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Public Administrative Environments
Public Administrative Environments 10
Public Administrative Environments
Pad 515
Scenario 1
Looking at this issue, this is a case of either negligence or lack of support from the local government regarding resources and finance. I would therefore evaluate the specific complaints about each agency. I would sort the complaints and understand the specific areas about the agency that I should look at. I would go to each department before meeting the departments collectively and highlight the pertinent issues I find the matter should be looked at by the department level and then linked together since they depend on one another.
In each department, I would look at their work procedures and then ask them how they understand their responsibilities. After they list their roles, I would then ask them about the timelines of implementing their duties. I will then ask them about the challenges they face as a department concerning service delivery. Everything they suggest I will note down. I will then ask them how they rate their respective departments concerning service delivery. Next, I would ask the department how they collaborate with their residents they serve. I would then ask them whether they receive complaints and feedback from the public, responsible, and how they assess and solve the complaints.
This way, I will understand if the problem is with the departmental staff tasked with the duties or the county government that does not offer them the support they deserve in terms of resources and finances. Or is it a problem with the departmental heads? After evaluating the status from the concerned departments, I would then present the specific complaints and like them on whether they are ware about the complaints. If yes I would then ask them to show me the entries and the progress of the resolutions. This would then prompt me to ask them how the complainants are being kept in the know-how of the progress.
If nothing has been done yet about the complaints, I would ask the department how it plans to handle the complaints. This will allow them to speak up their minds and state what they plan to do to have a good working environment. Then based on their explanations, I would then ask them when d they think that they will be able to implement their suggestions. I will then ask the department members why they think it's important for them to handle the matters within their suggested timelines. I will ask them to ensure that their timelines are within two weeks so that new implementations can be put in place.
I will be asking them to state what they think is the problem because I want them to realize that they are the ones responsible for the peace and cohesion at work and with the general public that they serve. This gives them the responsibility to handle their duties with a lot of diligence (Bakaki and Mehrl, 2021). I will then ask them to accept and promise to work with the well-placed policies of their work. This way, they will have found a way to resolving their issues internally and responding to the general public on time on matters about work or service delivery.
Scenario 2
In this case, dealing with the school board and the departments may look like a hard task. Therefore a very formal approach to these groups is key. Therefore one of the steps I would start with is to talk to the respective departments before going to the school board. I would ask them about their departments' deliverables regarding policies that will bring compliance between the school and the related departments and the state departments. I would ask them how they find their relationship with the school board. Having an open forum with them, meeting each department director, and asking him or her about how he finds the relationship between the department and the school board, I will pinpoint specific underlying issues.
After talking to every departmental director, I will then compare all the reasons they will have put forth and see which ones are similar, thus having pertinent repercussions to how the leaders relate within the administration. I will then talk with the school board and listen to their side of the story about what they think could be the problem between them and the departmental directors. Here I will also make a comparison between their explanations and what was found to be the pertinent issues as given by the directors.
I will therefore understand exactly what ruins the collaboration between the administrators. I will have a collective meeting with the directors, asking them about what they think the school board should expect to form them regarding the collaboration required. I will also talk to the school board members and ask them what they expect from the directors. Finally, I would hold a collective meeting between the directors and the school board so that each side openly presents what they think is the problem and what they think should be the way forward.
After they have agreed, I will request each side to state when or what their timelines are in implementing their agreements. This way, I will have opened a way for the school board and the departmental directors to start collaborating. They will understand that they need to work together to endure that the school complies with the state department on the various projects that need to be undertaken. One of the things that could result in school conflicts may be communication differences (Gambari, 2021). It could be wise that such barriers are withdrawn by initiating communication and sorting out the possible differences.
Policies and practices to change
Looking at the two scenarios, there are a few practices that I would change to ensure that the entities do not go back to the same issues as there ones that are facing them right now. For the department of health services, I would make the leaders here realize that there are daily happenings in their areas of jurisdiction and that their mandate should be executed daily. This includes ensuring that every agency is accountable for its daily operations.
I will set up an independent desk that receives complaints from the citizens and other related organs and ensures that they reach the relevant departments for possible actions. This independent desk will be tasked to ensure that the complaints are assigned to specific relevant people in those departments and are resolved stepwise while marking the stages in which they are during the resolution process.
For the school scenario, there is no need to change policies but rather the practices. In the working procedures, each director should be assigned to a specific member of the school board; this way the school board members will be able to work with the departmental director and be able to discuss the requirements that are to be fulfilled towards compliance with the state departments in the ministry of education. It isn't easy when a head feels subjected to a whole board instead of an individual. All the school board members will then work together based on their reports from the individual departmental directors and forge the way forward regarding the state's needs and the education ministry.
