This study aims to determine the perception of nursing staff employees about the leadership style of his immediate superior and compare how these develop in public and private hospitals.For this purpose, was carried out a quantitative descriptive approach.The study population consisted of nurses, technicians and nursing assistants.For data analysis was used to calculate descriptive statistics (frequency tables, measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion and standardization of the means of constructs).The results indicated that managers in both hospitals, public and private, have a high level for transformational leadership and median to transactional leadership.However, although there was a predominance of transformational style, in general, the role of the superior as leader stands out when there are problems to be solved.In addition, the results obtained in this research demonstrate possible the coexistence of styles of transactional and transformational leadership, which are not opposite approaches but contribute to each other for good organizational performance.