Effective Leadership Report: Case Study of The City of Kelsey

[bookmark: _Hlk27179602]The City of Kelsey has experienced a great amount of growth in the population in the past 100 years. This growth has led to a need to create a sustainable water supply. In order to sustain the growth, prepare and plan for future growth, the city of Kelsey is working on a way to maintain the current water supply and expand it for the future growth of the city. To implement this plan there are several things that must be taken into consideration. The first is the potential organizational challenges. The next thing to consider is the current culture of the government, along with how the mayor would influence organizations in the government. The final point to consider is the role the mayor has in promoting the empowerment of employees. Each of these points will give an insight into how the mayor can use effective leadership considerations for the water sustainability plan.

Potential Organizational Challenges

When it comes to the challenges that will be faced within the municipal structure can be simple with all of the work that needs to be done in the city rebuilding certain objectives that need to be discussed and to be planned to have a successful outcome to the different challenges. The main challenge that is can be the primary objective is to make each city held accountable towards the citizens of that city under the terms of management models and decisions. 'Over time, municipal roles and responsibilities have become more complex. The relationship between the Québec government and municipalities has been redefined and powers have been redistributed” (Fortin, 2018). Having the city management underway of rebuilding, many challenges are still faced due to the accountability that is being held by law under the “Bill 122”. Comment by Lyle Huffman: I apologize, but I am not sure about this entire section. There is no reference to the “City of Kelsey” or the issues at hand that were in the links for this particular paper. I am also not sure about the quote regarding Quebec and how it translates to Kelsey? There seems to be many issues being discussed in each sentence that do not align with our paper and how it affects the municipal structure of Kelsey. There is a reference to “Bill 122” but it was never introduced and I do not know what it is. The final quote of this section I believe fits perfectly. I would only ask that there be a page number or paragraph number added to the reference. I apologize for the bluntness, but we only have tomorrow to finalize. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Having proper economic prosperity, guaranteeing environmental responsibility, supporting social cohesion and ensuring efficient and effective management. Having the correct amount of economic health is extremely important you must be able to act on any debt services to refrain from the entire action plan being overrun by interest rates. The environment has always been a huge responsibility and the city must take notice of different ecological factors for different approaches. Switching up demographics is another great approach the citizens and tourists can have different interests and needs which makes it helpful for city management to adapt to change and have a plan to attract more citizens. 'One governance challenge that all municipal organizations will face at some time is the need to align the vision of elected officials with the administration’s capacity to implement that vision” (Fortin, 2018).

Current Culture

Currently, the city of Kelsey has a great culture within its government system. The city operates using the Mayor-Council structure and using this structure has proven to be very beneficial for the city. It allows for the mayor and other leaders within the city to develop and implement the ideas agreed upon by the government. This form of leadership and teamwork is what keeps the city of Kelsey functioning so smoothly and contributes to the growth of the city. It is great that the mayor and council agree upon the water sustainability plan because now it is their job to get other stakeholders on board prior to implementation. When the government of Kelsey is on the same page with its plans for the future all that is needed is stakeholders that believe in the mission of the government.

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Leadership Theories

The Mayor of Kelsey can be best served by utilizing the Life-Cycle Theory when dealing with the organizations within the city. A project of this magnitude that could take over ten years to complete will require a steadfast and true practice that can repeat itself after he/she is out of office. The idea of a successful implementation of a plan is the ability for the next group to pick it up and continue to run with it upon their involvement. The stakeholders are the most important tool for the Mayor to utilize during the project. There is an elected council that can be used to help find and garner support for new ideas and mitigate setbacks. The Planning Board is instrumental in the decision making to ensure the project has a seamless path to success. And the Conservation Commission helps pave the way with new ideas and legislation for consideration to help make the project a success.

All of these groups fit in the Life-Cycle Theory as they are made up of people who have the background and skills to make a difference. They are prominent people in the community that have a strong standing with their peers to effectively promote the ideas of new projects such as this one. “Mature groups have a higher capacity for accepting responsibility because they are well educated, experienced, and capable at accomplishing group tasks, and they have well-developed relationships with one another and with the leader” (Rainey, 2014, p. 342). In order for a project of this size that will surely result in increased user rates, it is imperative the Mayor develop relationships with the people in the groups that are tasked to help. Once there is mutual trust then the community can benefit as a whole.

Role of the Mayor

According to Rainey, (2014), the mayor serves as the figurehead for the city in which he is elected by the constituents, but the mayor serves all stakeholders including the public employees, most of whom are constituents. The constituents of the city look to the mayor as the person who is there to provide help and guidance for them in all aspects of municipal affairs. The mayor must work in collaboration with other public employees to be successful in the achievement of setting city goals. The mayor is responsible for communicating with all stakeholders in his city. The mayor shows how he views employees as a major factor in accomplishing what the city wants when he maintains an open line of communication between himself and the other public employees. This communication sends a message stating that the mayor and the employees will want to perform at higher levels and make decisions that benefit the organization when they feel they are a part of the organization and they are needed. Comment by Lyle Huffman: Is this a paraphrase or quote?

According to 'Study.com' (n.d.), “Employee empowerment is giving employees a certain degree of autonomy and responsibility for decision-making regarding their specific organizational tasks. It allows decisions to be made at the lower levels of an organization where employees have a unique view of the issues and problems facing the organization at a certain level” (Employee Empowerment: Definition, Advantages & Disadvantages). On a negative note, the performance of the employees can be affected when the mayor does not trust the employees to make the correct decisions or do the right thing. Employees need to be given the opportunity to show that they are a crucial aspect of providing high levels of service to the public they serve. However, according to Cohen, Eimicke, & Heikkila, (2013), the public as the main customer of the city government should be allowed to play a role in crafting and revising the city government’s performance standards according to this publication. This process connects “direction based accountability”, which is linking administrative goals with citizen goals, to “performance-based accountability.” The city’s customers help define the city’s criteria for success. Although government reform experts and proponents widely acknowledge the value of working with citizens in measuring and reporting performance, the practice is not that widespread (Heikkila and Isett, 2007). Comment by Lyle Huffman: Is this entire section a quote? If so, I feel like we will get dinged for a 200+ word quote as it will drive our plagiarism percentage way up on the overall paper. Also, I do not think it is cited properly and needs a page number or paragraph number added.

Conclusion

The City of Kelsey seeing the future of their water supply at risk has chosen to embark on a lengthy, and costly project. Over the course of the project, there will be many challenges the city will face. In order to face those challenges, they will need to ensure that all levels of the government and staff are working cohesively to promote each other and operate within a positive cultural setting. One of the many ways the mayor can help with this is to make sure that he/she is putting the proper pressures on the many groups and organizations within the city that are designed to help with the decision making processes. Finally, in order for the overall implementation to be successful, the mayor has to be at the forefront of championing the city’s employees and their continued dedication to the community. When all of these things come together then the city can and will have a sustainable water project plan and implementation.

Reference

1. Cohen, S., Eimicke, W., & Heikkila, T. (2013). The Effective Public Manager: Achieving Success in Government Organizations (5th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
2. Study.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://study.com/academy/lesson/employee-empowerment-definition-advantages-disadvantages.html
3. Rainey, H. G. (2014). Understanding and Managing Public Organizations (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.