Administration, Governance and Leadership Abilities

MAIN BODY

Within early childhood educational settings, it is necessary that effective services are provided to children, along with their parents in context of high quality education and arrangements that promote the overall cognitive and physical growth of an individual (Aithal, 2017). It is important that quality educational practices are preached, as well as adopted within the overall organisation and sector, that helps in provision of an appropriate education to all the children within the education setting in a prominent and more effective manner.

In relation to this, there are several elements that contribute to quality service provision in early childhood education settings (Sims & et. al., 2015). The very first element or indicator in this regard is the working environment of the organisation. A well facilitated working environment is a very prominent indicator towards provision of quality education within early childhood as it provides stability, sensitivity, as well as stimulating interactions of the professionals within the facility towards the children. Moreover, a good working environment also ensures engagement of individuals within the organisation that would appropriately result in delivery of better performance in terms of providing quality education to the students. For this purpose, the strategy of an organisation must be to develop workplace policies that would be subjected towards creation of an environment that is empowering for the staff of the organisation, as well as directed towards development of an effective plan for teaching, that facilitates learning and overall development of children. Another factor in this regard is training given to the professionals within the institution. This element requires the managers and leaders within the organisation to provide effective training, as well as development opportunities which would be subjected towards enhancing their knowledge, skills and competencies towards providing effective and quality education to children within early childhood settings. Moreover, the training which is provided to them is completely subjected to the skills such as communication, and persuasions, along with the way of teaching, which contributes towards enhancing the quality of service provision for the organisation. In addition to this, another contributing factor towards this aspect is the level of education which is obtained by professionals. The quality within services is highly dependant upon this factor, as it decides how best the subordinates are capable of delivering effective teachings to the students within the early childhood settings. Therefore, if the teachers are very well qualified and have necessary knowledge regarding how best to teach the students, they would be given the desired teachings to these students within the early childhood settings. Moreover, having enhanced knowledge in this relation would also contribute in an overall development of these children (Lopez, 2015).

Administration and Governance is an important area associated with leadership, where the former refers to the activity of running an organisation in an appropriate manner, the latter means all the procedures that are subjected towards appropriate governing the institution through several norms, laws, as well as legislations. Within this area, leadership is highly required in context of directing the workforce towards embedding this concept while providing appropriate teachings within the organisation. The importance of this topic could be highlighted by certain principles that are related to Administration and Governance. For instance, appropriate segregation of authorities, responsibilities along with proper maintenance of order must be achieved by the leaders and managers of the institutions in order to embed Administration. Moreover, as for governance, it is an important concept of leaders to follow as it promotes the implementation of ethics within the organisation, as well as structure the organisation in a way which adds value to the services provided to these companies.

For this purpose within this topic, there are certain issues which a leader must consider in context to these elements (Bolden, 2016). As an example, one prominent issue which is necessary to be accounted by the leaders is that high dependency upon the system might sometimes lead to inappropriate management, due to the fact that these might cause lesser communication within individuals that lead to formation of ineffective policies. Another issue in this regard is the corporate relationships between chairperson, as well as the principal of the school, which if not positive, makes it very difficult to appropriately establish governance within the company due to divided opinions (Garcia & et. al., 2017). As for several strategies associated with the same, one prominent factor that might lead to better implementation of Administration and Governance is related to ensuring accountability within the teachers of institution. This would lead to enhancement in responsibilities and ensure better governance. Another strategy is associated with better communication throughout the school, which would be amongst each and every individual connected within the premises. It would lead to facilitation of information in a faster way for better administration.

In addition to this, there are certain legal considerations in relation to Administration and Governance that must be taken into prime consideration, as directed by the National Quality Framework. For example, there are several rights which a child possesses that must be notified and adhered to by organisations. As an instance, decision making within the facility must impact children in a positive and progressive manner. Moreover, as for the people working in the organisation, the framework's guidelines have focused upon inclusion, equity as well as diversity, along with involving parents and enhancing best practice (National Quality Framework, 2016). A rather positive impact is exhibited by this framework upon the organisation in terms of Administration and Governance, as it helps the educational sector and the organisation in maintaining order, transparency as well as integrity amongst the models.

