Leadership in the Service Delivery - Essay Example

Leadership and Change Management Student Name Course Institution Tutor Date Leadership and Change Management Introduction Leadership is a key element in any form of service delivery. As Carter (2007), it is the oil that is used to lubricate the machine of operation during the delivery. Lack of effective leadership in service delivery will bring the whole service to a halt. In a situation where emergencies are bound to occur, like the fire fighting service, effective leadership is critical in ensuring success of the service (Cote, 2003). In fact, Carter (2007) presents a correlation between increased danger and reduced leadership skills in an emergency scenario. The danger is posed to both the fire fighter and the citizen whose expectation is that they will be protected by the fire fighting service. Lack of effective leadership will mean the service shall not be administered in time and this places lives at risk. From the articles by Carter (2007), effective leadership is essential for effective service delivery and this means that the approach to leadership has to be found. This paper shall discuss the various forms of leadership that have been presented by Carter (2007) in his article on fire service leadership style. The paper shall critically evaluate the argument by Carter, using wide literature on leadership as well as assessing the potential barriers that hinder achievement of the changes necessary for implementation of the suggestions by Carter (2007) in real practice. Service delivery requires a key focus on ensuring the people served are satisfied. Matshabaphala (2007) stated everyone needs a sense of belonging and identity as well as a sense of respect. Therefore, it is a show of respect when individuals are accorded the right quality of service, based on their expectations or even beyond their expectations. This argument by Matshabaphala is in agreement with Carter (2007) on the idea of respect to human life. This can be done through strategies that are aimed at ensuring that the lives of people during a fire fighting operation are safe. Delivery of public service has been a key challenge in most countries. Fire fighting has been taken as a public service by the municipal council. However, it is not the mandate of the public sector governance alone to ensure great leadership is administered during a fire fighting act. As Carter (2007) noted, when individuals are not accorded the right services, not only will their lives be in danger; but they will also complain over the dissatisfaction from the services. The mandate of the service provider’s leader is to ensure that the right service is provided to the people. Matshabaphala (2007) agrees that for a reform on the public service to be attained, strong leadership is a prerequisite. This implies the leadership should have an appropriate vision for the people and the service offered by shifting from the negative stereotypes of risk averseness and the outdated processes. In addition, the leadership should be built on strengths such as dedication, integrity and responsiveness to events. In fact, risk management has been noted as a key factor in the best practice leadership style. For a service such as fire fighting where the conditions of operation are often less than optimal, it is essential that the leadership of the service enforce risk management as part of its leadership styles (Winsted, 2000). The leadership styles stated to be necessary for successful delivery of fire service all revolve around ensuring that the environment and the people around are safe. The essence is to minimize any form of losses through fire. It is for this reason that Carter (2007) presented leadership styles such as charismatic leadership, citizen leadership, servant, contingency and situational leadership as well as transactional leadership. Mthembu (2012) stated that in a municipal council set up, there are two types of leadership that are in existence. These include the political leadership and the administrative leadership. The political leadership is responsible for selection of positions while the administrative leadership is responsible for implementation of resolutions. Therefore, the leadership style presented by carter should be embodied in the administrative leadership of the council. It is through the administration that the service can be delivered. The forms of leadership that have been stated by Carter (2007) cannot all be used at the same time. Each form of leadership has its own time of use depending on the situation at hand. Even so, there are other styles that can be used in conjunction with each other. When the charismatic style of leadership has a concern for the situation, it can be best used in commanding the team and directing them on what to do during an incident. Use of this style requires that the leader does not take advantage of their position and their charisma to manipulate individuals for their own benefit. Such a leader should set the right psycho-social context for individuals to produce, to deliver and to experience a process of service (Schneider, 2010). It therefore requires that the leader understands the complexities of people who form the central component of the system of service delivery and for the leader to have the interests of these people at hand. According to Packard (2009), a charismatic leader is god at communicating what they believe to be the right way. As a result, they are supposed to communicate only that which is for the good of the public and the organization offering the service. This form of leadership is also considered to be risky because the leader can misuse his/ her power. It is not enough to be charismatic for one to be an effective leader. Collins (2001) stated that this form of leadership needs to be blended with other forms of leadership traits for it to be effective. As stated by Carter (2007), this leadership is god for team organization. Situational leadership involves a mix of the leader’s traits and the ability to make great use of the traits during a situation. For a fire service, situational leadership is considered to be one of the most important forms of leadership because situations happen without prior notice. This requires use of other skills such as risk management to counter the situation. With a blend of situational leadership and the leadership strategy of risk management, the situation at hand can be effectively managed. A connection exists between this form of leadership and contingency leadership. Again, risk management covers this form of leadership since the leader is prepared for any eventuality. The difference with situational leadership is that this form of leadership is preplanned while situational leadership depends on how best the leader reacts to the situation. Citizen leadership was presented as one in which the leader has a people orientation more than task orientation. It implies that this leadership is more concerned about the people than the task to be accomplished. For effective leadership, citizen leadership should be accompanied by other forms of leadership since in a fire service; there are more concerns other than the people. This leadership is close to the servant style of leadership, where the style is not about controlling the people but about caring for them. According to Autry (2001), leaders should act as resources to the people under them. Servant leaders present the needs of others as equally as they perceive their needs and as a result, they are required to be available when needed. Success in this form of leadership is attained when the leader first supports the people. Packard (2009) presented transactional leadership as a form of leadership where the leader and the people agree to accommodate the needs of each other. In such a form of