Leaders
Introduction
Effective union organising needs inspirational elected leaders. They can be described as transformational leaders. Transformational leaders have the following qualities. They are not appointed but arise from within the workforce; they are exceptional; they elicit intense trust and commitment from fellow members; they motivate members to disregard their self-interests and pursue the goals of the union; their role is to change the union by developing a vision for the future. In contrast, the paid officials of the servicing model are described as transactional trade union leaders.
Transformational leaders may exist at different levels of a union’s organisation, such as union delegates. They also exist at the highest levels of the union, such as Branch Secretaries. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Belinda Morieson, Irene Bolger and Barbara Carson can be described as transformational leaders. They were nurses who emerged from the rank-and-file as elected job representatives. All were elected to the position of Branch Secretary.
Morieson and Fitzpatrick were leaders who transformed the ANF(Vic) into an organising union. They used their leadership qualities to transform the union’s bureaucracy to empower job representatives. Drawing their power from the rank-and-file (as elected leaders), through resolutions of the Delegates' Conference and mass meetings of nurses, they used their personal leadership qualities to persuade Council to build an organisational structure that allowed for the development of a collective consciousnessamong nurses that led to effective mobilisation.
Prior to the emergence of the ANF(Vic) as an industrial-professional union, intent on mobilisation, women union leaders at senior levels built up the professional skill base and identity of nurses, increasing their collective power.
- Title
- H. Elizabeth Glover, 1901
- Source
- Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library
- Title
- Julia Ayres, First Nurse President 1911-12. Matron of Alfred Hospital (with nurses).
- Source
- Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library
- Title
- Evelyn Conyers, OBE, Member of Council 1903-1942
- Source
- Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library
- Title
- Jane Bell, OBE. President 1932-4, 1938-46
- Source
- Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library
- Title
- Grace Wilson CBE, Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Army Nursing Service, Second World War
- Control
- 2006.0027, 37/6
- Source
- University of Melbourne Archives
- Title
- H.D. Grey, OBE, President 1946-1951
- Source
- Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library
The University of Melbourne