To what extent do the structure, culture and leadership of the Water & Sewerage Department encourage long-term sustainable performance such that the organization may survive and prosper in a global knowledge economy?
Like the private sector organizations, leadership is equally important for the public sector organizations. A good leader in public sector organizations not only influences the job satisfaction and enhanced performance of the employees, but also the public agencies and government’s performance. It can be easily said that the leadership is quite critical in the public sectors for bringing good governance involving good planning, improved efficiency and more transparency in the system. As stated by Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014) leadership in public sector also faces various kinds of problems including communication, recruitment, employee management etc, however at the same time, they have to abide by the fundamental procedure and rules, monitor them and provide directions in accordance with that. It has been seen in different scenarios that without the available lucrative incentives like the private sector employees, it is difficult for the public sector leaders to motivate all of their employees and maintain a positive environment within the organization (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube 2015). In addition to that, some scholars have also indicated that most of the public service organizations focus more on having a long term strategy and building the vision, therefore they require human resources who are mostly oriented towards the strategic behavior, therefore it can be crucial for the public service leaders to identify such employees as well (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). The Water & Sewerage Department (WSD) is a public sector organization that operates the water utility in the British Virgin Islands and it is operating since 1980. In the year 2013, the organization has become an independent body with a mission of ensuring the provision of a continuous supply of safe potable water and an environmentally sound sewage disposal service to all residents of the British Virgin Islands, efficiently and at affordable rates. The standard government rate of water per gallon is $0.018. For the first 150,000 gallons the charge is $0.025 per gallon, the second 150,000 gallon is charged at $0.020 per gallon and over 300,000 gallon the charge is 0.015 per gallon (Bvi.gov.vg. 2018). At present, the organization is facing numerous internal problems regarding leadership and employee management that may become a hindrance in further development and providing sustainable growth. Therefore, this report will discuss whether the current structure, culture and leadership of the organization are encouraging a long term and sustainable performance with the help of relevant theories and models.
Issues affecting the performance of the workforce
It has been seen that being a government department W&S department of British Virgin Islands is not free from workplace issues related to the workforce of the department. The given case study indicates that the fundamental structure of the Water & Sewerage Department has five divisions: customer care, accounts, human resource, administration and public relations. The Customer care division has been further categorized in operations and maintenance, projects and planning and sewerage division. There are 100 employees in the organization classified in two specific groups: established who are the permanent workers and are entitled to pension and non-established workers who are hired temporarily and not entitled to any pension plan. In the recent times the employees of Water & Sewerage Department have shown a major lack in the morale, less involvement in the decision making process. Along with that the organizational culture has shown a major lack in the existing communication, conflict of interest between the management and employees, lack of training and development and it can also be observed that most of the decisions are made by the director or the other from the top management levels. It can be said that the leadership of the management has made it difficult for the employees of the business organization to work with full potential as the important decisions are being taken by the management of the organization only and not given adequate chance to express their point of views regarding taking the important decisions. It is a matter fact that the management of the organization should take some necessary steps in order to overcome the oddities that the workforce is facing and it can also be said that if the management do not take any step soon, the lesser productivity of the department will surely affect the further development.
Relevant organizational culture theories
The idea of organizational culture indicates to the core values of an organization along with its norms, practices and policies that are shared by everyone associated with it. Alvesson (2016) identifies that the concept of organizational culture is a common phenomenon and it does not change overnight, rather it takes a long time to evolve. Schein’s model indicates towards the internal relationship between the sustainability strategies and the organizational culture.
As stated in the model the organizational culture can be evaluated at different levels such as artifacts, espoused values etc. In this model the artifact level has symbolized the procedures and structures; the value level symbolizes the goals, strategies and philosophies. On the basis of these evaluations, each organizational culture presents a bunch of introverted and extroverted strategies for bringing sustainable performance (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). The introverted strategies can be implemented through the fundamental assumption level without any particular emotion or cognition related to the sustainable development. At the same time, these goals and strategies tend to reflect external pressure in order to reduce the legal compliance or any other risks. On the other hand, the extroverted strategies deal with the external stakeholders.
The outward view of the organizational culture is mostly comprised of the behavior and products which are tangible and observable however these are mostly difficult in interpreting. These include the communications, arts, traditions, physical arrangements, language etc within the organization whereas the inward view of the organizational culture refers to the beliefs and values that are intangible and not at all observable directly however can be distilled from different individual’s justification and explanation (Shafritz, Ott and Jang 2015). These include the understanding, ethics, thinking process, vision, philosophy and values of the organization. There are also some underlying assumptions in the organization including their philosophy, ideologies and world view.
