Subject: Conflict at MillcARTS

There is so much that needs attention, I think the question is where might the Chair of MillcARTS start!  It seems to me that there are things to be said and done with regards to a) the relationship between the two senior managers b)  individual trustee responses when approached by staff members c) the whole issue of accountability of both staff and the Board.

I think Marcus should have known that Simon was on leave and have asked  Jason whether his plans were part of the agreed plan for the 'launch'. You could also argue that Simon assumed that his conversation with Marcus meant  he had permission to go ahead and spend the launch money. (Or you could attribute devious intenttion and assume he was covering his back by talking to Marcus!)

Whatever the case, the Chair has an important role to play now in helping the Board to take responsibility for the mess and plan how to support and 'steer' the senior managers to work together to sort it out.

Ruth Lesirge

In such circumstances it is incumbent upon those in positions of influence to use that influence to avoid discord, unfortunate responses or actions, and those which perhaps may not result in the best use of the charity's funds.  However perhaps Marcus may not have been able to see that this was the case, and the problems that have ensued are indicative of  astrange control balance between the ageing male founder trustee and donor, as against the younger female Chair.

The mess that has arisen is as much to do with personailities, structures and relationships as the particular handling of the situation here.  It is interesting that we appear to have a form of joint responsibility without a clear definition of who is responsible for what, and without clear evidence of team building to help the two of them work in the role. 

I recall one occasion (in a fair few years) when this joint leader role worked well, and that was the joint CEOs at Basic Skills Agency for its final year prior to its transferring its operations to NIACE.  They have said publicly that this only worked because they were clear about their respective areas of focus and how best to rely on each others' strengths.  They have also observed that it might not have worked so well with male CEOs.  As a male myself I have always suspected that they were right in this.

The Chair needs to get the Board, and notably Marcus, on board with trying to sort this out.

As regards the apparent commitment to the grand opening, I suspect that it may be able to talk its way out of doing this, by stating that everyone has the wrong end of the stick, an dcorrecting the story that shoudl be told.  What it wants to avoid, however, is airing its internal differences in public, so if it is going this way, it needs to get both Jason and Simon on board first.

Jim made a really interesting observation that the source of the conflict might in fact be between the male founder and the younger female chair. Also he noted that job sharing might work better between women. Both important gender issues related to management structures and styles. Do men and women have different approaches to management and leadership?

Adah,

I meant to reply to this a while back...  This isn't a straight answer to your question of whether men and women have different leadership styles, but in the MillcARTS case, Marcus comes across as a particular type, and I'd suggest that people exhibiting some of his traits are usually male...

Martin

Replying on the gender issues point, I believe that gender aspects are picked up in a number of management style studies.  These differences are, I suggest, a product of:

•  their gender-specific behavioural styles and capabilities - differences in language, memory styles and reasoning, for example, as well as their behaviours to opposite and same sex staff and colleagues
• their gender-slanted developmental aexperiences - for example I would suggest that women tend to have been encouraged to be less adventurous and more conciliatory
• their gender-related educational, social and work experiences.