Leadership at Save the Children, the US - Essay Example

Leadership at Save the Children, US In the literature of business and organizational development, knowing what accounts for a successful leadership is very important. In fact leadership is considered as one of the critical areas for the success of any organization. A survey found that 73 percent of the participants believe that leaders are important for success now and 89 percent believe that leaders will appear as the most successful factor in the future (Mind Resources Website). There are various leadership examples, which have made one organization successful and the other organization a failure. There are various factors which may impact the leadership style in an organization including the background of the manager, behavior and background of the staff and the organization’s vision, philosophy and values (Anonym). Leadership capacities may also vary from individual to individual like the different mental and physical capabilities of the individuals (Clippinger). Since the leadership styles vary a lot in businesses therefore, analyzing the best leadership style is an important area for the organizations. The aim of this report is to highlight the type of power which the leaders have employed in an organization and to evaluate whether the particular leadership styles have been successful or not in the organization. The organization that has been selected for analysis is Save the Children US. I have selected a non-profit organization because such organizations face huge management challenges. Leaders in NGOs are exposed to extraordinary challenges and both at the organizational and personal level because they have to work for long hours with very limited resources and mostly under politically volatile and poorly economic conditions (Hailey). Save the Children is recognized as a leading independent organization which aims to create lasting impact in the lives of Children in the U.S. and in various countries of the world (Save the Children). Before going into the details of whether leadership at Save the Children has contributed to its success or not, evaluating the leadership styles in the organization is important. The managerial grid of Blake and Mouton (1964) shows the behavioral characteristics of the successful leaders (Zeidan). The following managerial grid (Table I) shows five types of managerial leaderships based on product concern and people orientation of leaders. In theory “Team management” is considered ideal for successful leadership however, its implementation is difficult in some work situations (SW Learning Website). At Save the Children US, the type of leadership can be categorized into second grid “Team management”. The leaders in this International NGO have high concern for people because it is a humanitarian organization and all efforts are made for people. Since it is a nonprofit organization and the sources of income are the donors therefore, to continue its operations the organization has to attract new funds and grants. Therefore, for Save the Children, leadership is both production and people oriented. Team leadership is recognized as one of the successful styles in the leaders. Team leadership involves ensuring others recognize and attain performance expectations, reassessing progress to achieve the set targets and if they do not show the desirable performance then holding them accountable (Nova Scotia). Table I: Managerial Grid (1,9) Country club (9,9) Team (5,5) Middle of road (1,1) Impoverished (9,1) Produce or perish Source: Blake and Mouton, 1964 High employee turnover has been observed in the development sector. Attracted by high salaries and other benefits, leaders of Save the Children like other International NGOs switches off their organizations very rapidly. In short, the offices of Save the Children operating in Asia frequently face leadership changes and leaders from various cultures such as France, Ireland, Asian countries etc. come to look after the operations of the organization. Do leaders from diverse cultural backgrounds have impact on the overall management of Save the Children? In a research on 4000 individuals on management positions from eight European countries, it was found that leadership styles also vary based on culture such as Swedish managers are very innovative whereas, the Danish managers do not focus on team approach, but they are independent thinkers and do not set day to day tasks (Peters and Kabacoff). The results of Bremer’s research study (2009) shows that differences in entrepreneurial leadership in Sweden and China contributed to the successes and failures in these countries. The reason is that leadership styles adopted by leaders in Sweden might not be suitable for the Chinese companies. In an interview with HR Assistant at Save the Children US, Pakistan office, it was found that team leaders, deputy team leaders, regional directors and other senior people usually have short tenure in the organization. However, the changes in the leadership do not impact the people because the policy of Save the Children clearly defines the organizational structure, flow of information and authority and power. A rough organizational structure of Save the Children US, Pakistan Office has been shown below (Table II). In the major decisions of the