Theories of Educational Leadership and Management

Questions: 1. Management theories used to explain stress? 2. Management styles used to explain stress? Answers: Introduction: The report is concentrated on the stress, especially the work stress in nursing department of a nursing home. The reasons for the stress in nursing is found out in the report, the affect of the stress on the employees and also the relevant approaches of management which are dealing with stress and stressful condition within the organization by the department of management are also identified here in this report. By using the two management theories, that is, Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and Tuck mans Model, the condition or the present situation of the organization can be better explained and the ways for betterment of the situation from the point of view of the employees can also be recommended. Similarly, the two management styles Democratic style of leadership and the Autocratic style of leadership can better evaluate the present situation of the organization. Case Scenario: Dorothy (assumed) is a middle aged nurse and is well known for her hard work in Heath First Rehabilitation (HFR). She has been working in this treatment centre for 10 years. Health First Rehabilitation is a renowned treatment centre located in outer London. The treatment centre provides a dual diagnosis of both mental health and drug and alcohol misuse issues. This treatment centre used to get a government grant from the Department of Health. But the government has set an order of reducing the employment cost by establishing a new staffing model, where, four psychologists would be replaced by less expensive nurse counselors and administrative costs should also be reduced, otherwise, the government would not provide the 50 % of the funding. Now Dorothy is facing trouble in the organization. As the management provided an order that either the existing nurses have to join training course for up skilling the employees, or they would be replaced by new more skilled employees or nurses. This is a major problem, common to all the nurses of the organization. But the problem Dorothy is facing that she has a duty of long 12 hours, and the work pressure is high as the organization is well reputed and get referred by many peoples. So managing extra 2 hours for the training course after the scheduled working hour is more than tough as she has a family and the travelling to her home is also time consuming as the treatment centre is located in outer London. Dorothy has a family dependent on her. So she even cannot resign the job. This is a problem common to most of the existing nurses of the organization. Thus, the management department of the treatment center should think about its existing employees especially the nurses and take some remedial measures for the betterment of both the organization and its existing employees. Background: The situation involves Dorothy; a nursing stuff at Health-First Rehabilitation (HFR) is experiencing stress due to sudden cost cutting in the organization to reduce the administrative cost, resulted due to unavailability of funds (Bush, 2011). Hans Selye first defined stress in the year 1936. He defined the condition of stress as the response that a human body shows towards any change in situation; this response is generally non-specified. Stress can be good or bad. Provided that the individual in experiencing stress due to some good news or new challenge, then it will be termed as good stress. Bad stress is caused by any kind of bad news, tension at work or home, unhealthy working atmosphere and so on. 1. Management theories used to explain stress: In this scenario, two theories will be used to explain stress. The first one is the Tuckmans theory and the second one is the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Tuckman formed his four stage model in 1965 to explain team development and behavior in to forming, storming, norming and performing. To explain the development in a better way he added another stage to the model adjourning in 1970. The first stage, forming discusses the behavior of the individual when that individual totally depends on the team leader and not the members of the group (Bush, 2011). The storming explains the behavior of the team members when they are more aimed at establishing themselves than working for the achievement of goal as a team. In the norming stage, the team members come together under the team leader who engages the members in various activities to make them work together. This is the last stage in the model where the performance of the group is concerned, the issues are resolved and the members are now wo rking towards achieving the goal. Adjourning is mainly related to the welfare of the members rather than achieving the goal (Stein, Friedman and Blanco, 2011). Maslows hierarchy of needs explains the basic needs of an individual related to work and life. Physiological needs include the fulfillment of an individuals need for bodily rest and recovery. It explains how a body responds to various changes. It will need sleep when tired; it will need rest when some illness affects it and so on (Ferguson, 2010). Safety needs include having a place to live; the want to remain surrounded by people like, family, friends, colleagues and so on. The need of belonging includes the feeling to be a part of a group. The group may include, friends, family, neighbors or colleagues. The need for