Use of instruments to evaluate leadership in nursing and health services.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the available scientific evidence about the use of instruments for the evaluation of leadership in health and nursing services and verify the use of leadership styles/models/theories in the construction of these tools.

METHOD: Integrative literature review of indexed studies in the LILACS, PUBMED, CINAHL and EMBASE databases from 2006 to 2016.

RESULTS: Thirty-eight articles were analyzed, exhibiting 19 leadership evaluation tools; the most used were the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the Global Transformational Leadership Scale, the Leadership Practices Inventory, the Servant Leadership Questionnaire, the Servant Leadership Survey and the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire.

CONCLUSIONS: The literature search allowed to identify the main theories/styles/models of contemporary leadership and analyze their use in the design of leadership evaluation tools, with the transformational, situational, servant and authentic leadership categories standing out as the most prominent. To a lesser extent, the quantum, charismatic and clinical leadership types were evidenced.