Managing Staff in Early Years Settings

Ann Langston, Adrian Smith

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN:
  9781138142978
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134694853
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

This book draws on a wide range of management theory and shows its relevance and relationship to early years settings. Case studies are used to provide the starting point for reflection, and throughout the chapters you are asked to consider the examples, stand back, interpret and audit your own actions in order to develop your management skills. This book will assist managers and prospective managers by providing them with the tools to facilitate staff training sessions or to conduct personal enquiry into the working of their own organization.
Chapters cover:

• leadership and management
• teams and team building
• staff motivation
• managing change
• selecting suitable staff and effective interviewing
• staff assessment
• projecting and maintaining a positive image for your school or nursery
• managing conflict and stress.

Chapter 1: Leadership and management

This chapter focuses on:

Leadership skills Management strategies Time management

with examples of how you might improve your performance.

We introduce Gwen, a newly appointed head of a nursery school, who, though a good practitioner, has had little training in the management of others. The case study is designed to highlight some of the issues that professionals face in a new climate of diverse demands and external pressures. Through an examination of Gwen’s performance we will explore the differences between leaders and managers and invite you to consider some of the skills you will need to develop in order to manage others effectively. Each of the models discussed is followed by a personal audit for you to complete and at the end of the chapter you will find reference to further reading, should you wish to explore an area in more depth.

Leadership and management complement each other. They both require the ability to relate to people in a range of circumstances. Where they differ is with regard to change. Managers cope with the complexities and results of change while leaders inspire and initiate change. Both characteristics are important in the context of change within education, particularly at the pre-school stage, where the parent/client teacher/manager relationship is altering rapidly. In order for early years establishments to achieve the high standards expected of them, they must attract people who are capable of motivating others towards attainable goals: in short, leaders who will inspire loyalty and act as a driving force. The same person, however, needs to establish procedures for staff and make a rational and balanced assessment of current situations; she or he needs to be able to plan, to organise, to forecast and to control so that visions are turned into reality. As well as being a leader and a manager, the same person needs to be an efficient administrator who checks the tasks, procedures and resources within the organisation. The sort of person who can successfully lead others has to combine all three elements—leader, manager, administrator—no mean feat, and a little like spinning plates! The leader initiates the ideas and puts them into practice. The manager keeps them going and organises their progress. The administrator makes sure that they are achievable. As you examine the case study, you will see that in Gwen’s case, as for many people, there is a degree of overlap as she combines all three roles in her search for effectiveness.

Before beginning to read the chapter it would be useful to have a pencil and paper near you to complete the personal audit. We also suggest that you study the nursery layout (Figure 1.1) and staff list and backgrounds (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1 Details of staff

CASE STUDY

The nursery environment

This was once a quiet, well-established area but now an increasingly transient population live in the flats and converted houses surrounding the nursery. There are signs of urban decay, few amenities and limited transport links that make access difficult for parents.

Gwen

Young and ambitious, Gwen appeared the ideal choice as the new head of Goldstone Nursery. Six months later people were not so sure. Initially, Gwen had been very friendly with parents and staff alike, and people described her as ‘really human’ and ‘the sort of person you could take your troubles to’. Many of the staff began to say that they were glad that she had been appointed, although in the beginning they would have preferred Gloria to be the new head. Things began to change when Gwen began to be perceived as ‘moody’ and her behaviour changed from being friendly to ‘bossy’ with the staff. Furthermore, membership of various Local Education Authority (LEA) steering committees in her first headship caused concern regarding her long-term commitment.

Figure 1.1 Goldstone Nursery

Gloria

Gloria, the teacher in Red Room, had been at Goldstone longer than anyone, and was well liked. After much soul-searching Gloria applied for the headship, and was naturally upset by her own failure to get the post. She often pointed out Gwen’s faults to the other staff, saying it was clear that Gwen was not experienced enough to manage such a difficult nursery.

Gloria’s resentment had begun when Gwen had reprimanded her for not implementing a change to ‘milk times’, which, according to Gwen, would be more effective than the current procedure, where staff and children sat together for about 15 minutes quietly talking, drinking and eating snacks. Another issue that Gloria drew to the staff’s attention was the time Gwen spent elsewhere talking to other people instead of working alongside her own staff.

