QUESTION
“Top down change can only have limited success in a social institution.” Discuss it in the context of the social sector in which you work (charitable organization, NGOs, voluntary welfare organization, etc.).
This assessment is worth 40% of the total marks and the word limit is 2000 (Due on 3 October 2011)
If you are not working in a social sector, then focus on “Top down change can only have limited success in the sector where your workplace is situated”. It can be an educational sector; public sector; not-for-profit sector; for-profit sector, etc
Suggestion on how to approach this assignment:
Look for a top down change initiative and describe this change initiative using words such as incremental (1st order) or transformation (2nd order); internal trigger or external trigger; etc (slide 33 and 34 from topic 1)
When you discuss why this top down change can only have limited success (or maybe a failure or maybe a success), define what do you mean by the term “limited success”; or “failure” or “successful”.
Who are the stakeholders involved and their perspective of this top down change initiative?
Examples of areas ( if they are applicable to your work situation) which you may want to analyse with regard to this top down change initiative which is of limited success or a failure or a success:
Leadership style
Organisation culture
Resistance to change
Typology of change (the different colours)
Change environment
Change strategy
Knowledge management
Moral purpose
As there is a word limit of 2000 words, please go for the depth rather than the breadth for this assignment topic. Do not cover too much. Better to select one or two areas for in-depth analysis.
SOLUTION
Leadership is the major factor which affects the success of any social institution so the importance and the vitality of a good Non Government Organization (NGO) leader to bring social changes in the society are all the more important. In this case we are going to analyse what are the major concerns which any NGO’s leader faces at the organizational as well as personal level. In many cases a top down change in the hierarchy of any social institution can only beget limited success which is not a positive sign for any voluntary welfare organization as they have very limited resources, political and internal pressures, and on top of that they have to cater or handle various sectors of society. In such cases we need to create talented and well groomed leaders which can face all kinds of social changes effectively to make any social welfare organization a profitable entity (Smillie & Hailey, 2001).
Leadership and its Style’s
There are different perceptions about the leadership from various perspectives but in a current review of leadership theory it has been found that there are four governing points which define leadership clearly as said by (Northouse 2004):
- “Leadership is a process”
- “Leadership involves influence”
- “Leadership occurs in group context”
- “Leadership involves group attainment of goals” (Hailey, 2006, p 2)
Basically you will find four types of NGO leaderships which are Paternalistic, Activist, Managerialist and Catalytic (Hailey, 2006). A Paternalistic leadership is more or less autocratic style of leadership and here the leader follows or gets influenced by the paternal or maternal trend of leadership. Although such leaders are very strong and trustworthy and they develop a very intimate and familiar relationship with their volunteers and the staff members, but they still get regarded as autocrats and the outsiders feel that they do not want to nudge from their patriarchal or matriarchal values and style of leading the welfare organization. Their style of leadership is treated as a bit adamant or dictator style. That is why it is treated as a hindrance in the growth or being successful of the NGO (Hailey, 2006).
The staff members and the outsiders carry the impression that they follow the Top-down organisational approach and rely on their conventional kinships and views which can prove harmful and disadvantageous for the social organization in the long run (Hailey, J. 2006, p1-2).
Different aspects of top down leadership or Paternalistic leadership along with the dynamics involved in leadership it has been found, that Leadership is a very intricate phenomenon which has multifarious aspects attached to it. In case of NGO’s it becomes all the more important to expand and comprehend the leadership dynamics because it is the leader who can bring significant changes in the society by assembling proper resources and encourage people to accept any kind of changes. These factors can only help in bringing a triumphant social welfare organization which can bring significant change in the society and make it a profitable organization too.
In the top down leadership the leader has a distinct style of giving orders and imposing the rules amongst the staff or the volunteers rather than convincing them to work or being committing to the work. However in some cases convincing and committing is not required to get the work done. In autocratic style of leadership this style of leading a change process needs an attitude which should be stiff and unchangeable and which is lacking in such leaders and this slows down the change process of the welfare organization. It has been found that during internal transformation or in case of any radical decision making time 5this leadership style acts disadvantageous for the organization.
