Introduction
The world is so dynamic and competitive. In this regard, most organizations are capitalistic in their operation and always want more. They want more profit, more shareholder value, and more market share, among others. The realizations of these objectives have been attained through the successful initiation, development, management and above all by the application of strategic human resource management.
However, within this cacophony, the role of the H.R. as a specialist is not only changing, H.R. practitioner is also sifting towards taking the roles of a manager. Indeed, human service sector has paid cognizance to the effective development and management of social services.
After serving as a social worker in the United Arab Emirates and taking cognizance of the family, social, and emotional adjustments and experiences, one thing that rings into the mind is the role of leadership and management in non-for-profit sector.
If reward and the driving factor in business is profit, one striking factor that remains a concern is how the non-for-profit sector can effectively achieve its broad objectives without focusing on profit.
The purpose of this study is to draw personal experiences in leadership and management as a social worker in the United Arab Emirates, explore the aspects of human services funding and examine leadership and management to ascertain whether they are mutually exclusive or interdependent.
Postmodernism marks a departure from the approaches of the modernist and views the world in a state of objectivity and progress towards enlightenment. The systems and culture within organizations are in constant demand for change. This is core reason behind challenges in assessing organizational strengths and weaknesses.
One specific area of research that has attracted interest from researchers is the impact of postmodernism philosophy on current theoretical and empirical research on management and leadership in human services.
According to Andersen and Taylor (2005) “postmodern critique of contemporary critical social theory under theorizes the current historical conjuncture, overstates its discontinuities with the recent past and foregoes responsibility for explaining why their views ought to be privileged or even entertained as serious cultural criticism.”
This example represents the current critique of postmodernism philosophy. However, its aspects have raised critical questions about classical traditions of approaches to leadership and management.
There is abidance in the fact that there stands a strong connection between a narrative and an action in management. According to Hudson (2009), “the action derives from intention or motivation, based on the particular narratives of an individual, irrespective of whether these are self-generated, after appropriation from a culture.”
The understanding is that the line of action taken by a leader or a manager largely depends on a wide range of situational factors, organizational cultures, and objectives. However, this is analyzed from narrative and postmodernism theory to achieve a deeper dissection of how to articulate strategy into mainstream management roles and sustain the outcomes of the plan.
In the analysis of leadership and management approach within the non-for-profit sector, success in management and leadership revolves around complex approaches to the management of human services.
Organizational behavior is perceived as obtaining the capacity to build effective relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives.
However, organizational behaviour has been advanced as presenting numerous challenges and implications to the organizational context, and thus enlarging the complexity of organizational behaviour.
“A whole cocktail of factors has been presented as forming the basis for the adoption of organizational behaviours strategies, including costs reductions in transactions and strategic human services management (Harris and Hartman, 2001).
All these aspects of human services demand the delivery of leadership and management that foster positive transition along the increasing demands of organizational management approaches. One critical aspect of the reflection is process is the role of organizational learning.
Organizational Learning
Harris and Hartman (2001) define organizational learning as “the ability of the institution as a whole to discover errors and correct them, and to change the organization’s knowledge base and values so as to generate new problem-solving skills and new capacity for action.” In the recent past, learning has emerged to be a fundamental factor in every successful organization and include three common levels.
These are team learning, organization learning, and individual learning. Successful management of human services must integrate the concepts of organizational learning. This is more poignant in the case of non-for-profit organizational where the debate on sources of funds to finance human services still rages.
Leadership and Management
Despite the fact that leadership and management are not the same things, one clear fact is that they must go hand-in-hand. According to Gardner (2006), “leadership and management are necessarily linked, and complementary and any effort to separate the two is likely to cause more problems than it solves.”
Two aspects of leadership and management that encompass the current theoretical and empirical research on management and leadership in human services upon this reflection are consistency and valuing others.
Both postmodernism and narrative theories posit that the society is always in constant pressure to change and that change must have with the capacity and sustainability to ensure success. Consistency and value for others and their contributions are core determinant of change and eventual sustainability because the two are interlinked and congregate for improvement on organizational bottom-line.
One successful factor within this area of leadership and management involves developing teamwork and a sense of collective responsibility.
By appreciating the role of team members and how unique the chemistry that exists between team members, and internal and external communities, a leader or manager within the non-for-profit sector is likely to draw in the inclusive approach to leadership that seeks to appreciate the diverse thoughts of team members.
To achieve sound leadership that is compassionate and people-centered, there is need to understand not only the unique cultures at of the stakeholders but also the complexities and make adjustments in regards to leadership styles to the local context.
