Management Essay: Applying Leadership to Australia's Traffic Issues

This essay delves into Australia's traffic and transportation problems, identifying them as a 'wicked problem' characterized by complexity, incomplete knowledge, and interconnected issues. The analysis employs the Competing Values Framework to assess organizational culture and determine effective leadership strategies. The essay examines the characteristics of wicked problems in the context of Australian traffic, discusses the application of the competing values framework, explores implications and interplay, and suggests potential leadership implications. The essay highlights issues like traffic congestion, poor road management, and inefficient public transport, emphasizing the need for leadership to enhance public transport frequency, improve bus routes, and implement effective transport management strategies to mitigate the negative impacts on the tourism industry and residents' quality of life. The conclusion emphasizes the urgent need for action and the importance of collaboration between local and federal governments.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to analyse the traffic and transport problem of Australia as a wicked
problem. In order to analyse the mentioned problem, the competing values framework has been
used. The country possesses several issues associated with its traffic as well as transportation.
Traffic jam is one of the chief issues when it comes to transportation problem in Australia. The
four chief factors associated with a wicked problem makes it highly complex a well as difficult
to resolve include incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of individuals and
opinions involved, the large economic burden as well as the interconnected nature of these
problems with other issues. In this report discussion on application of competing values
framework to wicked problem, implications and interplay and potential leadership implication
will be performed.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Description of the social issue traffic and transportation............................................................3
Wicked problem characteristics as applying to the traffic and transportation problem..............5
Discussion of application of competing values framework to wicked problem..........................6
Discussion of implication and interplay......................................................................................7
Discuss potential leadership implications....................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
A wicked issue can be defined as a social as well as cultural issue that is highly difficult
or crucial to solve for a good number of reasons that includes complete or contradictory
knowledge, a huge economic burden, the number of people as well as opinion involved with
other issues. However with effective leadership, these problems can be mitigated through re
process of design that is an intellect approach which emphasizes abductive reasoning,
empathy as well as rapid prototyping. According to researchers, wicked problems that are
faced by the society can be dealt with the help of the Competing value framework. The
competing values Framework, designed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh can be defined as a theory
that was developed from the research on the major indicators of an effective organization
(Stubbs, Tyson & Dalvi, 2017). The first dimension of the competitive value framework is
associated with organizational focus, that varies from the internal emphasise on the well
being as well as development of individual to an external focus on the well being and
development of the organization. The Competitive Value framework has got its name since
the criterion within the four models seems to be carrying conflicting massage. In the
following paragraph, one of the major wicked problem of the Australian society, traffic and
transportation, has been discussed as well as analysed in the light of the Competitive Value
Framework.

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Discussion
Description of the social issue traffic and transportation
In spite of the fact that Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries across the
world, the country possesses several issues associated with its traffic as well as transportation.
Traffic jam is one of the chief issues when it comes to transportation problem in Australia.
Amongst the cities in the nation, the population as well as the tourists of Sydney can be
considered as one of the major sufferer of transportation issues in Australia. In Sydney, often a
normal 25 minutes drive takes one hour traffic. Majority of time, the issue takes place due to the
Anzac Parade light rail construction. While Implementation of metro rail project paves the way
to the construction activities, it can be considered as a major contributor of traffic issues
especially in major countries (Kartal & Ernst, 2015). Firstly due to constructional works, a good
number of roads remain blocked, which in turns causes major and prolonged traffic jams. Along
with this, several cases unpredictable blocking of roads takes place due to sudden technological
failure. All this issues highly enhances the average travelling time of the travellers, leading to
high dissatisection.

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Graph 1: Vehicle Kilometre travelled in Australia
Source (Harris et al., 2018)
Another major transportation issue evidenced in Sydney, is poor road management. For
instance, often crucial lanes are merged together during high traffic in order to reduce the
number of lanes. Drivers, in the margining lanes are expected to use both the lanes in order to
advance to the lane reduction point as well as to merge at that site, discontinuing the turns.
However, this done in peak hours while the traffic of the area is high often leads to prolonged
traffic jam. According to researchers, currently, Australia is facing major transport issues
leading to lack of public transport and road infrastructure. Inefficient transport system is
imposing negative impact on the tourism industry of Australia, which is considered to be one
of the major contributors of the yearly revenue of the nation. Some of the major issues fced
in the cities include low frequency public transport, indirect, slow as well as confusing rourts

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of bus routes and lack of public transport in suburb areas. Not only this, high traffic
congestion is pushing the residents out of the cities to less dense areas of Australia like the
New castle and Blue Mountains. According to the residents, the train network of the city is so
interconnected that even one signal failure or delay leads to wide spread disruption of the
service.
Graph 2: Data of 12 months Australian Traffic
Source (Black, 2018)
Wicked problem characteristics as applying to the traffic and transportation problem
The four chief factors associated with a wicked problem makes it highly complex and
difficult to solve include contradictory and incomplete knowledge, the number of individuals
and opinions involved, the huge economic burden as well as the interconnected problems with
other issues. All these factors can be easily applied to the traffic and transportation problem that

