Leadership and Conflict Resolution in Public Administrative Environments

Introduction 

Leadership is primarily targeted at the people aspect of any system and just as people vary exponentially from time to time, so do leadership approaches. A single leader may have to manifest different personalities when dealing with different people, or even when dealing with the same set of people, but in different circumstances. The study of leadership theories and leadership styles is geared towards creating an understanding of what kind of leadership would be most suitable for every situation (Esowe & Kabir, 2017). For example, the kind of leadership needed to evacuate a building may be exponentially different from the one needed in leading a team building session. To be effective in leadership, it is necessary for the leader to understand personal traits and also the characteristics of both the situation and the followers, so as to apply the right traits to the right situation (Cashman, 2017). This research paper focuses on the concept that there is no perfect leadership approach but rather every situation demands a particularized form of leadership. 

Public Leadership in a Health Environment 

The director of public health is not just a leader, as the position also includes leading leaders who also have their own followers. Secondly, the public health dockets have some of the most highly rated professionals in the industry, including clinicians and firefighters . The choice of leadership theory that would be most suitable for this docket has to take cognizance of the sensitive nature of the issues handled by the department, and the nature of professionals within it. Based on available research, the transformational theories of leadership, also called the relationship theories would be most suitable (Amachukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015). Under these theories, the leader seeks to influence and motivate the followers to do the right thing, instead of focusing on systems and processes. Seeking to force firefighters to rush faster into an inferno, or doctors to be kinder to patients may be counterproductive. Instead, the leader should use charisma, communication skills, and motivational skills to inspire the followers to make the necessary changes. 

When it comes to leadership styles, a set of three different leadership styles would be most suitable for the situation. The three styles are the facilitative leadership, democratic leadership, and transactional leadership. Facilitative is mainly focused on measurements and outcomes with the leaders seeking to improve the results rather than the processes (Esowe & Kabir, 2017). The public health department is having outcome problems with people complaining that they are not getting the necessary services. The situation is not tenable and must change since public health is in many ways a matter of life and death. For example, a consistent delay in the Emergency Room, an inordinate increase in waiting time can result in numerous avoidable deaths almost on a daily basis. The delay may be caused by a variety of issues including lack of proper training, lack of coordination, or even plain lethargy. It is impossible to solve such problems without getting to the bottom of their respective causes and bearing factors. 

Under facilitative leadership, the leaders will evaluate current processes then recommend the necessary changes to improve the outcomes (Esowe & Kabir, 2017). Democratic leadership, on the other hand, relates to delegation of authority and consideration of the contributions of subordinates during the making of final decisions. Democratic leadership would be most suitable when the Director of Public Health is dealing with departmental leaders, as they also happen to be leaders in their own right. Before making changes in any department, the director should seek and consider the opinion of each respective subleader. Finally, transactional leadership relates to a style of leadership based on rewards and may also include the stick and carrot approach to management (Esowe & Kabir, 2017). In the public health department, a failure to follow instructions, rules, and regulations can lead to loss of life. Transactional leadership ensures that those who follow rules are rewarded but those who breach them are reprimanded or chastised. 

Public Leadership in an Educational Environment 

The school board finds itself in a unique leadership situation where it has to deal with parties that are not per se its followers, which calls for a unique approach to leadership. The school board is responsible for the smooth management of academic institutions including schools but it is being frustrated by parties with which it has collaborative relationships. Some of the corroborative relationships are between the school board and parties that can be considered as senior to the board itself. The board will, however, still need the parties to cooperate so that it can fulfill its mandate. For example, the Department of Redevelopment and Housing has housing, not education as its primary area of focus and will thus prioritize its resources on issues relating to housing. The school board, however, needs the resources of the Department of Redevelopment and Housing to fulfill its mandate in meeting the needs of students, teaching staff, and to also improve learning amenities. 

Conversely, the State Department of Education is directly responsible for the schools that the school board manages. The board will, therefore, be more forceful when dealing with the education leaders but more conciliatory when with housing leaders. The contingency theories would be most suitable for the instant scenario. Under the contingency theories, the leader does not have a specific rule of the thumb but will seek the form of leadership that is most suitable to the set of circumstances (Amachukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015). Dealing with the State Department of Education may differ exponentially from dealing with the State Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under the contingency theories, the school board can adjust and react as and when contingencies arise. 

With regard to leadership styles, charismatic and transformational leadership would be most suitable under the circumstances. Charismatic leadership entails inter alia using leadership qualities and traits to change the normative orientation of a group or an individual (Esowe & Kabir, 2017). The School Board, for example, may be dealing with an overworked departmental head who considers other issues on the in-tray as more important than the issues relating to schools. The departmental leader is not per se under the instructions of the school board but through charismatic leadership, the board can change the opinion of the departmental head, about prioritizing education. When properly utilized, Charisma can make departmental leaders that have little to do with education such as those in housing, give as much focus on school issues as they do for the issues falling under their dockets. 

Conversely, transformational leadership uses motivation to initiate change within groups and systems (Saleem, 2015). The School Board happens to be stark in the middle of a flawed system that needs changes above the board where departmental heads are, and below the board where principals and other leaders are. Transformational leadership will create change on both ends of the system thus improving the outcomes within the specific education sector. The situation under which the board of education finds itself in does not need a quick fix but rather collective change that will prevent it from occurring again. Transformational leadership results in the changing of systems through transforming the people factor within those systems. The combination of charismatic leadership style and the transformational leadership style would thus solve the problem facing the School Board’s docket. 