The organizational culture is also related to the organizational communication as this is the procedure which helps the employees acquire relevant information regarding their firm and the present changes that are taking place. Mostly the organizational communication has two major objectives: the primary one is informing the entire work force regarding the policies, changes and their individual responsibilities and another objective of a successful organization communication is to build a community with the employees where they treat each other with solidarity (Nilsen 2015.). As discussed in Elving’s communicational model, there are several factors in the organizational communication that influences the organizational culture as it can be a major indicator of effectual changes that are taking place within the organization (Helms Mills and Mills 2017).
Therefore, it can be said that the organizational communication play an important role in building a healthy working culture within the organization as effectual communication is required for bringing a positive working culture within the work place. In addition to that it is mandatory for the management of any organization to bring more transparency within the organization as it brings an improved understanding of responsibilities and a strong bonding amongst the employees (Elsbach and Stigliani 2018).
In the given case study, it can be observed that the organizational culture lacks positivity and there is also an identifiable absence of morale within employees. It can be observed that there is a major lack in the organizational communication as the management does not pass relevant information about any taken decision to all strata of employees and does not involve any of the employees in the decision making process. The culture of the organization is authoritative as the higher management takes all the major decisions. The employees do not seem to have the freedom for sharing their ideas within an open place so that the most innovative one can be followed. In place of a collaborative discussion, the management takes the decisions on own, therefore even the consistent performers have no right to intervene in the strategy making process; rather they will only have to abide by the taken decisions. Without a proper flow of communication, the employees are only dependent on their supervisors and managers; therefore they also lack the competence of working within a global environment (Huhtala et al. 2015). Another characteristic of the existing organizational culture is that there is a major lack of development of the employees which also indicates that the entire organization lacks necessary growth. Functioning in a global environment and performing sustainably requires a organizational culture that enhances productivity and contributes towards evolving the employees into successful managers (Kearney 2018). The existing culture of Water & Sewerage Department does not contribute towards having effective managing capabilities of the employees; rather they make their employees entirely dependent on their supervisors and managers. The existing organizational culture also shows major conflict of interest between the management and employees. This can also be the outcome of the major lack in organizational communication as the management does not even get to know their employees’ voice. In addition to that the existing culture does not provide a proper training and development to the employees, therefore with such little scope to learn employees may not be adequately competent to work in a global sustainable environment.
Following the organizational structure, it can be said that the customer care department has been given more importance to deal with the operational activities; therefore it can be highly possible that the employees there, are overburdened and de-motivated. While working in a global environment and perform sustainably, the organization needs to distribute the roles and responsibilities equally in the departments so that there is no such overload of work (Mostafa, Gould?Williams and Bottomley 2015).
Relevant leadership theories
Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership is a style of authority described by singular control over all the choices and little contribution from other individuals (De Hoogh, Greer and Den Hartog 2015).
Benefits of Autocratic Leadership:
Autocratic authority can be advantageous in only some occurrences, for an example, when choices should be made speedily without counseling with an expansive assembly of individuals. A few tasks need solid influence keeping in mind the target is to get things achieved rapidly and effectively (Puni, Ofei and Okoe 2014). It enables individuals from the gathering to center around performing specific assignments without stressing over settling on choices which are complex in nature. This additionally permits assemble individuals to wind up exceedingly talented at playing out specific obligations, which can be helpful to the gathering (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider 2015).
Drawbacks of Autocratic Leadership
While absolutist administration can be valuable, there are additional abundant occasions where this autocratic style can be risky. Individuals who manhandle an imperious authority style are frequently seen as controlling and dominating (Puni, Ofei and Okoe 2014). Since dictatorial leaders settle on options without counseling the gathering of related individuals, related people in the assembly may hate the fact that they can’t contribute their own thoughts and innovative ideas (De Hoogh, Greer and Den Hartog 2015). Scientists have also discovered that dictatorial leadership promotes lack of of inventive answers for issues that can at last affect the execution of the assembly of the employees. While despotic initiative has some potential traps, pioneers can figure out how to utilize components of this style astutely (Puni, Ofei and Okoe 2014).
Bureaucratic Leadership
This style of authority takes after a nearby arrangement of measures. Everything is performed in a correct, specific approach to guarantee wellbeing or potentially exactness. It can be regularly discovered that this dominant position in a circumstance where the workplace is perilous and meticulous arrangements of techniques are vital to assure security (Cunningham, Salomone and Wielgus 2015).
