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

Details

Title
Julia Ayres, First Nurse President 1911-12. Matron of Alfred Hospital (with nurses).
Source
Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library

Details

Title
Evelyn Conyers, OBE, Member of Council 1903-1942
Source
Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library

Details

Title
Jane Bell, OBE. President 1932-4, 1938-46
Source
Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library

Details

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

Details

Title
H.D. Grey, OBE, President 1946-1951
Source
Archives of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Library

Details

James L. Tierney and Christina Cregan
The University of Melbourne

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