leadership, the leader makes the people aware of what is expected of them, induces them to do away with their self interest and activates their high order needs. As Carter (2007), this leadership involves a transaction between the person being led and the leader. The attributes accrued to transactional leadership include assessing the worth of the team members, understanding the organizational needs as well as the people’s needs. A connection of these forms of leadership reveals that some forms f leadership can act independently while some of them act along with other forms of leadership and leadership attributes. Even so, it is vital that the right kind of leadership is used for the right task to be accomplished. The ideal situation would encompass a perfect blend of these leadership traits. Carter presented the argument by Sternberg on what leadership is. Sternberg (2003) presented a model that stated leadership involves a blend of wisdom, intelligence and creativity. This concept simplifies the whole concept by stating that one needs to have these three qualities for one to be an effective leader. The model presented can be used effectively because through wisdom, a leader understands what to do and when to do it. As stated by Collins (2001), when a leader understands what to do and when to do it, they are more likely to make the right decisions. Leadership and decision making cannot be separated. In fact, a wise leader knows what leadership style to use depending on the situation at hand. In addition, the intelligence in a leader guides them in knowing the right moves to be followed. When a leader is intelligent, they understand how to handle the situations they face. They understand how to react to every situation they face. A fire service leader who is intelligent understands the dynamics of the situation and they can read more from the situation they are faced with. A leader who is creative will know what means to use to get the situation back in order. This is because they are creative enough to understand what can be used and they can improvise based on the needs. This implies that a creative leader will not be handicapped. Therefore, the model by Sternberg acts as a summary of the required leadership traits. Having the leadership styles in the organization is not enough for effective leadership. In fact, they only form part of a conclusive leadership, which is good for the setup to have. However, it is important for the leaders to know when to apply what kind of leadership. Carter (2007) stated the importance of setting goals, developing objectives and creating plans and orders in the successful implementation of effective leadership. It is through the goals, plans and objectives that the leadership can determine when to use what type of leadership. In fact, the plan should be utilized within the short time that an incident provides to the leadership. It is clear that the article by Carter (2007) intends to develop a leadership approach in fire service that combines various theories on leadership into an approach that will be typical of the demands of the fire service requirements. With no doubt, delivery of service is a key factor in this sector. This was further emphasized by Accenture (2007), when in their report, it was stated that for great value in public service, leadership has to be embraced. Accenture (2007) presented a model of effective public service delivery through leadership. In the model, it was stated that governments that are high performing have service models, centered on the citizen. Such focus permeates the whole organization and the services are created and offered in a manner that makes great sense to the citizen regardless of any boundaries. The service is also delivered in the manner that the citizen chooses and there is clear communication as well as readily available support. This makes the citizens empowered to conduct business with the government. The implication from Accenture (2007) is that transparency is a key factor in effective leadership. Effective communication was stated by Carter (2007) to be one of the key characteristics of effective leadership along with confidence, enthusiasm, knowledge and vision. Many other attributes were proposed by Carter as ingredients during leadership practice in fire service. These are attributes that serve the fire service during concern and uncertainty. They include courage, honesty, integrity, determination, forcefulness, tact, judgment, endurance, discipline, responsibility, dependability, unselfishness among other attributes. Analysis of these attributes shows only positive attributes that are necessary for effective delivery of services. These attributes are not only useful in the fires service but in every other service delivery. This is because the attributes are necessary for the service provider to win the clients’ trust. In essence, these are attributes that are considered to be ethical. According to Kanyane (2010), an ethical form of leadership in the public sector is essential for effective service delivery because it wins the trust of clients. In addition, it is very likely that if the people trust the leadership, they will act as instructed in the event of an occurrence, like during a fire fighting session. Experience has shown that in the public sector, individuals who are trusted by the public will always be preferred when the citizens come for every other service. In fact, they will always be called upon by name (Matshabaphala, 2007). The ideas that were proposed by Carter on leadership cannot be taught but can be gained by practicing. When leaders use these attributes continuously, they become a part of their leadership and the result is an improved leadership of the service. When these ideas are not acted upon, they will only stay as ideas for as long as individual leaders take up the responsibility and act as the ideas stipulate. Continuous practice of the attributes stated results in better leadership. This creates better service provision and in the end, it leads to satisfaction of customers, which is the objective of the service provider. Barriers to achieving the changes required The changes proposed by Carter create a blueprint to effective leadership. However, there are some challenges that are faced. To begin with, most of eh traits proposed can only be bettered through experience. Acts of indecisiveness can be barriers to effective leadership and it requires that the leader gunners enough experience in the field. In addition, the traits presented seem to suggest that the leader must be an ideal person. However, the leader might have their own personal challenges in terms of integrity, honesty and even discipline, yet have other qualities that make a leader. The inadequacies may surface at the most critical moment, and as a result, the leader’s capability shall be exposed. Communication and accountability have always presented challenges to effective leadership (Newton, 2002). The manner in which the leaders conduct themselves within their leadership circles or with the people they lead determines how effective their leadership will be. The challenge of the leader’s personality still acts as a main challenge to execution of effective leadership (Schafer, 2009). Conclusion Effective leadership requires a set of skills and styles as discussed by Carter (2007). While some of these leadership styles can be used independently and achieve effective results, the circumstances under which the styles can be used differ. A summary of the most effective style require use of wisdom, intelligence and creativity, as discussed by Sternberg (2003). This summary presents an interconnection of skills, which when coupled with the attributes presented by Carter, they lead to effective leadership. 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