Having a complete analysis of the economic, political and social aspects that surround the non-for-profit organization has the capacity to enable a leader or manager discharge his or her services in sound manner.
The results of the analysis of self-reflection on leadership and management approaches within the non-for-profit organization in U.A.E. also indicate that leadership is not theoretical but is practical in that they act within the applicable and practical wisdom that draws its basis from the existing realities.
The understanding is that motivating others has a moral nature because it is concerned with the development of human beings in all dimensions. The philosophy of postmodernism asserts that the organizational must view its culture past the realms of modern approaches.
To understand this moral perspective of organizational management, there is need to underline the importance of being sensitive to the complex local context and grow along a continuous learning path.
The personal reflections of leadership and management within non-for-profit sector in U.A.E. point to the critical component of consistency in organizational ethics, values, beliefs and principles. In fact, consistency forms an essential trait in leadership standards, forms a significant theme in transformational leadership and transcends all levels and forms of leadership.
The understanding is that social workers are volunteers who are not only the most prized assets of these organizations but are in need of leadership and management that inspire and motivate. It there calls for leadership approach that is encompassed by a process that involves continuously influencing people and staying consistent throughout.
In the understanding that this is a growing subsector, the core values that define her leadership in the context of organization is character, honesty, integrity, equity, trustworthiness, self-discipline, courage, fairness and a range of positive leadership and management attributes are critical for success. These demonstrate the ethical leadership within this context must be devoid of controversy but compounded by consistency.
Furthermore, consistency of values forms a critical component of transformational leadership. In this regard, a leader is likely to lose support and following in the event of lack of consistency because the ability to stay consistent forms the true definition of effective leadership. This is in the view that employees look up to the leaders and the process of staying along the path of consistency must be continuous.
Consistency, therefore, forms entrenched belief and values of a leader in that in influencing others to follow their steps, leaders within organizations pursue a moral cause that is definitely not a one instant or a cause that is of short period. The ideology of consistency in transformational leadership within a non-for-profit organization is a crucial determinant to success.
On the other hand, bestowing great value on others and their contributions is a seed for success in leadership and management. As a growing sub-sector, non-for-profit calls for innovative leadership and management approaches capable of motivating others. Valuing others includes a distinguished view of others, respect for individuals and relationships, constant interaction and communication with people, and shared leadership.
Despite pitfalls and hurdles within the developing non-for-profit sector in U.A.E., The analysis of its leadership and management approaches project that having a fundamental respect for others and relationships has been considered as a critical factor in successful leadership within the context of organizational leadership and is considered central by all stakeholders.
This is an approach to transformational leadership that has been proposed by researches as effective in eliciting motivation and commitment. The pivotal role of valuing the contributions of others and having a fundamental respect for others’ opinions constitutes the definitive elements of transformational leadership.
Within the context of transformational leadership, this approach has been demonstrated as fundamental commonality in the analysis of the case of non-for-profit sector in U.A.E.
Within this emerging theme, leading from an ethical perspective is about working interdependently to construct a collective good for an organisation. This means that effective leadership calls for a collective responsibility for the achievement of set goals and objectives.
The importance of giving enough value to within this emerging sub-sector cannot be underestimated given the unique leadership and management challenges it faces. It is imperative and common knowledge that to effectively engage, influence followers and share values, beliefs and goals, each participating side of the engagement must appropriately value the opinions and contributions of others.
In fact, this technique of leadership has been documented to have the greatest effect on its ability to influence others and achieve their trust and loyalty.
In addition to the above, effective leaders understand and respect others’ values and, in turn, seeks to reconcile the potential tensions between personal values and organisational values.
Most participants within this sub-sector abide in the idea that valuing other people is the best strategy to the development of quality relationships that is critical for human diversity. The abidance in the critical role of valuing other people has been advanced by a number of literatures in the analysis of effective leadership.
Conclusion
Emerging themes from the above discussions demonstrate that both narrative and postmodernism philosophies continue to point out critical questions in sociology and within this aspect, the management of human services. The dynamic and competitive world brings with it changes in human service management.
In non-for-profit organizations, leadership and management are interdependent and any attempt separate the two remains disastrous for an organization attempting to portray the best in human service management.
References
Andersen, M.L. and Taylor, H.F. (2005). Sociology: understanding a diverse society. Cengage Learning.
Gardner, F. (2006). Working in Human Service Organizations: Creatng connections for practice. South Melbourne. Oxford University Press.
Harris, O.J. and Hartman,J. S. (2001). Organizational Behavior. N.Y. Routledge
Hudson, M. (2009). Managing without profit: leadership, management and governance of third sector organizations in Australia. Sydney. University of New South Wales Press.