Management of Provision in Early Years Setting - Essay Example

Critical Analysis of the management of provision in Early Years Setting Name Institution Course Tutor Date The quality of management of early years setting has a direct link to the quality of early year provisions. Effective early years setting is characterized by strong leadership and management with low level of staff turnover. In this case, the setting normally comprises of managers and practitioners who share a common vision that guides their practices (Ang 2012). A manager is a person who is responsible for ensuring that the management process is achieved. In particular, he or she involves in making plans and decisions, organizing, supervising, controlling finances, and other activities in the organization (Cieslinska 2007). The role of a manager in early year settings is very important and determines the quality of management provision. This essay discusses the role and responsibilities of a manager in leading a team and managing change in the early years setting and how effective he can manage the setting despites possible challenges to ensure quality management provision. The essay also highlights the government early years policies that have influence on the management provision in the setting. First, we should understand the key aspects of the role and responsibilities of managers in early years setting, in respect to leading a team and managing change. Leading a team effectively requires leaders to be dynamic in nature. A team is meant to work together to achieve shared goals of the setting (Robins & Callan 2009). Dynamic leaders understand how to build teams and are effective members of a team who carry out their responsibilities as required and show loyalty to members of the team (Robins & Callan 2009). They set the stage for the success of the team by providing a positive atmosphere and relevant information. When leading a team, managers have to share leadership on a team and sometimes accept to become followers (Muijis et al 2004). The key aspects of team building include communication, conflict management, celebrations, community, common purpose, connections, commitment and building a team for leadership excellence (Ang 2012). How these elements are coordinated by mangers determines the success of a team. On the other hand, change is an important element of continuous improvement in quality of management provision. Any methodology a manager uses to improve provision of services involves bringing in change and measuring the impact of the change (Cieslinska 2007). In early years setting, it is recognized that effective management of change helps support quality management provision (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva 2008). To effectively manage change, managers need to engage others in improvement, communicate the change, motivate and share information and results (Robins & Callan 2009). These are also considered as important aspects of change management which when utilized lead to effective management provision in early years setting (Ang 2012). These aspects of managers’ role and responsibility concerning leading a team and managing change are the basis for the critical analysis of the same. The manager in the early years setting acknowledges that many institutions of education consider leadership in a paternalistic perspective where a leader acts as a benevolent ruler who is responsible for making all significant decisions that affects the organization, controls the information, thinks on behalf of others and direct all organizational activities to his or her convenience (Thoren 2005). In addition, the staff works according to the instructions and seek solutions from their leader (Thoren 2005). The way in which the manger leads his team in the setting is different from this frustrating approach to leadership. While leading his team, the manger encourages open communication, receptive listening, partnership and mutual respect for all the members of the team (Siraj-Blatchford & Manni 2008). As a leader, he treats team members as adults and responds to their thoughts kindly. The manager has established and maintained a healthy team of workers by allowing team members to discuss issues and act as partners not only for the good of themselves, but also for the good of the entire setting (Thoren 2005). Leading a team that is interested in managing itself is a challenge to manage. However, the manager of the early years setting finds his team to be well organized with each member having well-defined functions and they are encouraged to monitor and manage their individual performance (Druskat & Wheeler 2012). Interestingly, members of the team the manager leads do not wait to be told what to do. Instead, they take their own initiatives to collect and synthesize information and make important decisions. They also take collective responsibility as a team for achieving their goals (Muijis et al 2004). The manager of the setting attributes the corporation of team members to his strong leadership capabilities. However, this does not mean that there is smooth flow of activities in the team. A few members of the team are sometimes less corporative and this becomes difficult for the team to accomplish their goals. Nevertheless, the manager of the setting tries to ensure that team members put the vision of the team above their individual goals (Ang 2012). He emphasizes that team members should accept one another and their differences, and work in unity to achieve the goals of the setting. The ability for the manager in the early years setting to lead his team effectively is influenced by the leadership behaviours and activities he exhibits, which focus on team empowerment. They include relating, persuading and scouting (Druskat & Wheeler 2012). In relating, the manager ensures that he moves back and forth within the team to build good relationship among team members. To achieve this, the manager cares for the members of the team, builds trust and socializes freely with them (Siraj-Blatchford & Manni 2008). While it is necessary to give team members the opportunity to make decisions on their own, the manager also persuades them by influencing the team to accept decisions that suit the needs of the entire setting (Druskat & Wheeler 2012). He also acts as a scout when leading his team by diagnosing behaviours of team members and exploring problems systematically to find the best ways to solve them. Considering how the manager leads his team, it is evident those managing early years setting requires team work from all members of the setting. Leaders should not leave their beliefs destroy the spirit of team work in early years setting and how they interact with team members (Siraj-Blatchford & Manni 2008). This also informs that me that managers should use paternal approach when leading a team in early years setting. In deed, the manner in which the manager handles his team supports literature on early years setting. According to Thoren (2005) leading a team requires giving people the opportunity to act on their individual initiatives in making important decisions. He