Document Type

Dissertation

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

5.9 OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES, Social sciences

Publication Details

Submitted to the Department of Social Sciences, Technological University of Dublin in partial fulfillment of the requirement leading to the award of Masters in Mentoring, Management and Leadership in the Early Years

Abstract

This exploration into theperspectives of managers of community Early Years services stems from the absence of a requirement of a qualification for supernumerary managers in Early Years services in Ireland and the resulting ambiguity of definedfunctions of such managers and contextually specific requirements. The aim of the study is to gain a deep insight into the perspectives ofthe participants on their roles in leading and managing their services. The objectives are to understand what internal and external factors have shaped their roles, to locate the dichotomies and harmonies between what iscontextuallyrequired of managersand what the true reality of a manager’s role is, and to understand howmanagers perspectivesinfluencethe quality of their services. Grounded theory and social constructivism form the theoretical framework for the research, which is qualitative in its design. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with six managers of community Early Years services in Dublin, Ireland. The findings highlight the key roles and functions of the participants, the factors that influence this, the degree to which each factor is influential, and how thisimpacts on their service. Additionally, the findings outline the participants’ perspectives on networking, staff and change management, advocacy and the impact that these functions haveon their emotions. A key implication of the findings is the significant impact that the participants’ roles had on theiremotions, and in turn, the impact of these emotions on their service and how they carry out their roles. Recommendations for the future include development of trainingfor managers in emotional intelligence, the need for provision of networking supports at policy level and further research from the perspectives of managers across the private and community EY sector in Ireland, particularly relating to emotional intelligence and its impact on managers roles, perspectives and quality of their services.

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