Palak Sonvane

Thank you for your thoughts, Layla. I agree with how you explained the organizational change as the change in employees; however, it might not be possible to compare the organizational change process to that of addicts. Organizational employees have accountability of the organization and despite their human tendency to revert to stages, they have certain limitations. Besides, in terms of change readiness, cognition of the employees working for an organization and that of the addicts should have some difference

Thank you for your thoughts, Layla. I agree how you explained the organizational change as the change in employees; however, the change process in an organization can be seen as the change in “things” (can be compared to the people constituting the organization) and the change in “processes” (Tsoukas and Chia, 2002). Things signify “what changes” while processes indicate “how it changes” and the “how” is often explained through the sequence of events (Barnett and Caroll, 1995) which is often phasic (Chapman, 2002). The organization might stay longer in one of the stages for the employees to cope up but it not be feasible for an organization to go back.

For example, if a company decides on installing a new software- this can be considered as a “change”. Now, the employees must learn to use the new software, get adapt to its functions etc. and have to stop using the outdated one. This progression is linear. In case the employees fail to use this particular software, the company might choose a different one. This is a process of evaluation of the outcomes of the “change” and not precisely the change. Hence, the evaluation process of the results brought through the change can be cyclic.

References

Barnett, W. P., & Carroll, G. R. (1995). Modeling internal organizational change. Annual review of sociology, 21(1), 217-236. Retrieved from https://web-b-ebscohost-            com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=d0156bbd-e738-  4dd4-9498-8878eb0b4775%40sessionmgr103

Chapman, J. (2002). A framework for transformational change in organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 23(1), 16-25. Retrieved from https://www-emeraldinsight-   com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/01437730210414535

Tsoukas, H., & Chia, R. (2002). On organizational becoming: Rethinking organizational      change. Organization science, 13(5), 567-582. Retrieved from https://web-b-           ebscohostcom.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=b5344f9d-            c172-4267-ae72-            891f64bc07f4%40pdc-v-sessmgr02

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Kunal. As I read through your post, I needed more clarification to understand the “three least essential principles” that you pointed out for your organization. I understand your organizational culture lacks these three principles (you mentioned), and therefore, I think, they are the most essential ones for your organization to progress and improve. In fact, I would encourage you to promote these principles in your organization. After all, as Peter Block has stated, “There is a longing in each of us to invest in things that matter and to have the organization in which we work be successful” (p. 13, 2013). Also, you mentioned that your organization does not trust its employees. As Covey and Link (2012) expands, “the motive that builds trust is care and what destroys it is self-interest; trust is built on the agenda of mutual benefit and is destroyed on the agenda of “win- no matter what” (p.161).

Hence, I suggest you can learn from these “three principles” and push your ideologies for the betterment of the organization.

References

Block, P. (2013). Stewardship: Choosing service over self-interest. San Francisco, CA:Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Covey, S. M., Link, G., & Merrill, R. R. (2012). Smart trust: Creating prosperity, energy and jou in a low-trust world. London: Simon & Schuster.

Singla, K. (2018). Strategic Leadership Competencies. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/2018/11/20/strategic-leadership-competencies/

Incorporating competencies into my organizational practices

The process of learning is gradual and lifelong. Reading through the competencies from all the texts, I realized I have still a lot to learn. There were some elements I do not know about, some of them I learned during this program and some of them I already incorporated practically. To keep it brief, I would list 3 competencies I am practicing currently.

1. Strategic planning (Hughes, Beatty & Dinwoodie, 2014)

It was during this course I understood the importance of strategy. Even my Birkman evaluation reveals a room for improvement in “strategic thinking and planning”. Through all these readings and knowledge from my peers, it is now that I have been able to understand and manage to practically apply strategic planning up to some extent.

It is through strategic thinking that management can gain a “broader perspective of an organization” and “its changing environment” (Garratt, 1995). My strategy focuses on personal growth along with my organizational progress. Every day, I plan to learn something new; for example, checking insurance coverage for the patients- which benefits me as well as my employer.

