Organisation Ethics, Relational Leadership and Nursing

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the relevance of the concept of relational leadership for nurses. Leadership is an issue which has received increased attention within the field of organisation ethics over the course of the past two decades. Organisation ethics is the study of the ethical issues which arise in the context of managing and running complex organisations, such as healthcare organisations. Decisions made by managers and executives within healthcare organisations have a fundamental impact on the working conditions of nurses and other clinical staff, and may compromise their ability to care for patients as they would wish to. The challenges involved in balancing the requirements of the organisation with the needs of individual patients may result in moral distress for nurses and other healthcare professionals. Relational leadership reconceptualises leadership, not as a hierarchical relationship between ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’, but in terms of a set of ‘relational practices’ or competencies which blur the distinction between leaders and followers. Relational leadership recognises that acts of leadership occur at every level within an organisation and it empowers those with less organisational influence to lead in situations in which their expertise is required and to challenge existing leadership structures which undermine the quality of their work. Developing the relational competencies which are a prerequisite of relational leadership may transform nurses’ understanding of their own agency and revolutionise their experience of the work they do.