An administrative conservator plays a wide variety of leadership roles, which are conceptualized as being placed on a leadership continuum. These leadership roles are taken on by the administrative conservator as needed, and such need is determined by the phase of maturity of the organization itself. On the immature end of the continuum, the administrative conservator occupies the initiating leadership role. We can understand this role as encompassing the responsibility of assessing the specific needs of the organization and establishing an appropriate leadership paradigm that will serve those needs. In this role, the conservator may need to break from past patterns that have characterized leadership in the organization. Once a functional leadership paradigm has been established, the leadership role evolves, proceeding through several distinct stages, which include: the institution builder, the innovator, the transformational leader, and finally, the protecting leader.
As an institution builder, an administrative conservator consistently embodies the leadership expectations to be imitated by others in the organization and affirms the organization’s values frequently. As an innovator, the administrative conservator reviews the leadership paradigm and revises it as necessary, potentially innovating new policies and programs to foster leadership in the organization. As the transformational leader, the conservator witnesses the organization in a healthy phase, in which the values and paradigm have been established. Finally, the protector actively safeguards the culture of leadership he/she has established.
There are numerous strategies that can and should be employed by administrative conservators in an effort to both preserve and advance the mission of an organization. These strategies are not one-time tasks for the administrative conservator to perform; rather, they are all ongoing responsibilities, the success and limitations of which must be reviewed continuously to ensure that the methods employed achieve their strategic goals. First, the preservation of the mission implies that an organization has a mission. While most organizations do have missions, it is not uncommon for internal stakeholders to be unaware of them. For this reason, the conservator must ensure that the mission has been articulated clearly and that it is known by internal stakeholders. Second, the conservator must ensure that the organization has set targeted goals and measurable objectives that are designed to fulfill the organization’s mission. The mission should not exist as an abstract declaration, but as guideline for ideal participation and behavior in the organization. Next, the values of the organization, which are related to but are distinct from the mission, must be articulated. Like the mission itself, internal organizational stakeholders need to know what those values are and be supported in embodying them. Finally, preservation of the mission involves fostering external support. Good relationships with external stakeholders, are vital.
In a public bureaucracy, the administrative conservator plays a role that is distinct from the role that he or she would play in a private organization with respect to establishing and protecting values. The reason that the role is so different is because in a public bureaucracy the executive level administration has little, if any, right or responsibility to establish the mission and values of the organization; instead, it is expected to uphold the mission and values that were inherited by their administration and which were put into place by higher officials in the bureaucratic system. The role of the administrative conservator, then, is to often interpret missions, values, and policies that may be ambiguous and, in doing so, provide clarity, direction, and accountability to the internal stakeholders who are expected to uphold those values and fulfill the mission of the bureaucratic agency.
The administrative conservator of a public bureaucracy is also charged with the unique challenge of monitoring how outside stakeholders perceive and respond to the values and mission of the bureaucratic agency. He or she must foster opportunities for the public and for external stakeholders to understand and lend their support to the bureaucracy’s aims. Maintaining a functional relationship between these internal and external groups by providing clear, concise, concrete, and thoughtful interpretations is a critical function that the administrative conservator plays in a public bureaucracy.
