Developing nurse leaders: Toward a theory of authentic leadership empowerment

Aim The aim of this article is to present a theoretical synthesis of the theory of authentic leadership and the theory of structural empowerment. The new middle-range theory, Theory of Authentic Leadership Empowerment (TALE), is meant to be used as a guide for the professional development of nurses into leadership roles. Background The Institute of Medicine's Future of Nursing Report calls for nurses across all levels and settings, to develop leadership skills to address the ever-growing complexities in health care. However, the best approach to developing nurse leaders is not known. Design Walker and Avant's method for theory synthesis was used. The two theories were critically appraised from a philosophical and theoretical perspective. Then the theories were synthesized by nesting structural empowerment concepts into authentic leadership to arrive at the proposed TALE. Results TALE highlights how a nurse's individual history, personal values, ethics, and the organization's structure interact and influence the development of leaders who are authentic. Conclusions TALE offers nurse leaders, nursing professional development practitioners, and other stakeholders concerned with developing authentic leaders a holistic theoretical framework to understand leadership development at the individual level while also accounting for the importance of contextual influences.