Abstract
Hospitals or facilities for the elderly have a number of departments, but the nutritional department is one of the most essential, and is staffed by many specialists such as registered dietitians, dietitians, and licensed cooked. In order for a nutritional department to operate effectively, registered dietitians are expected to exert a degree of leadership. However, little information on the kind of leadership required for registered dietitians has been available. We investigated 134 registered dietitian or staff belonging to food service facilities in 17 institutions. Their leadership qualities were evaluated using two indices. One was the PM theory of leadership, in which leadership quality is evaluated in terms of parameters: performance (P) and maintenance (M) . The other was the least preferred co-worker (LPC) , reflecting the leader’s orientation with regard to human relations. Fifteen questions were prepared so that the study subjects could self-report aspects of their facility, the quality of food service, or their own performance. These scores were not related to the type or size of the facility or individual working duration. Higher M scores and higher LPC scores were associated with higher evaluation of the facility and individual performance. This suggests that registered dietitians need to be good leaders in order to organize a food service department, and are expected to have M type behavior, i.e. high maintenance ability.
