Housing Management Practice - Assignment Example

Critically consider how a reflective outlook can enable contemporary housing managers to function effectively in housing practice. Illustrate your answer with reference to specific features of housing management. Introduction The predominance of post-1945 British welfare state had streamlined the perception of the housing industry as bureaucratic, inefficient and lacks professionalism. Although the United Kingdom housing sector has undergone unprecedented change ever since, new public management reforms, policies and governance are in great demand more than ever. The most radical change considerations are not actually in the housing infrastructure building strategies as such but more focused on effective housing practices. In fact, contemporary housing authorities, and housing management proponents are of the view contemporary housing managers are the keys to driving effective housing practices as outlined by the government in the Egan Report (2004) or the expectations set by the Chartered Institute of Housing (2006). Moreover, different departments, authorities and scholars are emphasizing on the need for applying integrative knowledge, housing skills and competencies in housing management to improve service delivery, development and driving change initiatives. "Reflective practice" is a concept which Schon (1991) believes to be the key to managing indeterminate zones of professional practice, which practitioners are realizing is what needed in the housing sector. In the following section, the researcher shall evaluate how a reflective outlook can enable contemporary housing managers to harness current change environment. Discussion The UK housing sector is a public sphere with disparate departments and management practices. Although, the housing sector has been the provider of a large number of occupational groups of housing managers, their professional status is still at the rudimentary level. The success of social housing, according to Furbey, Reid and Cole (2001), has enabled housing professionals to develop organisational settlements characterised by managerial state but the challenge of weak housing management practices remain the same. The demand for managerialism, proposed by the New Labour community, is felt to be the need of the hour. Managerialism refers to a management style which stresses on "the role and accountability of individual managers, and their positions as managers" (Lawler and Hearn 1995, p. 8). Traditional public sector organization operations had focussed on welfare service with diversified arena to be covered under the umbrella department of "housing". Employment under this department faced the challenge of delivery of homes, maintenance, rent collection, and service delivery etc. They lack the training, education and professional development requirements for meeting the broad range of challenges which come their way to tackle evolving housing needs (CIH 2006). Through the Egan Review on Skills Development for Sustainable Communities (2004) one understands that the process of achieving sustainable goals puts emphasis on coordinating of responsible delivery of services, visionary leadership, effective planners, infrastructure providers, building professionals and strategists to secure the future of UKs housing sector. These characteristics in members are identified in the concept of managerialism. Generic skills of high standard, as well as effective teamwork, project management, process re-engineering, sustainable development and financial management skills are required to apply in local government offices and agencies to make a difference. This New Public Management approach (Walker 2000) is critical for establishing professionalism in the public sector. Moreover, central to the New Public Management theoretical framework is the process of externalisation and managerialisation. Externalisation refers to the exploration of external organisations such as housing associations and agencies for supporting housing management reforms while managerialism is more internal and property based approaches. Both these processes, according to Walker (2000), seek to recapture the welfare social service approach based on radical change management values, work and organization. In fact, experts are of the view that there is an intrinsic link between the effectiveness of reforms and the efforts expended in introducing new management practices (Walker et al 2007). Housing management, unlike other public sectors, has been provided with lesser resources as compared to social services and health, yet it has high potential of growth if backed with professional institutions, values, and improved management practices. While at the policy level, local government and national government agencies are responsible for planning sustainable communities, it is the managers in these organizations who are the key players in carrying out the principle work. For these reasons, the researcher is of the view that housing managers need to adopt a reflective management approach which recognizes the essential delivery of national vision, promote effective system of delivery, and drive change initiatives (Egan 2004). According to Schon (1983), reflective practice in management is imperative for housing professionals. These individuals, who are familiar with their environment, require tacit knowledge, the ability to use it in action, and be attentive to change requirements to be able to meet the challenges their work environment demand. By reflective approach, Schon (1983) means the managers consciousness in responding to situational problems and the ability to meet challenges based on certain