Decision Making Styles in Nursing

Nursing managers have managerial styles, but they also have decision styles that effect the way their units are run. In 1973, the researchers Vroom and Yetton came up with a continuum of decision-making styles to describe how a manager could include her subordinates in her decision-making process. This is important in nurse managing because the nursing unit is often a hotbed of decision-making needs. A manager needs a strong style to run a nursing unit well.

Authoritative

• The authoritative nursing decision maker does not seek out advice from any other source in making his decision. If this is a nurse manager, he makes his decision and simply announces it to his staff. This type of decision-making style does not encourage group participation and is not good for the morale of the staff. This is at the end of the continuum where the manager does not take any advice into account and makes the decision entirely on his own.

Consultative

• The consultative manager is also called collective-participative. In this decision-making style, the nurse manager will ask for input from staff, but the final decision will still be hers alone. This is a step up from the authoritative style, but it still leaves staff feeling as if they do not have a say in the decision-making process on the unit. It would depend on the manager how much she asks for input and how much weight she gives that input in her decision.

Facilitative

• In the facilitative style, the manager and the unit work together to come to a shared decision. Neither the unit nor the manager has the final say in the matter, but it is a consensus of both parties. Each party will work together to come up with a decision about the matter at hand. The manager does not give more weight to his decision in this model. Instead, everyone is heard equally and the decision is made together.

Delegative

• With the delegative model, the manager gives up control of the decision completely and allows the unit or committee to make the decision. The manager has no say in the final decision and essentially puts it to a vote of the unit. This decision style is a very democratic way of managing a unit, but it ties the hands of the manager as a nurse leader. She is unable to guide the group in any meaningful way with this decision style.