Benefits of Bureaucratic Leadership:
There are numbers of benefits of applying bureaucratic leadership within the organization as the central authority is the most important part of the firm. There is a sense of command chain which gives different tasks and roles to different individuals in the organization. Therefore it is easier for the management to monitor the operational activities, so the responsibilities tend to be carried out in a timely and most importantly in a systematic way. This leadership refers to the concept of having appointed specific individuals with relevant educational backgrounds; therefore it enhances the competence of employees working in particular fields (Ngotngamwong 2018). Also this leadership theory leaves no room for any favoritism and it refers to a merit based promotion as well as hiring in the organization. Model 1 of the six models of organization refers to this classic bureaucratic leadership that is run through different structures, regulations, controls and job descriptions. Most of the government organizations follow this kind of leadership where the system works like a machine.
Drawbacks of Bureaucratic Leadership
However, it can be observed that the idea odd bureaucracy can also hamper the productivity sometimes as it brings boredom in the operational activities. The employees have to follow a similar routine every day therefore it also makes the employees entirely dependent on the regulations thus making them more passive (Rahmani, Roels and Karmarkar 2015). Also in the bureaucratic leadership, the top management level, mostly the directors are overburdened with work.
Democratic administration or authority, or else called participative authority, is a kind of initiative style in which individuals from the gathering play a more participative part in the basic leadership process (Fashola, Akanni and Ajila 2016). Scientists have discovered that this style of learning is characteristically a standout in the midst of the best and pioneers to higher profitability, better commitments from amass individuals and expanded gathering confidence (Naile and Selesho 2014).
Because employees are urged to share their considerations, popularity based initiative can prompt better thoughts and more innovative answers for issues. Gathering employees likewise feel more included and resolved to the business leaders that make them more prone to think regarding the final products. Researches performed on the basis of initiative styles have additionally demonstrated that vote based authority prompts higher efficiency among bunch individuals (Rahmani, Roels and Karmarkar 2015). Drawbacks of Democratic Leadership While preponderance rule initiative has been shown as the best style of leadership, it has some major drawbacks. In circumstances where parts are indistinct or time is of the substance; vote based administration can prompt correspondence disappointments and uncompleted tasks (Puni, Agyemang and Asamoah 2016). Popularity based initiative can work best in circumstances where a mass of workers are talented and anxious while sharing their insight. It is likewise vital to have a lot of time to enable individuals to contribute, build up an arrangement and after that vote on the best strategy (Adeyemo, Terry and Lambert 2015).
The current situation of Water & Sewerage Department indicates towards a combination of autocratic and bureaucratic leadership within the organization. The case study indicates that in this organization, most of the decisions are taken by the top management level or the director. This is a fundamental characteristic of both the autocratic and bureaucratic leadership. In these leadership styles, most of the decisions are taken by the leaders or the managers and they show no interest in consulting with the other employees (Cunningham, Salomone and Wielgus 2015). A similar situation can be seen here as the employees are mostly unknown regarding the final decision. Therefore, there are high possibilities of management’s personal bias influencing the decision. It is also possible that if there is a lack of creativity in the managers, it reflect in the taken decision. Furthermore these decisions can affect the organization’s development to a great extent along with a unsatisfied work force who may consider that there is a sense of biasness within the organizational culture along with a major lack of creativity and freedom while working. Following the bureaucratic leadership, the organization has a principal system categorized in different departments with employees carrying different educational backgrounds. However this also brings boredom and dictatorship in the organizational culture. In this light, it can also be said that as the organizational culture has a great influence on the overall productivity, therefore the existing culture in the Water & Sewerage Department is not helping to improve it in anyway. Along with that, it can also be found out that the employees in the organization have low morale which can be a potential outcome of autocratic leadership in the organization. As in this style, the leaders tend to intervene in every decision that is made in the organization; employees do not have the authority to make any decision on their own (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube 2015).
Most of the scholars have indicated that due to less authority provided to the employees, this leadership style does not work in a global environment. Therefore it is highly possible that the employees get frustrated with this continuous supervision which makes them getting de-motivated (Afsar, Badir and Kiani 2016). In any private sector company, such frustrated employees may leave that company and join another one, however this organization even being an independent body provides pension scheme to its employees. Therefore, it is very less likely that the employees would leave the job, however their low motivational level affects the overall development of the organization in a negative way and increases the chances of having less productive services. In addition to that, due to autocratic leadership, the personal biases of the management personnel tend to lead towards major conflicts of interest as well (Fashola, Akanni and Ajila 2016). Therefore, it can be said there is no way that the existing leadership in the organization is encouraging sustainable performance so that the organization can grow further and survive in the global environment.
Conclusion
The above discussion indicates that the Water & Sewerage Department requires further improvement in their overall structure and organizational culture along with in the leadership styles. Recommendations to cope with the present situation have been made in the report accordingly.
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