Leadership Dilemma - Assignment Example

Leadership Dilemma Kathy Simpson being a team leader of correctional officers at the Pokon Correctional Facility is facing a challenge where the teammembers’ performance has deteriorated. They have also started having more sick leaves than before. This situation has been caused by a looming reduction in staff numbers that Kathy heads as a result of a looming wider organisational re-structuring. The re-structuring will result in Kathy’s team dropping to 10 members from the current 20 correctional officers. Kathy has been in this respect given the responsibility of choosing those to remain thereby ensuring half goes. In light of this she is still to give recommendations to the senior management on where the ‘additional’ officers will be deployed. Kathy’s team members are aware of this move and as a result they are distressed: an aspect that as earlier stated is affecting their work performance a great deal. The main aim for Kathy is to ensure that the team members’ work performance is within acceptable levels especially during this transition period. This paper will use a leadership approach to come up with how best to solve the dilemma Kathy has. Leadership approach – theoretical overview Leaders are supposed to always be able to ensure that things are done through influencing others. For a leadership process to be complete there has to be the leader followed by the task to handle and lastly the ones being led: termed as followers.  According to Stojkovic et al. (2008) a leader has to be visionary, good behaviour, be charismatic, have a trait and above all manifest a form of leadership style. Leaders in daily duties are faced with situations that force them to act in a certain manner. Situational variables dictate what to be done and at what time. Some of the situational factors that are of importance to consider are the style the leader opt, followers’ behaviours and capabilities among others. Contingency theories therefore play a key role in guiding leaders on how to lead more so depending on situational analysis. Contingency theories indicate that there is no particular style of leadership that can apply to any given situation. This clearly stipulates that leaders’ approaches to a demanding situation will depend hugely on the dynamics that the situation poses. The same case applies to leaders themselves whereby if one fails to change with a situation then the chances of success in a volatile environment are slim. Decision making process is complex and can be made simple by a leader’s ability to appreciate change in the environment and by approaching different situations differently without applying a blanket approach. Contingency theory states that characteristics of both the follower and the leader are of paramount importance while not forgetting the leadership situational factors (Northouse, 2009). This same sentiment is echoed by Fiedler who says that the favourableness of a situation should be considered as well as leader’s characteristics. He further argues that leadership style is quite difficult to change therefore the change in situational analysis may not yield much. He suggests that leader’s power position, structure of the task and group atmosphere are the situational variables together with the psychological orientation of the leader that affect group performance. Decision making process leadership requires skill and competence since bad decisions or decisions made at the wrong time may cripple an organisation. Here Vroom and Yetton brought forth the application of the contingency theory in decision making. They state that for a decision procedure to be effective a number of issues need to be put in mind. Winkler (2009) says some of these are; quality of the decision and its acceptance, information that the leader and the subordinates have, subordinates disagreements on the available alternatives etc. Hersey and Blanchard go to refute Fiedler’s theory and come up with the situational leadership theory which has a different angle to it. In their theory they state that success in leadership is determined hugely by how a leader is able to change their styles with change in situations. They go ahead to state that for a leader to adjust their styles and lead successfully there is need to have a mature following which is ready to perform as required of it in the specific situation. Ferreira and Otley (2009) state that their ability and confidence to perform largely determines how ready they are which subsequently dictates a leader’s success rate. Under Hersey and Blanchard proposed theory, leaders adjust their styles towards leadership after looking into the relationship behaviours and task while considering the maturity level of the followers. They came up with four styles to explain their approach. Telling Style is where the leader closely supervises while having given specific directions on the task. This calls for low-relationship and high-task style. This is most appropriate when the followers are not capable to handle the task and are unwilling (Ferreira and Otley, 2009). Selling Style where the leader needs to be supportive while explaining the task directions. This is a high-relationship and high-task style. This is more suitable where the followers have the willingness and confidence to perform but do not have the ability. Delegating Style where the group in question is given a chance to be responsible for decisions about the tasks undertaken. This poses a low-relationship and low-task style. Since there is little interference from the leader the followers are quite committed, able and confident. Participating Style is one that is of low-task and high relationship (Ferreira and Otley, 2009). This is because decisions are shared on task directions and decision making is participative and it is most suitable where the followers are insecure or unwilling to participate but they are capable of performing their duties. Leadership approach – Practice The case study described above is one that revolves around strategic organisational change in corrections. Kathy is being faced with a situation that requires immediate rectification as performance is already deteriorating. The situation is clearly creating insecurity among the correctional officers since they are uncertain on who is Kathy retain. Their feelings are founded and it is a plus for Kathy that she knows the root cause of the under performance witnessed. The part that they are unwilling to cooperate and work as required is contributed by the fact that their morale is low therefore their motivation needs to be checked. Their level of maturity is not badly off as they seem to have been working well only that this situation came up. Due to the looming loss of position, the workers have lost confidence in their work and also in their leader. Kathy’s main aim at this point will be to ensure they are willing to work, confident and secure. Considering that the situation is one that seems definite, it is a daunting task for any leader to try to regain the workers confidence, security and willingness to work all at the same time. This therefore calls for the leader to come up with the best practices in leadership to solve the crisis. This particular situation can be well handled by the Hersey and Blanchard theory which takes into account the Participative Style. Kathy needs to consider that the team members she is dealing with are the same as before only that the gap between their past behaviour and the present is as a result of the looming reduction on staff. This in turn makes her situation a bit easy as while discussing with them the situation she will have a basis to explain her discontent on. The most important thing that her team mates need is support. It is clear that there should be no excuse for poor performance from the officers as they are highly competent. This leads to the conclusion that when the workforce is competent but shows poor performance disconnect lies in low motivation. Deriving a motivating atmosphere a leader is supposed to first start with the most crucial of acts; listening (Northouse, 2009). A leader to be successful needs to be a good listener of others views and grievances before making decisions or comments. This in this situation will aid in knowing the root cause of the problem since there may be other underlying issues other than the looming restructuring. The motivation in this respect has been eroded by an extrinsic affair but the best motivation to instil at this juncture is intrinsic. Northouse (2009) says that intrinsic motivation is instilled when the leader takes time to appreciate the effort the workers are showing, giving praises where deserved especially on noticing improvement. Followers will thus feel good about what they are doing. There is also the need to discuss the situation or fate of the ones who will leave the team in a rather positive manner asserts Toporek (2006). This way they will regain their confidence on the next step in their lives and will be eager to handle that eventuality rather than be afraid to face it. This theory seems to be most useful in these circumstances as it has given a specific direction to follow and in general it covers a wide range of situations which happen in organisations world wide, correctional or otherwise. References Ferreira, A. and Otley, D. (2009). The design and use of performance management systems: An extended framework for analysis. Management Accounting Research. 20, pp. 263-282. Northouse, P. G. (2009). Leadership: Theory and practice. (5th Ed.). SAGE,  Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D. & Klofas, J. (2008). The administration and management of criminal justice organizations: A book of readings. (4th Ed.). Wadsworth/Thomson Learning: Belmont. Toporek, R. (2006). Handbook for social justice in counseling psychology: Leadership, vision, and action. SAGE. Winkler, I (2009). Contemporary leadership theories: Enhancing the understanding of the complexity, subjectivity and dynamic of leadership. Springer. Read More