**7. Why an integrated social work approach to leadership?**

In laying the ground for the significance of integrated leadership approach, it is crucial to begin by Winston and Patterson's criticism of the conventional approaches to leadership as an examination of the parts of leadership and not its entirety, despite the importance of having a full understanding of leadership. They relate this practice to the story of blind men who describe an elephant by pointing at different accurate descriptions which are all insufficient to enable a full and comprehensive understanding of this elephant (i.e. leadership) and call for a more holistic approach to leadership [26]. An integrated approach to leading a welfare organisation is essential for a number of reasons. Firstly, the main reason is for a leader to steer the organisation in such a way that it adapts to societal dynamics which are continuously evolving.

Remember the organisation exists within these societal dynamics and some are even established mainly because of these dynamics. This implies that a leader should be knowledgeable and possess the competency and capacity to read the events as they unfold that often lead to various social problems. These events maybe political, economic, social, health or even technological in nature. We have seen for example the global osmosis of the refugees fleeing economic hardships and wars to seek refuge from various countries, causing welfare organisations to respond by repositioning their programmes and activities. The scourge of Covid-19 is another example which prompted several organisations to migrate to virtual mode of operation, while others resorted to adapting by observing the necessary precautions to mitigate the spread of the virus. The nature of a presenting problem as well as the diverse and unique nature of the client systems is another layer of factors that cannot simply be undermined if a leader is to steer an organisation towards its desired mission and objectives.

Within the organisational context there are some factors that also shapes and influence the functioning of such an organisation. It could be employees who are diverse in terms of the ages, cultures, genders or even educational levels or a general lack of funding to fully respond to some of the presenting problems through relevant programmes and projects. A blanket approach to leadership will clearly not always be an option for such a diverse organisation since some employees may benefit from being guided step-by-step on how to execute certain tasks while others who may be more experienced can quickly and confidently ride on their own even without guidance. Just like the societal or community context, the organisational context is also the crucial basis upon which the organisation's leadership should be based since in responding to these societal problems, it has to mobilise its diverse capacities and resources.

In striving to realise the overall organisational mission and objectives, the leader does so by steering the organisation through the societal context and the organisational context, using the various approaches and theories that are outlined in the preceding discussion. Her/his approach can be to adopt the leader oriented or relationship-oriented leadership approach. An explanation of these two categories of theories has demonstrated that leader-oriented theories consider leaders to possess certain features that no ordinary persons possess, qualifying them to be leaders and that relationship -oriented leaders tend to consider job satisfaction, motivation and work-life balance for employees to be central to effective leadership. A central argument submitted through this text is that both leader-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches should be central to a welfare organisation in a given circumstance, hence the call for an integrated approach to leading.

**Figure 1.** *Integrated approach to welfare organisational leadership.*

Some of the presenting problems such as a child abuse, rape, gender-based violence and others, are prioritised and categorised as crisis cases and may require a leader to lean more on the leader-oriented theories by for instance adopting autocratic approach in order to ensure full compliance with the rules, while others such as dealing with victims of disaster may require her/him to in addition to giving instruction and prescribing the procedures, also extend some kind of support to employees who are intervening in such cases to mitigate their emotional turmoil that may emerge. **Figure 1** above outlines an integrated approach to leadership within a welfare organisation.

As outlined in the above **Figure 1**, welfare organisation is considered to exist on the basis of community/societal as well as organisational context. It is somehow influenced by the factors that happen within a society and around the communities in which they exist. They are also influenced by its own internal factors that together with the societal or organisational ones, determine the correct approach to adopt in responding to a particular presenting problem in order to eventually realise the organisational mission and objectives.
