Assignment 4: PAD 515: Public Leadership Presentation

Assignment 4: PAD 515: Public Leadership Presentation

Running head: MANAGING PEOPLE THROUGH CHANGE

MANAGING PEOPLE THROUGH CHANGE 10

Managing People through Change

Delores Blango

Strayer University

Dr. Derrick Tinsley

PAD 515

February 28, 2020

Case Overview

For this change management report, two case scenarios have been illustrated to require a solution. The first is in regards to the department of health where the administrators have been stated by citizens and several external stakeholders to not only act unprofessionally in their leadership roles but also are unethical and will often offer insufficient care to both patients and customers. In addition to this, the groups have also been cited to provide poor response times to emergencies and are incapable of implementing sufficient changes or resolve emergent conflicts within the staff and sub-ordinate groups. The three agencies which make up the health department include social services, human services, and the fire and emergency management teams.

The second case involves a school board which has managed to establish a collaborative connexion with several government departments. In the last two previous months, however, the school board has been taking action against departmental directors for failing to work in collaboration with them in ensuring the federal provisions concerning the reformation of new policy concerns have been met. The changes have been stated to impact the housing and redevelopment department, the education department, and the department of urban development. In addition to this, the directors have also been charged for failing to support academic leadership for the secondary school principals through the provision of specific student information from the juvenile relations department. This would have helped to improve the retention rates of students, their performance, and consequent graduation.

To deal with the two scenarios as the chief of staff, the following measures will be taken. In a professional position supported by relevant experts, the office will ensure that a wide range of collective judgement which will suffice in ensuring that the concerns raised by the stakeholders have been addressed through a sensible and collaborative decision making. What is requested is for the members including the health societies which alert events and ensure current laws have been observed, prioritise the investigation activities into the concerns raised to ensure that the consequent decisions are suitable for the proposed changes.

Hence, workers in the department of health need to acknowledge the fact that they have been placed in those positions to ensure that appropriate care has been provided to those in need and that all related standards have been upheld. In addition to this, the workers, regardless of the position held, need to heed to their responsibility to provide competent medical and emergency services with the highest levels of compassion and respect for the dignity of those in need (Azahar, 2019). In light of the above, the recommendations provided will not only be compliant with the problems identified but will also ensure that relevant sources have been provided to ensure that public safety has been supported and that a sense of responsibility has been motivated among the groups at fault.

In order to address the issues raised by the stakeholders of the health department, it will suffice if an increased amount of training has been provided to the leaders in regards to ethics and professionalism. In addition to this, changes will have to be made on the approaches used to provide services to ensure that appropriate policies have been established on how to bring about an orderly environment of service provision (Azahar, 2019). For the employees to develop a greater understanding of these changes, appropriate leadership approaches will be employed. These will be illustrated in the consequent section of this report.

It also has to be noted that a solution to such unwanted allegations will also require a legal perspective. In this regard, I will take it upon myself to ensure that a review has been conducted on all laws related to healthcare provision and emergency response so as to ensure that any decision made on the matter is aligned with the industry’s provisions. In addition to this, an examination conducted on the industry’s trends will ensure that an effective conclusion has been made in regards to how the public sector, in general, has been attending to the needs of its stakeholders (Azahar, 2019). The consequent change will be based on the need to develop a greater understanding of the concerns of the stakeholders and what will impact the process of change management.

School Board Case

What has been found in regards to schools is that their core purpose is to ensure that learning has been supported in all situations. This simply means that collaboration efforts in the quest to address policy concerns and providing information which will support the learning abilities of the diverse students have to be prioritised by all individuals regarded as education stakeholders. This simply means that no administrator should be allowed to hold onto the position in the event he or she finds it difficult to put an effort which will ensure that students are enabled to realise a greater academic achievement (Azahar, 2019). For this reason, the situation can be addressed by developing policies which are more stringent in ensuring that collaboration and adherence to the needs of students have been made a norm. Failure of any individual regardless of whether he or she sits in the board or performs administrative duties, to meet the expectations of the board and the education department, in general, will attract dire penalties including a demotion or suspension from duties until proven sufficiently fit to hold the position.

Changes to be made so as to address the education boards’ concerns include; enactment of policies which give greater oversight and enforcement power to the school boards. Secondly, the approaches put in place to ensure policy changes have been adopted will need to be reviewed (Bogotch, Bauer, & Su-Keene, 2019). The two approaches will not only ensure that the school administrators are motivated to perform their duties especially those linked to student achievement but will also ensure that any challenges experienced in the process of managing and adopting policy changes have been determined and addressed.

Policy Changes and Leadership Styles

The DHA has been in operation for quite a long time. The consequent effect of this has been a change in management and high turnover rates which have impacted the reliability, professionalism, organization, and the general nature of the department’s leadership environment. With that in mind, there is a dire need for the department’s culture to be transformed. This brings to light the theory of transformational leadership which has been stated to be effective in ensuring that change has been supported and that growth has been realised within the environments of work.

It also has been stated that leaders who embody transformational leadership traits are more motivated to perform the tasks at hand. For this reason, it is possible to state that a highly structured organization will ensure that greater success has been realised. Moreover, the leadership style will ensure that an emphasis has been put on the need for increased collaboration in both the decision making processes and when implementing the determined activities (Bowen, Botting, Graham, 2019). The concern over lack of professionalism in the Department of healthcare and the lack of a desire to effectively address the desires of clients will, however, be quite difficult to address through the approach of transformational leadership. The reason for this is that the theory only provides an opportunity for individuals to develop within a communal work environment rather than one that is competitive in nature.

