Paradoxical leadership in public sector organisations: Its role in fostering employee resilience

Government organisations, and their employees, need to be resilient to manage challenges such as resource constraints, rising demands, and the tensions and contradictions that underlie much public sector work, often stemming from the need to balance different stakeholder interests. Employee resilience, defined as the capacity to continuously adapt and flourish, even in the face of challenge, is an individual level construct that also benefits organisations. Despite its benefits, little is known about how to foster it. This paper explores whether paradoxical leadership (PL) can contribute to employee resilience. PL – the ability to balance competing structural and relational demands over time – may be one means of supporting employee resilience, as it corresponds to the tensions and paradoxes that exist in public sector work. This correspondence between PL and tensions in public administration work means that PL may also help employees behave resiliently. Findings from a quantitative survey (n = 233) in a large New Zealand public sector organisation indicate that PL antecedes resilience. The effect of PL facets on employee resilience is partially mediated by perceptions of organisational support.     

Clinical supervision and forensic work

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on supervision in relation to forensic work and examines the need for such supervision in work with offenders. Three types of problematic countertransference are identified, which can be characterised as repulsive, helpless and voyeuristic in nature. Current research emphasising the role of attachment styles in sexual offending is seen as having implications for the treatment process and therefore for clinical supervision. Similarly, research emphasising the importance of group leadership skills in treatment is presented as indicating a need for supervision. Some problems with the provision of supervision are examined and it is concluded that it should be an integral part of any work with offenders.     

The incompatibility of peacemaking and military power

Since the 1990s, the Sino-Cameroonian relationship has grown rapidly. Today, China plays a key role in Cameroon's economic development, particularly in regards to infrastructure projects. However, in the last few years, Yaoundé's partnership with Beijing has encountered an increasing number of obstacles. Behind the warm pro-China rhetoric, the Cameroonian government has become more willing to rebalance their country's external relations, in favour of both its traditional partners and other emerging economies.