Scope of Essay

Discuss about the Leadership in Child Care Sector for Growing Place.

Growing place is an organization that provides childcare to the small kids. The founder of the organization is Evan Brever. Currently he is the Chairman of the organization. The company is operational from past seven years. The Chairman of the organization is looking for sponsors for their new program. The boards of directors of Growing places have decided that they will be providing scholarships to those children that belong to unprivileged families. They will be providing scholarships for some of the day care facilities. Thriyand is one such firm that the organization has approached for sponsorship of its new program. The head of PR of Thriyand Delores Dayton is being invited for a meeting as well (Trahms, Ndofor  & Sirmon, 2013).

The CEO of the organization is Rob Miranda who is well known for his rude behavior, he is quite outspoken and does not think twice before speaking. His rude behavior has caused lot of discomfort for the staffs as well as the board of directors. The problem here is that the board of directors are threatened that the sponsors might not like his rude behavior and they might not want to invest in Growing places. His behavior towards Delores was also rude, the board of directors are worried that his rude behavior might ruin staff morale, clients might not choose their services and their share prices will also fall. Under the leadership of Rob, the organization has grown at a fast rate, despite the fact that child care industry is not much of a profitable industry (Trahms, Ndofor  & Sirmon, 2013).

The Board of directors of Growing places are worried about the rude behavior of the CEO Rob Miranda. He impolite behavior and blunt nature according to them is affecting the organization. Analyzing the leadership theories, comparing and suggesting Evan Brevers for helping Rob correct his behavior serves as the scope of the essay.

Objectives                                                                                

• To study the leadership theories
• To compare the characteristics of Emotional Intelligent leaders with Rob
• To provide solution for correction of the behavior of Rob
• To Provide solution to the dilemma of Evan Brevers, whether Rob should be fired or not
• To provide solution so that Rob’s behavior can be changed.

1. Types of leadership style

Autocratic leadership- This kind of leadership is focused on the boss of the organization, the leader takes all the decisions and the employees are not involved in the process of decision-making neither their consultation is taken. In this type of leadership style, the decisions are communicated to the subordinates once it is being taken. This kind of leadership is generally practiced in very rare situations where the involvement of staffs in the decision-making is not necessary. 

Objectives

Democratic leadership- The next type of leadership style is democratic leadership style, this type of leadership is employee oriented as they are considered in the decision making process of the organization. The ultimate responsibility lies with the democratic leader but the authority can be delegated among the other staff members. One of the positive features about the democratic leadership style is that the communication is both upward and downward. It is one of the most preferred leadership styles (Arnold et al., 2015). 

Transformational leadership- The motive behind this type of leadership is to bring change in the organization, in teams or departments. This type of leadership has comparatively more followers and the reason behind this is that this type of leadership empowers the followers.

Transactional leadership- In this leadership style, exchange process is involved in which the leaders give their followers immediate rewards for fulfilling their orders or expectations. The important elements of this leadership are performance, expectations, feedback and rewards.

Turnaround leadership- Turn around leadership is defined as a leadership in which the leaders turn an adverse situation in to a favorable situation. Leaders with their skill and wisdom strategically take the crisis situations as a challenge and change it into favorable opportunity (Herrmann & Felfe, 2014).

Situational leadership- This leadership changes with the situations, the leaders apply the style which best suits any particular situation, it could be Autocratic or Lassez faire depending upon the situation (Herrmann & Felfe, 2014).

Coaching leadership-This style of leadership involves teaching and supervision of followers. It is required when the staffs need some assistance for the work from their  leaders.

Lassez-faire- This type of leadership is when the authority is given to the employees. Employees take their own decisions and are not required to consult with their superiors, all power is give to them, and there is decentralization of authority (Coley, Lombardi & Sims, 2015). 

The leadership style followed by Rob is autocratic leadership; he does not consult his subordinates in the process of decision-making. He is very outspoken and does not care about the impact his speech on the listeners. Rob is also a turnaround leader because because of his leadership, the organization has seen rapid growth. This style of leadership used by Rob is not appropriate for Childcare industry, he should used democratic type of leadership or transformational and transactional leadership so that his subordinates can be motivated (Trahms,  Ndofor & Sirmon, 2013).

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability of individuals tom understand the emotions of other people, be emphatic rather being sympathetic. It helps the employees to understand the problems of the employees and help in finding the appropriate solutions to their grievances. It is not always necessary that the problems of the employees require any immediate solutions, sometimes mere listening to the employees is sufficient, because they are satisfied that they are being heard. In conflicts of employees or conflicts with the management, it is very important for the leaders to be emotionally intelligent and restrain from furnishing any biased decisions. In such cases, the leaders are required to listen to both the parties. A manager or a leader whose emotional intelligence quotient is very high will only be capable for handling this situation.   Managers should follow diplomacy it helps to a great extent to  give fair judgments, their personal views or opinions might be different at times and might even be against the interest of any particular employee. Listening to other people patiently is one of the key attributes of a good leader whose is emotionally intelligent (Padilla, 2013).

