Streamlining Legislative leaders at the state level
Introduction
The issue of ethics among leaders is one that escalates a lot of debate mainly on the major causes of a person’s violation of ethical principles during leadership and on the possibility of having a successful and ethically upright leader in any given institution or state. Leaders in different sectors have always failed to effectively and ethically carry out their assigned roles such that only a significant number, if any, can be described as 100 percent principled (Bittel, 12). Leadership failure in relation to the violation of ethical principles of leadership can be attributed to managers’ insufficiency in operational principles or to their desire to discard these principles as a way of dealing with the increasing competition. In the modern world, legislative leaders have been viewed as selfish men and women who are aimed at seeking chances for selfish gains. The secrete meeting held discourage transparency hurting the interest of other citizens. Legislative leaders are very important in any state so long as they uphold integrity and perform their roles at the best interest of the citizens.
The economic recession, increased poverty levels, global climatic change, increase in disease burden among other factors has resulted to urgent need to streamline legislative leadership at the state level. If this is not achieved soon, it might be too late to solve the problems that will crop up in the near future. The economies of most states are vulnerable at the moment and should be handed with extra care if they are to survive the current wave. Corruption and deals that endanger the economy of any country should be discouraged by giving punishments to any person identified as corrupt.
There are various aspects of success that can be attributed to failure in leadership. One such aspect is the loss of a leader’s focus on his or her relevant roles and responsibilities in managing the organization or the diversion of attention to issues other than those of the organization. Another aspect is the leader’s increasing privilege in accessing information, objects or people as the level of success increases. A third aspect is the leader’s uncontrolled access to resources within the organization making it very easy for the leader to manipulate and misuse these resources, both human and material. This is evident among legislative leaders at the state level. A successful leader’s belief that he or she has the individual ability to control or manipulate outcomes is also another aspect of success that can result to leadership failure. These four aspects can easily lead to the downfall of even the most morally upright individuals. The lack of ability to deal with these aspects is referred to as the “Bathsheba Syndrome”.
Legislative leaders at the state level
Legislative leaders shoulder the vision of the state which guides and aims at maintaining or improving the economy of a state. These are the people called upon incase of economic crises and if they do not uphold integrity, the might make the situation worse rather than solving it. In most cases, information released by legislative leaders is just a fantasy as in the case of Georgia. These leaders insist that taxes can be reduced further and the citizen would enjoy good living conditions and high living standards at a lowered cost. The result of these mere talks has resulted to worsening in the health care facilities, poor education facilities and learning environment and overall delay in development. All the communication and the transport systems are in crises since there are limited finances to deal with such problems.
Legislative leaders in various countries get a leadership day during the holiday sessions while other state employees get a special leave day every year. The legislative leaders are paid for their day off but the state workers take unpaid day off. Despite the current situation, this is still being experienced. Legislative leaders have some times been found to enjoy good livelihood at the cost of the budget supporters who are the residents and business persons in the state. They should however understand that they are servants to the tax payers rather than bosses. Economic recession is being experienced globally and thus the need to save on resources. To achieve this, the leadership day has been considered as unnecessary and thus no payments should be made to individuals who choose to take a day off.
The current situation requires combined efforts by individuals in ensuring that the economy does not escalate any further. Declaring this day as unnecessary will result to the state saving a lot of money that can other wise be directed to more important and urgent issues which require state attention. These urgent issues include food insecurity, increasing disease burden rate, increased crime rate, and lowered income levels. Poverty levels are on the rise in most states hence the need of relevant intervention. The state and legislative leaders should protect their citizens from high bosses who tend to make deals for personal gains. The thus should portray the example of leaders that are free from corruption and ones that value their citizens as important coworkers. However, this is not the case in most states. The public is eliminated in the decision making process especially in the matters to do with the budget. Legislative leaders meet, make decisions and implement them without requesting for the public opinion in regard to the budget. In some cases, leaders who have been found to seek for public opinion have done so for political gain.
