There are millions of families in the world that are unable to meet the minimal requirements of living and survival. The government has therefore gone ahead to formulate programs that are geared towards uplifting the lives of the people living in poverty. Many initiatives have been put forward by the government such as the subsidy programs that give families living in poverty an opportunity to rebuild themselves. Some families have also viewed such an initiative as a way of survival without necessarily working. Leaders in the social services have an uphill and challenging task of ensuring that the millions of people living below the poverty level are provided with a standard life. Therefore, managers and supervisors working in the social services must identify themselves with a power base to be successful in their challenging job.
The first type of power base that can be used by managers and supervisors in the social services is the referent power. It involves an influential type of power where the leaders, in this case, the managers, lead by example and the subjects, who are the employees are supposed to learn what is expected of them. Such a method of leadership ensures that both managers and the employees remain active. Referent power comes with a huge responsibility as the leader must act by the ethical guidelines and the core values of the company or organization as asserted by Pierro et al . (2013). Such values include honesty, integrity, and transparency among other values. In the social service, such values are important because the manager has a great responsibility of ensuring that all low-income families are served with dignity and equality. Also, because the managers oversee huge amounts of resources, they have to act with integrity to avoid an adverse influence on the junior staff. Secondly, to enhance referent power, another important power base normally used by the managers in the social service is the expert power. Leaders in this field need to possess knowledge and skills important to understand different situations and hence develop solid solutions and judgments. Expert power is drawn from confidence, rational thinking, and decisiveness. Social service managers usually come up with proper policies that are self-sustaining ensuring the citizens can fend for themselves in the many more years to come.
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Leaders in the social service must also exert their authority using certain influence tactics. The first tactic employed by the managers includes consultation. Nahavandi (2016) asserted that it involves a participatory approach in decision making where all stakeholders are included. Before a manager formulates and implements a policy, they normally engage key departments that will make the process feasible. Social work managers normally arrange meetings with various applicants to explain their decision of either granting or denying them subsidies. The managers must consult widely with the applicants ensuring that they understand the rationale behind their reasons. The second approach with regards to influence used by the managers is rational persuasion and personal appeals. Rational appeals involve making logical arguments through the presentation of factual evidence to influence others to abide by the requirements. This method is mainly used in cases where illegible members insist that they must be considered in the relief plan. Personal appeals are used by the managers in ensuring that the employees and the clients comply with the requirements of the plan. However, in some cases, the managers find themselves in ethical dilemmas for example where applicants fail to qualify for the plan based on their income-expense ratio yet they could necessarily be needing help due to their condition.
The social worker managers and supervisors normally oversee many staff members and clients who require their services. Therefore, the leaders must develop various leadership styles to help them in advocating for their agenda and also in relating with the staff and clients. One major leadership style commonly used in the social service is the democratic leadership style. It is a form of leadership that seeks consensus through constructive participation as pointed out by Romager et al . (2013). The leadership style allows the employees to be part of the policy making and decision making. It also benefits the manager as they can get vital information that can be used in steering the organization. The second leadership style that is used by managers in the social service is affiliation. Such qualities ensure that a leader builds emotional bonds that create a feeling of belonging to both employees and the clients. The clients in the social service are mostly people with distress due to their poverty levels. Therefore, affiliative leadership will give them a sense of belonging making them proud to get assistance from such a program. The staff members will also be motivated, and therefore they will work harder to ensure that they match up to the standards required in the organization. The third important leadership style used by managers is the coaching style. This method ensures that the social work leaders prepare the junior staff for the future. Most leaders are in terms with the fact that they may not stay in such organizations for ever and therefore to ensure smooth transition whenever there is a vacancy or lacuna, the managers coach their staff on how to manage and implement policies that can make the field of social work a success. The managers also apply the coaching style once the employees depict reluctance in changing to new organizational demands. Coaching is also applied when workers exhibit defiance in learning or whenever a new worker joins the organization and hence needs training.
Several outcomes come with the application of the various facets of leadership discussed above. Managers in social work in have been implicated in some misappropriations that have tarnished the name of the organization in the past. Several unethical tendencies have also been witnessed hence making the general public to lose faith in the organizations. However, with the application of these leadership qualities, immense faith has been restored to the organization. Several managers and supervisors were initially convicted of misappropriating money for their selfish gains or providing monetary assistance to people who do not qualify for the programs. Conflicts of interests have also been witnessed from the top brass of the plan where applicants related to the leadership make applications.
The outcomes of leadership philosophies applied by the leaders have helped in mitigating various vices that have since been witnessed in the social work department. Consultations have enabled the managers to reach consensus on policy formulation and implementation hence ensuring a level of satisfaction is achieved in the organization. Referent power, where leaders lead by example, has changed the organization for the better as the employees tend to attract important values from the top leadership, hence preventing them from engaging in unethical tendencies such as conflict of interests and favoritism that may jeopardize the integrity of the entire social work organization. Finally, because the management has been given the autonomy to exert power, they can take disciplinary action to any staff member who jeopardized the integrity of the organization. It has also enabled the management to authoritatively advocate for the adherence to the ethical guidelines, principles, and values that are required in providing service to the less fortunate in the society. Therefore, the general outcome has been positive and admirable.
References
Nahavandi, A. (2016). The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition . Pearson.
Pierro, A., Raven, B. H., Amato, C., & Bélanger, J. J. (2013). Bases of social power, leadership styles, and organizational commitment. International Journal of Psychology , 48 (6), 1122-1134.
Romager, J., Hughes, K., Trimble, J., Verburg, M., Camp, J., & Jones, M. (2017). Influences of Authentic Leadership Styles and Challenges to Enduring Pervasive Leadership Models. Routledge.
