| Sumario: | Department chairpersons are responsible for creating an organizational climate that motivates faculty members to achieve in their respective faculty roles. This study was undertaken to examine the use of leadership behaviors by nursing chairpersons and the relationship of these behaviors to the organizational climate of nursing departments as perceived by the faculty. Bolman and Deal's leadership theory of frame analysis was used as the theoretical framework. This theory separates leadership behaviors into four frames (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic). Findings indicated that 60.5% of the chairpersons were perceived by faculty members to demonstrate or use the behaviors as described in one or more of the leadership frames. Faculty members perceived their chairpersons to use the human resource frame the most, followed by the structural frame, the symbolic frame, and the political frame. The strongest relationships occurred for (a) the human resource leadership frame with the organizational climate domain of consideration, (b) the structural frame with the production emphasis domain, and (c) the political frame and the symbolic frame with the consideration domain. The use of combinations of leadership frames (paired frame, multi-frame, and all four frames) by chairpersons was most associated with the organizational climate domains of consideration, intimacy, and production emphasis, as opposed to no frame or single frame use. This study proposes that the leadership theory of frame analysis should be included in graduate programs that educate nurses to assume leadership roles. In addition, the findings may prove useful to search committees when selecting new department chairpersons.
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