      2.Clarify Assumptions and Priorities (Lepsinger, 2010)

At a job interview, question-related to “priorities” is quite usual. This justifies, how essential is knowing to set priorities, especially in the healthcare sector where one must maintain the balance between limited available resources against the increasing number of patients (Sabik, & Lie, 2008). Hence, hospitals do the “triage” to see the level of criticality of the patient. Priorities are very subjective, and it becomes more crucial when they are to be set for an entire organization. For me, setting priorities is differentiating between long-term and short-term goals, calculating consequences and linking them both.

For example, I would spend more time and resources over educating my patients (prevention and interception) compared to just treating them. This is the means to encourage long-term well-being of the patient (which is the priority) along with taking care of their current complains.

     3. Adapt to new conditions (Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie, 2014)

Came across the globe to gain knowledge and expertise, worked against my capacity and learned things I might never have learned in my own country and despite all the hardships, still adamant to continue which is what I believe is “adaptation”.

There is a huge difference in the functionality of the healthcare sector in the east and the west (Xu, 2006). Working in India and then here, was challenging for me. Even though I had the knowledge, it was a steep learning curve for me. I struggled with using instruments I never used back in my country, different techniques, complex software etc… Given time and patience, I learned each day and got adapted to this transformation.

The competency that might not work in my organizational practice

Leveraging Intellectual property (Galbraith, 2014)

I would not be able to relate this principle to the clinic I work for as it does not deal with research or innovation. Trading intellectual property rights in the healthcare sector has been claimed to have serious economic consequences (Lippert, 1999), given that the researches in healthcare stream require large funding.

Three most important principles from the course readings

1. Expect top performances (Lepsinger, 2010)-

Expectations serve as a means to communicate desired results (Berkely Human Resources, n.d.); which holds its foundation from Lepsinger’s belief of “we get direct reports of the performances we expect” (2010, p.46). Research suggests, if an employee, from the time of his joining an organization, is made very clear of organization’s expectations, he will develop required aspirations and attitudes for the desired performance (Berlew and Hall, 1966). Back in my country, where there is an abundance of human resource, talent, and capability, I believe, expecting more from the employees would bring a significant difference in their performances. Even so, this strategy can be tricky. Employees might feel that the company is asking too much from them and may feel pressurized. However, this might differ culture to culture. On the contrary, companies might feel the frustration if their expectations are not met (Rao, 2015). Hence, sometimes even the organization might need to settle for mediocrity.

If I was to implement this strategy in my organization, I would try to hold a short check-in meeting at every level for the employees to clarify them about their roles and expectations. In my opinion, role clarity is a prime factor if you are expecting performances.

     2. The culture to perform (Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie, 2014)-

The way in which leaders interact, make decisions, and influence others in the organization is what we refer to as leadership culture. (p.188). As it is said that the child’s behavior is greatly influenced by his home environment; similarly, the leadership culture of the organization defines individual behaviors (p.184). It is essential for the workplace culture to give employees the “sense of identity” (p. 189) and connection for better performance. Studies show a strong evidence of organizational culture to productivity.   It has been argued that the workplace environment has a strong influence on employees’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills (Mathew, 2007). Also, as stated by Lepsinger, “a supportive environment encourages people and makes them more comfortable with trying new behaviors and taking on challenging assignments” (2010, p.64).

I understand making a culture that fits for all would be an unrealistic demand, especially in bigger organizations. However, in a small clinic, it would be easier to create a culture favorable for all. What I have on my naïve mind presently is creating a culture of “flexibility” and open-mindedness to promote innovation.

      3. The lateral Organization (Galbraith, 2014)

The lateral organization encourages a participative approach by decentralizing the decision-making process. Through this approach, employees get a chance to present their views and get a sense of inclusion within the organization. Moreover, decentralization will provide another set of eyes (Atha, 2018) on organizational issues. Also, involving frontline employees will provide acknowledgement of the grassroots level problems in the organization.

