Managing People through Change in Public Administrative Environments

As the Chief of Staff, I would deal with scenarios 1 and 2 using a multifaceted approach. However, the main strategy that I will apply would be to increase the participation of citizens and other stakeholders in the affairs of the local government and at the same time form partnerships with the local community (Oliver, 2012). I would also enhance response to service user complaints including public service planning, employee motivation, managing change, and improving accountability. Issues of unethical practices, unprofessional leadership, and poor service delivery by administrators from the Department of Health and other concerned departments can be contained when local government engages citizens and all stakeholders in a consultative manner to find out the causes and effects of such conduct and also to devise appropriate strategies to improve on service delivery. I will restructure the local authority with the objective of improving service delivery by contracting service markets, institutions, and public values (Makayenza & Ikobe, 2013). The focus will be concentered on democratic processes and stakeholder preferences in a process of establishing values that can be used in service delivery. The enhancement of the public values system in service delivery will deal with problems associated with unethical and unprofessional practices by public administrators. It will also improve service delivery to both citizens and stakeholders. Furthermore, employees also need to be continuously motivated so as to be a customer-oriented and service-minded workforce to improve service delivery. The authority will, therefore, need to hire the right type of personnel who can be able to drive this agenda (Oliver, 2012). Additionally, the authority should provide an effective support system as well as develop means of retaining the best personnel. In applying these strategies I would be able to effectively address problems experienced in the government departments which include poor response time, poor service delivery, unprofessional and unethical practices, and the inability to effect necessary changes and resolve conflict among staff. This is because the government will only hire employees who are able to perform duties assigned to them (Oliver, 2012). Also, the workforce will be highly motivated to deliver services to citizens and this will address issues associated with poor response time in service delivery. The inculcation of public values and service markets will increase professionalism and ethical practice among public officials. On the other hand, the school board will not have any problem working with the appropriate government departments because of the partnering initiatives that the government will implement in its effort to improve services. This coupled with encouraging citizen participation in government affairs will also help the school board to meet its mandates with regards to new policy issues due to the improved and enhanced collaboration that will be achieved as a result of partnering. There are several human resource management policies and practices which I would change to institute reforms in the local authority. Some of these practices will include the recruitment and selection process of public officials. The main reason being that it is in this area that public administrators misuse their power (Makayenza & Ikobe, 2013). During selection and recruitment local bosses can use corrupt means that drastically affects the capacity of public officials. I will also institute fiscal reforms based on a decentralized system of governance. These changes will set out clear objectives and performance indicators where financial and personnel management will be devolved. This will create a situation of enhanced responsiveness to citizens in delivery of public services with special emphasis on transparency and accountability (Achime & Okafor, 2004). The government will also be reduced to perform even more effectively. By changing such human resource management policies and practices, government services will be debureaucratized and, therefore, enhance democratic participation. A leadership theory that would be appropriate for the school board that would address its pertinent issues is the situational theory. This theory is applicable to the school board situation because leadership in addressing the prevailing situation will require a leader who is able to evaluate and analyze the different variables as they present themselves. In this case, it is to be noted that there exists problems associated with accountability, reluctance to perform tasks, or lack ability. In the school board department directors are reluctant to perform their tasks and impact negatively on the performance of the board. They lack the motivation and ability to support the academic leadership of secondary school principals top perform their tasks efficiently. By the application of the situation theory, a leader will employ a particular leadership style which will be based on the levels of maturity of the followers or team. He will be able to influence them to positive action by aligning his leadership style with the situation at hand. A leader can employ several leadership styles to address the problems facing the school board. Firstly, he can employ a transformational leadership style which mainly focuses on influencing an individual’s intellectual motivation, influence, and spiritual encouragement. He does this by creating an aim or vision inside an individual by creating an open culture of trust to help a worker to attain their goal. Such a leader helps an employee to develop and grow his value system, moralities, and inspirational levels. The school board needs such a leadership style to increase a conscious awareness to staff on the importance of performing their tasks and meeting their goals. It will help employees to improve their maturity levels to do what they are required to do. It will also help to eliminate unprofessional and unethical practices in the board and improve performance at an individual level. Secondly, the school board can make do with a transactional leadership style. This form of leadership style concerns itself with the element of trading between the leader and his followers. In this style, followers are rewarded for meeting specific targets or goals. The leader clearly set out the relationship between performance and compensation which encourages the follower to improve his performance. The rewards are used to motivate employees to improve their performance and can include corrective measures, contingent rewards, or rule enforcement. This leadership style can be appropriate at the school board because it will encourage and motivate public officials to perform their duties and responsibilities. By setting targets and rewarding employees for performing their duties, the leader will be able to influence the actions of public officials in a positive manner. They will be able to effectively collaborate with other stakeholders to meet their goals and claim their reward. The leadership of all the local departments concerned highly impact on the leadership of the City Manager and his ability to carry out government operations. First and foremost, the City Manager has the mandate of running the day-to-day affairs of the municipality including several services such as public safety (fire and policing), land use, engineering, community