Characteristics of Legislative leaders
The primary purpose of these leaders is to manage the state budget and the legislative process. They have been found to be speaking about policy issues. However, this does not divert their attention from their main goal to that of policy formulation. In managing the state budget, legislative leaders hold a country’s vision on economic matters. They constantly hold meeting discussing current economic situations and the way forward. For instance, top legislative leaders and Gov. Pat Quinn met in a meeting where they discussed how to spend public’s money and raise taxes since the current global economic crises is a threat to all countries (Ludwig et al, 267). The public was locked out in the meeting as the budget is an issue of the legislative leaders.
Legislative leaders also run state business and any deals that involve the use of money or making profit. In business matters, legislative leaders discuss taxation rates, means of disbudding government money to the citizens such as the youth fund and legalization of businesses. Incase the budget is higher than the available resources; legislative leaders react to that by raising the tax rates to cover for the deficit. Where the state is involved in trade activities with other states, legislative leaders oversee the running of such businesses. In other words, legislative leaders determine the economic status of a state. Well organized leaders and leaders who are free from corruption will drive the state towards economic development while corrupt legislative leaders will result to the downfall of a state’s economy.
The child and family issues are very important to the legislative leaders in any state (Goodworth, 89). However, the importance of these issues differs from one state to another. The main reason could be that the family unit determines the stability of the state. If most families are poverty stricken or unstable, the state at large will have poor health facilities, poor transport and communication systems and other economic strains. The disease burden would remain high resulting to congestion in the health facilities. This in turn affects the states productivity since productive persons might fail to work so as to seek for health care. Governments and states depend on funds acquires through the taxation of its citizens. If the citizens are poor, then taxes from their income will also be low. Legislative leaders are thus concerned with family issues as the family unit is its main support and the socialization unit especially when dealing with crime rates. Lowered crime rates would result to a reduction of money spent in the state security and improved productivity. This is so because people would feel secure to work and those who would have otherwise been involved in criminal offences engage in productive work.
The legislative leaders at the state levels do not learn of issues systematically. They learn about issues anecdotally a factor that contributes to their lack of knowledge concerning the current information or status of the families and the children in their states. They only know or understand what they have learnt from others and hence have limited knowledge on the current proactive programs. This results to their inability to come up with appropriate solution to the problems experienced in the states. The lack a feeling of the situation as it is at the ground level. As a result, corrupt and selfish persons might take advantage of their ignorance and request for unnecessary programs hence the wastage of resources.
Legislative leaders discuss agendas on families and the children. However, every individual or organization with the same interest is thought to have a different opinion from these leaders hence the conflict. Family and child advocates are viewed as being democratic and liberal. This is because legislative leadership in any state is conservative. Since the child and family advocates are seen as liberal, legislative leaders neither work close to them nor seek to understand their roles. They disqualify implemented strategies on family and child issues as irrelevant, ineffective and unimportant. If the legislative leaders had enough information, it would not be experiencing problems coordinating family issues or even in dealing with the non governmental organizations. Legislative leaders at the state level should understand that they do not necessarily have to freeze democracy in their quest for success. The citizens who fund the budget should be respected.
The Role of Legislative leaders at the state level
Legislative leaders should ensure that there is effective interoperable communication. If this is not achieved, the state will be at a risk of natural disasters and terrorist attacks. This is because of the inability of first responders in a municipal to pass information to each other, other municipalities, to the federal and to the state. Legislative leaders should be active in monitoring the level of activities at the state level with the aim of developing effective interoperable communication systems. Communication is very important in any state (McNamara, 78). There can never be development if the communication systems are disrupted. Apart fro eliminating risks, communication also lays a good ground for development as the state is challenged by other states which are at a higher level in terms of economic development.
Legislative leaders should have domestic intelligence which is important in prevention of attacks by terrorists. However, many states prohibit people from gathering intelligence information. This should be revised if the state is to remain secure especially in the modern days when terrorist attacks are on the increase. States can achieve these by establishing limits to which intelligence can be acquired and by whom. Lack of information and effective early warning systems has greatly contributed to the ineffective response in case of a terrorist attack. The attacks are evident in many states.