This principle is applicable to a small organization as mine. Again, the application of this principle is quite simple as the number of employees are significantly less compared to any bigger organization. Each employee has clearly defined roles and contributes to decision making as expected from his/her role.

Three least important principles 

From what I have read from the texts, I have found the following 3 principles that are not relevant to my organization:

1. What we learn from addicts (Lepsinger, 2010)-

In the debate week, I was in the team “Favor” and had to defend my team’s position. However, I object to the claim made by Lepsinger. Firstly, the process of change is cyclic and very subjective in case of addicts; you can determine what stage the addict is in (DiClemente et al., 1991). Whereas in an organization, with several departments and even more number of employees, it is impractical to determine what stage of the “change process” the employee is in and what amount of motivation does he need. Of course, there might be some similarities in the “change process” like personal influence and motivation in case of addicts (DiClemente, Schlundt, & Gemmell, 2004) and influence of leaders (Chapman, 2002) in case of the organization, change processes are affected by external environment in both the cases but the organizational change process is phasic and progressive (p.21) and not a cyclic process.

      2. Managing conflicting perspectives-

This strategic competency is irrelevant to my organization as we are a small team of one dentist, one assistant and a receptionist and all the decisions are made by the dentist herself. Thus, there is no question of arising conflicts. Moreover, the decisions taken by the dentist has no effect on the assistant or the receptionist.

      3.Portfolio Strategies

Honestly, I could understand only 10% from this section. What I could apprehend seemed not-so-relevant to my organization. I think, in a clinic, investments are made as per the necessity. Moreover, the primary purpose of a clinic is serving the community and not aimed at expecting returns.

Least effective course material

According to me, Coordinate and Monitor High Impact Actions (Lepsinger, 2010) was the least effective course material as the author did not put efforts to elaborate it. The leadership style reflecting from the explanation is authoritative. The section tries to explain the necessity of monitoring departments to get expected results, but is not delivered in a positive way.

References

Atha, D. (2018). A Systems Thinking Primer: Seeing Organizations in Action. LDRS 501. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/unit-3-learning-activities/

Berkely Human Resources, (n.d.). Guide to Managing Human Resources. Retrieved from     https://hr.berkeley.edu/hr-network/central-guide-managing-hr/managing-        hr/managing-successfully/performance-management/planning/expectations

Berlew, D. E., & Hall, D. T. (1966). The socialization of managers: Effects of expectations on performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 207-223.

Chapman, J. (2002). A framework for transformational change in organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 23(1), 16-25. Retrieved from https://wwwemeraldinsight- com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/01437730210414535

DiClemente, C. C., Prochaska, J. O., Fairhurst, S. K., Velicer, W. F., Velasquez, M. M., & Rossi, J. S. (1991). The process of smoking cessation: an analysis of precontemplation, contemplation, and preparation stages of change. Journal of             consulting and clinical psychology, 59(2), 295.

DiClemente, C. C., Schlundt, D., & Gemmell, L. (2004). Readiness and stages of change in addiction treatment. American journal on addictions, 13(2), 103-119. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10550490490435777?scroll=top& needAccess=true

Galbraith, J. R. (2014) Designing Organizations: strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [PDF version]

Garratt, B. (Ed.). (1995). Developing strategic thought: Rediscovering the art of direction- giving. McGraw-Hill [Kindle version].

Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie  D. (2014) Becoming a strategic leader. (2^nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (pp.182) [PDF version]

Lepsinger  R. (2010) Closing the Execution Gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [PDF version]

Lippert, O. (Ed.). (1999). Competitive Strategies for the Protection of Intellectual Property. The Fraser Institute.

Rao, P. (2015). HRM trends in India–a professional perspective. Strategic HR Review, 14(1/2). Retrieved from             https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/SHR-01-2015-0002

Sabik, L. M., & Lie, R. K. (2008). Priority setting in health care: Lessons from the experiences of eight countries. International Journal for equity in health, 7(1), 4.

