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.
- 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
- 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:
- 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. (2nd 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