Styles and dimensions of leadership behavior in health care chief nurses

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: the nurse's leadership behavior is essential to guide healthcare in the institutions. OBJECTIVE: to outline the profile of the chief nurse, trying to identify his individual and professional features; to identify, according to self-perception, the management style of the nurse by analyzing his performance and the dimensions of his leadership behavior during daily work, during nursing supervision and in hospital units. METHODS: it is a descriptive and quantitative study, developed in order to test an instrument based on the Grid theory, which was applied to 11 nurses from public hospitals in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil, in 2007. RESULTS: most nurses were middle aged, with no children who received 11 salaries and carried out 6 to 10 years of leadership. As to the styles considering the dimension of the leadership behavior, it was evident the predominance of Team Management (34 options) followed by organization man management (19 options). CONCLUSION: except the paternal style, which was not observed in this study, these results are similar to those found in the scientific literature.