Factor for Successful NGO: Transformational Leadership
The main feature of the Transformational leader is to provide direction to the social change and make the people understand the importance of change in a friendlier and understanding manner. Leadership plays a very vital role in bringing any procedural change in the social organization and it inculcates various steps where the leader needs to develop different roles at every stage of change for successful running of the NGO. The leader has to lead the change from front, because without his leadership the change cannot be implemented successfully in the organisation.
Vital factor for success: Leadership and proper acceptance of social changes
Without appropriate and active leader the social organization is ordained to experience failure as leadership forms a strategic and crucial factor required by any sector to be successful.
It is the duty of the leader to lead and conduct any social change by helping people in the process of transformation of the cultural changes in the social organization. In various stages of change the functions and goals of leader are different (Chapman, A., 2000). It is the responsibility of the leader and the staff members to inform the whole organization about the various social and cultural changes, be committed and act to gain permanent results. The involvement of the leader in the social changes is restricted to the Implementation stage only, where he has to create and carry out the implementation of those plans in the social organization. Then after that in the other stages of non profit organization, with the changing conditions the leader has to just supervise and regulate the whole organization as per those changes. The success of one-off changes can be ensured by good and efficient managers but a transformational leader gets affirmative results most of the times and that too in case of prominent changes in the social organization. Thus they are definitely better leaders as they are trustworthy and reliable too as compared to autocratic leaders. Transformational leaders try and develop a level of faith with their team members which helps in facilitating any change in the organization and that is why they are much more successful (Carreras,I., Iglesias,M. & Sureda,M., 2010).
Charismatic leaders are successful in implementing changes in newly formed organizations or the social organizations which are smaller in size and sometimes they are unable to accumulate all their team members and thus fall flat in putting the social change into operation and these results in complete fiasco in the organization. Rather here it is clearly highlighted that it is vital to generate alliance as it can have disapproving results on the leadership of the person. This happens usually in case of top down change implementation as the team members in the earlier stages accept the personalized form of leadership but as the time goes by they start showing resistance to this autocratic style of implementing changes and thus bringing the downfall of the organization (Hailey, 2006).
Leadership role and bringing the change in the Social Organization
The most important assignment which a leader has to do in preparation stage of any social institution is to direct the change in right track and it is the liability of the leader in this stage to create the required awareness about the change amongst the people. The people should understand the requirement of change and then only the leader will be able to gather their loyalty and assurance that they will stand-by him while bringing the change forward in the social organization. If the leader himself is not apparent, reliable and honest how can he bring any kind of change in the social organization? It is only a dependable and genuine leader who can persuade people in the organization to be a part of change and divert them towards the right direction for achieving desired goals. People get committed and attentive only with the help of key factor called trust. Thus a trustworthy leader with legitimate along with authority to take decisions can successfully bring change in the social organization. But always keep in mind that the skill set required to administer any social organization are totally different from the skills required to fetch changes in the organization (James et al., 2005). This clearly indicates and has been noticed practically also that the people begetting the changes are devoid of the required skill sets or leadership skills to bring the change. This implies That other leadership styles except for autocratic leadership can be used for successful social organization with top down changes.
Points of Difference between Manager and Leader
The main dissimilarity between manager and leader is quite obvious from all these facts highlighted in the preparation stage. On one hand the leaders are well aware of the fact that just planning a change is not a key to successful implementation of change in the organization the key factors which help in successfully implementing the changes are commitment, responsiveness and influencing power of the leader in the NGO (Stogdill, 1974).
A decent leader will spend quality time in producing the changes while a good manger will just fail to notice this step while implementing the social changes in the NGO. At such crucial stage a smart leader will make his staff members and people around make believe and convince them that accepting the change is the only way to sail through any situation successfully. By following the track of change immediately the social organization can achieve desired accomplishment thus motivating them to bring on the changes which is usually ignored by any autocratic leader or a manager.
