupational Nursing

Variables	Nurses (n = 23)	Nursing technicians (n = 61)	Nurses and nursing technicians (n = 84)	p value
Gender				0.172 €
Female	22 (96%)	55 (90%)	77 (92%)
Male	1 (4%)	6 (10%)	7 (8%)
Age				0.621 Ω
20 to 25 years	-	1 (2%)	1 (1%)
26 to 30 years	-	3 (5%)	3 (4%)
31 to 35 years	4 (18%)	12 (19%)	16 (19%)
36 to 40 years	3 (13%)	8 (12%)	11 (13%)
41 to 45 years	-	24 (41%)	24 (29%)
46 to 50 years	5 (22%)	1 (2%)	6 (7%)
51 to 55 years	9 (39%)	7 (11%)	16 (19%)
56 years or more	2 (7%)	5 (8%)	07 (8%)
Time of stay in the field				0.265 Ω
3 to 10 years	8 (35%)	17 (28%)	25 (30%)
11 to 16 years	6 (26%)	17 (28%)	23 (27%)
17 to 22 years	-	15 (24%)	15 (18%)
23 years or more	9 (39%)	12 (20%)	21 (25%)
Education level				0.408 €
Technician	-	37 (61%)	37 (44%)
Undergraduate	2 (7%)	13 (21%)	15 (18%)
Specialization	13 (57%)	11 (18%)	24 (29%)
Master's Degree	5 (22%)	-	5 (6%)
Doctoral Degree	3 (13%)	-	3 (3%)
Professional Update				0.046€^* * 5% significance level; € = Student t-test; Ω = ANOVA
No	12 (52%)	40 (66%)	52 (62%)
Yes	11 (48%)	21 (34%)	32 (38%)
Leadership Position				0.010€^* * 5% significance level; € = Student t-test; Ω = ANOVA
No	10 (43%)	56 (92%)	66 (78%)
Yes	13 (57%)	5 (8%)	18 (22%)

Variables	Nurses (n = 23) Yes	Nursing technicians (n = 61) Yes
Do you know authentic leadership?	9 (39%)	17 (28%)
Which leadership model do you know?	15 (65%)	24 (39%)
Behavioral Leadership	11 (48%)	15 (25%)
Charismatic Leadership	6 (29%)	2 (3%)
Transformational Leadership	5 (22%)	2 (3%)
Situational Leadership	9 (39%)	17 (28%)
Visionary Leadership	1 (4%)	4 (7%)
Authentic Leadership	7 (30%)	7 (11%)
Other: Organizational, democratic and autocratic	1 (4%)	2 (3%)
Leader competences
Communication	23 (100%)	58 (95%)
Systemic View	21 (91%)	41 (67%)
Entrepreneurship	13 (56%)	23 (38%)
Planning & organizing	23 (100%)	58 (95%)
Negotiation skills	18 (78%)	44 (72%)
Interpersonal relationship	22 (95%)	44 (72%)
Decision-making	21 (91%)	54 (88%)
Working effectively in a team	19 (82%)	58 (95%)
Flexibility	20 (87%)	56 (91%)
Creativity	21 (56%)	45 (74%)

Variables	Nurses (n = 23)		Nursing technicians (n = 61)		p value
Variables	No	Yes	No	Yes	p value
Weaknesses
I work individually	23 (100%)	-	36 (61%)	23 (39%)	0.001#^* * Significance level of 5% (p <0.05)
I receive incomplete or inconsistent information	12 (55%)	10 (45%)	44 (72%)	17 (28%)	0.214#
Inadequate physical structure	12 (52%)	11 (48%)	40 (66%)	21 (34%)	0.381#
Patients' diversity makes working difficult	23 (100%)	-	58 (95%)	3 (5%)	0.558§
I do not receive enough training/update at work	21 (91%)	2 (9%)	53 (87%)	8 (13%)	0.720§
Potentialities
I receive in-service training/ continuing education	12 (52%)	11 (48%)	16 (27%)	44 (73%)	0.052#
Leaders value the health care delivery	12 (52%)	11 (48%)	33 (54%)	28 (46%)	0.930#
I participate in decision making with the team	8 (35%)	15 (65%)	49 (80%)	12 (20%)	0.001#^* * Significance level of 5% (p <0.05)
I have good communication / transparency	2 (9%)	21 (92%)	15 (25%)	46 (75%)	0.113§

Domain	Nurses (n = 23)		Nursing technicians (n = 61)		p value
Domain	M	SD	M	SD	p value
Self-consciousness	11.6	±2.4	11.7	±3.2	0.835
Transparency	15.7	±2.9	14.8	±2.9	0.209
Ethics and Morality	13.0	±2.3	11.4	±3.2	0.024^* * Significance level of 5% (p ≤ 0.05)
Balanced Processing	9.2	±1.9	8.9	±2.0	0.598

Scores	Nurses (n = 23)	Nursing technicians (n = 61)	p value
Very low	-	2 (3%)	0.607
Low	11 (48%)	32 (52%)
High	12 (52%)	27 (45%)
Very high	-	-

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[1] Corresponding author: Cleide Carolina da Silva Demoro Mondini. E-mail: cmondini@usp.br