الفهرس 
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Abstract
Leadership has been described as a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task, although there are alternative definitions of leadership. For example, some understand a leader simply as somebody whom people follow, or as somebody who guides or directs others while others define leadership as ”organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal”.
The study was aimed to determining leadership styles and conflict management strategies used by head nurses through: Identifying head nurses’ leadership styles; Identifying conflict management strategies as perceived by head nurses; Finding out the relationship between head nurses leadership styles and their conflict management strategies.
This study was conducted in two hospitals affiliated to Ministery Of Health (MOH). These are Kafr El Dawar General Hospital, which has 30 departments, Etay Elbaroud General Hospital, with 20 departments.
Using a descriptive correlational design. The subjects of the study included all head nurses worked in the aforementioned hospitals during the study time. According to the number of departments, their total number was 50 head nurses, 30 head nurse from Kafr El Dawar General Hospital and 20 head nurse from Etay Elbaroud General Hospital who were available at the time of data collection in the mentioned setting.
Data for this study collected using A self-administered questionnaire. It consists of two questionnaire sheets namely the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Thomas - Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) .
Tool 1 the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) : consists of two parts.
Part 1: Socio-demographic and job characteristics: This included questions about nurse’s age, gender, marital status, nursing qualifications, experience years both total and in the managerial position, attendance of training courses in leadership and/or conflict management, and department.
Part 2: Consists of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ form 5 x). It was developed by Bass and Avolio (1995)to identify the leadership styles used by head nurses, whether a transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire. The questionnaire consists of 45 statements on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from ”Strongly Agree” to ”Strongly Disagree.” These are categorized into Three leadership styles: transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire with their respective scales, and three leadership outcomes: extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. All of the leadership style scales have four items, Extra Effort has three items, Effectiveness has four items, and Satisfaction has two items. The leadership style with the highest score indicates the predominant leadership style.
Tool 2:Thomas - Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument(TKI): it was developed as a researsh tool by Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilman in 1974, and modified in 2000. The instrument is based on theoretical refinements by Kenneth Thomas of a model of management styles proposed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in the 1960s (Thomas and Kilman, 1974). It helps individuals know how five conflict-handling styles (competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating) affect interpersonal and group dynamics and learn how to select the most appropriate style for a given situation. It consists of 30 pairs of items (A and B) for a total of 60 items. Each 6 pairs (12 items) measure one strategy.
The study tools were tested for face and content validity by five experts from Alexandria and Damanhour university (faculty of nursing).
A pilot study was conducted on nurses (10%) selected randomly and necessary modifications were done as rewarding and rephrasing some items.
The results of the study revealed that:
1- About approximately half (50%) of head nurses had age ranged between 25-35 years old. Moreover, slightly more than four fifths (84.0%) of head nurses was female, and slightly less than two thirds (70.0%) was married. Also, majority (86.0%) of them had bachelor in nursing. Whereas, majority (46.0%) of head nurses was working in medical department, and also slightly less than half (48.0%) of them had years of experience in nursing ranged between 11– 20 years, on other hand head nurses had mean 12.5 ± 5.88 years of experience in supervision. Finally, slightly more than two thirds (66.0%) of them not attending training program on management or conflict management.
2- Slightly less than two thirds (58%) among head nurses use mix between transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Moreover, slightly less than one quraters (24%) among head nurses use transformational leadership style. On other hand, the lowest leadership style use (2%) among head nurses was laissez-faire leadership style.
3- Slightly less than one thirds (32.0%) among head nurses use accommodating strategy as the highest conflict management strategies. whereas approximately two fifths (40.0%) head nurses use collaborating strategy as the lowest conflict management strategies.
4- There was statistically significant correlation between transformational leadership domains. There was no significant correlation between transactional leadership domains. Moreover, there was statistically significant correlation between laissez-faire leadership domains. And there was statistically significant correlation between outcomes of leadership domains.
5- There was statistically significant correlation between head nurses’ conflict management strategies except between competing strategy and collaborating strategy, competing strategy and compromising strategy, also between collaborating and accommodating strategy, finally between compromising strategy and avoiding strategy.
6- There was a negative statistically significant correlation between collaborating strategy and transformational leadership, transactional leadership. There was a positive statistically significant correlation between compromising strategy and transformational leadership. There was a negative statistically significant correlation between accommodating strategy and effectiveness outcomes of leadership.
Conclusion: Based on this study finding, it can be concluded that there was a negative statistically significant correlation between collaborating strategy and transformational leadership, transactional leadership. Furthermore, that there was a positive statistically significant correlation between compromising strategy and transformational leadership. Finally, there was a negative statistically significant correlation between accommodating strategy and effectiveness outcomes of leadership.
Recommendations: Based on the results to improve leadership styles and conflict management strategies of head nurses through training programs for head nurses on leadership styles in order to enable them to understand the components of effective nursing leadership style, The Director of Nursing Services should create a shared vision for the nursing departments/units that motivates and inspires head nurses to perform beyond basic expectations,