Mathew, J. (2007). The relationship of organizational culture with productivity and quality: A study of Indian software organizations. Employee Relations, 29(6), 677-695. Retrieved from https://www-emeraldinsight-           com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/doi/full/10.1108/01425450710826140

Xu, Y. (2006). Differences in Healthcare Systems Between East and West: Implications for Asian Nurses. Home Health Care Management & Practice, 18(4), 338–341. Retrieved from    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1084822305285835?journalCode=hhcb#articleCitationDownloadContainer

Original post can be found at https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/2018/11/16/reply-to-pierre-florendos-response-to-advancing-organization-by-conflict-resolution/

Thank you for your response, Avisha. It is fascinating to hear that your organization is putting efforts to keep everyone on the same page which may seem unrealistic in today’s fast-paced corporate world. One of my friends, I met during this course worked for Amazon and he too had everyday short meetings- not more than 10 minutes which seemed very interesting to me. It is like the short debriefing session- may seem “not-so-necessary” but very crucial to avoid any misunderstandings. Spending even the short amount of time each week or even, every day is plausible as the organization is getting a chance to intercept any possible mistake or misapprehension (if found) at an early stage, avoiding future conflicts.

Secondly, debriefing meetings are necessary to update employees about everyday targets and expectations; as implied by Lepsinger, “Expectations drive performance”.

Reference

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. John Wiley & Sons. [PDF version].

This is a response to the post found at https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/category/health-education/page/4/

Conflicts happen when two different opinions clash or when opinions are not received the way they should be which creates misunderstandings. To avoid miscommunications, one must have a clear idea in one’s own mind. May seem silly, but there are several times when people are in “self-conflict” more than they are in conflict with others or with the organization. As defined by Dictionary.com, self-conflict means “mental struggle arising from opposing demands or impulses”. Research suggests, resolving self-conflict, helps to develop cognition, “creative ideas and solutions” (Adams, n.d.) to solve external conflicts. Hence, I believe acknowledging employees about self-conflict, training them to deal with it can significantly upskill them to be able to critically look their dilemma through others’ lens, recognize ideas and assumptions progressing in self-improvement. However, the bottom line to tackle any conflict is “understanding shared knowledge within the team” and “thinking systematically” (Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie, 2014).

References

Adams, L. (n.d.). How Do You Deal with Inner Conflict? Retrieved from http://www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/how-do-you-deal-with-inner-conflict/

Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K. C., and Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: your role in your organization’s enduring success (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

The original post by Jessica can be found at https://create.twu.ca/jessicalaugsawatzky/2018/11/12/hc-1-leader-post-7-1/

Thank you for your post, Jessica. It was interesting to read how your organization managed and build teams to resolve conflicts. In my opinion, conflicts in an organization is a sign of a growing organization. There is absolutely no harm if an organization has serval or often conflicts; in fact, this means the organization has fostered an environment where everyone has their say and are open to present it out. Conflicts can be due to differences in opinions among employees or, disagreement with the organization’s decision over a new proposal. It is almost impossible for two persons to have common views on every subject, the positive side is that the people are comfortable sharing their views as that is what creates diversity in an organization, “creates new ideas, build relationships, open minds and beats stagnation” (Richards, 2018). Zero conflict means there are no differences in opinions and everyone simply agrees to what has been said or decided.

Conflict resolution styles as mentioned by Lepsinger (2010), points out the ultimate action to be taken. However, in an organization, resorting to one of these ways might seem unrealistic and impractical. Rather, the decision should be a little bit of “something” from each point. In the event of a conflict, a meeting should be conducted with the members involved and opinions of both the sides should be heard and then the decision should be made.

References

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. John Wiley & Sons. [PDF version].

