ABSTRACT

In deciding on priorities it is essential that potentially competing priorities are kept in balance. The time-scale for decision-making is the main control. For social care managers time-scales will often be tight. One way of categorizing styles of leadership is by drawing a distinction between the amount of direction and the amount of support that a leader should provide, given the work situation and the staff group. Managers use both forms of leadership, to varying extents, depending on the situation and the particular member of staff. Managers can be beset by change in their daily lives at work and heavy demands in terms of their working relationships. Delegation, giving to the lowest level possible the authority to carry out work, is a concept to which most managers subscribe. The nature of managerial work, combined with failure to plan, can set up a vicious circle in which the absence of planning becomes a reason for the absence of planning.