Introduction
Social support may be termed as the assistance that can be given from people. The community or people are the main social supportive resources. The supportive resources may be the emotional (for example nurturance), the tangible (for example financial assistance), the informational (for example advice), or the companionship (for example belonging). The Social support may be measured in terms of perception about other person’s available assistance and actual assistance received. It can also be measured by the degree an individual is involved in social network. The Leadership is an important aspect which is well-known in professional life of the people. The objectives achieved in a project depend upon the leaders’ quality. The people working with professionals might have an understanding that what types of the leadership techniques and styles be used for effective output. The managing style and working of a great leader plays a vital part to make the leadership effective.
Social Support in Workplace
The Support may from various sources, like family, pets, friends, organizations and coworker etc. The social support by Government is generally provided in the form of a Public aid. Giving social support to the subordinates is very important part in an organization and this is the main responsibility for good leader. Social support may mean that your relationship with your subordinate are good and there is cordial behavior between the two.
The different forms of social support are given as under:
- Social Instrumental Support: If you give your subordinates the instrumental support, it means you are assisting them with actual work which the subordinate ought to do. Perhaps the subordinates have the questions that how it is to be done, or there is lack of resources they required to do the task. By giving them with social instrumental support, actually you are replying their quarries so they easily can complete their work, and providing them with the tools which are needed by them to do the work.
- Social Emotional Support: If you give your subordinates the social emotional support, it means you are available for your subordinates in order to provide them a friendly competence. If they want to discuss any of the problems they are facing, you listen carefully and assist them to feel improved about the problems they have. You just make them assured that these people are not at all alone; perhaps similar problems are also there in your experience
The type of support given to your subordinate depends upon how friendly and warm relationship with your subordinate you have. If the relationship is intimate, then intimate kind of support may be provided. One the other hand, if the relationship is not very distant, you may then use a formal support to them. The type of support provided also depends upon the level of stress the subordinate is facing.
The kind of support you use will depend how intimate of a relationship you have with a subordinate. If you have a very intimate relationship, you may use a more intimate type of support. However, if your relationship is not very intimate, you may want to use a more formal type of support. The kind of support you use will also depend on the kind of stress your subordinate is experiencing .
Relationship between the social support and the leadership competencies
- Leading Others – The Social support is related Others Leading competencies. In order to have very good relationship with the subordinates you will have to be very comfortable while working with the subordinates. For this purpose Social Orientation is very crucial. For the purpose to help the subordinates, you will have to understand that why and how they act in your response. This is called Social Perceptiveness. The social support is to be provided to the subordinates to assist in order to perform better during their duties. At the end, by giving social support, the subordinates are encouraged positively and develop cooperative relationships with you.
- Social Responsibility – Some of competencies of Social Responsibility are very much related to the social support. This is called the “polity Open Door”. In this policy the subordinates are free to say their displeasures to the leaders without repercussions. The leaders may also give support in the form of attention to their requirements, empathizing on their concerns, finally act as per their interests
Good Social Support
The social support for helping lessen the stress is a very useful tool. After conclusion from many studies regarding social support, the researchers have finally concluded that the social support may be instrumental for preventing the unenthusiastic effects of the stress. The people or workers who get numerous social supports in fact experience little infection, and are more contented to their jobs and life style in general. They also have lesser psychological problems, and they do not experience the burnout feeling as other people do with the stress of same amount, but with very less social support. Although giving the social support completely cannot eliminate the side effects of the stress, yet it helps to manage these stresses .
Who to support?
It is pertinent to remember that all the subordinates of an organization will be needed with social support in different occasions. It has been evaluated by some of the researches that the people who good enough in providing the social support to their subordinates are more capable of receiving the same. If a subordinate among the others is socially adept and also provides his coworkers and you even with great social support, you may be inclined to give more support to that person comparatively to the others. His proficiency being social does not mean that you may forget the others as per their needs and desired.
What to Support?
Social support may be one of the preferences. One thing important to think is whether your subordinates want any social support from your side or not. Because some of the subordinates may need more social support than that of others do. The good leader is always the one who better estimates the needs of the people they wanted to be fulfilled. One should always focus to give the subordinates what they want. It is also important to know that more than the social needs of the subordinates may not be provided. This would reduce the efficacy of the support. The social support is very beneficial at the time when the stress on the subordinate is at the peak. The level of attention should be as per the employees’ stress intensity. The subordinate might be having stress at home or at work. If you feel that the stress level of an employees’ seems high than usual, or it is higher than the stress levels of other coworkers, try to get rid of the stress he has.
Social Support in Various Cultures
The type of social support to be provided to the people or workers of your organization is significantly dependent upon the people from various cultures, and also on a culture from which you belong. It also depends on location too. There are number of information given in various researches that highlights the differences in social support received and given across the cultures. So, when experiencing to work in any other country, or with the workers from various cultures, might be advantageous for you to ask about the social support’s level that is desired by your subordinates. The tendency and level of social support from various cultures to understand the concept are given as under ;
- The Japanese employees are likely to receive greater support from the leaders than that of American employees. This is because of a definite preference for support, or it may mean to pay attention to give social support or may be included as a role of a leader.