Leadership theory applicable to the school board scenario
The school board issue is based on factors that arise from the individuality of the board members and the departmental directors. Therefore, if one problem is resolved, there is a high likelihood that another problem will come up completely different from the previous one, which may also lead to a lack of cooperation between the two bodies. Hence in every situation, a leader has to approach it as it is without based on the previous or another situation.
The best leadership theory, in this case, is the situational theory. In this theory, the proposition is that no leadership style superseded others (Phipps, Shelton & Hein, 2021). Therefore the leadership style depends on the situation that has been presented. Therefore, the leaders must assess the situation based on certain variables like maturity and the nature of the followers, and many more. That is why I have to look at the departmental directors individually before bringing them together. This is the same approach I would use for the school board members. That is why I feel that it would be good to have one board member attached to a departmental director instead of imposing all the departmental directors to the collective school board.
This leadership theory blends to two essential elements: the style of leadership and the followers' maturity. Hence based on the degree of maturity of the followers, then a particular leadership style is applied.
Leadership styles applicable to the school board scenario
The leadership style I would apply here is; democratic style and the coached style. In the democratic style, the democratic leaders will mostly ask the subjects what they think. Here the employees can share anything that they feel is affecting their jobs or their work responsibilities and seek their opinion on what they think should have been the way forward before they approve any decision. Therefore this style is participative; it engenders trust and promotes team spirit and cooperation from the employees. Whereas creativity is allowed, the employees can grow and develop. This lets what is to be done be accomplished, and the employees need it accomplished.
The second leadership style is the coaching style; here, the leader tends to "consider this" approach (Vogel & Werkmeister, 2020). This kind of leader sees people as a source of talent that needs to be developed. Here a leader looks to unlock the potential in people. Potentials like conflict resolution through mutual agreements. Such leaders let people and their followers approach them anytime and discuss anything that they feel needs to be addressed, thus removing the potential of having a conflict deeply developing in an organization without being resolved.
How departmental leadership impacts the leadership of the local government and deliverability.
As a top leader, you are mandated to deliver development projects and see that institutions are developing to greater heights under your reign. Therefore, you must have a team that has the delivery of your mandates at their heart. This way, they can help you as the city manager effectively work and deliver development projects on time, in an efficient manner, and with very little wastage of resources. If the health department is not working diligently, the public will not be satisfied and happy with the city manager.
Therefore, the health department should ensure that their agencies are always on the lookout for possible issues affecting the city residents. This way, the residents will not lose their property due to fire, the city residents will receive very good healthcare. The members of the department will be well behaved when serving the residents of the city. When the school board and the departments' directors can cooperate, the city manager will effectively put in place projects to be worked on in the schools. This way, the school setting can be improved or developed, so that very good structures are put in place to accommodate many learners.
Through good leadership that may be practiced in schools, the education department will be able to evaluate schools' performance and be in a position to evaluate what could be undermining the performance of the earners if any low performances need attention. However, if the people-centered on service delivery is not there, the city manager will not show any good leadership to the citizens, and he or she will be criticized a lot.
How to move the city ahead
There are a few things that can be done to bring back sanctity and diligence to move forward. Where departmental heads seem not to deliver in their duties, they need to be reshuffled, placed in different departments, and warned that the change is another chance to sanitize their leadership styles. The many leaders appointed in the respective departments have to sign a new commitment to work for the residents' benefit. The local government needs to recruit new leaders to take up positions and leadership of the state departments where service delivery has been brought down. New forces will develop some aggressiveness, which is likely to make the other relaxed leaders wake up and delve into their duties to serve the city residents.
The leaders are then required to report to the city manager on the progress in their respective departments. The leaders who do not comply with the directive risk being impeached, and a competitive leader is given the position. In every public office, there is the need to set up independent complaints desks that receive the workers' complaints. The public looks into their complaints, present them to the relevant authorities, and tracks down the resolution process.
References
Bakaki, Z. and Mehrl, M., (2021) Examining conflict management technique sequences in international claims. International Interactions, 47(1), pp.56-78.
Gambari I.A. (2021) Peace Management and Conflict Resolution: A Practitioner’s Perspective. In: McNamee T., Muyangwa M. (eds) The State of Peacebuilding in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46636-7_16
Phipps, K. A., Shelton, C. D., & Hein, S. D. (2021). Positive and proactive leadership: disentangling the relationships between stress, resilience, leadership style and leader satisfaction/well-being. International Journal of Organizational Analysis. Van Metre L. (2021). Civilian Government Agencies. In: Aall P., Snodderly D. (eds) Responding to Violent Conflicts and Humanitarian Crises. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59463-3_4 Vogel, R. and Werkmeister, L., (2020) What is Public about Public Leadership? Exploring Implicit Public Leadership Theories. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 31(1), pp.166-183.
