Question:
Discuss about the Organizational Terms of Positive Leadership.
Organizational success is often expressed in the terms of positive leadership, efficiency and effectiveness. Positive leadership implies motivation, encouragement and cohesive team building; efficiency denotes functioning in the best possible manner with a perfect combination of creativity, logic and timeliness; effectiveness signifies high-quality and bang-on results. Various organizations face tough situations because of inadequate management decisions leading to dictatorship instead of leadership, clashes instead of cooperation, poor allocation of resources instead of strategic utilization of resources, poor performances instead of enhanced performances and unhealthy or pessimistic organizational culture instead of innovative and optimistic culture (Matthews, 2010).
A similar situation has been faced by Dharma, owner of a non-profit organization named ‘Helping Hands’ who has managed to raise an energetic and enthusiastic team of 10 permanent members and 20 volunteers. In the exploratory and struggling journey of five years, she has introduced and implemented the changes successfully. But, since last few months there has been an increased requirement for the services and amenities which the organization usually provides to the deprived families. Due to the economic down turn the families were facing a tough time and were finding it harder to survive.
Since Dharma was packed up with the major collaboration and networking activities with the government departments and other organizations; it was not a cake-walk for her to look after the daily operations and functioning. But she was aware of the criticality and wanted to act on it, so she decided to promote one of the loyal and dedicated workers named Jenny to management role along with three new staff members for assistance.
Within two months; things got off track and the staff got divided into two conflicting groups. As a result, neither the workers are feeling motivated nor they are willing to work in such a stressful and unhealthy culture now.
To sort out the issue of inadequate and slow-paced services, Dharma took a quick decision to promote Jenny as she trusted her. As time was less and work was endless, Dharma delegated the responsibilities to Jenny without thorough discussions and in-depth analysis. Since, the management decisions were taken in haste and the approach lacked few important aspects; the organization is now facing ineffectiveness, inefficiency and conflicts. Dharma’s noble thinking, vision, dedication, communication skills and perseverance have made her reach a stable and steady level; now she just cannot afford to lose a full-fledged team of workers and volunteers. All her efforts and hard work would go in vain; if corrective measures are not adopted. Nerve-wracking environment, demotivated employees and dissented team can lead to organizational failure.
Being a consultant; the paramount responsibilities would be to research and analyze the best approach and practices related to management decisions, effective leadership, cooperation and organizational change management.
Organizations achieve success when people, processes and practices work in synchronization or cohesion. Factors like socio-economic conditions, political environment, and technological revolution bring major changes in the organizations and the art to welcome, adapt to and manage the changes lies in the correct management decisions which promote strength, support and unity (Tran & Tian, 2013).
But unfortunately many organizations like ‘Helping Hand’ face situations of distress and mistrust because of hasty decisions, inadequate research and ineffective leadership (Shulman, 2010).
A research journal by Scott Ballantyne explores the relationship between leadership and decision-making. According to Ballantyne, the prime responsibility of a leader during decision-making is to follow a collaborative approach which encourages the employees to share ideas, philosophies and opinions. Inclusive and collaborative leadership empower the employees to participate in the decision-making processes making them feel motivated and valued. Such decisions usually are very effective and fruitful (Ballantyne, 2011). A leader needs to realize the importance of cohesion, team-building and sharing. It is crucial for a leader to understand that a team of enthused and inspired members can never make wrong decisions (Janczak, 2005).
Though the journal explains the importance of a leader whose style and approach promote positivity and creativity but a close analysis of the case highlights the trust and expectations that Dharma had on the capabilities and performance of Jenny. She was always a motivated and committed worker therefore; her attitude had to be positive, energetic and inspiring. But, on the contrary, Jenny could not handle the team effectively. She could not motivate the workers, in fact she was accused of publicly criticizing the staff and dividing the team.
Why did it happen? How is it possible for a self-motivated and devoted worker to not practice effective leadership? Why her inspiring and dedicated attitude took a backseat after promotion? Why could not she manage her roles and responsibilities despite of being a great worker? Why her decisions became noxious for the organization?
The answer to all the questions and doubts above is ‘lack of proper training’. Dharma’s decision to promote Jenny to a newly created management role could have been fruitful if proper training and development sessions were organized for her. As they say ‘haste makes waste’; a similar situation has soared in the organization.
In a research project by Jean B. Leslie, four chief skills for an effective leadership are leading people, strategic planning, inspiring commitment and managing change. Unfortunately, these are the weakest competencies for today’s leaders because of inadequate training and development. Even if the leader is sensitive and compassionate, insufficient preparation for future challenges and high-end tasks can lead to doomed work climate and poor performances (Leslie, 2009).
Jenny, despite of being a great performer could not handle the leadership pressure. She somehow failed at managing the staff and keeping them enthused as she was not provided with proper guidance and coaching.
But; is it not crucial to provide counselling and guidance to the employees as well? Is it not beneficial to mentally prepare the employees to welcome and accept the new managers and leaders? What if the manager or the leader is striving hard to gain the trust and foster a maven team but the employees remain rigid?
