Leadership in Multi-professional Setting in Leadership and Management

Question:-

Write a paper on the Leadership in Multi-professional Setting in Leadership and Management

Answer:-

Multi-professional or multi-disciplinary setting involves coming together of different professionals from different branches of knowledge. In such a setting a leader has to recognize the contribution of other professionals as well as the contribution of the parents in the child’s learning and development. Such leaders assist the practitioners to understand their role in providing specialized support to the parents. This process is known as integrated working. It is also a legal requirement as mandated by the UK Government that all such professionals who work for the benefit of children should work together (Close, 2012). This further increases the complexities of leadership in education because every professional needs to find common grounds to work together while battling professional and personal barriers in creating an integrated work environment. Effective leadership in multi-professional setting ensure that children do not suffer sue to gaps in services. Leaders have to decide what kind of practical actions are necessary to ensure the required support. Leadership in multi-professional setting involves four different attributes, embracing, empowering, involving, mobilizing and in extreme cases, manipulation and politics. The role of leadership in this case extends to establishing vision and direction to the overall integrated services for the children that also include the involvement of parents and families, improvement in the accountability of those involved in the services, ensure standardized service quality at all times and engage in strategic collaborations. The main motive behind such leadership is the inclusion of all children by maintaining flexibility of services so that the changes in the children’s requirement can be readily made. It involves creating an effective team of staff and practitioners who are well aware of the developmental needs of the children. Such leadership involves family members as they are the key sources of information about the children and the deep-rooted issues, if any, faced by them. Data processing for communication forms an important part of leadership in a multi-professional setting. The leader has to ensure that data regarding each child’s learning style, educational requirement, changes in attitude etc. is duly noted and collected by the responsible team so that the same can be used later to gain valuable insight into the child’s developmental needs. Also, through such communication, leaders can address the complexity issues in the setting and ensure improved quality of services (Anning, 2010). A leader uses knowledge, skills and rationality to make all participating groups aware of the activities that are supposed to be performed with the children. A leader not only takes differential approach to acknowledge differences and create an inclusive environment for the children but also takes the same approach with the involved groups. For example, the leader would decide how information passed on to the professional differ from those to the parents and families in terms of the mode and tone of message. In a multi-team setting a leader has to implement distributed leadership style so that no form of discrimination takes place for any child as per their needs which are impacted by their cultural, religious, ethnic backgrounds and also disabilities, if any.

As my team and mine strive to provide quality childcare at all times. We consider parents as important part of the process and regard them as extended team members who can provide us with important feedback on their children’s development as well as our methods. The feedback activity is the highlight of our multi-professional setting. As a leader I am always open to suggestions as well as constructive criticism from my team. I also organize monthly meetings with the parents where the entire staff is also present and parents provide us with feedback on our methods as well as the child’s development back home.    

Barriers to Multi-professional Setting

While effective leaderships bring out the benefits of multi-professional setting, there are several barriers to this approach which must be considered. Firstly, there is the issue of professional identity, professional status and professional discretion and accountability. Professional identity is about the self-perception of the professionals. Their perception about their abilities and job role impact the way they provide services. Professional status refers to the distribution of powers through the hierarchies which can lead to egoistic attitudes and transfer of responsibility to the perceived “less-powerful” professional down the hierarchy. Professional discretion and accountability refer to the effective or ineffective use of discretionary powers of a professional. For example, discrimination on the basis of job roles or gender, such as helpers or assistants are perceived to be of lower status as compared to teachers or education of the girl child is considered less important as compared to the boy child (Anning, 2010). Difference in professional and personal values are also examples of these barriers. Also, the education sector has extremely political attributes where the perceived and actual power can dominate services. From recruitment to provision of services influence can play a major role. Therefore, it might become a challenge for those leaders who actually want to bring a change in the system and overcomes the gaps in education of the early learners. With the desire for providing quality education it is also necessary to consider the pre-conceived notions of the other team members which should be addressed for a fruitful collaboration. There could be organizational barriers as well between multiple agencies or different members of the team. These include difference in legislations, training, management styles, professional values, geographical barriers, work conditions, level of trust, adherence to protocol, communication skills, lack of integrated space, confidentiality issues, different perceptions of professional activities etc.

I have faced a challenge in case of new team members or new professionals as there could be problems in adjustment to the new integrated setting. Also, those, who have not gone through transformation processes before, it becomes a challenge for them. Changes in the core team could be difficult as it could disturb the learning of the children as well as the comfort levels of the existing team members (Rodd, 2006).