Examination of Leadership Effectiveness in the Public Services

PGBM73 MBM DISSERTATION MODULE
MBM DISSERTATION PROPOSAL
Student Name: TECLA R MWETA......................................................................
Project Title: EXAMINATION OF LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS IN THE PUBLIC
SERVICES
(A CASE STUDY OF LEADERSHP EFFECTIVENESS IN THE ROYAL UNITED BATH HOSPITAL NHS, UK)
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1. Project Background and Rationale:
There had been various debates about leadership in different types of organisations such as in the
private, public and voluntary sector regarding whether a leader can be born or made.
This debate continued to this present day and probably in the future and it is always important to
recognise that such debate arises due to different stages or life cycle of an organisation.
The rationale for selecting this topic for the research dissertation is to examine the leadership
effectiveness in the NHS by comparing the various leadership theories with actual leadership practice
within this public sector - NHS.
The researcher will also aim to present a report as part of the requirement for achieving Master
Degree in Business Management
The researcher will like to gain more knowledge about the leadership traits and styles which effective
and efficient leader must display in their position and the approach for developing those qualities to
guide and lead in the public sector for a better future.
Another rationale is that the researcher will also like to develop some of the following leadership
qualities according to Armstrong (2009): honesty, forward – looking, inspiring, competent, analytical
and intelligent for leading in the public sector.
As the NHS is going through different stages of its life cycle and the future indicates privatisation
which requires a new life cycle, the organisation would benefits from this research through the
identification of the best fit leadership approach for effective management at different stage of the life
cycle.
Therefore, the researcher will like to offer suggestion for leaders in the public sector (NHS) to engage
and develop the different leadership approaches and practices for leading others through different life
cycle of the organisation such as the birth, growth, mature and decline stages.
In Grint (2005), to achieve any agreed objectives the leader must have the ability to gain the
commitment and cooperation of the team, get the group into effective actions and make the best of
their skills, talent and energy.
The leader must always attempt to perform a special duty of initiating what to do and control the
behaviour of the to achieve agreed objectives, but Goleman (2002) argued this process of leadership
requires a person with the ability to influence and persuade individuals to become voluntarily willing
and prepare to participate effectively in the overall team efforts.
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Therefore, the leader must be comfortable and confidence to lead because he/she will the one who
can be looked up to and whose judgement, personality and direction can be trusted to warm the heart
of the team and communicate effectively in an event of challenges as in the case of the Royal United
Bath Hospital.
The organisation must have a system in place for coordinating and monitoring the activities and
performances of different department at the Hospital. According to Mullins (2010), system is made up
of a variety of parts that work together to achieve a goal and this enable the leader continue
evaluating the patterns of activities at the hospital.
Such evaluation can become part of the monitoring system for ensuring that the organisation
achieved the overall goal of the whole organisation instead of part of the organisation performing
exceptional and others failing to achieve the expected outcomes.
2. Literature Review:
KEY WORDS: Public, Leadership, Effectiveness, Services
The researcher will engage in literature reviews for developing insight into the effectiveness of
leadership theories and approaches needed for the Royal United Bath Hospital to survive different
stages of the organisation life cycles.
Northouse (2015) stressed that leadership is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement
of agreed goals and this research will focus on the examination of leadership effectiveness within the
NHS as the organisation is going through different stages of its life cycle and fighting for survival.
According to Bolden and Gosling (2006) most of the successful leaders usually ignored such debate
and focus of their personal and professional development on leadership qualities, because they
recognised that organisation cannot remain the same forever due to the changing and dynamic
business environment.
According to Goleman (2002), the leader must be able to set the direction for others to follow and
align people as well as motivating individual and inspiring the group to achieve business objectives.
Leadership is the process of encouraging and inspiring individual and a team to provide their effort in
order to achieve agreed objectives, therefore, a leader may exist only to achieve the objective with
help of his/her group.
The critical issue is whether a leader can be born or made and to answer this question, it is important
to understand the following three main leadership theories such as the traits theory, the style theory
and the contingency theory.
As the result of the critical issue, the literature review will consider to business practices such as the
leadership theories and different leadership approaches for effective leadership during different
stages of the Royal United Bath Hospital life cycle.
During the birth stage, Mullins (2013) argued that the leader must be like a farmer that will sow the
first seed in the organisation with self-motivation, high level of commitment and visionary approaches
and other leadership qualities identifying with the trait theory.
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At the growth stage of the organisation, the leader must realised that the Royal United Bath Hospital
as a public service organisation, requires a very strong culture and structure to prepare and sustain
itself in the future due to the threat of the government reducing financial support.
The culture according to Armstrong (2009) is to become a grower with the ability to learn different
leadership skills for evaluating the performance and behaviour of the employees because at this
stage the number of staff will increase as the number of the service users increases.
At the matured stage, the leader must be going through a personal and professional development to
combine the skills of leadership with managerial capabilities for effective, efficient and economic use
of resources for achieving the organisation objectives at the Royal United Bath Hospital.
This is a process of strong understanding and ability to plan and manage (Armstrong, 2009), the
financial, human, physical and intellectual resources to gain the maximum outcomes for the Royal
United Bath Hospital and the quality of service provisions for the health and well-being of the service
users.
The absent of such leadership skills to combine with managerial ability led to the negative CQC report
indicating ineffective leadership at the hospital for planning, organising, controlling and solving
problems at the early stage.
The leader at the Royal United Bath Hospital at this stage should be able to bring people work
together and provide the encouragement for the culture of individual to be willing to learn and develop
new skills about their job roles.
A strong leader at this stage will ensure that decision making and accountability represent the culture
of behaviour at the Royal United Bath Hospital including monitoring system to ensure that different
department of the hospital are working toward the same objectives of health and well-being of the
service users and to achieve outstanding result from the CQC inspection.
At the decline stage, the NHS in general is going through one of the most difficult time in the history of
the organisation as the continue government cutting of finance and possibility of privatisation
indicates a new direction for the organisation.
This critical analysis shows that leadership and its effectiveness has a profound impact on the overall
organization. Leadership is essential for developing an appropriate organizational culture which will
consist of the shared values of the management and employees. The changing nature of the
organization requires flexibility and adaptability; leadership is a key component in this respect and a
leader can transform the organization based on futuristic vision. It has already been discussed about
the different leadership and the contingency theory states that there is no appropriate style of
leadership. The leadership pattern has to be changed based on the situation in hand and most of the
successful leaders adapt to different leadership styles based on the necessity. Therefore, the leader
will have to resort to democratic style and autocratic style based on the current organizational
situation. The effectiveness of the leadership is essential for improving the management of the
employees. Leaders will have to understand the different styles of leadership but transformational
leadership is best possible way to empower and bring about a change within the organization.
Effective leadership is also essential for improving the motivation level of the employees by improving
the working environment. The modern organization culture are more focused on employee
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