Managing Settings in Childrens Day Care Centers - Essay Example

Managing settings in children’s day care centers The effective management of nurseries requires effective leadership and management not only in order to ensure that the physical needs of young children are taken care of but also to ensure their mental, emotional and intellectual development, as well as development of character. When the children in question are disadvantaged, such as being abused or from a disturbed family background, or otherwise suffering from infirmities such as disabilities, they require special care and need to be taught to deal in a positive manner with the problems in their lives. The kind of nurseries and day care centers that are run by Barnados are intended to cater to such young children who are disadvantaged. As a result, the kind of leadership practices that are used in these organizations will have a significant impact upon the kind of results that can be obtained. Leadership must be characterized by high levels of emotional intelligence in order to inspire a positive attitude in these disadvantaged children, to help them overcome the handicaps they face. Transformational caretakers can help these children to rise above the adversities in their lives, in order to develop a positive attitude and inspire them to fight as necessary, to overcome their limitations and place them on par with the normal population of children. A setting such as Barnados nurseries and day care centers, where the focus is upon the children and helping them to achieve their best, lends itself particularly well to a transformational leadership style. A transformational leader is a charismatic and visionary person. He/she is able to inspire his/her followers in a manner that extends far beyond rewards (Howell and Forst 1989). Transformational leadership is more effective in the context of a close supervisory relationship such as that between a child and a care provider, because the carer is able to infuse the child with his or her own ideals and values. Transformational leadership transcends daily mundane affairs and works by enhancing the motivation of the follower (Gardner and Avolio 1998), in this case the child, and by impressing upon such a follower the value and meaning of the leader’s goals (Bass 1985). The followers of a transformational leader are expected to think in innovative ways and focus upon upholding certain human values and principles. This is especially relevant and applicable within the day care context for young children, because “transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms individuals” (Spencer ,P1). Northouse (2004) describes transformational leadership as a “process that changes and transforms individuals. It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards and long term goals and includes assessing followers’ motives, satisfying their needs and treating them as full human beings.”(Northouse, 2004:169). Since most children at Barnados type special day care centers may be disadvantaged in some way without a supportive family network to help them grow and develop as fully rounded individuals, transformational leaders may be more successful in motivating such children and helping them to develop a positive attitude in their lives. A transformational care provider is able to inspire and motivate children, making them more aware of the importance of task outcomes, and activating his/her higher order needs. The transformational leadership in day care centers must be aware of the importance of motivating care providers and have a focus on the team or an organization to produce higher quality results. Bass (1998) also identifies the strong moral foundations which are the key transformational leadership qualities that are powerful forces of motivation. Bass (1998) described idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and three aspects or moral characteristics: 1) leader as moral character; 2) embedded ethical values in the leaders beliefs; 3) moral processes of ethical choices leaders and followers pursuit. Effective transformational leaders influences followers in the three following ways: 1) raising followers awareness of the importance and value of tasks; 2) helping them to focus on the teams or organizations goals, rather than individual ones; 3) allowing them to see the higher-order of needs to widen the view. (Beugre, Acar and Braun (2006)). Transformational leadership is recognized as a high level of social leadership that occurs when leaders promote the interests of their staff; identify a clear mission and get their employee accept it, work to achieve the purpose of this mission and increase their awareness level about the need to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the group. For example, a positive correlation has been found to exist between transformational leadership and the performance of the organization (Lowe et al, 1996). Transformational leaders are very effective within an organizational context because they are able to motivate inspire their followers to achieve superlative outcomes by providing them with meaning and understanding of what they do, apart from providing them cherished and time honored ideals to follow and espouse. In a day care context such as Barnados, the gaps and imitations experienced by children can be overcome, and they can be inspired to achieve superlative outcomes that are over and above the normal population. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (1970), which is a five tier system, an individual has two kinds of needs – the lower order needs which are satisfied externally, such as physiological and safety needs, and the higher order needs which are satisfied internally such as social needs, esteem and self actualization needs. Herzberg (1968) argues that while factors such as company policy, supervision and salaries play an important role in determining the kind of employees who are likely to join the organization, employees are more likely to be motivated by factors such as achievement and the work itself rather than simply money. (Herzberg 1968). In centers such as Barnados, employees are likely to be motivated by their own ideals and desire to help the children and providing them with this opportunity may be the best reward they can be given. According to Vroom, all these three factors that are the manifestation of an employee’s expectations must be calculated in such a way that they are able to bring about a motivational force that will ensure maximum pleasure to the employee. It is possible to calculate this motivational force using the formula: Motivation = Valency x Expectancy (Instrumentality).When the outcome of the employee’s expectancy is satisfied to the maximum through the performance of the HR department, then the employee is likely to be highly motivated in his job. The HR Department should therefore seek to motivate these employees by offering both financial incentives as well as a challenging work environment to motivate transformation type of carers to work in the day care centers. Financial aspects may play a vital role in ensuring that an employee at a day care centre is happy and satisfied. A positive attitude on the part of a carer will also filter down to the children, as also described later in this essay. Several companies have successfully achieved a competitive advantage through the restructuring of their human resource management systems, as pointed out by Schuler and Macmillan (1984). For example, in the Bairnco Corporation, bonuses were linked to performance for top level executives and the company was able to almost double its sales from $270 million to $442 million in the short span of two years. While day care centres catering to disadvantaged children may not function primarily on the basis of accruing profits because many of them are non profit entities, improving financial returns is a part of every organization’s agenda. One method used by employers to attract the best candidates to their firm is to offer good monetary rewards, such as high salaries, signing bonuses and attractive benefits (Pfeffer, 1998). Although day care centers may be non profit