services, and internal services, among others. The main responsibility is the administration of public policy and ensure that the municipality is devoid from poverty, corruption, and extremes in wealth. Their effectiveness has a direct relationship with his ability to be an effective leader within his area of jurisdiction. A City Manager’s ability to shape and influence the council’s public policy agenda, manage community relations, and orientate the council to address the needs of the community makes him to be an effective leader (Oliver, 2012). However, to perform all these functions, the City Manager must require the support and cooperation of the administrative staff in providing the highest level of public services to the local community. The City Manager should be able to ensure that quality service is provided to the community. The City Manager can only do so by employing the services of an executive team that is composed of high-quality administrators. The decisions of the city manager are implemented by his executive team which runs the council in form of different departments. In this respect, the leadership of the Department of Public Health, the School Board, and the various other government departments will have an impact on the leadership of the City Manager and his or her ability to carry out government operations. First and foremost, the actions of these leaders will reflect on the performance of the City Manager because they are mandated to run the affairs of the council. The failure of the administrators to collaborate with the school board will be perceived as failure from their side because they are perceived as a leader responsible for ensuring that the operations of the municipality run efficiently. The City Manager is to be regarded as the team leader with the ability to address challenges facing the municipality. The City Manger has the power to choose an effective team that will carry out their mandate as the City Manager. The failure by the administrators to perform their duties will reflect negatively on their performance as a team leader. Moreover, the leadership of the various departments in the municipality are given powers by the City manager to effectively perform their duties. Failure to perform their duties can only be punished by the City Manager. Therefore, if no such punishment is meted by the City Manager as a result of non-performance, the blame squarely lies with them. When citizens in this jurisdiction are poorly served and corruption is rife from public officials, the appointing authority, which lies in the office of the City Manager, is the one to take the blame. Following these reasons, the City Manager’s main responsibilities is to administer public policy and ensure that their jurisdiction serves the citizenry in alleviating poverty, stamps out corruption and unprofessionalism, and enables the equitable distribution of wealth by dealing with extremes in wealth. The leadership of the local government departments are, therefore, under the total control of the City Manager. Their inefficiency has a negative impact on the leadership of the City manager since they are responsible for the development of the organization’s policies aimed at improving its operations (Achime & Okafor, 2004). A breakdown in the operations all at some of his departments means that there is a lack of appropriate policies to create efficiency. Policies also help in how the City Manager’s operations are designed including human resource management. Policies that do not control the behavior and performance of the council’s personnel are ineffective and need to be reformed. All these policies are attributed to the office of the City Manager who is mandated with the task of instituting public policy and ensuring that they are implemented (Achime & Okafor, 2004). Therefore, the wayward behavior of executive administrators in various departments demonstrates failed policies that need to be reformed. The consequences resulting from the behavior of his top administrators will, therefore, reflect on their leadership style. Moving forward there are several things that need to be corrected to offer effective leadership at the local government. Firstly, there is a need to improve the effectiveness of the local government staff (Makayenza & Ikobe, 2013). This can be done by promoting the performance and development of staff throughout the organization by initiating practices such as coaching and mentoring, team leadership, policy facilitation, facilitative leadership, and facilitating council effectiveness. The council’s staff need to be coached and mentored to give them direction, support, and feedback to help them meet their full potential. This will help improve inefficiency at the council and improve service delivery. It is also important to facilitate teamwork to avoid issues associated with failures in conflict resolution among staff. This will help all staff members to have adequate knowledge on matters concerning team relations, coordination of group efforts, and possession of skills in leadership techniques (Achime & Okafor, 2004). This will further create a work environment that will encourage decision-making and responsibility at all levels. Policy facilitation is also another initiative that can be pursued to improve effectiveness at the local government level. This will involve efforts to help community actors and elected officials identify and work towards the achievement of the council’s goals and objectives (Ishii, Rohitarachoon & Hossain (n.d). This will also enhance understanding of the root causes and consequences of the problems bedeviling the council. It is also important to facilitate leadership in the local government. Failures in leadership result in unprofessional and unethical practices which paint a bad picture of the effectiveness and integrity of the organization (Achime & Okafor, 2004). By facilitating leadership, cooperation and consensus within diverse groups will be built which will consequently help them to identify and work towards common goals. For example, the directors of the will be able to effectively collaborate with school administrators to ensure the goals and objectives of the government with respect to education are met. All these initiatives will help the municipality to deal with the rampart issues of corruption, lack of service delivery friction among staff, unprofessionalism, and lack of cooperation. They will motivate staff to perform their duties in a professional manner and improve performance in service delivery. This will go a long way in improving the image of the council and help create an effective and efficient system that will serve the local community. 

References 

Achime, N., & Okafor, F. (2004). Human Resources Management at the Local 

Government Level in Nigeria.  Africa: Rivista Trimestrale Di Studi E Documentazione Dell’Istituto Italiano per L’Africa E L’Oriente,   59 (2), 259-265. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/40761742 

Ishii, R., Rohitarachoon, P. & Hossain, F.(n.d). HRM Reform in Decentralized Local Government: Empirical Perspectives on Recruitment and Selection in the Philippines and Thailand. 

Makayenza, C & Ikobe, B. (2013). Strategies to improve service delivery in local 

authorities. International Journal of Information Technology and 

Business Management. 

Oliver, M. (2012). How to be an Effective Manager: Narrative Insight from Leaders within 

the Profession. Bitstream.