Purpose. The major purpose of this study was to investigate within the hospital setting the interrelationships of self-perceptions of 124 leaders (head nurses) and the perceptions of 363 subordinates (staff nurses) and 24 supervisors (section chiefs or section supervisors) about leadership behaviors of the head nurses. For this study the leadership setting chosen was an inpatient ward having continuous (24-hour) patient care responsibility in the eight Army medical centers located in the United States.

Variables. In this investigation demographic and background questions were explored using the Background Questionnaire (BQ) prepared by the writer. In addition to completing the BQ, the head nurses rated themselves on leadership behaviors as represented by their responses to all 12 subscales (total scores) on the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire--Form XII (LBDa). Each head nurse was also rated by three staff nurses (subordinates) in terms of the total scores reflected by the LBDQ. Also, a single item Likert-type scale of the overall effectiveness of leadership behaviors of head nurses yielded three ratings: one given by staff nurses (subordinates), another by section supervisors (section chiefs), and a third by the head nurses (leaders).

Conclusions. (1) Staff nurses have a different perspective, separate and distinct, from that of their supervising head nurse concerning the leadership behavior of the head nurse. (2) Staff nurses tend to show a high degree of agreement between their overall perception of the general leadership effectiveness demonstrated by their head nurses as measured by a single item of general leadership effectiveness on a five-point scale and their perceptions of several dimensions of leadership behavior of their head nurses provided by the LBDQ, whereas head nurses tend to exhibit little if any relationship between corresponding sets of perceptions provided by others about them and perceptions registered by head nurses themselves. (3) Head nurses show at best only a limited ability to predict how their staff nurses and section chiefs (supervisors) would assess their leadership behavior.