Legislative leaders control pollution of the environment at the state level. This is by controlling radiation sources that threaten the lives of its citizens. Control of pollution is ensured through an auditing and awareness program in areas likely to produce significant quantities of materials which are radio active. These materials including cobalt-60, cesium-137 among other isotopes could be used in the manufacture of dirty bombs. Such materials are used laboratories, hospitals, industrial applications and food irradiation. If the radiations are controlled, the number of disease conditions that result from such incidences are also reduced.
Legislative leaders are also responsible for mass casualty planning. Most hospitals in the states mainly operate close to their capacity in case of an influx of patients, the hospitals are not in a position to handle these patient. The legislative leaders therefore have a role of planning for such emergences by having surge equipment and hospital beds. The inability of the hospital to handle an influx of patients during emergencies is evident from the past experiences such as the potential pandemic from bird flue (Ludwig et al, 265). In states where poverty levels are high, the situation is even worse. Wards have been found to hold up to three times its capacity in case of an emergency. The facilities are some times not enough even in the absence of an emergency.
Legislative leaders at the state level should ensure that people are offered chemical security. There exists sufficient dangerous chemicals in metropolitan areas and these threaten the lives of those living in that state. The population is also high in the metropolitan states and hence more people are at a risk of being affected by the chemicals. Legislative leaders should seek for the means by which such chemical could be made useful wile reducing the risk of negative impacts. This can be achieved through the formation and implementation of laws which promote or encourage the industries to convert such chemicals into useful substances. Conversion of harmful chemicals into important chemicals also reduces the production cost for the industries or organizations involved.
The main role of legislative leaders at the state level is the control of how public money is spent. The leaders plan the state budget and identify the means by which the state is to source for resources. These include sources such as taxation and registration fee for new businesses. The roles bestowed on the legislative leaders demand that these leaders be transparent, effective and people who hold the interest of the public at heart. However, this has not been the case especially in the African countries. The leaders have been labeled as corrupt and inconsiderate (Parker, 230). Citizens have lost confidence in them thus are not willing to cooperate. Most citizens are unwilling to pay taxes due to the fear that their money will only be useful to the rich minority who seek to secure wealth for their families. There is need that legislative leaders at the state level perform their tasks effectively as stipulated. This would not only lead to the growth of the states economy but also confidence from the citizens.
Politics and ideology have always had a negative impact on the states economy if they exist in the leadership. The politician seeks to make their prospective voters through speeches that are promising (Chemers, 34). They fail to recognize that money is needed to run the budgets if they have to deliver effective services to the community. As a result, the promise reduced taxes in the midst of economic stress in the state where else this only ensure that the standards of services rendered to the public are of the lowest quality. The current economic down turn being experienced globally calls for a change in the strategies used by the legislative and other state leaders in sourcing for funds and in the use of such funds. The idea should not be how to make speeches that cheer up citizens while placing their lives at risk. If this is achieved in all states, then development is assured in the midst of the economic stress. However, transparency and the interest of the common person must be fully represented. The taxpayers should also be educated on the importance of paying taxes and their rights. Efforts should be made to bring an end to political deals made behind doors at the cost of the tax payer.
Work Cited
Bittel, L.R. The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Management Course, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1989.
Chemers M. An Integrative Theory of Leadership, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 1997.
Goodworth, C. The Secrets of Successful Leadership and People Management, Oxford: Heinman Professional Publishing, 1988.
Ludwig, Dean C. and Longenecker, Clinton O. “The Bathsheba Syndrome: The ethical failure of successful leaders. “Journal of Business Ethics 12 (1993).
McNamara C. Overview of Leadership in Organizations, Florida: Authenticity Consulting, LLC, 1997.
Parker, B. Introduction to globalization & business. London: Sage Publications, 2005.
Veccio, R.P. Organizational Behavior, Plymouth: The Dryden Press, 1988.
Vroom, V. H. and Yetton, P. W. Leadership and Decision-Making, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973.
