**6. An integrated social work approach to organisational leadership**

As indicated earlier in the introduction, social welfare organisations and social workers employed in these organisations, deal with complex and dynamic social problems emanating from continually evolving human relationships. These organisations also comprise of employees with different needs, personalities and from different backgrounds. This therefore calls for a leadership approach which will fully and comprehensively respond to these dynamic and diverse situations. They require a leader who will develop different styles of leadership when the environment, the presenting problems, employees' needs and personalities as well as community and societal factors so require, while at the same time creating an enabling environment for subordinates to respond accordingly in addressing the issues presented by their client systems [2]. This section proposes an integrated approach to leadership as a suitable approach to leading a welfare organisation.

One of the central arguments purported in this section of the chapter is that an integration of all approaches to leadership is essential if welfare organisations are to effectively and efficiently respond to dynamic modern societal problems. Due to the dynamic and multifaceted nature of these problems, a leader may in one instance guide the organisation to respond to a particular part of a problem by drawing from the trait theories while in some instances a collection of leader-oriented theories may be adopted to guide an intervention. She/he may also consider adopting the women in leadership approach by "anointing" a woman to assume the position of leadership in order to address the gender imbalances and in line with societal expectations.

Thus, the need to uproot the presenting problems and to curb its further impact may in some instances call for an application of all leadership theories on the various dimensions of such a presenting problem while at the same time paying attention to the context in which such problems manifest. In other words, how a leader guides the organisation to respond will be determined by among others, the overall organisational mission, the type of personnel or subordinates that he is leading, the context of the issue presented at the time (the type of the issue (i.e. genderbased violence, sexual abuse, substance abuse etc.) or its extent (i.e. whether or not is considered a crisis). This suggest that leaders in welfare organisations should possess both qualities of leader-oriented theories and relationship-oriented theories as explained above in order to guide their organisations to respond whenever the situation requires.

An observation made by Druker is that effective leadership is characterised by eight characteristics [9]. A leader should acquire the needed knowledge in order to effectively lead. She/he should have the potential to determine what is required for the organisation and ensure that plans are put into action [9]. A leader must take a responsibility for decision making and always communicate effectively. She/ he should always focus on opportunities as opposed to problems, use time and resources efficiently and encourage team approach [9]. Looking at the above features, it is clear that an effective and efficient leader should possess the knowledge, ability and competency to apply the right approach at the right time. Such a leader will have the competency to assess any presented situation and guide the subordinates on how to respond based on her/his assessment. She/he should always have her/his "tool box" readily available at hand to immediately use the correct "tool" where required.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105586 Perspective Chapter: Leading Welfare Organisations from an Integrated Leadership Approach…*

### **7. Why an integrated social work approach to leadership?**

In laying the ground for the significance of integrated leadership approach, it is crucial to begin by Winston and Patterson's criticism of the conventional approaches to leadership as an examination of the parts of leadership and not its entirety, despite the importance of having a full understanding of leadership. They relate this practice to the story of blind men who describe an elephant by pointing at different accurate descriptions which are all insufficient to enable a full and comprehensive understanding of this elephant (i.e. leadership) and call for a more holistic approach to leadership [26]. An integrated approach to leading a welfare organisation is essential for a number of reasons. Firstly, the main reason is for a leader to steer the organisation in such a way that it adapts to societal dynamics which are continuously evolving.

Remember the organisation exists within these societal dynamics and some are even established mainly because of these dynamics. This implies that a leader should be knowledgeable and possess the competency and capacity to read the events as they unfold that often lead to various social problems. These events maybe political, economic, social, health or even technological in nature. We have seen for example the global osmosis of the refugees fleeing economic hardships and wars to seek refuge from various countries, causing welfare organisations to respond by repositioning their programmes and activities. The scourge of Covid-19 is another example which prompted several organisations to migrate to virtual mode of operation, while others resorted to adapting by observing the necessary precautions to mitigate the spread of the virus. The nature of a presenting problem as well as the diverse and unique nature of the client systems is another layer of factors that cannot simply be undermined if a leader is to steer an organisation towards its desired mission and objectives.

Within the organisational context there are some factors that also shapes and influence the functioning of such an organisation. It could be employees who are diverse in terms of the ages, cultures, genders or even educational levels or a general lack of funding to fully respond to some of the presenting problems through relevant programmes and projects. A blanket approach to leadership will clearly not always be an option for such a diverse organisation since some employees may benefit from being guided step-by-step on how to execute certain tasks while others who may be more experienced can quickly and confidently ride on their own even without guidance. Just like the societal or community context, the organisational context is also the crucial basis upon which the organisation's leadership should be based since in responding to these societal problems, it has to mobilise its diverse capacities and resources.

In striving to realise the overall organisational mission and objectives, the leader does so by steering the organisation through the societal context and the organisational context, using the various approaches and theories that are outlined in the preceding discussion. Her/his approach can be to adopt the leader oriented or relationship-oriented leadership approach. An explanation of these two categories of theories has demonstrated that leader-oriented theories consider leaders to possess certain features that no ordinary persons possess, qualifying them to be leaders and that relationship -oriented leaders tend to consider job satisfaction, motivation and work-life balance for employees to be central to effective leadership. A central argument submitted through this text is that both leader-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches should be central to a welfare organisation in a given circumstance, hence the call for an integrated approach to leading.

**Figure 1.** *Integrated approach to welfare organisational leadership.*

Some of the presenting problems such as a child abuse, rape, gender-based violence and others, are prioritised and categorised as crisis cases and may require a leader to lean more on the leader-oriented theories by for instance adopting autocratic approach in order to ensure full compliance with the rules, while others such as dealing with victims of disaster may require her/him to in addition to giving instruction and prescribing the procedures, also extend some kind of support to employees who are intervening in such cases to mitigate their emotional turmoil that may emerge. **Figure 1** above outlines an integrated approach to leadership within a welfare organisation.

As outlined in the above **Figure 1**, welfare organisation is considered to exist on the basis of community/societal as well as organisational context. It is somehow influenced by the factors that happen within a society and around the communities in which they exist. They are also influenced by its own internal factors that together with the societal or organisational ones, determine the correct approach to adopt in responding to a particular presenting problem in order to eventually realise the organisational mission and objectives.