Richards, L. (2018). How Can Conflict Be Good for an Organization? Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-conflict-good-organization-741.html

Thank you, Pierre for digging deep into the Indian education system but as you know it’s not very difficult to fool the system or might I say, bribe the system? DCI organizes inspection each year to check whether the colleges fulfill their requirements to be able to renew its recognition and affiliation with the state university; however, the officers are bribed by the businessmen or they (owner) arrange temporary instruments, materials etc.

Even recently, there have been allegations against DCI for accepting bribes from the colleges (Politics, 2016); unfortunately, due to dirty politics, no steps have been taken so far. Besides, I agree on your point of accountability which remains the fulcrum of all the other steps (Florendo, 2018); but I believe “accountability” is a virtue which comes naturally and cannot be forced. The system can find out the culprit but not when he has thousands of ways of getting out. The root problem is even as one single organization, everyone has a different vision, different mission, and a different motive; it is just a namesake conglomeration of several hundred units that do not even fit with each other.

Reference

Florendo, p. (2018). Response to a positive brand image? Really?? LDRS 501 Strategic Leadership. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/pierreflorendo/2018/10/25/response-to-positive-brand-image-really/

Politics, (2016). Prashant Bhushan Alleges Large-Scale Corruption in Dental Council. The Wire. Retrieved from https://thewire.in/politics/prashant-bhushan-alleges-large-scale-corruption-in-dental-council

I liked your idea of “swapping positions”. I remember I saw this in a movie where a husband and a wife are “swapped” for a day- husband has to do all the chores, manage kids and cook, and the wife has to work all day long, go to the bank, fix shower and paint garage! This is actually a great activity to know the worth of another person’s work. However, I do not think this is possible in an organization, given that each individual has a definite role based on his/her level of expertise. I do not know much about PD in a school setting and based on what I understood from what you want to say, swapping would demand more time, energy and patience. Teaching another grade can definitely foster development but teaching another subject would require a more realistic approach. It would require the execution of an action plan at a group level (Lepsinger, 2010), where teachers collaborate and work as a team for mutual development.

Reference

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

I started my career as an observer at a dental clinic (in India) in 2016, immediately after graduating. Before that, I was a part (as a student) of a big teaching organization, my dental school, for 5 years. Basically, I experienced “business” having the same background operating at different scales. Just for the sake of brevity, I would choose to answer based on my dental school.

Just to acknowledge, the dental school I went into was owned by a businessman who already had many other companies in various sectors like food and chemicals. As his companies grew, he invested in schools and later, opened colleges. However, having no or little knowledge about the teaching sector, these ventures (schools and colleges) were undertaken based solely on his knowledge about “business”. The diverse choices of business may inundate the decision-making team (Galbraith, 2014) which indeed, was the case. The main issue in action here is, big companies fail to identify their competitors and gets into the non-price competition (as cited in Ingenhoff & Fuhrer, 2010). Investing in schools and colleges and trying to create a positive brand was the organization’s primary motive, and therefore, they failed at defining their values.

They hired medical teachers that did not even know the dental syllabus, did not have the labs working and no positive environment for studying.

To keep it precise, I will address the same issues as asked in the question-

1. Human resource- I do not know much about HRD but will try to touch the essentials. School requires teachers with a specific role. A language teacher may not teach science and a math teacher may not teach art. I would not hire someone just because I know him/her. Most of the staff members were hires based solely on referrals.
2. Corporate identity- This company had a negative reputation in the market. Companies sort to mission and vision statements to portray their brand personality (Chun and Davies, 2001), which was done by this organization. Investing in schools and colleges was just a strategy to create a positive brand reputation.
3. Organizational culture- Teachers were mostly complaining as they were not paid on time, labs not working properly, lack of information about the syllabus etc. This led to them not being interested anymore to teach, with the students facing the consequences. Furthermore, there was an environment of severe competition among the students and everyone wanted to grab any possible opportunity to learn. This overall, affected the results and hence, the reputation of the college.

Three to five steps necessary to shift the negative impacts and help the organization where you work/worked previously refocus to reclaim organizational purpose, practice, and procedures to a healthy level so they can move more effectively into the future.