Misunderstandings and differences

The problems created by Gwen’s unplanned absences were many, and the staff began to notice incidents occurring that could directly affect children’s safety. An event that increased anxieties during one of Gwen’s absences was when a member of the public called to say that a child was crying in the patio area, where nobody was on duty. According to Gloria this was the direct result of Gwen’s absence. As Gwen’s deputy Gloria knew she was responsible for what had happened, but she felt let down by Gwen and felt that the situation was Gwen’s fault. Gloria decided not to tell anyone about the incident and planned to supervise the nursery more carefully in future, regardless of whether Gwen was there or not. As a result she stopped access to some areas at certain times, particularly over the lunchtime period when staff were in short supply. Registration was another area of disagreement where Gloria felt justified in keeping children seated for a considerable length of time while staff checked the register.

Following this incident, Gwen was furious to find all outdoor provision deserted when she brought round a party of visitors on what was the hottest day of the year. Fifty children and four staff were cooped up in the two large rooms with barriers across the doors to prevent children going into the garden.

Gwen’s response

Gwen held a staff meeting soon after this to share her feelings with staff. Diane, who was usually very mild, blurted out that the staff no longer knew what they were up to and they had decided that, in the interests of the children’s safety, they should plan around Gwen’s constant absences. After the meeting Gwen began to reflect on the past six months since taking up her appointment. She felt that things had been going quite well although she knew she had been over-friendly at first with the staff and, after several incidents in which people seemed to be taking her for granted, she had become more distant with both staff and parents. Reluctantly, she had to concede that things were not progressing so well and that some of Diane’s criticisms might be justified. Finally, she admitted to herself that she didn’t always feel fully in control and reflected that it was no wonder that staff made up their own rules.

REFLECTION (I)

Think about Gwen’s behaviour and try to identify:

What went wrong?

Why it went wrong?

Management style

From the case study you can see that the staff reaction was a direct consequence of Gwen’s performance as a manager. In order to identify how to resolve issues such as these it is important to begin by reviewing Gwen’s style of leadership. In order to do this it may be helpful to consider the following definitions of leadership and management:

Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an organised group towards goal setting and goal achievement.

adapted from Stogdill, R. (1974) Leadership, membership and organization

Leadership—The behaviour of an individual when s/he is directing the activities of a group towards a shared goal.

adapted from Fiedler, F. (1967) A theory of leadership effectiveness

Management—Working with people to plan, organise and control activities in order to accomplish agreed goals.

adapted from Fayol, H. (1986) General and industrial management

Clearly all definitions include a degree of overlap, a point discussed by Yukl (1989) who quotes other sources in suggesting that ‘managers are concerned about how things get done, and leaders are concerned with what the things mean to people’. Thus, leaders appear to have a stronger influential role among people, one which increases commitment, whereas managers carry out their responsibilities according to their position and exercise authority. Shea (1993) has attempted to highlight these subtle differences, as Table 1.2 shows.

Looking back at the case study, we can apply these rules to Gwen’s behaviour (Table 1.3).

Similarly, if Gwen had examined her role as a manager—as shown in Table 1.4—she might have found gaps.

Table 1.2 The roles of leaders and managers

Table 1.3 Gwen as a leader

Table 1.4 Gwen as a manager

REFLECTION (2)

How often does your current behaviour fall short of the ‘ideal’?

Whether as leader or manager the following general guidelines may be useful in identifying ways to change current behaviour to match your ideal behaviour:

• Remain flexible to ideas within the school or nursery and amend them (rather than abort them without a very good reason).
• Scan the environment and encourage staff to consider new ways based on the practices seen in other schools and nurseries.
• Refine the ideas from outside, be creative in transferring and amending programmes to fit into your targets.
• Provide regular feedback for staff based on visitors’ comments as a means of support and further action.
• Create opportunities for team work and leadership in those areas where staff feel confident.
• Develop staff autonomy through a culture of openness, loyalty and improvement.
• Record individual responsibilities and publish realistic goals for all to share.

Audit yourself

Use the information in Tables 1.3 and 1.4 to help you identify your own behaviour by completing Figure 1.2.

So far we have looked at specific skills. Below are some broad descriptions of desirable managerial qualities taken from Hickman and Silva (1988), whose text Creating Excellence provides a fresh approach to the role of the leader. As they say, the one essential characteristic of the New Age is change, of which everyone in education has ha...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Figures
• Tables
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Leadership and management
• Chapter 2: Working with others
• Chapter 3: Teams and team building
• Chapter 4: Maintaining staff motivation
• Chapter 5: Managing the challenge of change
• Chapter 6: Communicating the vision
• Chapter 7: Selecting suitable staff
• Chapter 8: Effective interviewing for selection
• Chapter 9: Adding to the value of the workforce
• Chapter 10: Caring for customers
• Chapter 11: Managing conflict and stress
• References