organization, Country Director, Senior Management team and Managers of Functional Departments participate. Decisions are not implemented on the employees rather their opinions and feedback is always encouraged. For example, in Emergency Response Team, weekly meetings are organized in which the Country Director also participates and employees discuss their weekly targets and achievements. In this way, goals and set and done as a team. Table II: Organizational Structure of Save the Children Pakistan Office1 Path Goal theory describes the way which leaders adopt to encourage and support their followers in achieving their targets and goals. In this theory, House and Mitchell (1974) identified four types of leadership styles including supportive leadership, directive leadership, participative leadership and achievement oriented leadership (Changing Minds Website). The leadership styles identified in this theory are very common in businesses nowadays. The leaders which promote friendly environment and show concern for the welfare of people have supportive leadership style. The leaders which assign the tasks to employees and direct them what needs to be done have directive leadership style. In some organizations leaders promote employees to give their input and ideas in making decisions and they have participative leadership style whereas, in the achievement oriented leadership style, leaders believe in the capabilities of the people and set challenging goals both work related and for the self improvement of employees. At Save the Children, Leaders empower the employees to give their feedback and ideas. Based on the leaders’ behavioral definitions, the leadership style at Save the Children can be categorized as Participative Leadership Style. One important assumption of Path Goal Theory is that there leaders’ act as the knowing person who know the right way of achieving the goals while followers cannot see these paths. However, this assumption of the theory is not supported by the real world example. The followers and leaders might have equal understanding to goals and targets however, because of the high access to information; the leaders might have an advantage. The contingency theory argues that a specific leadership style may not be suitable for all situations and there are various situations factors such as preferred style of the leaders, their capabilities, behavior of the followers and other factors (Changing Minds Website) which may impact leadership style. Unlike situational theory, contingency theory covers a broader aspect and considers various contingent factors. Contingency theory does have significant implications because based on the nature of challenges and decisions, the leaders have been changing their behavior at Save the Children. For example, the Emergency Response Team of Save the Children has to deal with emergency situations in various countries where the Save the Children is operating. This team has been given an independent status and in the case of any emergency, the team starts demanding funds from all potential sources without getting approvals from the US Country office. However, in the case of important decisions such as which projects should be started and where, sometimes the directions are released by US Country Office. A current scenario of Save the Children US, Pakistan Country Office has been presented to give an idea about how leadership works in the organization. In the current year, Save the Children offices of different countries including UK, U.S. and Sweden operating in Asian region are undergoing the process of unification. The programme has been given the name of “International Unification Programme” and two Regional directors have been selected for this including Mike Novell, the Regional Director South Central Asia and Greg Duly, Regional Director South East Asia. This unification programme has made the new leadership a challenge for the Save the Children. Toby Armstrong has been appointed as the new change manager to facilitate the transition and structure the process. To reduce the fear of downsizing among the employees, Toby is working with the Regional Director, Country Director, and various work groups and staff population. The unification process will be carried out under the leadership of Toby Armstrong and Regional Director. Management operating standards of all offices of Save the Children have been evaluated and the best practices have been highlighted in collaboration with country directors of the three country offices UK, US and Sweden. The input of the staff is being taken to motivate and encourage employees. To reduce the fear of downsizing in the minds of employees, all processes and actions of unification are conveyed to the staff. Toby has visited all departments and has met all staff members to build a good relationship with the staff. Building good relationship with staff members is another good practice of the leaders at Save the Children. The leaders which keep a distance from their people, usually fail to achieve organization success. The leadership failure of Alberto Gonzales has proved that leadership not only demands commitment to a vision but it also requires the ability to see the challenges and relationships and for successful leaders pragmatism and humility is required (Goldberg). Even during