• Visionary leadership (Taylor, et al., 2007 )- it is extremely important to have a clear vision about the future to work accordingly; just as a footballer would not make a goal unless he can see the goalpost.
• Effective communication- The leader should not only timely connect with the employees but also make sure if work is being done in the direction of the vision. There should be a forum for the teachers through which they can communicate with each other as well as the management team to address their issues or situations in the college. The management should also encourage suggestions from the teachers to have another set of eyes (Atha, 2018) to effectively draw out a solution.
• Planning the resources- Management should maintain a record of materials and instruments that are used; also, make a note of the materials required. Stealing and cheating can be minimized by setting a heavy penalty for the person in charge. In terms of human resource, management should take care that the teachers remain motivated by timely recognizing them or rewarding them. Care should be taken about their timely payments. The number of teaching staff per subject should be fixed to avoid wasting of human resource as well as the fund.

Three things you do (3+3+3 = 9 altogether):

• Arrange staff and students meeting once every six months- Students are also a part of the organizations and it is partly because of them that the vision can be accomplished. Performances will significantly improve if they feel a part of something big (Maslow, Stephens, Heil, & Bennis, 1998).
• Provide optimum service to patients visiting the college (hospital)- Quality should not be compromised while running behind quantity. Teachers should make sure that students are giving proper treatment to the patients. Management should take a record of patients coming back with the complaint. If teachers make sure that students are performing better, it would be beneficial for both, the students as well the patients. If effective treatment is given, patients will continue to seek treatment from the college, indirectly benefitting the organization.
• The “Oath Day”- Oath day should be organized by the college each year to take a new resolution for innovation and improvement. This would keep the students as well as teachers motivated.

References

Atha, D. (2018). A Systems Thinking Primer: Seeing Organizations in Action. LDRS 501Startegic Leadership Week 3. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/unit-3-  learning-activities/

Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels.

Ingenhoff, D., & Fuhrer, T. (2010). Positioning and differentiation by using brand personality attributes. Corporate Communications: An International Journal,15(1), 83-101.

Maslow, A. H., Stephens, D. C., Heil, G., & Bennis, W. (1998). Maslow on management. New York: John Wiley. Retrieved from http://altfeldinc.com/pdfs/maslow.pdf

Taylor, G. D., Van Aken, E. M., & Smith-Jackson, T. L. (2007, July). Improving organizational culture using core values. In 19th International Conference on Production Research, Valparaiso, Chile (Vol. 29).

Hi, Marcelo. I am really touched by seeing your efforts to connect with your teachers and can see how culture can affect the leadership role. As you pointed out the issue of “not being heard”, I appreciate your effort of taking personal interviews of the teachers. As you described the culture in Paraguay, I am curious, if personal interviews were effective, since you mentioned how people have mistrust and they do not share anything or share minimum things.

Secondly, for recognizing your staff members, I suggest you to consider giving a short speech to acknowledge “teacher of the month” during the school assembly. You can also invite students to participate in the acknowledgment. This would make the teachers feel special and know their worth. They will be inspired to do better and might as well focus on their shortcomings.

As I read through your post, I find the situation in China is almost similar to what it is in India. But I am curious to know if collaborations in educational systems would work in bringing a positive change. As far as I know about the scenario of the educational system in India, the culture is very competitive. There is a constant fight among students, schools, parents, and teachers to prove themselves to be the best. This tendency is carried further at the organizational level. I may use the analogy of a bushel stuck in a well; where, even if one crab tries to come out, the other pulls it down. Instilling a collaborative environment and creating a “bigger picture” (Zhang, 2018) would only increase competition; competition at even a bigger level. However, I must say, collaborating with parents to teach them that knowledge matters more than education, to teach that values matter more than excellence, to teach them that money is not a measurement of success.

Reference

Zhang, L. (2018). Layla’s takeaways from system thinking. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/layla11/2018/10/17/laylas-take-aways-from-systems-thinking/