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David Stanley reviews the literature, and discusses his own research, on the difference between leadership and management
Keywords
* Leadership
* Change management
* Management theory
This article has been subjected to peer review
IT SHOULD come as no surprise to most nurses that the best and most experienced clinical members of wards or unit teams do not necessarily make the most effective managers.
Yet employers persist in appointing senior clinical staff into ward or unit managerial posts, or worse, encourage clinical staff to take up managerial posts and then burden them further by asking them to retain clinical responsibilities (Stanley 2006a, 2006b).
Some modern matrons and consultant nurses have taken up these positions, as have many ward managers, senior ward leaders and ward sisters (Stanley 2006a, 2006b).
The result can be conflict, confusion, challenges to the clinicians' values and beliefs, or ineffective leadership and management, leading to diminished clinical effectiveness, or even dysfunctional ward or units, and therefore poor quality care (Stanley 2006a, 2006b).
It appears that the drive to place clinicians in key leadership roles (Department of Health 1999, 2000) is hindered by a commonly held misunderstanding about the difference between leadership and management.
This article examines the literature on differences between leadership and management, and discusses the results of a study undertaken by the author that shows that nurses are aware of both these differences and the problems that arise from them (Stanley 2006a, 2006b).
Role conflict: literature search
Where the focus of clinical staff is divided between their clinical role, with its associated professional values, and their managerial role, with its associated organisational values, there is clearly potential for conflict.
In considering nursing's future role, Naughton and Nolan (1998) recognise that the drive to offer more power to nurses can lead to tensions, particularly between the professional aspirations of nurses and the demands placed on them by new managerial cultures.
In his 1993 study, Horbes suggests that traditional managerial tasks such as staffing, staff evaluation and budgeting are best left to administrators because these duties cloud the clinical focus of senior clinical nurses. This is supported by Doyal (1998), who finds that nurses appointed to managerial roles have a 'confusion of identity', which often leads to 'anxiety and isolation for...