Abstract:
The full grounded theory method was used in the present study to investigate nursing leadership in a New
Zealand hospital setting. One finding that emerged clearly from the research was the important role played by
organizational politics in both facilitating the process of leadership and in confounding it. Data were collected over
a two-year period. The range of data sources included nonparticipant observation, informal/unstructured and
(formal/semistructured) interviews, document analysis, and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Data
triangulation within the grounded theory method is a major contribution of this study. Nurse leaders displayed high
levels of transformational leadership according to the questionnaire data. However, qualitative analysis of the data
suggested that other factors were working to prevent nurse leaders from maximizing organizational change
outcomes. Two near-core categories partially explained why transformational nurse leaders were not realizing their
leadership potential. One near-core category was the process of repressing leadership, the other was multiple
realities. The highest level of abstraction of the data led to the emergence of the substantive basic social process of
identifying paradox. Identifying paradox was conceptually very close to the definition of politics in organizational
leadership which is the "constructive management of shared meaning." This core category explained the social
process by which the staff either legitimize or reconcile paradoxical understandings created from the multiple
realities of the three subcultures working in the hospital setting. If paradoxes are identified and reconciled, and
multiple realities converge, organizational change efforts are more likely to be accepted by the staff because the
change is in line with their reality. Conversely, if paradoxes are not identified and/or legitimized, multiple realities
diverge and organizational change efforts are less likely to be accepted by the staff. Findings are interpreted from
the political perspective.