There are several theories and models which are related to this topic that are very much suitable in context of developing a better understanding, as well as applying leadership in this area in a better and structured manner. One of the most prominent theories which is relatable to the topic is Hayden's Model, which was adapted within 1996 and according to which, there are several hierarchies of competencies which managers and leaders must possess to effectively manage early childhood settings. According to this theory, several roles must be played by the leaders who are responsible for providing education to children. These functions are technical, staffing, client oriented functions, public relations, as well as, cultural and symbolic functions. All these functions are directed towards appropriately maintaining administration within the organisation (Reed & Swaminathan, 2016). This theory is very much effective as it segregates different roles which cover functions, such as, hiring staff, development of policies, creating a positive environment, dealing with children, development of curriculum, community advocacy, as well as, articulating visions and promoting a collective identity.

(Source: Early Childhood Professionals, 2004)

Another theory in context of the topic is Situational Leadership theory, according to which, distinct leadership styles must be adopted by leaders as per different situations and and development level of subordinates within the organisation (Beer & et. al., 2019). In this context, there are several leadership styles which could be adopted by leaders in an early childhood setting. The very fist leadership style is directing, which is adopted when skill level of subordinates is low. Furthermore, other leadership style is coaching, where support and directive behaviour both are high and requires effective reasoning and explanation of ideas. Participating style is another prominent approach where adjustments are made by the leaders in order to develop cordial and personal relationships with employees to ensure highly supportive behaviour with personal autonomy (Harris & DeFlaminis, 2016). Another prominent leadership style is delegating, which is adopted when the subordinates become highly competent and requires less direction and support to complete their tasks. This ensures appropriate governance as employees would be getting required insight as per their competence level and would be presented with opportunities for development that would be beneficial for them, the students as well as family and community.

(Source: Situational Leadership Theory, 2019)

Moreover, there is one other model that is very effective for the development of culture ad climate, along with effective communication, privacy as well as confidentiality within the organisation (Popescu & Predescu, 2016). This model is associated with the Dimensions of Organisational Climate, which is associated with different elements within the organisation and how they should work effectively. For instance, these are Collegiality, referring the extent of friendliness within the company; professional growth; supervisor support; clarity; reward system; decision making; goal consensus; task orientation; physical setting and innovativeness. It is necessary that each of the early childhood organisation exhibits these dimensions so that an effective environment, communication and transparency in information could be created (Harris & Jones, 2015).

As per the theories above, it becomes necessary that early childhood settings are evaluated and several strategies are drawn on the basis of these theories to ensure provision of leadership within Administration and Governance to ensure quality service delivery. For instance, as per the theory provided by Hayden, it is necessary for the leaders within the educational setting to adhere to the requirements of these multiple roles that are related towards appropriately deliver most effective leadership within the early childhood setting (Sotarauta & Beer, 2017). In this context, an essential strategy that must be applied within the organisation towards the leaders is effective training. This training would be subjected towards excelling their performance in all the levels of this theory. For instance, simulations could be used to train educational leaders towards functions like budgeting, purchasing and record keeping. Moreover, educational seminars could be introduced to deal with processes of performance appraisals, mentoring and supervision.

Another theory which could be turned into practice by the leaders within an educational setting is the Situational Leadership Theory. For instance, the leaders would be subjected to weekly or monthly meetings where skills and competencies of their team members would appropriately be communicated to decide the most apt leadership style. As an example, if the teachers possess limited communication skills and requires an insight of how best to deal with children, then Autocratic leadership style or directive leadership is required to be used by the leaders. Hence, meetings would be helping the leaders in enhancing transparency, communication and practice quite effectively.

Another theory that was related to the subtopics was dimensions of organisational climate. This requires an appropriate climate to be formed in context of high performance by leaders towards managing the firm's employees. For this purpose, a practical strategy would be to develop career development plans that would be subjected towards the performance of leaders on these fronts. These would be containing plans and performance standards for every leader upon certain objectives, such as clear and transparent communication, effective decision making, supportive towards professional growth, innovation and so forth. As to support this strategy, mentoring and controlling would be used by taking these factors as a benchmark to ensure that the performance standards of leaders are being met when they provide leadership within early education setting (Reed & Swaminathan, 2016).

CONCLUSION

Thus, it is concluded that critical analysis of leadership is very crucial to determine the approaches, styles and practices which leaders use to deliver several aspects of this concept. Moreover, description of a particular area and its examination is very important in order to gain an insight on that particular element. Lastly, examination and application of different leadership and management theories enhances the implementation of leadership practices and ensures that appropriate and effective leadership is developed, embedded and followed within education settings.

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