Due to the above challenge, it will suffice for the department in the event different leaders using different approaches of leadership are placed to work alongside one another. This approach is founded on the fact that most of the issues raised by the stakeholders are concerned with an evident lack of organization in the entire department especially in regards to complying with the rules put in place on how to attend to the needs of patients and other clients (Bowen, Botting, Graham, 2019). For this reason, it will suffice for this case in the event the situational theory of leadership is used.

When speaking of situational leadership, reference is being made to the to a style in which leaders will employ the use of different approaches as well as leadership dynamics to realise set goals. This simply means that the leader can change from transactional to the transformational approach of leading depending on the nature of the situation (Bogotch, Bauer, & Su-Keene, 2019). In summary, the leadership theory will suffice for such a situation because a leader is granted with an opportunity to modify his or her style to be aligned to the level of development of the followers. In addition to this, the leadership style is founded on a theory which postulates that since leaders will often find themselves working closely and collaboratively with their sub-ordinates, they need to make decisions which are not only understandable but also imitable.

By doing this, they will have ensured that the sub-ordinates have been properly shaped and that a desirable momentum towards an increased productivity has been developed. An example which can be used to explain this is that of the medical department where the staff members will direct greater attention to task performance in the event they are monitored constantly by those in leadership positions. It, however, needs to be noted that this is not a long-term solution to the aforementioned issues (Bogotch, Bauer, & Su-Keene, 2019). The reason for this is that consistency can only be ensured in the event trust has been established in regards to the ability of employees to effectively perform their tasks. The value of this theory is based on the idea that it situational leadership ensures that an appropriate boost has been provided to the process of constructing organizational structures which are supportive of a change process.

Public Leadership in the Education Environment

Two public leadership styles which will suffice in the case of the education board is transformational and transactional leadership. The theory of transformational leadership has been found to not only be suitable for the educational concerns but also will work well in ensuring that the administrators can work collaboratively in establishing a framework which will lead to the realisation of both the immediate and future goals (Bogotch, Bauer, & Su-Keene, 2019). The leadership style is one which catalyses the excitement and motivation of the sub-ordinates to align their practices with the mission and vision of an institution. In addition to this, it has been stated that leaders who chose to follow the approach will ensure that a sense of purpose has been fostered and that the individuals in an organization have been united for a better cause (Bogotch, Bauer, & Su-Keene, 2019). It has been stated under the transformational style of leadership that the approaches employed are phenomenal in ensuring that common ground has been established within an organizational environment.

It, however, needs to be noted that for the education department to be effectively supported, the hierarchical and facilitative styles have to be employed. The previous style of leadership is quite similar to the transformational style. However, it has been stated as more democratic and interactive whenever put into practice (Bogotch, Bauer, & Su-Keene, 2019). In this case, a facilitative education leader will work with the executives in general and ensure that appropriate partnerships have been provided when making preparations for future academic expectations. I addition to this, the style will ensure that ideas are collectively promoted as a leader will place him or herself in the crowd rather than the centre of authority (Nguyen Long, Foster, & Arnold, 2019). The fundamental goal of these leaders is to ensure that the stakeholders of the system, in general, have been empowered to realise greater strides in ensuring that students from all backgrounds have been supported in their education.

On the other hand, the hierarchical style is founded on the traditional education approach which emphasizes on the need to have a command chain through which instructions are provided. The approach will ensure that rules are strictly followed and that an administrative leader plans and supervises all the functions. It ensures that efficiency and control have been established in all routines. The emergent concerns will be dealt with uniquely hence ensuring that any issue which will impact the students negatively has been addressed.

Impacts on the leadership of City managers

The decisions made by the health and education departments will impact city managers in various ways. First, it will affect their budgetary allocations, the time taken to adopt and process the changes, and also will influence the opinion of the public concerning the final budgetary decisions made in the quest to implement the policies (McConnell, & Hart, 2019). Based on the fact that these are employed by elected individuals who are regarded as the CEOs of their respective cities, public opinion is fundamental in their decision making processes. Hence, despite the aforementioned recommendations being sufficient in ensuring that both departments realise success in their change processes, decisions will be based on the directives of the mayor and the city council members (McConnell, & Hart, 2019). However, significant efforts have been made to ensure that decisions made by the city manager are not influenced by politics. The resultant effect has been a minimal impact on the individual’s role and function regardless of the decision made by either the health or education departments.

Moving Forward

Due to the susceptibility of the public leaders to criticism and somewhat negative judgement, it will suffice to ensure that they learn how to manage their own characters in connection to their style of leading (Nguyen Long, Foster, & Arnold, 2019). The leaders hence need to be well educated and be able to determine their weaknesses and tackle them to effectively manage the concerns raised by all individuals under their leadership. Finally, it will suffice for the leaders to be taken through the management classes because good leadership is founded on the ability to effectively manage and ensure set goals have been realised.

References

Azahar, A. (2019). Public Policy and Governance: Theory and Practice. Global Encyclopaedia of Public Administration. Doi 10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3699-1.

Bogotch, I., Bauer, S. & Su-Keene, E. (2019). New beginnings, repeated: The continuing search for educational leadership. Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 4 (1), 110-146. DOI: 10.30828/real/2019.1.5

Bowen S, Botting I, Graham I. (2019). Experience of health leadership in partnering with university based researchers in Canada – a call to “re-imagine” research.Int J Health Policy Manag. 8(12):684– 699. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2019.66

McConnell, A., & Hart, P. (2019). Inaction and public policy: understanding why policymakers ‘do nothing’. Policy Sci 52, 645–661. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-019-09362-2

Nguyen Long, L.A., Foster, M. & Arnold, G. (2019). The impact of stakeholder engagement on local policy decision making. Policy Sci 52, 549–571.