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Nowadays the society is facing lots of social issues such as terrorism, racism, homelessness, drug addiction and many more. In the UK, there are lots of vulnerable groups which suffer from these issues. It is essential to overcome these issues quickly as they not only affecting the individuals, rather have an adverse impact on their family and the entire society as a whole. The vulnerable group identified in this report is of homeless people. Homeless people are those people who are not able to pass five tests imposed by the UK authorities to qualify as statutorily homeless (Adair, 2010). Due to the lack of proper guidance and facilities, they get trapped into the drugs and other alcoholic activities. The present essay attempts to evaluate various leadership and management theories and concepts that prove to be beneficial in supporting the welfare of a group of homeless people.

About 83000 of people in the UK are estimated to be homeless. These people have to rely on charities and councils for basic shelter (Owen, 2015). These people so not have proper access to basic amenities of life including food, shelter and clothing. There is a rapid increment in a number of vulnerable people in the UK, which has further engendered many other social issues such as theft, drug addiction, and criminal activities. As homeless people do not have permanent accommodation facilities in the UK, and their family support is also negligible, they are highly exposed to the outer world in a negative manner (Adair, 2010). Therefore, it is of paramount importance to mitigate these issues quickly and effectively.

There are several communities like Orphanages, Old Age Homes, Child disability cares, Institutions, Spiritual missions. Rehabilitation centres and other support agencies that strive to work with the society to ensure that no child or individual is denied the right to shelter, food, education, care and protection (Hailey, 2006). Their mission is to build permanent families and have homes constructed to recreate family environment. These communities rely on the donors and sponsors who enable them to provide all the basic amenities and make a lasting change in their lives. Their main goal of these institutions is to reduce vulnerability and improve the quality of life of homeless people.

The external institutions emphasized in the present assignment are “Help The Homeless” and “Homeless International.” These two organizations can contribute significantly to bringing positive change in the life of homeless people by providing basic amenities, counselling and other supporting activities. Additionally, a team of NHS is also involved in providing useful guidance to homeless people and thus improving their quality of life. For wider approach, private residential rehabilitation centres are also included (as per the various areas or regions in the UK). These private centres are linked or certified with the NHS. The team of NHS certified psychologists is also the part of this supporting agencies group (Jeffs, 2008).

Theoretically, bringing them on the same platform for supporting homeless people seems easier, but practically executing and implementing the entire program is quite troublesome. The major challenge that can be witnessed when involving all these reputed institutions for a common goal is of the team working. The difference in opinion, ways of working, policies and strategies can cause conflicts among members which in turn can cause a delay in goal accomplishment. Thus, making alignment between all the supportive agencies for the benefits of the homeless people is essential and very challenging. Lack of coordination could spoil the ultimate aim of such improvement programs. (Hart and Waisman, 2003)

Furthermore, working with a team for a vulnerable group can prove to be challenging task – both at organizational and personal level. Supporting and managing disadvantaged members of the community requires working for long hours in highly volatile and uncertain political and economic conditions whilst utilizing limited resources. The agents or group needs to put a lot effort and resources towards the care, development, and upbringing of orphans and vulnerable people.

Apart from this, understanding the mindset of homeless people is also challenging as every agency have their parameters to deal with the problem. Therefore, in this situation, there is a need for practicing leadership and management lessons that could enable them to conduct the improvement program in an appropriate manner. Various leadership and management theories could be worked upon for the success of the improvement programs (Gill, 2011).

Good leadership and management strategies are the only way to keep the organization on the right track and to accomplish their identified goals. A good leader must be adaptable to various situations, be participative, decisive, responsible, cooperative, energetic and persistent. They must be conceptually and socially skilled, organized and tactful to handle the hard circumstances in a smoother way. Below mentioned are some key leadership styles that seem appropriate for situation:

Participative leadership: The participative style of leadership focuses on involving every member in all the activities, decision-making and understanding the issues. Encourage teamwork to make a better decision, listens to the feedback and then decide on the further step to be involved and to ensure that the social commitment to one another is greater. This leads to empowerment to work together. Involve themselves in all the activities related to the betterment of homeless people (Jones and Pund, 2008).

Transformational Leadership: Leaders with a clear set of vision and passion for achieving the goal by injecting enthusiasm and positivity. If any current strategy not being implemented clearly or doesn’t work in an expected manner, then they have the ability to accept the failures and make new practices or measures to succeed the desired goal. Be able to find new ways to transform the organization to be able to get more sources of donations and market or advertise them in a way to reach out to as many people as possible so as to make the society aware of the orphanage. In addition to this, it is important to create a sound work environment for the group members so that they can effectively perform for the betterment of the vulnerable group. Creating such work environment require fundamental changes – in the ways goals are formulated, tasks are designed and assigned, roles and responsibilities of team members, team working, etc. Transformational leadership will be beneficial in making the healthy work relations among members and thus will create sound work environment (Rossiter, 2009).

Situational leadership: The best actions depend on the qualities of a leader to be able to handle any present or unforeseen situations or circumstances. The leader’s style is highly variable according to the situation and not a single preferred style (Northouse, 2009). Given various situations to handle homeless people, the leader must focus more on their behaviour to direct an effective decision. Given a situation where they have insufficient resources for the caretaking, the leader must be patient and cooperative to make a right decision and figure ways to resolve the issue and be able to handle the circumstances within the available resources.

Behavioural and organizational theories of management have identified certain management practices that prove to be highly effective in implementing change initiatives; these include: Clear vision; Creating and maintaining trust among team members; Involving members in the decision-making process; Brining institution together for common mission (Thompson and Martin, 2005).

Tuckman’s management theory could also prove to be effective in bringing different organizations together for accomplishing a common goal. This theory proposes four key stages group development process which includes Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing (Jones and Pound, 2008). At the first stage, a common group involving above mentioned agencies must be formed in such a way so that each agency can implement its program effectively. It will help in assessing the role and responsibilities of each agency or professionally.

The second stage is storming where the groups might get into the grudge state. However, it is possible to overcome from this situation. They just need to conduct their duties sincerely and will result in the healthier working environment. Roles and responsibilities of each agency need to be identified and clearly assigned to avoid potential conflicts. At this point, it is important to avoid distractions caused by emotional and relationship issues among members.

After this, the stage of norming is experienced. At this point, the agencies and various other professionals are mixed up with each other. They start working with each other without any clashes as now the roles and responsibilities of every member are clear. The big decision concerning the welfare of homeless people can now be made quickly and efficiently. The team collectively discusses and design its management practices and working style (Morill, 2010).

Finally, the performing stage arrives for which the whole group has been formed. This is the main stage, and if the group has been formed meticulously, then these phases could be crossed easily. The major element to make it successful is that the participants in the group must have compassion and generosity towards the homeless people. It is a fundamental ingredient to ensure the success of the improvement programs (Chin, 2015). Therefore, these stages of Tuckman’s team development theory must be followed by the participating agencies to work as a team and to achieve the desired goal effectively.

On the basis of above discussion, it could be concluded that social problems such homeless people, drug addiction, racism and terrorism could be resolved with the help of leadership and management theories. Addressing a complex social issue such as homelessness requires the group to plan carefully strategies and actions require combating the issue. To achieve this, first the group members needs to understand the significance of working in a team for accomplishing a goal optimally. Good leadership ensures proper team building and change implementation. It allows understanding the actual problem and taking necessary actions. In the present case, if the participating agencies can implement adequate leadership and management styles, there are 100 percent chances that the improvement program for the homeless people will be a success. Practicing appropriate leadership skills will significantly help in overcoming the challenges of the whole program.

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