The leadership styles and management practices in two real life organisations - Essay Example

?Assignment I: Compare and contrast the leadership styles and management practices in two real life organisations. At least one of these organisations must be a voluntary/community sector organisation Introduction In this paper, we are going to take a comprehensive look at two different organisations whereby we will compare their styles of management and leadership. Specifically, the organisations are the New NHS Direct and St. Mungo’s. In doing this, I will visit the two organisations to collect data on how things are run, and then analyze them in relation to the theory of management, in which a conclusion will be drawn. Background Information of the New NHS Direct The National Health Service (NHS) is an organization offering healthcare to all English citizens, regarded as the country’s greatest need. Its stakeholders include health professionals, support workers and organisations. Its funding originates from the tax collected from citizens, with the Parliament acting as its watchdog (NHS Direct Web). The NHS Direct is part of UK’s NHS. It is a new, nurse based health advice service that operates within a 4 hour clock system. Health advice are delivered through phone contacts. Its objective is to provide an equal play ground in health services despite time and space, regardless of the background of the nurse. Health software called Clinical Assessment System (CAS) is used for service delivery (NHS Direct Web). According to Webster (2002), provision of healthcare via interactive television will increase efficiency and conveniences in accessing healthcare (p.430). Gann (2002) emphasizes that most people will prefer using the interactive healthcare software more frequently and urgently before reaching the doctors. This will ease pressure on doctors and other healthcare providers. The key issue in this system is how it makes use of technology. The remote non-face-to-face delivery of healthcare creates a favourable environment to its providers. Background of St. Mungo’s St. Mungo’s is a voluntary organisation supporting the homeless. Its objectives are summarized in four words: preventing, alleviating, assisting and influencing the homeless. The organisation offers several services like preventing homelessness, emergency services such as flood stricken areas, and recovery from homelessness. It relies on voluntary funding from donations and service trust from companies. The success of the organisation is evident from innovations and awards it has received since its inception. In the innovation sector, it has managed to initiate life works programme, St. Mungo’s Palliative Care Service and ReVive. It has been shortlisted in awards like the Lodge, Peer Advice Link and Putting Down Roots among others (St. Mungo’s, 2012). Key observations from visits and discussion of the relevance of these observations A) St. Mungos I visited the organization and held some discussions with the management in trying to find out how things are done, and my mission was very successful. I particularly visited the Department of Health and Recovery and sought audience with Director Peter Cockersell, who was cooperation. He explained to me that the kind of leadership style in the organization is called a recovery approach, which was adopted in 2007. This meant that it had to shift from its traditional power relationships between staff and service users. Currently, the organisation does not consider recovery as an outcome, a method or structure but as a description and a process of change. Recovery is defined as power within an individual, encompassed in a social process. An individual must show commitment and ability to create and lead a satisfying life. Flexibility and creativity are attributes in recovery. Recovery remains as the source of frame work for St. Mungo’s staff and client. Their roles and identities rely on this framework-recovery (Clarke, 2002, p.20). The organisation realised that the former designation of staff, workers and other work title positions created divisions within the society’s organisation. Inequality and power imbalances created factions that affected production. The clients became victims of professional passive recipients, reinforcing self perceptions. Recovery approach revived the organisation by creating a shift from self perceptions to new working methods. Every individual’s effort, ability and strength provided an equal playground. This approach developed partnership and collaboration within stakeholders. Recovery is owned by the clients, as the staff share the ownership process. Clients are involved in design, development, recruitment, and training of the staff and overall running of the organisation. B) New NHS Direct During my visit to the Department of Human Resources at the New NHS Direct, whereby I held some discussions with the manager of the department regarding the styles of leadership and management, I found out that there are a lot of issues that need to be done in order to ensure a smooth and efficient service provision. The kind of leadership at the department is one that can be referred to as command and control. I also found out that there is something called pace-setting, whereby targets are set by the manager and the relevant authorities in which the employees are expected to meet some thresholds regardless of their wishes. This means that if the set goals are not met by the employees, there are obvious consequences that most definitely do not go down well with majority of them, and this greatly affects their morale in a negative manner as they do not feel that they are part of the organisation. Reflections on observations with reference to Management Theory A) St. Mungo’s From Recovery Briefing, St. Mungo’s chief executive officer Charles Fraser stated that “At St. Mungo’s, we work hard to support people with a range of difficulties. We strive to help clients achieve their hopes, dreams and expectations. The recovery Approach provides a framework that supports and guides our work” (St. Mungo’s, 2012, p.2). Flexibility is an important strategy in management. In 2007, the organisation reviewed its service boundaries and internal structures. The outcome of the review was realignment in relationship to stakeholders within the organisation. Involvement of the clients in current and future works within the firm. This triggered innovation and utilisation of talent, initiating new areas of work as the existing services were improved. From the success received from recovery, the organisation plans to move to another stage in management, ‘the transformation level.’ The management has developed a plan for this new model. A Recovery Group Manager has been appointed. This has created a Health and Recovery Directorate that has incorporated the client in the team. The focus of the team is to increase service production and ensure that the recovery approach is experienced by everyone in a personalised way. This mode of approach in management is viewed as the best for provision of support services by NHS Confederation and the Centre of Mental Health. The setback faced by this non-profit organisation could be funding requirements. In the Recovery model, the roles and practices are different from those of traditional structures-bureaucratic system of management. Flexibility becomes vital for the success of any organisation in order to adapt to the dynamic environment of the clients. The outcomes must be commissioned with a lot of commitment, since outcomes are valued by the changes affected by the clients. The management technique applied by the organisation complies with Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management. According to this theory, science is applied in managing work. A science is developed for each job. Correct time and method of work is specified as the workers are given responsibility for their jobs. When job training is accomplished to empower workers, all stakeholders have equal playground (St. Mungo’s, 2012). A) The New NHS Direct Hyman (1987, p.63) clarifies that there is no ‘one best way’ of managing these contradictions, only different routes to partial failure. It is on this basis that managerial strategy can be conceptualised: as the pragmatic choice among alternatives none of which can prove satisfactory. This technology has two advantages. One: it is the only strategy that uses technology to deliver healthcare services remotely, acting as an entry point to the health system in walk-in- centres as well as accident and emergency departments. Two: it acts as a service delivery model that suits everywhere. The result achieved is that NHS Direct manages to deliver healthcare and advice (Wahlberg, Cedersund and Wredling, 2003, pp.37-45). Through this service, tension is created within the organisation’s management between technology and the nurses. The management uses technology for prediction whereas the nurses need flexibility and autonomy when offering healthcare services to particular individuals (O’Cathain, 2003). Management issues related to knowledge, resource use, rationing and control are not adhered to. According to Milburn (2002), the Health Secretary prefers individual diagnosis of people in the provision of healthcare rather than the management used by NHS Direct. This scenario has significant consequences in a public dominated by Key Performance Indicators. The tendency created in this system of management is to transfer specific issues into abstract forms, standardize and universalise them to arrive at consistency and control. This implies that management synthesizes, objectivises and finally makes procedures routine. The subjectivity of labour is reduced drastically making management to be suit any process (Townley, 2002, p.550). On the contrary, labour demands specialisation, autonomy and discretion. It acknowledges individuals as special and unique in social relationship, with diverse traditions, customs and experience (Townley, 2002, p.568). Such protocols and guidelines are not fit for medical work since they seek singleness and lead to bureaucracy. Comparison in Management Styles between NHS Direct and St. Mungo’s According to the designated roles of managers stated by Henri Fayol, the managers for the two organisations have distinctive roles. Fayol states that the managers should forecast, plan, organise, command control and coordinate all organisation activities. NHS Direct is a government organisation that has a bureaucratic structure. NHS Direct has a hierarchal structure. Incorporation of technology in administration has streamlined the roles and rules of healthcare service providers. Specialisation is also evident since the providers of healthcare use software for service delivery. The manager has to perform all the duties as stated by Fayol. Interpersonal, informational and decision making roles are in the managers’ docket. St. Mungo’s is a voluntary organisation and has a scientific theory of management. According to Frederick Taylor, in the scientific method of management, each job has specific responsibilities, with the parties choosing the probable methods and time of completing their tasks. The workers are selected and trained so that they are well equipped with skills for more production. These approaches are evident at St. Mungo’s since the client has more responsibilities in shaping the organisation’s responsibilities. Managers perform informal roles of monitoring, disseminating and as spokesmen for the organisation. NHS Direct remains to be inflexible as St. Mungo’s enjoys flexibility. Conclusion It is obvious that there is a substantial difference in the styles of leadership and management that are adopted by the two organisations. When we consider the NHS Direct, there is no direct relationship between the executive or management and the employees. The kind of leadership here is hierarchal whereby the employees are expected to do what they are told or expected by the management and that is all. This kind of management has made it difficult for the organisation to realise its goals as the employees are not motivated in their work, and they only do what they are expected in trying to meet the set goals. This is contrary to the St. Mungo’s in that the kind of leadership takes the form of recovery approach, whereby the employees are guided by sense of morals and they do what they feel is right. The employees feel empowered, and this also makes them feel as if they are part of the organisation, which is a motivating great factor. Bibliography Clarke, R., 2002. Cipd Guide. Flexible Working: The Implementation Challenge. UK, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Gann, B. K., 2002. The Policy Perspective. Paper presented at the Information for Patients and Public: The Role of ICTs conference. UK: University of Brighton. Hyman, R., 1987. Strategy or structure: Capital, labour and control. Work, Employment and Society, 1 (1), pp. 25-55. Milburn, A., 2002. Speech to the Confederation of British Industry annual conference. Available at: [Accessed 11 November 2012]. O’Cathain, A. et al., 2003. NHS Direct: Using computerized decision support software. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 45 (3), pp.280-286. St. Mungo’s. The Recovery Approach at St. Mungo’s. [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 November 2012]. Townley, B., 2002.‘Managing with Modernity’ Organisation. UK: Edinburg University. Wahlberg, A. et al., 2003.Telephone nurses experience of problems with telephone advice in Sweden. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 12 (1), pp.37-45. Webster, C., 2002. The National Health Service: A political History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More