Leadership is a complex topic. It has taken more than one book to outline the salient principles. Indeed there are years’ worth of research and many books produced giving a rundown of best practice in leadership development. The leadership debate has offered many formulaic approaches through to the more contemporary approach encapsulated in topics such as authentic leadership.
Leadership in the public sector is relevant to a significant proportion of the working population, both nationally and internationally, and deserves its own category in this discussion. Specific nuances in the public sector that enact a strong influence on leadership include the multilayered hierarchy, the extensive use of scheduled environments and the level of public scrutiny stimulated by the information technology age of transparency. Psychologists are well placed because of their skill set to provide insights and influences that enhance capacity to get the best out of the people working to provide essential government services.
The public sector: A unique environment
The Australian Public Service is seeing a rise in the use of scheduled environments, where everyone gets a roster indicating their start, finish and break times and specifying activity types throughout the work day. The schedules are created to ensure sufficient staffing to cover peak demand periods. They also help improve safety in delivering government services, particularly in areas such as health and human services, defence, corrections and tax where technology is helping to reduce the need for face-to-face services. The scheduled environment continues to evolve providing a new way of managing services by reducing customer traffic and enabled by improved internet services. The rental costs associated with floor space are reduced along with the risk to staff from customer aggression.
Leadership in this environment can benefit from lessons in the current literature with modifications to meet the nuances aligned with working in the public sector. Modern Australia has seen the ‘privatisation’ of many traditionally government services. Those still in government hands tend to be the more complex, sensitive and demanding services. They are also subject to a great deal of public scrutiny with the potential to influence political outcomes. The result is often a ‘sandwich generation’ type of conflict with good leadership being critical to the success in managing both an upward and downward direction in this context. This is about sending messages down to staff in order to improve services and provide on government driven initiatives. It is also about letting higher levels of management know about potential issues that have or may arise as a result of any changes. This also may result in a ‘sandwich’ effect for middle managers who are tasked with both delivery of initiatives and supporting the staff who deliver those initiatives.
Leaders in government business are caught between the consumer and/or voters and the government of the day. This creates a mostly healthy tension between the decision-making government and the application of the rules they have imposed through legislation. The flow-on effect occurs through a multilayered hierarchy with leaders at each level filtering the messages such that the level below is neither overwhelmed with information nor left with not enough to fulfil the desired outcomes. These leaders also need to be cognisant of issues arising and frankly and fearlessly feed this up the chain such that sensible decisions are made that provide a continuous loop of improvement. All this occurs quietly behind the scenes amidst an atmosphere of transparency as demanded by the public and politicians alike.
The scheduled environment is one in which people are employed to make calls, take calls and process information. Work types are rostered to meet the peak demand times and maximise the efficiency of work flows to ensure that questions are answered, information is gathered and outcomes are established in a timely and efficient manner. There is a trend to create rosters which dictate the work activity type in time blocks throughout the working day. These blocks of time can range from five minutes to an hour and include allocated break times. Some staff cope well within this structure, finding it easy to comply with the parameters and indeed finding comfort in not having to regulate their own work activities. There is a reasonably high turnover of staff, with many self-selecting out on the basis that they do not like conforming to a set schedule. Of course, these are two extremes of a continuum, and one that requires careful management from the leadership angle to improve both recruitment and retention
Leadership in a sense is both compromised and strengthened in this structure. Psychologically sensitive leadership can improve the capacity of staff to engage with the process, increase their productivity and improve retention. Humans are highly adaptive and will create new and interesting paradigms to get their needs met. For example, if you can’t control what you are doing at any particular time, you might become more highly sensitive to how you do it or demanding about your physical environment. This desire to control the workplace can be seen on a frequent basis in the scheduled environment. Chairs, lighting, and workstation set-up are all aspects which can be controlled by the individual and can become a source of great angst if not well managed. Even selection of toilet-paper holders during an office renovation can lead to lengthy discussion, if not conflict. Leaders need to be able to distinguish those aspects of control that can be returned to individuals without compromising business needs. This might be by way of applying flexible work practices such as allowing staff to reorganise their work time to get to the post office on the way home or accepting a request for a few hours leave to attend a school event. Failing to make these concessions can lead to patterns of increased absenteeism, presenteeism, underlying contempt for ‘management’, and unmotivated/rebellious behaviours.
Authentic leadership and the role of psychology
The term ‘authentic leadership’ is used to describe the contemporary approach which is honest and true to your own style and values. Understanding, acknowledging and operating from your own strengths is an essential component of authentic leadership. The depth of hierarchy in the public sector is difficult enough, and the controlling nature of the scheduled environment add to these complexities. Include humans in the mix and we have a place where psychologists can make a difference! The psychology toolkit includes that understanding of how motivation works, and this is important in a scheduled environment. Indeed, psychologists are relative experts in communication and have a lot to contribute in simply improving the quality of interactions people are having both within the business and between the business and its customers. Acknowledging issues – be it managing different personalities, poor workmanship or the demands of working with technology – is an important part of helping people cope with an often demanding and dysfunctional work life.
Public sector leaders can develop their authenticity by engaging in aspects of their own emotional intelligence starting with some self-reflecting type activities such as completing the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This tool can provide personal insights as well as highlighting the aspects required to balance one’s own approach to the role. Insights learned from the MBTI also assist leaders in better understanding the motivations of the people they work with. Another place to look is the more recent work of Martin Seligman, a psychologist who was ever present in undergraduate teachings of the past, and has many useful insights in his more recent work in the positive psychology arena. The Peterson and Seligman Values in Action (VIA) character strengths questionnaire (2004) has been a great source of insight and used in the process of developing the emotional intelligence of leaders. Understanding one‘s own motivations and values is a great driver for being able to support staff in achieving a comfortable level of work life balance for themselves, and staff with well-developed work-life balance make great employees.
The media is quick to judge the integrity and efficiency of public servants. The government’s need to be seen to ‘ensure efficient delivery of services’ has been translated into a managed workplace where everything is counted so that it can be shown that it is efficient. Sometimes this leaves the individual at risk and the psychologist leader has the potential to reduce the damage of this within the system. An alarming number of staff are participating or needing to participate in mental health treatment. The success of this treatment can be enhanced using basic psychologically healthy principles in the workplace. This can include patience, alternate work duties and time allowed to attend hard to get appointments.
The growth and expansion of the structured environment has brought some challenges to the people who make it happen. Authentic leaders who can humanise the structured work environment are required to help organisations meet business objectives. The psychologist has relevant skills in both being a leader and developing other leaders in this field. Key understandings in how to motivate and engage staff are essential to helping them work in a system designed to meet the ebbs and flow of work demands. There is also a key role in developing communication skills so that the consumers within and using the system can be heard and have their needs met in a timely and uncomplicated manner. Providing psychologically sustainable options can be merged with more traditional management techniques for getting the work done to improve both the productivity and sustainability of the workforce in the structured environment.
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