Public Leadership in Government Operations 

In public service, leadership is more relational in nature than in the corporate sector. This is because in the public sector, followers are not entirely under the active control of the leader. A public leader may not be able to follow the Lockheed Skunkworks leadership approach that was developed by Kelly Johnson. Johnson would use his leadership acumen to bring together the perfect team, then allow a lot of leeway to the followers so as to innovatively come up with excellent products. A public sector, however, has to deal with a collection of individuals, most of whom are not per se answerable to him or her, even when they fall under the leader’s area of control (Cashman, 2017). For example, the School Board is a creation of the school district, drawn from the distinguished members of the community. Unlike the City Manager, the board members are not necessarily employees thus the city has no active control over them. Conversely, state departmental leaders such as those in the State Department of Education are technocrats appointed by the state government, who might even look down upon the city manager. Finally, there is also the departmental leaders within the city who may be answerable to the city manager but to the extent that a corporate vice president is answerable to the CEO. The City Manager is supposed to lead all these different kinds of followers without having active control over them, thus how the followers behave has a major bearing on the conduct of the leader (Cashman, 2017). 

The City Manager would be most effective as a leader when there is the ability to delegate most of the functional work so as to be left with coaching, supervisory, and motivational duties. However, delegation can only be possible if the followers prove themselves to be capable of operating effectively with minimum supervision (Cashman, 2017). However, if the followers are incompetent, lethargic or corrupt, the City Manager will have to apply transactional leadership so as to closely monitor all activities. The City Manager will thus spend most of the time undertaking management duties at the expense of leadership duties. Another followership behavior that takes time away from substantive leadership is conflict resolution. If for example, the school board is constantly at loggerheads with principles, city leaders and state leaders, the City Manager will spend too much time putting out fires and seeking for concessions which will take time away from coaching, supervision, and motivation. Finally, followers need to not only heed the instructions of the leader but also seek to emulate the leader (Cashman, 2017). A leader who is not being followed is not a leader per se and is reduced to a dictator. Whereas leadership itself plays a role in eliciting followership, the followers also have a role to play in the relationship. If the followers pay their role effectively, the City Manager will be more effective as a leader and vice versa. 

Improving Public Leadership Styles 

Even the best leaders are not perfect and could do with some improvement in one area of leadership or the other. For example, Winston Churchill, one of the most studied leaders in modern history was the subject of public condemnation twice in his career, leading to him getting relieved of his duties. The first happened when he was the First Lord of the Admiralty and the second when he was the Secretary to the Exchequer (Human, 2015). In both cases, Churchill learned from his mistakes and came back a better leader. Successful leadership, therefore, also includes the leader’s ability to detect leadership flaws or weaknesses then take steps to resolve them using a definitive strategy. The first strategy that a leader can use to overcome an inherent weakness in a leadership style is to lean on a strength to overcome a weakness. Whereas every leader has a manifest weakness, the leader will also have a manifest strength based on a specific leadership trait. For example, communication was considered as one of Winston Churchill’s strengths. A leader can focus on the strength and use it as a clutch that will overcome the limitation created by a weakness (Cashman, 2017). A leader who has temper-based weakness can use communication skills to avoid situations where tempers may flare or to solve problems created by the leader’s temper. Inborn traits may be hard to completely eliminate or overcome more so during the crisis but a leader can use another trait as a solution to the vagaries created by the trait that acts as a weakness. The second tool that a leader can use to overcome a weakness is to develop a tool that can be used to either cure the weakness or eliminate the adverse effects of that weakness. For example, a leader may have a bias weakness either towards people or towards situations. Such a leader can benefit from a tool such as bias evaluation formula (Cashman, 2017). Every time the leader encounter a situation where the bias may apply, the leader can use the matrix to consider the particulars of the situation so as to eliminate the bias. Even in personality traits such as propensity for panic attacks, a leader can develop a tool such as counting backward or counting to 20 by jumping three then four numbers. Simple tools can overcome major character flaws thus improving leadership capabilities. 

Conclusion 

It is definitively clear from the above that public leadership is exponentially complicated thus a simple rule of the thumb cannot be developed to handle all forms and levels of leaderships. Different leadership theories exist because different experts and commentators could not agree on the general concepts of leadership. As reflected above, some theories are more applicable to some leadership scenarios than others. Conversely, leadership styles also vary exponentially depending on the nature of the leader, the nature of the situation within which leadership is being applied, the nature of the followers, and finally the relationship between the leader and the followers. It is incumbent upon every leader to be able to understand the factors above so as to arrive at the right leadership style to apply. Further, a leader does not just deal with followers, for example, when dealing with collaborative relationships which call for dynamic approaches. Finally, every leader has strengths and weaknesses thus the former should be reinforced and the latter overcome so as to excel in leadership. 

References 

Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management.  Management ,  5 (1), 6-14 

Cashman, K. (2017).  Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life . Berrett-Koehler Publishers 

Esowe, L. S., & Kabir, A. A. (2017). Leadership Styles of Chief Executive Officers and Growth of Business Organisations.  International Journal of Social Sciences and Management Research ,  3 (1), 1-15 

Human, S. (2015).  Winston Churchill’s ‘Black Dog’: A psychobiographical case study for depressive realism (Doctoral dissertation: University of South Africa (UNISA)). 

Saleem, H. (2015). The impact of leadership styles on job satisfaction and mediating role of perceived organizational politics.  Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences ,  172 , 563-569