Short temper and being outspoken are not the attributes of a good leader, they need to have balance in their emotions as well so that they misbehave and lose temper and misbehave with the employees. It can be said that an emotionally intelligent manager is one who knows to control his own emotions, shows the right kind of emotions and respects the emotions of his or her staff members. Rob can develop his emotional intelligence by inculcating a habit to listen to other people as well; he should listen more and talk less while he talks to his employees, he should try to understand the problems of the employees. He can take some classes of personality development and develop his managerial skills. Learning to manage stress will help in becoming emotional intelligence (McCleskey, 2014). 

Child care sector is one such industry where it is very important that the professionals show care towards their clients, health sector have values that are different from other industries, professionals here needs to pay attention to the needs and requirements of their clients, their health and concern are given priority rather than profit. Profit making should not compromise the concerns and problems of the clients (Corr & Carey, 2017).

The culture, values and rules of an organization determines the leadership style that is to be followed by the management. The leaders in the initial stage of the business shape the culture of the organization, later as the business grows the culture of the organization shapes the features of the leadership style that should be followed. It can be said that leadership and organizational culture has a bilateral relationship (Saeed et al., 2014). 

Values of Childcare Industry

Rob’s rude behavior is in conflict with the values of the industry, he is rude and outspoken (Corr & Carey, 2017). The leaders of Childcare sector are required train their staffs to be polite, caring and humble. They should set an example for their staffs by being kind and humble. If the leaders themselves are not following the values of the organization and the industry, it is obvious of that the employees will do the same. Rob is holding a very important position in the organization, his behaviors are in conflict with the values of the industry. If he is not being confronted or stopped from continuing the same behavior then there are chances that the organization will very soon lose its trusted clients, the business in this particular field depends upon the trust clients have on the organization, but rude behavior can make the clients unhappy. The clients will not rely on the caretakers, because care and good behavior are the services that are provided in the childcare industry (Herrmann & Felfe, 2014).

Evan should persuade the board of director to keep Rob and not to fire him, Rob’s behavior might be not appropriate for the childcare industry but he provides good ideas for the organization. His ideas are very beneficial for the organization; he is an intelligent man, and appropriate for the post he is holding, it is just the industry, which needs more emotionally intelligent leaders. Rather than firing Rob, who is an old and valuable part of the organization, the board of directors can give Rob training so that he can improve his interpersonal skills (Corr & Carey, 2017).

Evan should confront Rob and tell him to be polite and talk less, it has been observed that Evan does not confront or stop Rob from being rude and outspoken, although he has the authority to do that but still he chooses remain silent. If Rob is treated exactly in the same way, by immediately confronting him, that he was wrong then it might help. Evan needs to exercise his authority and command by showing Rob his flaws (Arnold et al., 2014).

The other option could be to give Rob some other roles where he does not have to deal with the staffs and the clients. His designation could be changed, if he is demoted to a lower position then it could be beneficial for him, he might put some effort himself to improve his behavior and attitude. It is possible that Rob is not aware about his behavior because he had not been told or confronted, so if he is given a chance surely it could beneficial for both. Under his leadership the organization has grown rapidly, the industry is not much of a profitable industry yet the managerial skills of Rob have ensured growth. He is an asset for the organization; his presence is required in the organization. Instead of firing him, he should be provided some counseling sessions that will help him to improve his behavior. He should be taught to be sensitive towards the feelings of other people and think about the consequences that would follow by his behavior (Min, 2014).

Conclusion

Childcare is one such industry where right behavior is very much essential, to win the trust of the customers that their babies are safe and are getting the childcare services. Rob’s behavior is contradictory to the values of the industry and the organization. He is a very intelligent and effective leader, because under his leadership the organization has grown rapidly. The concern of board of directors cannot be ignored, his behavior towards PR of Thriyand was rude ad very unprofessional, but considering his inputs to the organization Evan should persuade the Board of directors not to fire Rob, they can demote him or provide him behavioral counseling sessions for improvement of his behavior because he is valuable for the organization.

References

Arnold, K. A., Connelly, C. E., Walsh, M. M., & Martin Ginis, K. A. (2015). Leadership styles, emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of occupational health psychology, 20(4), 481-490.

Coley, R. L., Lombardi, C. M., & Sims, J. (2015). Long-term implications of early education and care programs for Australian children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 284.

Corr, L., & Carey, G. (2017). Investigating the institutional norms and values of the Productivity Commission: The 2011 and 2015 childcare inquiries. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 76(2), 147-159.

Herrmann, D., & Felfe, J. (2014). Effects of leadership style, creativity technique and personal initiative on employee creativity. British Journal of Management, 25(2), 209-227.

McCleskey, J. (2014). Emotional intelligence and leadership: A review of the progress, controversy, and criticism. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 22(1), 76-93.

Min, H. Y. (2014). The verification of path model on director’s servant leadership and childcare center teacher’s organizational citizenship behavior: Focused on teacher’s organizational committment and cynicism. Korean Journal Of Human Ecology, 23(4), 587-598.

Padilla, A. (2013). Leadership: Leaders, Followers. Environments. Wiley.

Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict management styles. International Journal of Conflict Management, 25(3), 214-225.

Trahms, C. A., Ndofor, H. A., & Sirmon, D. G. (2013). Organizational decline and turnaround: A review and agenda for future research. Journal of Management, 39(5), 1277-1307.