leadershipassignment4

Public Leadership

Tina Rice

Professor Timothy Smith

Pad515

July 26, 2014

Public Leadership

Defining the public leader

A public leader is a person who holds a public office and serves and guides the community as a whole and should be able to inspire and mobilize others to undertake collective action in pursuit of the common good while at the same time using his/her leadership skills to address pressing social, political and economic problems. He or she has to take up the social,administrative and political functions of a public office.As a public leader is concerned with the welfare of the community as a whole he or she expected to set the vision and maintain it while at the same time making sure that the different groups understand the vision and its ideologies and are well organized and planned for, with the right leaders empowered and involved in problem solving as well as decision making while all the time balancing and managing public opinion (Hart & Uhr, 2008). Public leaders are expected to be committed to and understand the values and importance of the principles of public service with public codes of conducts and ethics as their guides. An example of a public leadership role could be the Chief of Staff at the local government.

Leadership Theories

In chapter three; models and theories of leadership of Bernard and Ruth’s book, a number of leadership theories and models are discussed but those that would best personify a public leader are (Bernard & Bass, 2011).

Participative Theories: Participative leadership theories imply that the best leadership style is one that takes the input of others into account allowing the members to feel like they helped to reach a goal or that it was their idea to start with.

Situational Theories: Situational theories came up after the realization that there was no one supreme leader and rather different leaders are best suited for different situations. These theories hold that the effectiveness of a leader is related to his or her behavior based on different situations. It is therefore clear that according to situational theories, a leader has to modify his or her leadership behavior to match with that of the subordinates. In addition, as revealed in situational theories, the leader is supposed to change with the situation at hand. This is because a public leader should be dynamic in different situations while addressing the social, administrative and political functions of his office while at the same time allow for participation of the team working with him. As it involves dealing with many people, public leadership should then not be bureaucratic or lazier faire as this could lead to collapse of the systems and eventual anarchy (Julio, 2014). Based on research, situational theories have four leadership behaviors in regard to the supportive team. These include telling, where the leader shows high behavior of directing and low level of supporting. The second is selling, which shows both high directive and supportive behaviors. The other behaviors are participating and delegating (Bernard & Bass, 2011).

Leadership Styles

There are four major leadership styles but those that would best suit a public officer are.

Bureaucratic leadership: very slow in getting results and is characterized by the strict adherence to organizational rules and policies. It ensures quality, increases security and reduces corruption but discourages creativity and hence robs employees the feeling of having made positive contribution.

Democratic/Participative leadership style: The leader invites and encourages input from all members but reserves the right of making the final decision. This leads to a very involved and satisfied team (Julio, 2014).

This is because when dealing with the public especially with large amounts of funds for example a grant to a local government office, all measures need to be taken to prevent corruption and the bureaucratic style of leadership has best checks in place to prevent this while the participative leadership style allows for the needs of all participants to be presented (Hart & Uhr, 2008).

The Bureaucratic leader’s effectiveness is high on reduction of corruption and blocking of any loopholes that could be used to mismanage public funds or distort the official process and procedures to be followed in a public office by the officer during the carrying out of his duties and therefore the public can be assured of transparency from the already laid down procedural codes and also no discrepancies will arise as there is already well laid down footprint of what to do and when and how (Bernard & Bass, 2011). This leadership style is however very slow in getting results because of all the procedures and steps involved and where quick decisions are needed and quick results this leadership style would be ill-fitted to achieve them. It however pays in the long run as the results are unquestionable where procedure was followed. For example as the chief of staff and I needed to get reading material over and above what is already provided for and I followed the right procedure, wherein there must be a rule on how to go about the same, it would not bring up questions of mismanagement as I would have gotten the authorization from the system created for such situations and thus I as the leader would be protected (Hart & Uhr, 2008).

The democratic or Participative leadership style just as the bureaucratic leadership style not only covers the leader but is very effective in that for starters it is faster and is owned by everyone and no one can claim later that they were not consulted (Julio, 2014). Its effectiveness is seen also in the commitment of the members of the team as they have a sense of ownership of the decisions reached and even if changes occur they bear them easily because they feel they played a part, this may leave some disgruntled members but where the decisions were reached democratically the few who lose out will at least have been part of the process and their dissent can be quelled by the majority voice (Bernard & Bass, 2011). This leadership style also allows for the best solution to be employed from the many suggestions. For example in a case where as the chief of staff I would want to implement a project to benefit those who would be attending leadership classes, it would be prudent to hear them out on how they would want it done eventually choosing the best fit that does not alienate the students and at the same time remains procedural. The effectiveness of this leadership style can be seen in that the whole process could be carried out in one sitting for example a discussion among us and the decision implemented right away.

References

Bernard, M. & Bass, R. (2011). The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and

Managerial Applications, chapter 3, pages 47-64.

Hart, P. ., & Uhr, J. (2008). Public leadership pespectives and practices. Acton, A.C.T: ANU E

Press.

Julio, W. (2014). Types of Leadership styles

Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/474807/Types_of_Leadership_styles