The behavioral characteristics of nursing leadership associated with effective coalition building and work among the colleagues in caring coalitions

This research used quantitative and qualitative methodologies (triangulation) to determine the behavioral characteristics of nursing leadership associated with effective coalition building and work among the Colleagues in Caring (CIC) coalitions and the influence of mentorship on transformational nursing leadership behaviors. A cross-sectional design was used for the quantitative portion of the study to capture the behavioral characteristic of Transformational, Transactional and Laissez-faire leadership as reported by the nursing leaders and the "followers" (coalition members) using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). The perceived outcomes of satisfaction, effectiveness, and willingness to extra effort of both the twenty funded and nineteen unfunded CIC sites were tested for statistical significance. The qualitative portion of the study used hermeneutic phenomenology and the philosophy of Gadamer as the framework and methodology. The integration of the quantitative and qualitative research created a holistic model for the nursing inquiry into the transformational nursing leadership in the CIC coalitions.; The interpretation of the quantitative data demonstrated the perception of high transformational leadership behavior characteristics among the nursing leaders of the CIC coalitions as measured by the MLQ ratings. The outcomes of effectiveness, satisfaction, willingness to extra effort differed between the funded and unfunded coalitions. The qualitative portion of the research revealed four composite themes: Sequential Journey of Career Mentoring, Mentoring as a Way of Being, Mentor Legacy, and Guiding the Path to Role Understanding. The integration of the quantitative and the qualitative portions illustrated the interwoven influence of mentoring and transformational leadership.