Importance of Effective Leadership in Non-Profit Organizations

Research

Case Study: Everyday leadership decisions can have an impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of functioning teams.
 

The assignment deals with a case study that highlighted the importance of management style for the effective performance of an organization. The case study focuses on to a non-profit organization namely Helping Hands. The study highlighted the fact that Dharma, the owner of Helping Hand has able to manage the company over the period of five years very effectively. However, economic down turn has increases the need for the services from the organization, which Helping Hand has found extremely tuff to manage properly. However, the increase in the need has induces Dharma to take some emergency management decision so that the company can able to handle the crisis. The study mentioned the fact that the focus organization has faced issues in managing this increase need because of the lack of training and knowledge of the employees. In fact, one of the trusted volunteer of the organization Mark was so much disappointed with the management that he does not want to work for the company anymore. This induces Dharma to rethink about the implemented management strategy so that the organization can able to handle both internal as well as the external challenges much more effectively.

According to Shao, Feng and Hu (2015) leadership is a process that has the capability to influence an individual or group of employees to give their best effort so that the organization can actually able to achieve the goal of the organization. Decision making process is one of the major tool for implementing effective leadership or management style for the company. In this case study, it was mentioned that Dharma who is the owner of the Helping Hand has able to manage the company effectively before the increase in the need for services has arise. However, management of Helping Hand has tries to implement strategies to fill up gaps s that the organization can somehow manage the crisis (Gosling et al. 2012). Therefore, Jenny was given the responsibility to manage and train the volunteers without any proper training. This has created difficulties in the internal organization process. Since, Mark mentioned that Jenney’s leadership has created groups or division within the members of the organization. In fact, Jenny was found to criticize employees publicly even for minimal mistakes.

According to Renko et al. (2015) the concept of leadership is continuously evolving as organizations have to face different types of challenges every day. As a result, leaders or managers of an organization have to have specific set of skills and knowledge in order to overcome difficult situation of the organization much more effectively. However, Helping Hand does not provide enough training to Jenny on the kind of approach she has to take so that the organization can able to motivate all its volunteers to give their best effort to achieve organizational goal (Sehrawat and Sharma 2014). As a result, Jenny’s leadership approach has gone in completely different direction as compared to the organizational goals. It was found that in spite of encouraging the volunteers to give their best for the organization, she behave rudely with the volunteers, which completely de-motivated all the employees. As opined by Saleem, Saqib and Zahra (2015) no organization can work effectively without having motivated employees. Therefore, it can be said that the prime difficulties that Helping Hand is facing is because of the ineffective leadership or man management style. Hence, Dharma or management of the company will have to restructure its present level of leadership style so that the company can able to manage the present level of crisis. 

Analysis

According to Solomon, Costea and Nita (2016) leadership is arguably the most important factor within the organization. Since, it has the capability to utilize all the resources of an organization in such a way that it can able to meet the objective of the company. As mentioned earlier, Helping Hand needs to restructure its leadership style in such a way that it can actually able to motivate all its volunteers to achieve organizational goals. According to Mwenda and Wachira (2015) employee motivation not only helps the organization improve present level of efficiency but also have positive impact on the communication process among the employees. Effective communication helps organization to develop cohesiveness among the employees. In addition, Helping Hands deals in the non-profit sector. Therefore, most of employees of the organization work as a volunteer. Therefore, management style of the organization will have to be develop in such a way in which all the employees can able to feel them as an essential part of the organization (Lamdin 2012). This not only increases bonding between management and volunteers but will also induce them to give their best at the workplace so that the organization can actually able to fill up the increase in the need of the society.

As per the article by Wilson and Thompson (2014) developing team for handling the responsibility of the organization is one of the prime objective of the leaders. Specifically, in the non-profit organizations, team development is extremely important. Since, the prime objective of the company is to provide help for the society. It demands the entire organization to be on the same page (Cunningham, Salomone and Wielgus 2015). Otherwise, the company might not able to fulfill the objective. In case of Helping Hand, Jenny’s rude behavior with the volunteers has created many groups within the organization. It highlighted the fact that the management has selected wrong person for the providing training to the employees. In addition, lack of communication between Jenny and Dharma is also can be identified in this study, which created a major negative impact on the leadership style.