A research by MIJARC Europe on NGO management training argues that training and development is a two-way process. If the leaders and managers are required to undergo training sessions then the workers and volunteers also require guidance and mentoring on how to adapt to the new changes, how to understand the management strategies formulated by managers and leaders and how to strengthen the relationships (Coosemans, 2013). It usually happens that even if the leader is trying hard to introduce positive changes or if he is making an effort to improvise on the strategies or practices; the workers become resistant and do not try to participate or even act accordingly (Trevithick, 2007). ‘Helping Hand’ might be facing the same issue. Neither Jenny nor the staff was prepared for this change.
Being a consultant, analyzing the importance of effective leadership and promoting the concept of training and development won’t be enough. There are still few significant questions which need to be answered.
Do training and development programs guarantee superior performances? Can such sessions directly lead to effective leadership and team-building? If training sessions are not organized thoroughly then what alternatives could help?
The answer lies in the research article named ‘The role of supervision in social work: A critical analysis’ by Jeanne Marie Hughes which explores that effective supervision improves the quality of daily operations and activities. It is educative, supportive and managerial in nature. Supervision examines and evaluates the ideas, practices and processes and enlightens the employees about the correct directions (Hughes, 2010).
Dharma had promoted Jenny but could not train her since she was occupied with other crucial tasks but sadly she could not even manage to supervise Jenny’s approaches and attitude as a leader. She should have been there to oversee, monitor, guide and support Jenny and the staff members.
National Association of Social Workers, in its research named ‘Best Practice Standards in Supervision’ explains that effective supervision is essential for addressing a variety of issues and taking corrective measures (Tsui, 2005). Supervisors play a key role in the personal, professional and organizational development. They need to ensure whether the managers or leaders are able to formulate expected standards and strategies or not, whether they have the ability to cultivate and nurture a motivated and cohesive team or not and whether the changes, improvisations and innovations are being successfully implemented or not (Fuller & Petch, 2005).
Had Dharma been there to supervise and guide the team, the case would have been different.
Conclusion
As a consultant it is the foremost responsibility to not only analyse what has gone wrong but also to examine why has it gone wrong and how could it be sorted.
Establishing an organization is not a child’s play; it requires patience and risk taking ability along with years of hard-work, diligence, experimenting and networking. But speedy decisions, ignorance and lack of supervision and training and development programs can hamper the organizational culture and ruin the efficiency and effectiveness as in the case of Dharma’s not-for-profit organization.
Helping Hand has been experiencing a jarring and jolting phase and being a consultant it was a prerequisite to understand the criticality of the situation by analysing the various studies and research works which are conducted, so that apposite recommendations can be provided to Dharma.
The research and analysis has clearly portrayed the value of making decisions strategically and diagnostically. The analysis has shown the importance of effective leadership, collaborative work practices, strong bonding, effective change management process, training and development and supervision.
Now that the reasons behind the issues are detected; it is important to recommend certain corrective measures that need to be executed in order to bring everything back on track.
Firstly, it is vital for Dharma to devote her time in patiently listening and considering the views, opinions, grievances and queries of Jenny, staff members and volunteers. Dharma has to let everyone speak out the issues, troubles and scrapes they are going through. It is quite important to understand the mind-set and outlook of every employee. Evaluation of the actual behaviour, attitude and approach of Jenny needs to be conducted as well.
It has been proven that once the employees speak their minds out and pour their hearts out; it gets easier for them to remain calm and unruffled. At this point of time, Dharma needs to carefully make them understand that new changes bring new challenges and quitting the job without trying out for the solutions is sheer escapism. Motivational interactions could be very beneficial as employees would feel heard and valued.
Once the evaluation is done and employees are unflustered, training goals could be easily understood and accordingly training and development programs could be framed. Training delivery methods should be interactive, enlightening, collaborative and innovative leading to constructivism, intrinsic motivation and cooperation.
Once the training interventions are over; it would be the primary responsibility of Dharma to manage time out of the busy schedule and conduct an effective supervision regularly.
References
Tsui, M 2005, Social work supervision: Contexts and concepts, Sage Publications, New York.
Trevithick, P 2007, Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook, Open University Press, New York.
Shulman, L 2010, Interactional supervision, NASW Press, Washington DC.
Ballantyne, S 2011, ‘Leadership and decision-making’, Journal of management and marketing research, vol. 4, issue no. 3, pp. 1-6.
Janczak, S 2005, ‘The strategic decision-making process in organizations’, Journal of problems and perspectives in management, vol. 6, issue no. 3, pp. 3-69.
Tran, Q and Tian, Y 2013, ‘Organizational effectiveness: Influencing factors and impact on firms’, American journal of industrial and business management, vol. 3, issue no. 1, pp. 229-236.
Matthews J, 2010, ‘Organizational effectiveness’, Journal of business management, vol. 6, issue no. 4, pp. 3-49.
Pisani, A 2005, ‘Talk to me: Supervisees disclosure in supervision’, Journal of social work management, vol. 23, issue no. 8, pp. 29-47.
Leslie, J 2009, The leadership gap, viewed 26 May 2016, <https://www.hreonline.com/pdfs/02012010Extra_CLCStudy.pdf>
Hughes, J 2010, ‘The role of supervision in social work’, Journal of policy and practice, vol. 2, issue no. 1, pp. 60-72.
NASW 2013, Best practice standards in social work supervision, viewed 27 May 2016, <https://www.hreonline.com/pdfs/02012010Extra_CLCStudy.pdf>
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