supposedly created to oversee the police and ensure they are answerable to the local community) had previously had a position of responsibility for children's and young people's services in Rotherham council. It was reported that council workers had been reluctant to pursue repeated claims of abuse and violence because they were scared of being seen as racist and of damaging ‘community cohesion'. Suppression and disregard of evidence was aggravated by political sensitivities. Some council workers clearly believed that revelations could attract the attention of extremist political groups. Political tensions in the local region skirted around a 'politically inconvenient truth' that people in leadership roles were keen to hide. This distressing case draws attention to the interplay between leadership, culture and politics across a range of organizations and agencies. The official report (Hay, 2014) concludes that over the 12 years covered by the enquiry, 'the collective failures of political and officer leadership were blatant' (p. 1) and that, ‘it is hard to believe that any senior officers or members [of Council] from the leader and Chief Executive downwards, were not aware of the issue. Most members showed little obvious leadership or interest in CSE [child sexual exploitation] …..” (p. 101). It is perhaps relevant to this case that from 1997 there had been five chief executives of the council plus one acting chief executive and there had also been regular staff turnover in a 'director of safeguarding' role. Responding to questioning during the inquiry, former chief executives claimed that their 'overriding priority' had been economic regeneration; which might indicate that other problems, even of the most serious kind, were given a lower priority. Organization culture also fuelled this particular fire. Some senior councillors were described as aggressive and intimidating and the 'overall culture' was described as ‘macho' and sexist to the
supposedly created to oversee the police and ensure they are answerable to the local community) had previously had a position of responsibility for children's and young people's services in Rotherham council. It was reported that council workers had been reluctant to pursue repeated claims of abuse and violence because they were scared of being seen as racist and of damaging ‘community cohesion'. Suppression and disregard of evidence was aggravated by political sensitivities. Some council workers clearly believed that revelations could attract the attention of extremist political groups. Political tensions in the local region skirted around a 'politically inconvenient truth' that people in leadership roles were keen to hide. This distressing case draws attention to the interplay between leadership, culture and politics across a range of organizations and agencies. The official report (Hay, 2014) concludes that over the 12 years covered by the enquiry, 'the collective failures of political and officer leadership were blatant' (p. 1) and that, ‘it is hard to believe that any senior officers or members [of Council] from the leader and Chief Executive downwards, were not aware of the issue. Most members showed little obvious leadership or interest in CSE [child sexual exploitation] …..” (p. 101). It is perhaps relevant to this case that from 1997 there had been five chief executives of the council plus one acting chief executive and there had also been regular staff turnover in a 'director of safeguarding' role. Responding to questioning during the inquiry, former chief executives claimed that their 'overriding priority' had been economic regeneration; which might indicate that other problems, even of the most serious kind, were given a lower priority. Organization culture also fuelled this particular fire. Some senior councillors were described as aggressive and intimidating and the 'overall culture' was described as ‘macho' and sexist to the
Chapter13: Leadership
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 6CRQ: Blake and Moutons work with the Leadership Grid® identified several leadership types. What are...
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