Brief Presentations of the Articles
The article under analysis is called Transformational Leadership to Nurses’ Extra-role Performance: The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy and Work Engagement (Salanova et al., 2011). The research focuses on the analysis of psychological mechanism that explains the influence of transformational leaderships on extra role performance of nurses. Such qualities as work engagement and self-efficacy have been considered. The results have demonstrated the increased degree of hospital efficacy when transformational leadership approach has been introduced. The second article called Transformational Leadership and Hospital Restructuring: A Descriptive Study explores the connection between managers’ transformational leadership and levels of job satisfaction and staff empowerment.
Main Discussion
Analysis of Theories
Both articles apply to the theory of transformational leadership and its connection to the job satisfaction and other psychological and behavioral issues related to human resource management. In particular, the first article makes use of social learning theory to analyze how cultural and social factors affect nurses’ attitude to the working environment (Salanova et al., 2011). In addition, the theory-guided study focuses on the importance of introducing measurement analysis of such factors as self-efficacy and job engagement with regard to the identified theory. In contrast, the second article represents transformational leadership theory and its applicability to the nursing practice. Specifically, Gullo and Gerstle (2004) argue, “Transformational leadership has been found to be the predominate…because of the positive outcomes that are achieved” (p. 260). Within these theoretical frameworks, such aspects as sense of empowerment and job satisfaction have been discussed.
In addition to the presented theory, both articles focus on the relation between theoretical frameworks and their correlation with the empirical evidence they have found. Specifically, Salanova et al. (2011) relate on a particular group of nurse that are guided by supervisors to define their extra-roles whereas Gullo and Gerstle (2004) are concerned with an objective evaluation of nurses fitting specific criteria.
Analysis of Methodological Tools
The first study is theory driven, which means that all methodological procedures and data collection processes are represented un the umbrella of theories, including transformational leadership theory and social learning theory because they contribute to better identification of psychological and behavioral patterns among the nurse staff. In contrast, the second article refers to descriptive methodological tools to define the link between transformational theory and its applicability in increasing the efficacy of nurse performance. At this point, the author relies in both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results of sample survey. Use of scales and questionnaires in combination provides a wider picture of influences and interconnection between the notions explored.
Both articles apply to convenience sampling which outlines the restriction to choosing the participants. However, the number of chosen participants differs. Hence, Salanove et al (2011) have selected 280 nurses that fall under the guidance of 17 supervisors whereas Gullo and Gerstle (2004) have chosen a sample of about 100 participants due to the limited requirements to the participant.
In conclusion, both articles are connected with the study of transformational leadership and refer to specific psychological and behavioral mechanism that influence nurses within this framework. Both articles apply to sampling, but use different assessment techniques. Specifically, the first study is concerned with qualitative analysis of the influence of leadership on nurses’ efficacy whereas the second research applies both to qualitative and quantitative methodological tools, such as questionnaires and scales.
References
Gullo, S. R., & Gerstle, D. S. (2004). Transformational Leadership and Hospital Restructuring: A Descriptive Study. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 5(4), 259-266.
Salanova, M., Lorente, L., Chambel, M. J., and Martinez, I. M. (2011). Linking Transformational Leadership to Nurses’ Extra-role Performance: The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy and Work Engagement. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 67(10), 2256-2266.