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Situational Leadership Addressing Virtual Team Retention in Mayo Clinic: A Leadership
Style of Turnover Reduction in Midwestern Private Hospital
Alejandro Cuervo
Department of Business, Liberty University
BMAL 727: Leading Effective Teams (D03)
Dr. Clifton Thacker
November 2, 2025
Situational Leadership Addressing Virtual Team Retention in Mayo Clinic: A Leadership
Style of Turnover Reduction in Midwestern Private Hospital
Management of virtual teams has become a reality in health care. The private hospitals
in the Midwestern part of the United States have also increased remote and hybrid jobs to
facilitate flexibility in staffing, reducing costs and clinical operations. The telehealth nurses,
remote coders, administrative support, and care coordinators are these groups. However, the
rate of turnover in such virtual jobs is on the rise in most hospitals Remote working has
increased competition for talent, and individual employees can comfortably transfer to other
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companies that may accommodate them or have strong leadership (Jennings & Stahl-Wert,
2016). The hospitals in the Midwest need management strategies that ca improve employee
retention due to turnover leading to short-staffing, low quality of care, and higher labor costs.
Situational leadership provides one of the practical directions.
Situational leadership suggests that the leader should have the capability to adapt
his/her style based on the needs and competency as well as the motivation of the individual
members of the group. Leaders alternate between being directive, coaching, supportive, and
delegative rather than using one particular style of leadership. This flexible model fits well in
the cases of virtual teams where communication barriers, poor face-to-face communication,
and lack of varying levels of experience often make one-size-fits-all leadership ineffective.
Successful expectations, a strong support system, timely feedback, and trust are some of the
pillars of virtual workers (Jennings & Stahl-Wert, 2016). Changing their approach according to
the readiness of a particular employee, the leaders have a chance to improve trust, slow down
the feeling of frustration, and create a sense of belonging. These are the outcomes in favor of
more retention.
Telehealth nursing, digital health services, scheduling, billing, and patient navigation have
involved the use of virtual teams in the Mayo Clinic, which is one of the largest private hospital
systems in the Midwest. The case of the Mayo Clinic can also prove useful because it has an
established culture of team leadership and the form of leadership developed (Wheelan et al.,
2025). Since the private hospitals are strained to retain talent, Mayo Clinic provides a realistic
background to explore the role of situational leadership in improving retention in a virtual
team. The current subject analyzes the impacts of situational leadership on engagement, job
satisfaction, and retention of the members of virtual teams in the private hospitals. It discusses
how leaders can make their leadership behaviors meet the needs of their remote workers in
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relation to development. It is directed to showing how situational leadership will reduce
turnover, establish stronger virtual teams, and support the long-term sustainability of the
organizational systems in the Midwestern healthcare systems (Merida, 2015). This problem is
directly connected with the studies of effective team leadership and could be applied to
modern healthcare organizations.
Rationale
Employee retention constitutes one of the hottest topics in Midwestern private
hospitals. Turnover disrupts patient care, increases costs associated with labor, and hurts the
work of teams. There are certain complexities that are brought about by virtual teams. Remote
workers are likely to be distant, poor serviced, or unaware of what to anticipate (Jennings &
Stahl-Wert, 2016). Such barriers render the relationships feeble and withdrawal likely.
Retention in virtual teams is a strategic issue in the case of hospitals that are stable in terms of
the staff to offer
quality services. Situational leadership is an appropriate model to address such an issue.
The rationale for this topic begins with the fact that to achieve successful teams, the
leadership should meet the needs of people at various developmental levels. Jennings &
StahlWert, (2016) discuss leadership as a service, and they explain that it is extremely crucial to
help team members, motivate them, and guide them. The teams, according to the study of
Wheelan, may be helpful in situations where leaders are able to take the members through
developmental stages in an organized and direct way (Wheelan et al., 2025). This is because
leaders working in a virtual team specifically need to be capable of creating cohesion
irrespective of distance. The situational leadership conforms to these goals because the leaders
will adopt different styles
depending on competency and commitment.
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In virtual healthcare teams, employees might not be well-skilled and at ease using
digital technology. Some are highly experienced and self-sufficient, and some require coaching
or mentoring. Such an environment does not favor a strict type of leadership style. Situational
leadership helps leaders to judge people and treat them properly. A new virtual telehealth
nurse may need direct training, or an experienced coder may need his or her autonomy and
confidence (Jennings & Stahl-Wert, 2016). Satisfying these needs will help the employees to
feel that they are being supported and will make them happier. The more the satisfaction, the
higher the
retention.
The fact that virtual teams have to overcome the barriers to communication is also a
topical problem. The situational leadership leaders emphasize being clear on what they want,
frequent check-ins, and the level of involvement. The tendencies reduce misunderstandings,
enhances goal clarification, and build trust (Merida, 2015). Good teams are built upon an
element of trust as a prerequisite, and this is what has a direct relation to retention. Virtual
employees will not go when they feel that they are understood and believe in their leaders.
This research question will be congruent with the course concepts of the skill to guide
teams to success, guide team change, and apply leadership strategies in practice. Mayo Clinic
provides an actual organizational environment (Redmond, 2021). As a large Midwestern-based
system of private hospitals of good reputation in terms of innovation and excellence in
leadership, it offers the setting in which situational leadership may be effectively employed. The
topic is not so complicated, is evidence-based, and is one that can be applied to modern
healthcare management.
The studies on this topic will help in identifying the leadership practices that can reduce
turnover and establish more effective virtual teams. It is useful to healthcare professionals,
leaders, and organizations that indeed require creating their workforce and improving the
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performance of teams. It is this line of reasoning that makes situational leadership an
important lens towards understanding the issue of virtual team retention in Midwestern private
hospitals and why the issue rightfully belongs to be discussed in a literature review concerning
team leadership.
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References
Jennings, K. R., & Stahl-Wert, J. (2016). The serving leader: Five powerful actions to transform
your team, business, and community. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Merida, T. (2015). Christ-centered exposition: Exposition exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Kings. B&H
Publishing Group.
Redmond, S. A. (2021). Leadership strategies to reduce employee turnover in the health care
industry (Publication No. 28769124) [Doctoral dissertation, Walden University].
ProQuest Open. https://shorturl.at/Qjj4d
Wheelan, S. A., Åkerlund, M., & Jacobsson, C. (2025). Creating effective teams: A guide for
members and leaders (7th ed.). Sage.
