(Huston) – Leadership Review Guide
2025/2026
Leadership & Management in Nursing (Huston) – 100 Q&A Review
Part 1: Core Concepts & Theories (Q1-20)
1. What is the primary focus of management in nursing?
A) Inspiring a shared vision for patient care.
B) Efficiently accomplishing organizational goals through planning, budgeting, and staffing. ✓
C) Building relationships and empowering staff.
D) Challenging the status quo to improve outcomes.
2. A nurse manager who makes all decisions for the unit without staff input is demonstrating
which leadership style?
A) Democratic
B) Laissez-Faire
C) Autocratic ✓
D) Transformational
3. According to Huston, what is a key element of leadership?
A) Creating detailed policies and procedures.
B) Influencing others to achieve a common goal. ✓
C) Maintaining the current organizational structure.
D) Focusing solely on fiscal accountability.
4. A nurse leader who encourages staff participation in decision-making and facilitates group
discussions is using which style?
A) Autocratic
B) Democratic ✓
C) Laissez-Faire
D) Bureaucratic
5. Situational Leadership Theory suggests that effective leaders must:
A) Apply the same leadership style in all situations.
B) Adapt their style based on the follower's readiness and competence. ✓
,C) Always be relationship-oriented.
D) Always be task-oriented.
6. A leader who is charismatic, inspires motivation, and stimulates intellectual growth is best
described as:
A) A transactional leader.
B) A transformational leader. ✓
C) An autocratic leader.
D) A servant leader.
7. Servant Leadership is characterized by:
A) The leader being served by their followers.
B) Putting the needs of followers first and helping them develop to their full potential. ✓
C) Exchanging rewards for achieved performance.
D) Centralizing power and decision-making.
8. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is critical for nurse leaders because it allows them to:
A) Focus solely on clinical outcomes.
B) Understand and manage their own and others' emotions to foster a positive work
environment. ✓
C) Make decisions based purely on data and evidence.
D) Delegate all emotionally challenging tasks.
9. The "triple aim" of healthcare, often discussed in leadership contexts, includes:
A) Improving patient experience, improving population health, and reducing per capita costs. ✓
B) Increasing staff salaries, reducing length of stay, and expanding services.
C) Enhancing physician satisfaction, nurse satisfaction, and patient satisfaction.
D) Maximizing revenue, minimizing expenses, and increasing market share.
10. A newly licensed nurse requires clear, specific instructions. According to Situational
Leadership, the most appropriate leader behavior is:
A) Delegating
B) Participating
C) Selling (coaching)
D) Telling (directing) ✓
11. A leader who focuses on contingent rewards and management-by-exception is practicing:
A) Transformational Leadership
B) Transactional Leadership ✓
,C) Servant Leadership
D) Laissez-Faire Leadership
12. The Quadruple Aim adds a fourth component to the Triple Aim, which is:
A) Improving physician leadership
B) Improving the work life of healthcare providers. ✓
C) Enhancing technology integration
D) Reducing medical errors
13. Which theory suggests that leaders are born, not made?
A) Behavioral Theory
B) Situational Theory
C) Great Man Theory ✓
D) Contingency Theory
14. Authentic Leadership emphasizes:
A) Strict adherence to rules.
B) Self-awareness, transparency, and ethical behavior. ✓
C) Maintaining emotional distance from staff.
D) Focusing exclusively on task completion.
15. The primary goal of a "Just Culture" in a healthcare organization is to:
A) Blame individuals for errors.
B) Focus solely on system-level issues.
C) Balance accountability for unsafe choices with a non-punitive approach to system-induced
errors. ✓
D) Encourage staff to report only major events.
16. Laissez-Faire leadership often results in:
A) High productivity and clear goals.
B) Role ambiguity and low team cohesion. ✓
C) Strict adherence to policies.
D) Increased staff satisfaction due to complete autonomy.
17. A nurse manager who uses Management By Walking Around (MBWA) is demonstrating a
principle of which management theory?
A) Scientific Management
B) Human Relations Theory ✓
C) Bureaucratic Management
D) Classical Management
, 18. The ability to think strategically and see the "big picture" for the organization is a key
competency for which level of leader?
A) Charge Nurse
B) Clinical Nurse Specialist
C) Middle Manager
D) Executive ✓
19. According to Kotter, the first step in leading change is to:
A) Create a vision for change.
B) Create a sense of urgency. ✓
C) Form a powerful coalition.
D) Communicate the vision.
20. A leader who mentors a junior nurse, helping them develop their career path, is acting as
a:
A) Manager
B) Preceptor
C) Coach ✓
D) Director
Part 2: Communication & Conflict (Q21-40)
21. The SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) communication tool is
used primarily to:
A) Document a patient's full history.
B) Facilitate clear, concise, and effective hand-off communication. ✓
C) Resolve conflicts between physicians and nurses.
D) Delegate tasks to unlicensed personnel.
22. A conflict resolution style where one party sacrifices to satisfy the other is known as:
A) Competing
B) Collaborating
C) Compromising
D) Accommodating ✓
23. The most effective, but also most time-consuming, conflict resolution style is:
A) Avoiding
B) Accommodating