esteem includes the want to raise high above others. Suppose, in an organization, the individual may want to lead a team, if an association, then the president of the association and so on. Self actualization need explains the want to recognize oneself, the want to understand what an individual is capable of doing, achieving and so on. In other words, this needs explain the individuals want to know the potential. The reason behind choosing the theories Tuckmans model is chosen to explain the amount of stress because it mainly tells about the behavior of the individual in an organization. The study of the theory will help to find the problems Dorothy is facing at work resulting to the stress. In this theory, the first four stages does not apply to Dorothys situation as she is not having any problem with her team members but the adjourning stage somehow relates to her situation as it deals with the welfare of the employee (Maeda and Bermont, 2011). Maslows theory is incorporated because it deals with the basic need of an individual to lead a normal life. All the needs explained in this theory can be related to Dorothys case as the violation of all the needs is giving rise to Dorothys stress. Maslows Theory more effective After going through the case scenario it is concluded that, Maslows theory will be more relevant to explain Dorothys stress in the rehabilitation centre. As the centre has decided to replace the existing nurses if needed, it will first affect Dorothys safety needs (Mathe, Pavie and O'Keeffe, 2011). Replacement of staff means, unemployment for the existing members, if an individual loses a job, it will definitely how that individual is living, payment of rent or EMI will be the highest concern. Moreover, the centre has planned to train the nurses for extra two hours. It will again affect the physiological need, working for 12 hours and then adding extra two hours will take a toll on her body, Dorothy will not be getting the minimum amount of rest a human body requires (Muir, 2012). As it is seen, Dorothy has earned certain amount of reputation in the workplace; Dorothy was expecting a promotion soon after serving so many years in the treatment centre. Hence, suddenly losing the job wi ll affect her self-esteem. She has been in the organization for the past 10 years, due to the course of time; a sense of belonging has built up in her towards the treatment centre as well as among her colleagues. This sudden decision has caused a great amount of stress in her as far as the need of belonging is concerned. The entire situation has caused a great amount of stress for Dorothy, as far as self-actualization need is concerned. The nurse is now doubtful regarding the potentiality as a nurse. After so many years of service when the organization decides to replace the nurse, it affects the psychology of the nurse depending on self actualization need (Stahl and Goldstein, 2010). After going through the two management styles, that is, autocratic and democratic, it is found out that the democratic style is more reliable to solve this issue than the autocratic style. In the democratic style, the head of the organization discusses the issue with the employees, and then try to solve the issue keeping in mind the problems of the employees. The head of the organization listens to the problems of the employees rather than just ordering and commanding the staffs (Olpin and Hesson, 2010). 2. Management styles used to explain stress: Management styles are commonly known as leadership styles (Barbee, 2012). Generally leader is defined as the person who can motivate the other individuals for performing a job having a similar objective. This capability of a leader is called leadership. Thus, leadership can be defined as the ability of the management of a company to take a sound decision in any situation and can perform well. Leadership is composed of facing different challenging goals by the leader. The characters of a good leader may be collected in the form of self confidence, strong communication skills, ability to manage a particular situation and peoples and many more (Dessler, 2013). There are various types of leadership styles, each define the personality of various types of leaders. The different types of leadership styles which are more common are Autocratic leadership style represents a dictator and the task maker. Democratic leadership style represents the consultative and participative type of leader (Dessler, 2013). Laissez faire leadership style represents the leaders, who work by group consensus. Bureaucratic leadership style represents the leaders who are formality oriented (Werner, Schuler and Jackson, 2012). Paternalistic leadership style here the leaders prefer more family like atmosphere within the organization. Charismatic leadership style the leaders who believe in attractive and magical power. Missionary leadership style the leaders who maintain good fellowship and warm atmosphere within the organization. In the organization Health First Rehabilitation (HFR), the management styles which would help in making betterment of the organization and the existing employees, especially the nurses are democratic styles of leadership and autocratic style of leadership. Democratic style of leadership is collegial and open type for running an organization or a team (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2013). The ideas of various persons can move freely and can be discussed with all the members of the