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is currently suffered by the citizens of Australia. The first characteristic of the wicked problem
includes a wicked problem possess no definitive formulation (Mulley et al., 2016). Similarly, the
issue of transportation does not contain a definitive formulation. For instance the transportation
issue of Sydney is discretely different form that of Melbourne. The second characteristic of an
wicked problem include is not possible to measure the success of an wicked problem. The
solutions to a wicked problem can be considered to be good or bad, instead can be considered to
be either better or worse. This is true for the transportation problem since, providing solutions to
the different types of transportation issue can only be measured as improvement in the condition.
There is no template that can be followed while dealing with a wicked problem. Only history
of the problem can be considered as a major guide to deal with such issues. When i come to
transportation or traffic issues, leaders cannot follow a specific rule or guidelines in order to deal
with all the problems. Each city in Australia possesses different factors that are interlinked with
the problem. However, each transportation issues need to be tackled with the help of separate
strategies. This factor directs to another characteristic of wicked problem that includes every
wicked problem is associated to other social or business problem (An, 2016). For instance, the
issue of transportation in Australia is directly associated with the tourism industry of the nation.
The social planner of wicked possesses no right to be wrong. That is offering a solution to a one
shot problem needs to done in one shot design since a significant intervention changes the design
space enough that leads to minimizing the ability of trial and error. This is true for the traffic and
transport issue, since implication of the trial and error process may leads to devastating
consequences.
Another mention worthy aspects of wicked problem include, they do not possess an
innumerable set of potential solutions. Generally a host of potential solution arises in case of a

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wicked problem. In case the problem is ill defined, a set of potential solution relies on the
realistic judgement along with the amount of credibility as well as feasibility of the proposed
action. Because of the characteristics outlined above, wicked problem can be counterposed
compared to the tame ones.
Discussion of application of competing values framework to wicked problem
The competitive value framework is a method of assessing the culture of an organization or
society so that an effective strategy to deal with the wicked problem can be assessed. The
competing framework is based on four major model of management theory that includes the clan
culture, higherarchical culture, market culture and Adhocracy culture. While the features of clan
culture include high degree of flexibility as well as are internally focused, this mode imposes
great emphasis on stresses cohesion, human resource management and morale as criterion for
effectiveness. The hierarchical culture includes high degree of controlling behaviour along with
internally focused (Grabowski et al., 2015). It stressed on the role of information management,
productivity, communication and stability and control. The third model of the competing values
framework includes the adhocracy culture. The adhocracy culture includes elevated degree of
flexibility and is externally focused. This model emphasizes on flexibilities as well as external
focus along with stresses readiness, resource acquisition, growth and external support. The fourth
model of the competing values framework includes the market culture that chiefly focuses the
market position which is relative to the competitors. It is highly crucial that staffs are aware of
the position of the company and are considered to be the part of the organization’s appearance to
the outside world.
Considering the fact, in order to deal with transportation and trafficking issue of Australia, it
is highly crucial for the transportation leader to ensure an effective control on the operations. For

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the hierarchical culture, the communicable approach to the work is considered to be central. The
coordinating management team aims to execute the task keeping accordance with strict
guidelines. The transportation management team needs to ensure that all the activities are aligned
with each others. Managers chiefly possess a guiding as well as monitoring role as well as must
ensure that the progress is appropriately monitored. Leaders needs to take the responsibility and
must hold all the employees accountable.
Figure 1: The competing Values Framework
Source (Zlatković, 2018)
Discussion of implication and interplay
The competing values of the hierarchical culture should be implemented to the traffic and
transportation problem. For instance a hierarchical model of traffic management should be
implemented (Zlatković, 2018). Each and every major cities should have traffic police station

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each after 7 Km. A ground vehicle management team should be guided by a ground vehicle
manager. Similarly, a railway management team needs to created where the railway construction
will be managed. Strict deadline for any constructional work should be implemented. Along with
this, training and education of effective transportation management should be provided to the
mentioned employees.
Discuss potential leadership implications
The first step that the leader needs to be taken is to enhance the frequency of the public
transport. Majority of the suburbs in Australia faces issues of low frequency transport. Most of
the suburb buses run only every 60 to 30 minutes. Thus in order to enhance the frequency , steps
like incorporating more public transport and reducing the average waiting time of the same
needs to be reduced (Harris et al., 2018). Along with this a clear and less complicated road map
for bus routes needs to be implemented. For this leaders need to recruit skilled and efficient
transport engineers by implementing effective recruitment process. Along with these new
transport policies keeping accordance to the issues of lack of transport management to enhance
the work force and training sessions of the transport department needs to implemented.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be clearly understood that traffic and transport issues in
Australia is a major wicked problem that needs to be dealt with in an emergency basis. Along
with efficient leadership of transport leaders, the participation of both local as well as federal
government is also crucial n order to reduce the social issue. With the implementation of the
above discussed leadership strategies, it is s expected that the issue of transport in Australia will
get diminished to a great extent in near future.

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Reference List
An, H. (2016). Study on Easing Public Transport Congestion in Beijing Based on Management
Model in Australia. Social Sciences, 5(4), 54-57.
Black, J. (2018). Urban transport planning: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Grabowski, L., Neher, C., Crim, T., & Mathiassen, L. (2015). Competing values framework
application to organizational effectiveness in voluntary organizations: A case
study. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44(5), 908-923.
Harris, P., Riley, E., Sainsbury, P., Kent, J., & Baum, F. (2018). Including health in
environmental impact assessments of three mega transport projects in Sydney, Australia:
A critical, institutional, analysis. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 68, 109-116.
Kartal, Z., & Ernst, A. T. (2015). Integer programming formulations for the uncapacitated
vehicle routing p-hub center problem. In International Congress on Modelling and
Simulation 2015: Partnering with industry and the community for innovation and impact
through modelling (pp. 1724-1730). Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and
New Zealand.
Mulley, C., Ma, L., Clifton, G., Yen, B., & Burke, M. (2016). Residential property value impacts
of proximity to transport infrastructure: An investigation of bus rapid transit and heavy
rail networks in Brisbane, Australia. Journal of Transport Geography, 54, 41-52.
Stubbs, P. C., Tyson, W. J., & Dalvi, M. Q. (2017). Transport economics. Routledge.

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Zlatković, M. (2018). Organizational effectiveness in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A competing
values approach. Strategic Management, 23(4), 15-25.