Question

Joe Garcia has been an operating room nurse for 5 years. He was often on call on Saturday and Sunday, but he enjoyed his work and knew that he was good at it.

Joe was called to come in on a busy Saturday afternoon just as his 5-year-old daughter's birthday party was about to begin. "Can you find someone else just this once?" he asked the nurse manager who called him. "I should have let you know in advance that we have an important family event today, but I just forgot. If you can't find someone else, call me back, and I'll come right in." Joe's manager was furious. "I don't have time to make a dozen calls. If you knew that you wouldn't want to come in today, you should not have accepted on-call duty. We pay you to be on-call, and I expect you to be here in 30 minutes, not one minute later, or there will be consequences."

Joe decided that he no longer wanted to work in the institution. With his 5 years of operating room experience, he quickly found another position in an organization that was more supportive of its staff.

1. What style of leadership seemed to be preferred by Joe Garcia's manager? 2. What style(s) of leadership were preferred by Joe?

3. What qualities of being a leader did the nurse manager display? Which behaviors? Which ones did the nurse manager not display?

4. If you were Joe, what would you have done? If you were the nurse manager, what would you have done? Why?

Answer 1

Answer 1) Joe Garcia's manager presented an authoritarian style of leadership or either called as autocratic leadership.

Answer 2) Joe preferred a democratic style of leadership where the employees input is also appreciated.

Answer 3) The nurse manager has to be authoritarian at times which was clearly seen in his attitude of enforcing him to be abided by the rules and regulations of the institutions. The qualities of the good leader which the nurse manager didnot depict was the sense of understanding the problems of their employee.

Answer 4) If I were Joe, then I would have refused to come for duty because there is always an option to arrange another staff in such cases. There can be pull in or other staff can be asked to extend their shifts. If I was the Nurse manager, I would have made an effort to arrange someone else from other unit or requesting a staff on the going shift to continue the duty. Because even if Joe was asked to come for duty forcefully and in a threathened way, he will never give an effective output at work.

Answer 2

5. Who do you think was right, Joe or the nurse manager? Why?