the unification process, the staff morale and motivation is high, which shows the successful leadership at Save the Children. The participative leadership style has made Save the Children a success in International NGOs sector. However, the transformation leader, which was developed in late 1970s by McGregor Burns for political leaders, has also become very visible in businesses. Transformation leadership style requires four characteristics in a leader including idealized influence or charismatic personality, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation (McCrimmon). In the recent years, transformational leadership style is increasing among the leaders. Bernard Bass (1990) defined Transformational leadership as a type of leader in which the leaders broadens the interest of their people by creating awareness and stirring their employees to look beyond their self interest for the benefit of group (Epitropaki). In an organization, the leadership style, especially the transformational leadership plays a very significant role in developing a sustaining corporate culture. The survey results show that entrepreneurs, today, prefer using transformational leadership style because this style increases outcomes of leadership, performance orientation, their social responsibility, improves organizational culture, trust, loyalty and commitment of workers (Sarros, Gray and Danstan). In order to ensure its success, do the leaders of Save the Children adopt transformational leadership style? Participative leadership has been proved successful at Save the Children and various other leadership styles which are not transformational have been effective in various organizations. Participative leadership at Save the Children encourages the employee input and feedback in organizational matters and decisions and this leadership style does not require leader to be inspirational. Inspirational leaders are skilled sales people who aim to sell their vision and they might not be very effective in employee engagement whereas, participative leadership appears to be more motivating for the workforce. In 1993, Anderson and King found that in parallel to participative leadership, clear vision also plays a significant role in fostering innovation (Lievens, Geit and Coetsier). Muenjhon argues that even the transformational leaders can show either the directive or participative leadership style by sharing their ideas and visions with employees. Moreover, he also found that followers around the world show the desire for transformational leadership however, the specific behavior of followers may vary from one culture to the other. Because of the changing social structures, technological advancements, globalization and changes in the society, the leaders of Save the Children and others working in this sector, should adapt best leadership practices. Hailey (2006) has presented the topology (Table III) , which he believes should be used by NGOs to promote the effective kind of leadership. According to Hailey, the suggested leadership style is “catalytic” because these leaders have high ability to engage with external world while maintaining their high performance. Table III: Leadership Typology Internal Focus External Focus High Performance Low Performance Managerialist Catalytic Paternalistic Activist Based on the above discussion, it is found that Save the Children has been able to expand its operations around the world because of the strong and participative leaders. The success of the organization and its presence around the world is the evidence of effective leadership in the organization. Because of the changing society, it has been recommended to the organization that it should explore more effective leadership styles, to maintain its success. Bibliography Anonym. Leadership Styles . 1 September 2010 . Bremer, Inngmar. Common Factors Between Sweedish and Chinese Entreprenurial Leadership Style. 2009. 1 September 2010 . Changing Minds Website. Contingency Theory. 31 August 2010 . —. Path-Goal Theory of Leadership. 1 September 2010 . Clippinger, Dr. John H. Leadership. 2 September 2010 . Epitropaki, Olga. 2001. 1 September 2010 . Goldberg, Michael. Alberto Gonzales as a Case Study in Failed Leadership . 27 August 2007. 3 September 2010 . Hailey, John. NGO Leadership Development. July 2006. 4 September 2010 . Lievens, Filip, Pascal Van Geit and Pol Coetsier. "Identification of Transformational Leadership Qualities: An Examination of Potential Biases." EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY (1997): 6(4), 415-430. McCrimmon, Mitch. Benefits and Limitations of Transformational Leadership . 17 Januray 2008. 4 September 2010 . Mind Resources Website. The Evolution of Leadership. 1 September 2010 . Nova Scotia. Competency Dictionary for Leadership Roles in the Public Service of Nova Scotia. November 2004. 3 September 2010 . Peters, Helen and Robert Kabacoff. Global or Local: The Impact of Country Culture on Leadership Style in Europe . 2010. 1 September 2010 . Sarros, James C, Judy H Gray and Iain Danstan. Australian Business Leadership Survey. 2002. 1 September 2010 . Save the Children. About us . 2 September 2010 . SW Learning Website. Leadership Theories: An Overview. 31 August 2010 . Zeidan, Hania. The Blake Mouton Managerial Grid. 2009. 31 August 2010 . Read More