affirms that leadership concerns partnering and creating an optimal environment for team members to grow. People experience various changes in life. These changes can be positive to an extent that they help people move on and explore different things (Linke 2010). The changes can also be difficult forcing individuals to give up things they are used to and love, and be forced to risk failure in attempting something different (Linke 2010). This is the scenario the manager in the early years setting encounters in his role as a manager. The ability of the manager to cope with and make the best out of the changes that take place in the setting depends on support from other workers. To successfully drive change in the setting, the manager begins by creating the vision which acts as a guiding point to where they want to be as an institution (Aubrey 2011). This is of course comparative to competitors in the same industry. He understands well that being an agent of change, he must build a future vision that focuses on the energy of his workforce. In particular, this vision must be comprehensive adequately to provide direction on the best the setting can fill the gap to the future (Linke 2010). This works well for the manager and it is the reason why he has been successful in driving the early years setting to greater heights. The manger considers change as a core value to the early years setting. He uses the feedback from parents, improvements developed from the setting and other feedback from external sources, such as stakeholders to initiate change (Wilson, Perman & Clawson 2008). He then links these initiatives of change to efforts to promote the general performance and efficiency of the early years setting (Aubrey 2011). Commitment from other managers right from the time the change is introduced up to when it is implemented also contributes a lot to the success of change efforts in the setting (Wilson, Perman & Clawson 2008). Managing change effectively in the early years setting requires the manager to understand all the variables at play; this is why he allocates enough time to implement any proposed changes (Thomas, Sargent, & Hardy 2011). However, the manager faces the challenge of handling emotional issues of workers that are associated with change. According to Peus et al (2009) change in the organization has an aspect of loss which is inherent in the change process, and this loss is deeply experienced by employees. The emotional states are demonstrated by employees in behaviours and they affect the change process in the setting. The emotional states the manager battles with when managing change include denial, resistance, anger, frustration and despair (Wilson, Perman & Clawson 2008). Denial is the first state of emotions that develops in workers during change, which is usually associated with fear and mistrust (Peus et al 2009). However, the manager tries to encourage the workers to accept the change by instigating trust-building activities. Some employees, after experiencing the state of denial become resistant to the change process. This is the normally the most challenging state to the manager. When expressing resistance, employees tend to slow down or sometimes disrupt the change initiative (Aubrey, 2011). Usually, the manager identifies resistance among employee whenever it occurs and invents appropriate strategies for defeating it. This informs us that it is important to consider how the change process will affect individual employees before initiating the process. Generally, individuals in the early years setting are the most significant resources, risk, barrier and supporter of when managing change (Thomas, Sargent, & Hardy 2011). The type of emotions displayed by people in the setting depends on the level of support and consultation done by the manager. When the manager develops awareness of these reactions to change he will be in a position to respond accordingly to the concerns expressed by employees (Peus et al 2009). It is possible that the manager encounters resistance due to attempting to do a lot of things at once. Definitely, this is likely to be an obstacle to the change process as it can create confusion among workers in the setting. According to Wilson, Perman and Clawson (2008) managing change successfully requires managers to instill a sense of confidence in the change process. The government has established various policies which the manager has to adhere to when managing provision in the early years setting. In fact, the policies influence how the manager manages the setting in a number of ways (Penn 2007). The government insists on supporting children having special educational needs. Such children should be included in the education system and to be treated equally like other children. In this regard, the manager of the early years setting should ensures he works closely with his workers to support inclusion of children with special educational needs (Everett 2010). This means that he should seek support from other managers and staff to initiate changes that favor inclusion of children with special educational needs in the setting. It is upon the manager to ensure that he puts in place the right educational arrangements for children and develop an effective inclusive program that takes into consideration the needs of children that require special education. The manager should ensure joint responsibility with stakeholders to the setting for enhancing special educational needs. Another requirement by the government in management provision in early years setting is to seek the consent of parents whenever implementing services that affect children (Everett 2010). The manager of the setting should realize that gaining parental consent when initiating changes that affect children is an important ethical principle and legal requirement. Therefore, the manager has to involve the parents in the change process to ensure that they are aware of how the changes will affect their children in the future. The parents have to appreciate and understand the implications, facts, as well as future consequences of any change. Therefore, it will be wrong for the manager to introduce changes that affect children without involving their parents in the change process. In conclusion, the manner in which the manager of the early years setting plays his role and responsibilities determines the quality of management provision. Some of the roles and responsibilities of the manager discussed in the essay include leading a team and managing change. In particular, the manager ensures that he coordinates the activities of his team and also seeks support from all employees in introducing changes that benefit the setting. The manager ensures that the activities of the setting are managed effectively despite possible challenges. The government emphasis on inclusive education and parental consent influence how the manager should manage the early years setting. All in all, I have learnt that effective management provision in early years setting requires visionary and dynamic leadership and management. 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