assumptions. To demonstrate one can take the example of a building manager. The individual should be equipped with the ability to resolve situational crises; and need not rely on the long processes of paperwork to do so. He/she needs to implement tacit knowledge to the problem and resolve it according to his/her judgement. Tacit knowledge is basically skills or knowledge acquired in the course of experience, or training which enable the manager to reflect and take action when faced with a situation problem outside the scope of his/her responsibilities. Allen and Casey (2004) reflect on the same premise and are of the view that occupational groups succeed if groups possess and control access stock of knowledge. Housing managers are collective groups who are responsible for housing management paradigm yet traditionally they have been using generic knowledge and common sense in their work. The professional aspects have been missing which has resulted in low performance and less control over housing issues and problems. As a result housing managers have been restricted in their ability to control, manage and deliver quality performance. A reflective approach would enable them to develop a sense of involvement in their work. Occupational involvement is critical in management work, according to experts (Child 1981 qt. Cooke 2006). Public management work can be categorized into three categories: managers for activities, people managers, and function managers. Managers are distinct based on their occupational categorisation and organizational set up. Social group managers differ in performance and tasks from their counterpart managers working in the private sector, but they are both appreciated for their organizational position, position objective and managerial work. Hence, modern day managers roles are shaped by material subjects, individualism, labour and target control, discipline and a variety of performance outcomes (Willmott 1997). In the housing sector managerial work is emphasized by multi dimensional roles: their ability to sustain relationships; ability to manage in negotiations processes or to influence others; their ability to manage complex and interdependent departments; and their ability to take on roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. These roles are implicit in the position managers hold and the inter-organizational relationships based on dynamic organizational boundaries. The need to have a reflective outlook is critical in enabling them to efficiently and effectively allocate resources according to the situation, value, and benefit of the society (Lawler and Hearn 1995). A reflective approach to management also enable housing managers in dealing with contractors, clients and suppliers, if they belong to the category of inter-organizational relationship builders, and boundary-spanning agents (Cooke 2006). Managers are the middlemen who develop two parallel benefits for the client and supplier of the public housing organization. Their roles are dependent on day-to-day operational level, and are underpinned by their performance in keeping a tight reign over financial resources. They are the partners to public contractors who reconcile costs and profits, and develop informal partnership with local suppliers. The fundamental basis for the relationships they build with client and suppliers is to ensure quality of service is sustained and problem resolution with accordance to social values and information. In the housing contexts, they are the outsourcing managers, contract managers and service firm managers who are responsible for operational activities. These managers not only trouble shoot but they are also responsible for determining and delivering the housing needs requirements, contracting lead contractors, and the authority in resolving public and private housing sector issues. Apart from interpersonal skills, they need to have the ability to liaise between parties, project management skills, and performance based attitudes (Cooke 2006). While the above skills are generic, Whitley (1989) is of the view that organizations are unique, and managers should have the ability to deal with organizational issues on a firm-specific level. Managers need to be boundaryless, and have tacit knowledge to transfer their knowledge on the job. Mobility in knowledge accumulation is critical for todays managers, especially for those working in housing environment which is undergoing profound change. Indeed, according to the Chartered Institute of Housings Annual Report (2006), performance improvement require individuals and organizations in the housing sector to implement training programmes, conferences, and apply professional practice to develop knowledge and skills. Not only this, the CIH has identified the need to review professional qualifications for its members to set the pace for change, and invite individuals in the field to share their professional vision, roles and contribution towards sustainable communities. Professional practice is emphasized with the view to encourage managers in the housing sector to develop professionalism to help shape the national agenda of sustainable communities (CIH 2006). The CIH also encourages the development of programs which will propagate competence development. Competence refers to the individuals ability perform tasks or demonstrate professional behaviours in their organization and achieve the CIH level of expected performance. This criterion for developing competence among CIH members not only impresses upon the concept of skills and knowledge transfer from one area to another (CIH 2006), but also achieves the criteria for skills development set by the Egan Review. The Egan Review (2004) identifies there are three core groups of skills and knowledge which needs to be ingrained in housing professionals to plan, deliver and maintain sustainable communities. The essential professional skills include inclusive visioning, project management, leadership, teamwork, change management and process management. Professionals need also need to have knowledge of sustainable communities’ components, best environment practice, housing and built environment requirements, national and local economy as well as governance, citizenship and spatial planning practice (Egan 2004). To pursue these, professionals need to develop certain attitudes and behaviours including creativity, strategic thinking, can-do mentality, entrepreneurial attitude, cooperation, awareness to limitations and overcoming challenges, be flexible, respect for diversity, and committed to task completion. These are some aspects that need to be induced into the current education system or training environment for professional development of potential entrants and/or current professionals (Egan 2004). Clearly, a reflective practice would help achieve these aspects of sustainable built environment which the UK government aim to elevate its housing sector to. There are however, certain drawbacks in the reflective practice. While the reflective approach encourages application of tacit knowledge, reflective action and the use of common sense, current business environment demands autonomous decision making, cost interventions for effectiveness, and performance based on measurable denominations. This adversely affects the effective implementation of reflective practice. When managers are forced to curb their instinct to make critical decisions on the spot without the consultation of their peers or superiors, they are liable to be subjected to extensive investigations. The actual delivery of their service therefore is hindered. This culture of administration is predominant in the public sector organizations in the UK which also predominates in the housing sector. To change the perspective to management require change management, and change in job functions and descriptions to achieve performance objectives (Lawler and Hearn 1995). Moreover, the shifting culture of welfare state to market based valued has emphasized on the need for cost/efficiency performance discourse. In the public service arena this is hard to quantify and qualify, as the wider social context is blurred. For these reasons, reflective approach to public service delivery becomes difficult in the face of new managerialism, motivated by productivity, economic stringency and declining managerial control (Morley 1995). In such situations, empowerment through social relations, mangerialism and motivation help individuals to develop a sense of transformation from traditional to modern management practice but does not holistically address the problem of control, authority and independence in decision making, characteristics which are critical for reflective practice. Thus, a manager is helpless in implementing a reflective practice if tenants require survey remedial works, which require involvement of intra-organizational interaction, housing association and housing agents etc. In the course of this long procedure for performance, managers cannot really apply the reflective approach to managing customer requests and expectations (Croal, Ogden, and Grigg 2003). Conclusion From the above discussion researcher has come to the conclusion that reflective practice is important in todays changing housing management environment. It complements the evolving housing sector environment, demand and needs. Not only has it provided an important platform for basing management approach and performance criteria but also a highly dynamic approach to managerialism. Managerialism, which has traditionally been absent in the housing management practice, is now being recognize for its critical implementation in change processes, sustainable development and reengineering processes. Moreover, the reflective approach to housing management would induce professionalism and commitment to performance based management practice. By using tacit knowledge, reflective action and reflective practice, managers are able to efficiently carry out their roles and responsibilities as required by their clients, suppliers, peers and superiors. Yet, there is a downside to this approach not because it falls short of its discourse but because of the inefficient housing environment. On the one hand, sustainable community goals and improved management practices are the criteria for change enthused by housing authorities, agents and government, while on the other hand managers are limited in their scope of applying reflective approach to management by cost constraints, decision making frameworks and performance criteria. For these reasons, often holistic application of reflective practice is not feasible for housing managers unless the housing environment is changed to adapt to new management practice. These aspects lead the researcher to conclude that reflective practice though is a highly effective approach to management; it does not holistically cater to the needs and requirements of housing managers to carry out their functions in housing management. In fact, at times this approach is limited to encompass the public and social welfare service delivery requirements which characterise the UK housing public sector organizations. References Casey, R. and Allen, C. 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(1997) Rethinking management and managerial work: capitalism, control, and subjectivity. Human Relations, Vol. 50 No. 11, pp. 1329-59 Read More