1.

Introduction
The integration of advanced management practices in the healthcare sector is
changing the leadership and organizational structure. Previously, the concept of
leadership is only limited to enterprises and factories. However, as social literacy
promulgates in the workplace, the value of leadership qualities became equally
acceptable in all sectors. Since a nursing profession deals with the holistic care of the
patients, and are in continuous collaboration with the doctors and paramedic staff. The
role of nurses can be considered stressful, enduring, and effort-demanding in the
healthcare sector. Besides, skill and technical expertise, the nursing leaders often face
difficulties in staffing, cultural diversity, and dealing with interpersonal skills, and
adaption to the advancements in the technology that is utilized in the healthcare sector.
Therefore, it is necessary to implement leadership practices that can help in building their
professional value and help them in managing the working staff.
The nursing leadership practices adopted by healthcare institutes vary. This is due to
the delivery and advance care role assigned to individual nurses to regulate the nursing
activities and promote transformation and transactional leadership in the workplace.
Nursing organizations, such as the International Council of Nurses (ICN), focuses on
transformational leadership qualities. In contrast, the study of Tsigu & Rao (2015) shows
that transactional leadership skills are more consolidated than transformational skills.
Nonetheless, both the transformational and transactional style of the nursing management
system has a positive impact on the employee’s performance (Pradeep & Prabhu, 2011).
The effectiveness of transactional and transformational leadership skill is debatable.
Therefore, it is important to address the transformational and transactional nursing
practices and models, as they are required to raise awareness among the students and
professional staff.
Theoretically, the concepts of transformational and transactional leadership date back
to 1985, when Bass first proposed the concept for an organizational structure. The theory
serves a basis of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). This is a set of
instructions and points that analyzes the three leadership styles: Lasisse-faire leadership,
transactional leadership, and third is the transformational leadership. Notably, these
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leadership qualities are foundation and models for promulgating a strong leadership
structure (Lievens & Vlerick, 2014). Transactional leadership measures employee
performance using economic markers and subordinate metrics. Conversely,
transformational leadership stimulates a particular organization (Bakker, Demerouti, &
Schaufeli, 2003). This supervisory style of transformational practices can help inspire
fellow nursing staff and become a role model (Nortje, 2010). The job responsibilities of
nursing managers have emerged with time-oriented from being care deliver to assuring a
care outcome, and the overall focus has now shifted on the standard and development
practices. Several authors have emphasized the importance of transactional and
transformational leadership in the nursing profession. This is due to its pivotal
importance in the healthcare sector. Notably, by nurturing the self-development skills of
nurses in the healthcare profession can influence their characteristics of leading an
essential role, govern the challenging tasks, and promote a sustainable environment in the
workplace. To address this issue, numerous studies discuss the leadership models that can
help in managing competent roles in nursing profession.
The executive power to lead and manage the healthcare sector, especially when it
comes to nursing responsible. The power entrusted to a nursing manager pertains to
govern all the duties and liabilities, even in the absence of a doctor. Recent data from the
Belgian nursing population indicates that there is more than 22 occupational accident
takes place every day due to untrained nursing managers (Hasselhorn, Tackenberg,
Müller, & group, 2003). The task performance with workplace safety is often affected if
the nursing managers are untrained. This indicates the focus of adequate leadership and
performance monitoring of nurses, where trained staff's statistics are very low. Past
researches have documented that effective nursing leadership can ensure safety in the
workplace. However, empirical research shows that transactional and transformational
leadership qualities affect safety performance among nurses is still not well-researched.
The importance of transactional and transformational leadership in the healthcare
sector is absolute. However, the setting depends on formal and informal practices
implemented in a particular organization. The leadership style, either transactional or
transformational, is required from the nursing student and a director. The importance of
these logical models is due to their basis on primary nursing courses that are taught in

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initial semesters. Though each skill's scope, either transactional or transformational may
differ at each level- and this is what decides the quality of staff towards the patients. A
nursing manager is often expected to make a reasonable decision, even in the challenging
time that may pose vulnerability to their position. Learning transformational and
transactional skill will enable the concerned person to analyze every individual situation
critically, and propose verdict based on vision and integrity of professional nursing
practices (Hussain, 2016).
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the enforcement of Saudization movement
started in 2011, until that time the people associated with the nursing profession are
facing hurdles. The main issue is the scarcity of Saudi-born nurses and nursing managers-
and those who joined the nursing school often left the profession after graduation. This
rapid turnover in the nursing profession has brought many challenges for the healthcare
institutions to produce enough nursing students so that they can lead and manage others
in future. Thus, in the given scenario of the current shortage of nurses in KSA, it is
crucial to re-charter the leadership qualities of present nursing managers (Albagawi,
Laput, Pacis, & AlMahmoud, 2017). This is possible by studying their perception and
examining sub-ordinate outcomes upon adapting transactional and transformational
leadership skills. By grouping the leadership traits, one can easily monitor, manage, and
train the nursing staff. This managing approach is essentially required, especially when
the COVID-19 has affected the global population- and there is a need for an expert and
skilful nursing staff.

1.1. Research Problem

The quality, care, and productivity is the output of a nursing profession- and
every individual associated with this is expected to deliver the best service.
The nursing profession requires adequate knowledge of standard and care to
fulfil the high-quality demand towards their patients. Therefore, managing and
administering nurses is a responsibility that requires adequate leadership
skills. There are multiple models to demonstrate the integrity of leadership
qualities, but the adversity of transactional and transformational leadership
models is not fully explored, especially in KSA. Since the level of train

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nurses- who are well-versed in leadership practices is very low, therefore, it is

necessary to assess whether transactional and transformational practices affect
the nursing performance or not. The research work will provide a pathway for
future researches in nursing leadership and development in KSA.

1.2. Significance/Contribution of the Research

The research is of significant importance as it focuses on managerial and self-
development skills of the nurses. After completing the research work, the
results can serve as a primary incentive to enhance the nurses’ productivity in
hospitals. The study can inspire nursing management and help understand the
importance of transactional and transformational framework in the healthcare
sector. Besides, the concepts from this research will help in educating the
nurse and administration about their roles and commitment with the patients.
The contributions from this research can help in explaining the psychological
aspect of how fellow nursing staff respond positively to the manager having
sound leadership qualities. The significance of the research will help in
understanding the influences of transformational and transactional leadership
models. In short, the notable significance of the research is to serve as a guide
for future leaders in the nursing profession and guide them regarding effective
leadership practices, both nationally and internationally.

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