As per the article by Hackman and Johnson (2013) the capability of leaders is tested at the most when they have to manage employees of an organization that is going through the transition period. In this case also Dharma’s leadership style was found to be not worthy as one of the senior volunteer of the company has express to leave the organization. To implement any change or increase the responsibility of the employees, management first have to estimate the kind of future impact this can made on the employees motivation level. The management also does not express any concern before selecting an individual for performing a particular management job (Style, Beale and Ellery 2012). As a result, the personnel found to be wanting at the time of execution of the organization plan. Hence, the case study highlighted the fact that leadership is a kind of skill, which not everyone has equally. Therefore, it is up to the management of the organization to implement right strategy so that the right person can be selected from the lot, which will help the organization to meet its objective.   

Conclusion

Conclusion:

The above analysis have identified the fact that the focus organization Helping Hand does not focus too much on the kind of negative impact that an ineffective leadership style can have on the daily processes of the company. Since, it has managed to see only success from the starting time of the organization. It might induce the management or Dharma to become a little overconfident that the company has the potential to handle any situation without proper guidance. As a result, Jenny was given the responsibility to handle the volunteers without any briefing from the management level on what exactly she has to do to perform her role effectively. It increases the stress level of Jenny. For obvious reason, no stressed-out management can manage any organization or a group of employees effectively, which happens in case of Jenny as well. As a result, Helping Hand has experiences volunteers whom are completely de-motivated towards their work. It also induces them to create sub groups within the organization, as they were not given the opportunity by the management to share their view on what kind of strategy that the company needs to adopt to manage this crisis situation effectively.     

From the above study, it can be identified that Helping Hands present leadership style will not help the company in any form to face the organizational challenges. Hence, Helping Hand firstly need to develop a develop a proper work culture within the organization in which every employees or volunteers will be given the opportunity to express their views and thoughts before implementing any important strategic decision. This is important because it not only affects the motivation level of the employees but also help the company to develop a team, which will work together to meet the organization goal of the company. In the present situation, the management first has to inform and educate the employees regarding the present situation of the economy so that the employee can able to understand the importance of giving extra effort for the well being of the society. The management also has to evaluate the future impact of any strategy before implementation. It will help the company to prepare to overcome the challenges of the implemented strategy much more effectively. The organization can also influence other people from the society to work for the well-being of the society. As it not only help to minimize the pressure from the present number of volunteers but will also have a positive impact on the implemented strategy of the company.  

References:

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Gosling, J., Sutherland, I., Jones, S. and Dijkstra, J. (2012). Key concepts in leadership. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Hackman, M.Z. and Johnson, C.E., 2013. Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press.

Lamdin, K. (2012). Finding Your Leadership Style. New York: SPCK.

Mwenda, L. and Wachira, A., 2015. Effects of Leadership Styles on Implementation of Organization Strategic Plans in Small and Medium Enterprises in Nairobi.

Renko, M., El Tarabishy, A., Carsrud, A.L. and Brännback, M., 2015. Understanding and measuring entrepreneurial leadership style. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), pp.54-74.

Saleem, M.A., us Saqib, N. and Zahra, S., 2015. Impact of job engagement and team processes on organizational learning: examining moderating role of leadership style. Studies, 4(1).

Sehrawat, A. and Sharma, T., 2014. Leadership and Conflict Management Style among Indian Managers. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 5(5), pp.145-152.

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Solomon, I.G., Costea, C. and Nita, A.M., 2016. Leadership versus Management in Public Organizations. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 11(1), p.143.

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Wilson, E.R. and Thompson, L., 2014, January. An Examination of How Leadership Style Influences Team Performance through Conflict. InAcademy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2014, No. 1, p. 11101). Academy of Management.