Leadership becomes all the more crucial part in the implementation stage of the social changes as the leader has to manage and control the change at this stage after putting it on the right track, which the top down approach cannot do. The autocratic leaders never devote time to analyse the barriers which are stopping the change to get implemented in the social organization , but good leader will not only generate positive environment in the organization to bring on the change but analyse the obstacles which are acting as blockage in implementing the social change . He will try to overcome all those blockages through corrective measures and expertise.
Humanist Style of Leadership
In this style of leadership which is mostly followed in African culture the human aspect is kept in mind while heading any organization. The humanist style the leader has to adapt to the rural village settings where they have to work with their extended families, urban aspect where they live and have to work also and they have to encounter the world of global aid for proper financial machinery to work (Kaplan, 2002). Thus the NGO leaders who adopt to fresh and changing leadership roles are successful in facing the stress created due to undue work pressure and the demands generated due to crisis in the organization. There are situations like internal crisis, financial aids getting delayed, resulting in monetary shortfalls or tension between the staff members which the leader has to tackle while governing any NGO. In such cases they have to be responsive, develop their knowledge base and have to be driven by internal as well as external values to become and emerge successful in achieving their goals. Such leaders accept and pursue distinguishing and typical style of leadership which certainly leads to the growth and expansion of social organizations. This is what the leaders with autocratic style need to learn and accept.
Features of Development Leaders or Humanist Leaders:
- Distinct sets of values which they follow firmly with clear idea; this makes their idea and the commitment to be of some help to the poor stronger and this inspired their fellow staff members also to accept this clear vision of their leader (Smillie & Hailey, 2001).
- Enthusiasm to be trained and research: This helps the leaders to try out latest and new technologies to develop the novel forms of organization. This way they can use science and technology to make the social organization a success with their help in most of the field.
- Scanning the external factors with great curiosity and skill: this character will help in keeping close eye on the changes happening in the NGO and to analyse the latest trends in the society and novel ways to react to the social changes.
- Strong skill sets of both communication and interpersonal: This will help in motivating the staff to accept and implement all the changes through all the sections of society in a pessimistic and proactive way.
- Skills to strike equilibrium within the competing requirements: This helps in handling various pressures created on them by the stakeholders at various points and mange them skilfully.
Thus by bringing such personal changes or becoming a transformational leader, they can bring significant and prominent changes in the social organization and lead a successful path towards the development of the society.
References
Carreras,I., Iglesias,M., & Sureda,M.(2010),Successfully transforming NGO’s Leading Change, ESADE- PWC social Leadership Programme, Barcelona, 1-134, retrieved 29 September ,2011 from www.innovacionsocial,esade.edu.
Chapman, A. (1995-2000), Leadership Development Methods and Tips, Businessballs.com, retrieved 29 September, 2011 from http://www.businessballs.com/leadership.htm.
Edwards, M. & Fowler, A. (2002), Reader on NGO Management, Earthscan, London.
Fowler, A. (1997), Striking a Balance: A Guide to Enhancing the Effectiveness of
NGOs in International Development, Earthscan, London.
Hailey, J (2006), NGO Leadership Development: Review of the literature, Praxis Paper 10, INTRAC, 1-44, retrieved 29 September, 2011 from www.intrac.org/pages/praxis_papers.
James, R. , Oladipo, J., Isooba, M., Mboizi, B. & Kusima, I. (2005), Realities of
Change: How African NGO Leaders Develop, Praxis Paper No.6, Oxford: INTRAC
www.intrac.org/pages/praxis_papers.
Kaplan, A. (2002), Development Practitioners and Social Process: Artists of the
Invisible, Pluto Press, London.
Northouse, P. (2004), Leadership theory and Practice, 3rd edition, London: Sage.
Stogdill, R. (1974), Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of Theory and Research, New
York: Jossey Bass.
Smillie, I. & Hailey, J. (2001), Managing for Change: Leadership, Strategy and
Management in Asian NGOs, Earthscan, London.
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