team. This style is important and also suitable for rapidly changing and dynamic environment of an organization (Ivancevich and Konopaske, 2013). In the fast moving organizations like HFR each and every option for improvement is considered to prevent from fall out of date. Democratic styles indicates the facilitation of conversation, encouragement of people to share their views and ultimately synthesizing the view points and ideas of all the individuals, the best possible decision is taken by the management. The democratic leader should be able to communicate properly with all the employees so that a unity in a plan can be made. Generally democratic style of leadership is used in an organization when frequently changes take place. In HFR, all of a sudden the order of the government came for changing the employment style to lower the cost of employment. Thus, democratic style would be the best suitable style of leadership for the organization. Through this style, the mangers of the company can give an open option to all its employees to provide some ideas and view points to manage and handle the situation for stability in the organization. According to all the ideas, the management can take a decision which would be profitable for the organization and also reduce the employment stress of the nurses. The other option is the autocratic style of leadership, where the authority or the managers have only the right to take or make decisions and they would not provide any option to the employees regarding making or taking any decision (Mondy and Mondy, 2012). It is just opposite to the democratic style of leadership, but sometimes, this autocratic leadership styles seems to be the perfect style according to the situation of the company. Autocratic style of leadership is best applied in a situation, where control is necessary. When dangerous situations like decrease in the salary, cut off from the organization, or stoppage of a particular department or branch of any organization takes place, at that vital dangerous period, the management of the company should follow the autocratic style of leadership (Quick, 2013). Because during these above situations, view point of any particular employee can cause harm to the other or other groups of employees. When the employees are not properly exp erienced or are unfamiliar with the type of situation, the company is facing at the present; the employees could not take the right decision (Rothwell et al., 2012). Thus, the managers or the management department should take a rigid decision about the current or present situation and announce it to all the employees. In the treatment centre Health First Rehabilitation, the situation is dangerous for the employees as it is related to the cut-off of jobs of the existing employees. Most of the employees in the organization are unfamiliar to this type of situation, and the idea of a particular group of employee might harm the other employees, thus the management of the organization might follow autocratic style of leadership (Werner and DeSimone, 2012). But, in democratic style of leadership, the employees can put their view points in front of the others, and therefore, accordingly, the manager can take decision. Thus, democratic style is better as employees can suggest different ways out and their stress might also reduce. Recommendations to the nursing home: After going through the problems the organization is facing and after studying how Dorothy is going through the phase of stress due to this sudden decision of the organization, it is recommended to the organization to change the present style of management to the democratic style. By applying this style, the organization will have a better idea of the problems of the nurses, and Dorothy along with other nurses will be able to cope up with their stress related to unemployment and overtime after duty. It also recommended that the treatment centre should also start a stress-management cell, which will help the employees by engaging in various stress-management programs which in turn will help the staffs in coping up with stress in difficult situations (Reevy and Frydenberg, 2011). Conclusion: The case scenario of Dorothy and the situation of the centre where she works give the reader an idea about how a management gets affected by the sudden change in rules by the government. The nurses are unable to cope with the increasing amount of stress caused by the organization. Apart from following the recommendations, the centre should also try to talk with the persons who look after the funding in the treatment centre so that the organization gets help in the difficult time. The organization should also talk to the government officials so that the officials rethink regarding the new rules and revise the decision regarding the funding in the organization (Roberts, 2011). References: Barbee, A. (2012).Everything you need to know about stress management. [Newmarket, Ont.]: BrainMass Inc. Dessler, G. (2013).Human resource management. Boston: Prentice Hall. Dessler, G. (2013).Human resource management. Boston, Mass.: Pearson Education. Dowling, P., Festing, M. and Engle, A. (2013).International human resource management. Andover: Cengage Learning. Ivancevich, J. and Konopaske, R. (2013).Human resource management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Mondy, R. and Mondy, J. (2012).Human resource management. Boston: Prentice Hall. Quick, J. 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