Exploring the relationship between leadership and conflict management styles among nursing students
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Exploring the relationship between leadership and conflict management styles among nursing students

Hend Alnajjar Associate professor, College of Nursing, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Ebtsam Abou Hashish Assistant professor, College of Nursing, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and professor, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Why you should read this article:
  • To identify the different leadership and conflict management styles that individuals may use

  • To understand which leadership and conflict management styles are correlated

  • To recognise the importance of nurse educators, managers and employers ensuring that nurses have the necessary skills in conflict management and leadership

Background Leadership and conflict management are essential skills that nursing students need to acquire and practise. There is a gap in the existing literature on conflict management strategies, the role of leadership styles in conflict management and the relationship between leadership and conflict management styles among nursing students.

Aim To investigate nursing students’ leadership and conflict management styles and determine the relationship between their leadership and conflict management styles.

Method A descriptive correlational study was conducted with 250 third-year and fourth-year students at a nursing college in Saudi Arabia. Participants completed the Leadership Styles Questionnaire and Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II. Descriptive statistics were used, and correlation and regression analyses were conducted.

Results Overall, the democratic style of leadership and the integrating style of conflict management were the most favoured by participants, while the laissez-faire leadership style and the dominating style of conflict management were the least favoured. Significant positive correlations were established between the leadership styles of participants and their conflict management styles. The regression analysis showed a significant predictive power of leadership styles, specifically the democratic and autocratic styles, on 30% of the variance in conflict management styles.

Conclusion Leadership skills are essential for clinical decision-making, while leadership style can affect the choice of conflict management style. Nurse educators have a crucial role in teaching and modelling effective leadership and conflict management for students.

Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2022.e2023

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@ebtsam_aly

Correspondence

abouhashishe@ksau-hs.edu.sa

Conflict of interest

None declared

Alnajjar H, Abou Hashish E (2022) Exploring the relationship between leadership and conflict management styles among nursing students. Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2022.e2023

Published online: 19 January 2022

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