entities, they receive donations and improvements in performance through employment of good employees and caretakers are likely to enhance receipts. Therefore, it would be a useful policy for such daycare centers to effectively manage finances and allocate good wages to carers of children, to ensure that levels of success in successfully integrating disadvantaged children into society are high. Bryant(2003) has taken up an exhaustive review of how leadership styles may influence the creation, sharing and exploitation of organizational knowledge. He concludes that since transformational leadership is more of a one on one style of leadership, it may be more effective in the creation and sharing of knowledge at individual and group levels. Since knowledge is vital in a global economy and can produce a competitive advantage for organizations, while also enabling disadvantaged children to successfully integrate into society, payment of higher wages to employ transformational carers may result in good returns. Another important aspect of transformational leadership is emotional intelligence and this would play a significant role in helping disadvantaged children to develop strong values in their life and inspire them to overcome the difficult circumstances they face. Barbuto and Burbach (2006) conducted a study of 80 elected public officials in the United States and found that the emotional intelligence of these officials played a role in how they were perceived by their followers and how effective they were. Caretakers with high levels of emotional intelligence would therefore be able to effectively inspire young people and help them bring out their best. One of the aspects of emotional intelligence is empathetic response: this is the ability of transformational leaders to understand the feelings, emotions and thoughts of their followers and to be able to understand their point of view (Barbuto and Burbach, 2006). In order to bring about significant changes, transformational leaders need to engage and connect with their followers, hence caretakers with emotional intelligence are therefore more likely to understand and be sympathetic to the concerns and feelings of young children. This also makes them effective in an organizational set up, where they are able to align individual goals with organizational goals. By using such leaders, it is possible to transform followers. It means that “followers are changed from being self centered individuals to being committed members of a group. They are then able to perform at levels beyond what normally might have been expected.” (Antonakis et al, 2004:175). Transformational leadership thus has a cascading effect because it develops the same attributes and values possessed by the leader in others as well (Bass and Avoilo, 2000). Applying transformational leadership in a day care center will thus result in disadvantaged children being better able to beat the odds they are faced with, because they can learn to work as members of a group and to develop positive values. Barbuto and Burbach (2006) have also summarized research which shows that a high level of emotional intelligence is associated with positive dispositions and such people are able to help others by enabling them to cooperate in a group through the spread of positive feelings. Moreover, since transformational leaders are self motivated, they are able to motivate others; hence selecting caretakers in day care settings carefully, such that they have high levels of emotional intelligence would be very effective in ensuring that young children develop positive dispositions and values to help them cope with their difficulties. Since individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence themselves have a high degree of self awareness, they are able to use this awareness to accurately assess emotions in others and can thus understand and deal with the children’s emotions and channel their frustrations and perceived disadvantages into productive channels. Transformational leaders who are emotionally intelligent have the power to direct their own feelings inward and this seems to work very well in making people aware of their inner states and reduces negative feelings so that their judgment is improved. Transformational leaders are able to increase the impact of their followers’ thoughts and improve their attention to tasks because they help them with achieving self determination.(Barbuto and Burbach, 2006). Such carers would therefore be of value in day care centre sub working with children, because they would be able to help children to improve their attention to tasks and thereby help them to achieve higher levels of self sufficiency and the ability to cope with the difficulties in their daily lives. Teaching them effectively may require teachers with emotional intelligence, hence carers high on this vital aspect will be more helpful to those children. The ability to deal with change is also a vital aspect in a daycare organization. The young children of the present will need to function as adults in a society and economy where rapid changes are taking place. They must possess the ability to cope with those changes effectively. Peter Senge (1990) presented several ways of thinking and acting of the leadership of an organization in such a manner that learning systems within it can be changed to address the weaknesses within it. This learning from experience must also take into account the long range effect of these changes and its impact upon the organization. Management teams may be involved in power and ego battles, avoiding anything that might make them look bad on a personal level. This negates their actual function, which is to identify and solve problems. One of the most notable features that needs to be assessed in today’s global setting is the need for possession of computer skills, as a result carers must be techno savvy and children must be trained in the use of the tools of technology. Robert Blake and Anne Adams McCanse (1999) have also advocated a team approach by identifying a leadership grid, based upon which a team management approach is advocated and these authors believe that this approach is ideal to effectively cope with changes an organization may be faced with. By grouping individuals from different teams on the basis of their special skills, individuals can focus on what they are good at, thereby improving overall efficiency of operation in the long run. In order to motivate good carers with high levels of emotional intelligence to join day care centers and provide their transformational leadership services to ensure good outcomes for children, effective motivation may thus be necessary. This requires effective financial management and allowing good wages and incentives for carers, so that they have the motivation to work hard and help children. Intrinsic motivation also plays a significant role in this aspect because the kind of carers who will be motivated in such day care settings with the patience and skill that is required are those who are intrinsically motivated to serve others. It is also important for the day care centers to be receptive to changes in the environment, in order to effectively prepare children to deal with those changes and cope with the global environment, especially in equipping them with the knowledge and social skills they need. Team work and adopting a constant learning approach may be necessary to ensure that an organization is receptive to and adapts to changes in the environment. 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Academy of Management Review, 23:32-58 * Howell JM, Frost PJ, 1989: “A laboratory study of charismatic leadership”. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 43:243-269 * Lowe, K. B., Kroeck, K. G. and Sivasubramaniam, N, 1996. “Effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the MLQ literature.” The Leadership Quarterly, 7(3), 385-425. * Northouse, P.G., 2004. “Leadership: Theory and Practice”, Sage. * Spencer, Emily. Leadership Models and Theories: A Brief Overview. Retrieved on October 24, 2008 from http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?docid=162454 Read More