- The Dutch employees, on contrast, need a lower level of the social support by their leaders than that of the American employees. Again, preference could be the main reasons.
- The Hispanic employees, on the other hand, have been revealed more discernment than the white employees. This is the fact that when people do not receive more social support, from discrimination ill health will be the outcome. For this purpose, it is very important to note that the people must be provided with the social support irrespective of the ethnicity they have. In this context, special attention is also very important and it needs to be ensured that appropriate social support to cultural groups is provided who various discriminations in workplace is experienced.
- In the South Africa, black employees were most likely to receive social support from peers while the white employees to receive the social support giving by the leaders. This finding indicates that the special attention is to be given in the form of social support to the subordinates of various racial groups. It has been also shown that amount of the social support in the South Africa for leaders are less than that of Americans receive.
Social Support and Job Satisfaction
One of the most important challenges in the public management is implementing human effective capital strategies in order to increase accountability and government performance. Consequently, upon the performance and results from researches of public administration, government services and agencies of the government have highly stressed the effective management strategies of human resources like the team empowerment, job satisfaction, strategic planning and participative management.
Participatory Leadership in Workplace
There are numerous leadership styles being adopted by the leaders. There are many managers who implement varying leadership methods and styles for process management and for the employee. Every leadership style has its personal behavior, methods, aspects, and effects. One of the styles of the leadership is the participative leadership which is very significant style of leadership and is the most helpful to the employees and also beneficial for the managers as well.
As the word participatory suggests, that the style of the leadership should be participative and the method in this approach is by involving the team members during the process in setting the goals and making the decision. As there is complete involvement of the team members and the employees in every step management takes and this is the most beneficial management style used in business world. Although there is participation of the employee, yet the leader of the organization is given with the accountability of taking final decision. In this leadership style, the manager also works with the employees instead of working over the employees .
Effects of Participative Leadership
There are number of advantages of participative leadership in practice apparently and have been proven as well. A very significant advantage of participatory leadership is that the team members and employees are quite motivated to the work, as they realize the fact that the management is prepared to think about their viewpoints and suggestions. And this motivation in the employees and all the members of the team results in the form of effective and efficient work by the employees than expected. This ultimately has a tremendous result on the revenue of the company. Secondly, as the manager works like a member of the team and takes part in the process of decision making, and created an excellent impact on teamwork. Thirdly, several brains are being used on setting of goals and objectives for an organization, and for decision making as well. Therefore, an analysis of possibilities of failures is also carried out. Hence, the manager rules out any errors and possibilities of failures of the project. It means that a broader appraisal of the circumstances is worked out.
The ideal example of the participative leadership is that where a manager divides the activities and assignment of the project among the members of the team including him, thrash out the requirements of project and its expectations with other members and team leader, and at last the whole team including the leader work collectively as per decision. Surely, the Participative leadership increases satisfaction of employee, reduces the managers’ workload and generate better teamwork; eventually contributing a result oriented work in project .
Participatory Leadership and Job Satisfaction
The basic reality of the present global market is that the consumers’ expectations are quite high. The have various alternatives to fulfill their choices, and are also less loyal to the brand. There lies a difference in the leadership between the Autocratic leadership and the democratic or participative leadership. Autocratic leadership includes centralized making of decision and imposition of policies and ideas on the employees. On the other hand, in Participative leadership the followers or employees are allowed to persuade the decisions of leaders the final decisions for the organization. Participative leadership works on the rule of collaboration and consultation making sure that decision is appreciated and owned by the workers and all internal stakeholders.
The participative leadership gives an extensive range of the benefits summed up in best decisions, increased satisfaction of the employees, and the enrichment of skills of the workers regarding decision making; which shows the level of organizational learning and enhanced intellectual internal capacity. Decision making in leadership is the most tremendous function. If the workers or employees are capable of making decision then it will be beneficial for the organization because it might constitute a strong source of a competitive advantage.
Research Method
A questionnaire consisting of 10 relevant questions was prepared in order to get examine whether participatory leadership and social support influence the job satisfaction.
Conclusion
Questionnaire for Research (Tick correct answer)
Works Cited
Cropanzano, Russel S. and K. Michele Kacmar. Organizational Politics, Justice, and Support: Managing the Social Climate of the Workplace. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. Print.
Elsesser, Kim Marie. Receipt and provision of social support in the workplace: outcomes and gender comparisons. Los Angeles: UCLA, 2003. Print.
Kozey, Ryan Scott. The Impact of Social Support and Organizational Commitment on Network Centrality and Job Satisfaction in a Faith-based, Nonprofit Organization. Michigan: ProQuest, 2008. Print.
Manning, George and Kent Curtis. The Art of Leadership. New York City: McGraw-Hill International, 2003. Print.
Ricketts, Cliff and John C. Ricketts. Leadership: Personal Development and Career Success. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
