Introduction/framework/objectives

When contacting several companies, as employees or as providers of Occupational Health services, we easily find marked differences in the type of Leadership exercised and associate some positive and/or negative consequences to these characteristics. However, most of the elements working in Occupational Health teams do not have structured knowledge on this topic, which may somewhat undermine the effectiveness of their own work. The aim of this bibliographical review is to summarize the most recent and relevant publications on this subject, to enhance the performance of Occupational Health teams and the one of the clients.

Methodology

This is a bibliographic review, initiated through a search carried out in September 2021 in the databases “CINALH plus with full text, Medline with full text, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Methodology Register, Nursing and Allied Health Collection: comprehensive, MedicLatina and RCAAP”.

Contents

Leadership is the ability to influence and motivate employees, through ideas, strategies and actions, in order to achieve the institution’s goals, enhancing its effectiveness and success. In a way, it’s the art of influencing subordinates. The company’s effectiveness depends on acquiring and keeping employees happy and committed to the project. However, more complex and demanding challenges and objectives are being posed, which require the worker to be more adaptable, in the face of increasingly uncertain and changing conditions. Job satisfaction is an increasingly valued parameter; the higher, the more productive and engaged the employee will be. The leader must be aware that his behavior can inhibit or encourage certain postures in subordinates.

Boss is a hierarchical and formal position; Leader may even be the informal choice of the working group. The capabilities associated with Leadership are not innate in most individuals, but rather learned and honed over time; being a leader results from continuous learning. A manager manages in the short term, valuing goals; a Leader motivates innovation and acts with medium and long-term goals- but there are no good Leaders without good subordinates.

Confidence in the Leader significantly affects work commitment and the sense of autonomy. Employers seeking to provide a competitive advantage must promote conditions that lead to greater employee commitment; understanding which emotional variables lead to this will help improve the institution’s overall performance and increase employee satisfaction.

Different types of Leadership are described. However, some researchers believe that the most effective Leaders rely on different styles because of their complementarity. Furthermore, there is no style that is uniformly better than the others, as it will have to adapt to each particular context.

Discussion and Conclusions

If the Occupational Health team has some notions regarding the types of Leadership and Leaders, it will not only be able to have better performance and job satisfaction itself, but also it will obtain the same in the clientes.

It would be relevant to investigate what types of Leadership and Leaders exist in our country and how this conditions affects not only the satisfaction, commitment and success of the institutions, but also the adherence to the proposed measures in terms of Health and Safety.

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