Important Facts Surrounding the Case
The case of the residential aged care industry in Australia revealed that management is increasingly becoming a major issue in most organizations, especially the non-profit entities. Many organizations are yet to learn how to recruit people into managerial position. They still base the decision on the experience and level of academic qualification. Although these are still very important factors to consider when identifying people to be hired into management positions, Burnes (2009) says that there are more factors that should also be put into consideration. The personality of individuals should be considered because it defines how such a person will relate with others once put into position of leadership.
It is also clear, from the case, that middle managers are receiving little support from those in higher positions, making their job frustrating and less motivating. In most of the cases, they are expected to implement changes developed by those in top leadership and rarely are they given guidance on how to approach such challenging tasks. Such scenarios have made it difficult for those leaders managing residential aged care industry in Australia to have an enabling environment to achieve the best outcome in their jobs.
They are constantly faced with instances where their authorities are compromised and their suggestions ignored. Some despair and take their work less seriously because of the kind of stress they get trying to make things work as per their expectations. They find themselves conforming to a system that is poorly designed and unable to achieve the strategic goals as would be desired by the relevant stakeholders.
Key Issues
A critical analysis of the case clearly shows that there are two main issues of concern that may need to be addressed in order to improve the effectiveness of residential aged care industry in Australia. The first issue is leadership. As Burnes (2009) states, leadership goes beyond developing strategies and telling people to implement them. It also entails having effectively interpersonal skills that can enable one to relate well with the junior employees. From the case, it has been noted that most of these aged care homes lack proper leadership because of poor structures.
In fact, it is revealed from the case study that most managers in these homes prefer early retirement or working in other industries that are less stressful. For the junior employees in non-managerial positions, they prefer staying away from any managerial position because they are keen to avoid the frustrations they see their leaders go through.
Under normal circumstances, everyone would prefer a promotion (Beech & MacIntosh, 2012). Career growth entails finding yourself into a management position at one point in life. In cases where people avoid such managerial position, it shows that they are not keen on their career growth. That alone is a strong indication that there is a problem with the existing leadership structures. These issues must be addressed to create an environment where leaders can work without any form of frustration.
Change is another major issue that the organizations in the case study still have to struggle with on a regular basis. Change is a force that a firm cannot avoid. It will keep coming and with varying impacts. Sometimes change can be very disruptive, especially if it is sudden. A sudden change requires the manager and his team to come up with speedy ways of making the necessary adjustments to ensure that internal forces are in line with the external environmental forces. The problem with change is that the stakeholders often fear it.
They consider change as a threat to their very existence in a given firm. Rarely do they consider change as a way of enhancing their skills and capabilities. When stakeholders resist change, leaders find themselves struggling to implement the new systems and structures because they lack the support needed to make things work. According to Green and Hauser (2012), managing change requires a highly skilled and talented leader who will understand the fears and misinformed perception of the stakeholders and convince them that the new ways poses no threat to their current positions in the firm. Such a leader must help the stakeholders to understand these forces of change and to propose ways of dealing with them in a systematic manner.
Evaluation of Courses of Action
The two key issues identified above should be addressed to make the residential aged care industry in Australia perform better than it is currently doing. Leadership and change are two factors that must always be present in an organizational setting. Any organization that finds challenges in leadership and change management cannot survive in the current competitive business environment. It is, therefore, very critical for these organizations to find ways addressing these two issues. There are various courses of action that can be taken to address the identified issues. The following are some of the possible courses of action that can be taken to address the issue.
- It may be necessary to have a complete redefinition of the concept of leadership as it relates to these organizations.
- Take the managers of these organizations through leadership training program to enhance their leadership skills.
- The process of selecting leaders should be rigorous and it should go beyond the academic qualification and experience of the candidates.
- Train employees of these organizations how they can work closely with their managers to ensure that there is efficiency and effectiveness in various areas of management.
- Working closely with the private sector to help improve creativity and innovativeness in managing change.
- Introduce policies that can help all the stakeholders to understand how change should be implemented under varying contexts.
Recommending the Best Course of Action
As shown in the section above, there are a number of ways of addressing the issues identified in this case. However, in this section it is important to critically address the best course of action. Based on the facts presented in the case, the best way of addressing issues in this case is to redefine leadership in these organizations. Leadership has never been a platform for punishment. In fact, it offers people opportunity to demonstrate their skills and ability to mobilize to achieve a common goal.
Those trusted with leadership positions must not find it to be a frustrating position. In the contrary, they should consider it an opportunity to lead others into achieving greatness. Redefining leadership should also entail elaborating on how it relates to change management. Leaders should embrace change and help all other stakeholders to approach change in a positive manner. A good leader should work closely with the employees to detect change early enough and come up with measures of managing it.
References
Beech, N., & MacIntosh, R. (2012). Managing change: Enquiry and action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Burnes, B. (2009). Managing change. New York, NY: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Green, A., & Hauser, J. (2012). Managing to change the world: The nonprofit manager’s guide to getting results. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.