HCS 475 Week 1 Leadership Theories and Leadership Style Example

From Best CT Technologist to Director of Ninety-Six People: Leadership Theories, Management Versus Leadership and One New Imaging Director's Style

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

HCS/475: Leadership and Performance Development

Week 1 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The imaging department, its staff and its director are composites written for a model paper; theories and research findings come from the sources listed.

For eleven years she was the technologist everyone called when a CT scanner misbehaved or a trauma patient needed images fast. When the imaging director of a composite 320-bed hospital retired, she was promoted into the role, responsible for 96 people across CT, MRI, ultrasound, general radiography and interventional radiology. On her first morning, a technologist asked her to cover a CT shift, and she said yes before thinking. By the end of the week, she had covered three shifts and fallen behind on the budget, the staffing plan and two complaints. This paper examines leadership theory through her first three months.

Leadership and Management

Kotter (1990) treated the two as distinct but equally necessary. In his account, managers keep a complex organization orderly by planning and budgeting, arranging staff and checking results, whereas leaders prepare it for change by pointing it somewhere, getting people lined up behind that direction and keeping them motivated when the going is hard. The new director had been promoted for neither; she was promoted for technical excellence. Her department needed both: someone to balance a $14 million budget and meet accreditation standards, and someone to lead staff through a new electronic scheduling system and a shortage of MRI technologists.

Trait Theories

Early theories looked for traits that distinguish leaders, such as intelligence, confidence, determination and sociability. Traits explain why she was chosen: she was knowledgeable, calm under pressure and trusted. But traits did not tell her what to do on Monday, and some of her strengths, such as always solving the problem herself, worked against her as a leader.

Behavioral Theories

Behavioral theories shifted attention to what leaders do, grouping behavior into task-oriented actions, such as scheduling and setting standards, and relationship-oriented actions, such as supporting and recognizing people. In her first weeks she was almost entirely task-focused, and mostly on tasks that belonged to others.

Situational Leadership

Situational theories argue that the right style depends on the follower and the task. A new graduate sonographer needs clear direction; a veteran interventional technologist needs autonomy and support. The director had been treating everyone as if they were her, highly skilled and self-directed, which left new staff without direction and frustrated experienced staff when she stepped into their work.

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership, a related approach, asks the leader to serve the team before anything else, clearing obstacles so they can do their best work. It fit one thing the director did well from the start: fighting for the equipment and staffing her technologists needed. Critics note that servant leadership can be slow to set direction, and the department needed direction quickly. The director borrowed its attention to staff needs without adopting it as her whole style.

Transformational Leadership

Bass (1990) contrasted transactional leadership, which exchanges rewards for performance, with transformational leadership, which raises followers' commitment by articulating a vision, providing individual consideration, stimulating new thinking and inspiring through example. He argued that transformational leadership produces effort beyond expectations and can be learned. The department did not need its best technologist on one more shift; it needed someone to explain where imaging was going and why each person mattered to getting there.

What Research Says About Styles

Cummings et al. (2018) reviewed 129 studies of leadership styles and outcomes for nurses and nursing work environments and found consistent patterns: relational leadership styles, including transformational leadership, were associated with higher job satisfaction and better outcomes, while task-focused styles were more often associated with lower satisfaction. Although the review focused on nursing, imaging technologists share many of the same pressures: shift work, patient care under time pressure and shortages.

Her First Three Months

With a mentor's help, the director changed course. She stopped covering shifts and asked her modality supervisors to solve staffing gaps. She held listening sessions with each team and learned that technologists felt ignored during the last equipment purchase. She shared a simple vision: the fastest safe imaging in the region with staff who stay. She met each supervisor weekly, adjusting her direction to their experience.

When a Directive Style Is Right

Relational leadership is not the answer to every moment. During a mass casualty drill in her second month, the CT scanner in the emergency department failed while three trauma patients waited. The director gave clear, rapid instructions: move the trauma patients to the second scanner, call the service engineer, delay outpatient scans. Staff later said her calm direction was exactly right. Situational theory explains why: in a time-critical emergency, even experienced staff want a leader who decides. The skill is knowing when to switch back.

Assessing Her Style

A 360-degree feedback survey at three months rated her highly on integrity, technical credibility and calm, moderately on communication and low on delegation and on explaining the reasons for decisions. Staff said they trusted her but did not know her priorities.

Strengths

Her technical credibility gives her authority with staff that an outside hire might lack. Her calm is valuable during emergencies, when a directive approach is appropriate. Her honesty builds trust, and staff say she never asks them to do anything she would not do herself.

Gaps

Delegation, communicating vision and budgeting are her weakest areas. Her instinct to solve problems herself is the habit most likely to hold the department back.

Three Commitments

First, she will not cover a shift except in a true emergency, and will track how often she does. Second, she will write a monthly one-page update explaining decisions and priorities. Third, she will complete the hospital's leadership development program and a finance course within her first year.

Conclusion

The new director's first weeks show why health care organizations cannot assume that expertise equals leadership. Trait theory explains her promotion; behavioral and situational theories explain her early struggles; transformational leadership, supported by research on relational styles, describes what the department needed. Her assessment and commitments turn theory into a plan for becoming the leader her department requires.

References

Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(3), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(90)90061-S

Cummings, G. G., Tate, K., Lee, S., Wong, C. A., Paananen, T., Micaroni, S. P. M., & Chatterjee, G. E. (2018). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 85, 19-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.04.016

Kotter, J. P. (1990). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review, 68(3), 103-111.