Organisational Transformation in Practice - Essay Example

? Organisational Transformation in Practice PATCH I Focal Event The reflection involves a personal experience of change in the workplace. Specifically, the workplace considered was an independent grocery store I worked for after graduating from college. The size of the grocery store as notably smaller than the large chain markets presented a considerable number of differences. Upon beginning my employment, I soon came to recognize that there was a great degree of dysfunction in the work environment. Krantz (2000) refers to such modes of dysfunction as toxicity; this is a view of the organization in terms of psychic functioning. In this specific instance, the store’s general manager refrained from interacting with employees except when absolutely necessary. Even as there was a limited amount of employees, cliques emerged that hindered workplace efficiency and productivity. The environment had a strong negative impact on my mental and emotional well-being. In investigating these personal factors I implemented Gibbs’ (1988) reflection cycle. Fig. 1 demonstrates Gibbs’ reflection cycle. This cycle begins with a description of the underlining cause of the events and then moves in a clockwise pattern through stages of analysis and reconciliation. These stages are advanced through in the articulation of a patchwork text. Fig. 1 Gibbs Reflection Cycle PATCH II Underlying Causes In analyzing this specific workplace experience of change, I consider that there were a number of underlying causes that contributed to the experience. This specific organizational environment is best considered in terms of psychic elements, as the negative feelings and thought patterns I tacitly accepted and that were distributed throughout the organization occurred at the level of unspoken or unconscious communication. One recognizes this consideration within Michael Diamond’s (2008) concept of the unthought known. The unthought known refers to unconscious thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are communicated between people in a workplace environment. This is largely a systems consideration in that it eschews overt forms of expression for the recognition that workplace communication and interaction largely occurs at the unconscious level. Unthought Known In terms of my specific situation, the pervading consideration regarding the unthought known is the means of workplace change. The consideration of the toxicity I experienced I recognize then can be articulated within this hybrid structural and psychodynamic model. Diamond (2008, p. 357) notes, “Organizational culture is predominantly unconscious and ultimately located at the core of intersubjective relations that shape values and artifacts at the surface of organization.” In this specific organization, there were great challenges in terms of direct communication between individuals. The cliques that developed greatly hindered organizational communication. It seems in this way the cliques were implemented as an institutional defence, as employees chose to hide behind the group facade. Splitting became a prominent defence as individuals would view another, or a differing group in entirely negative terms. This effected communication through indirect methods. Passive aggressive behavior became prominent among employees. In my personal experience at the organization I recognize that I would frequently attempt to schedule my shifts as to avoid specific people. This suspicious and paranoid behavior grew larger the longer I worked at the company. When I did have to work with employees I had previously attempted to avoid a general toxic environment emerged. Rather than having a strong managerial leader to delineate job tasks, there were many arguments among employees as to who would participate in specific tasks such as shelving the aisles or running the cash register. In many degrees these arguments reflected group dynamics and fight or flight behavior. The arguments were simply a means of avoiding work responsibility, but instead reflected power relations within the group. While in a functional managerial environment there would be an efficient handling of this tension, this toxic environment allowed these arguments to build-up and result in further tension between employees. Jacques (1951) considered the extent that worker satisfaction was contingent on direct financial incentives. Notably, the study revealed the anxious entanglements that occurred among employees and management regarding wages. My experience with the toxic environment as the grocery store contained many parallels with this study. Most notably, immature defences were implemented rather than a direct consideration of the underlining issues. It seems to a great degree then many arguments at the grocery store were displaced tension that had emerged from these ill-defined roles and responsibilities. In terms of my personal situation, I felt the transference of this unthought unknown, which instituted a fight or flight response in me. To a great degree I chose to attempt to avoid these conflict situations, which resulted in a strong amount of anxiety and uncertainty, as I was not sure about my daily interactions with co-workers. Leadership Failure As noted earlier one of the most prominent considerations within the organization was the failure of leadership with the general manager. Not only did this individual impact me personally, but also negatively impacted the larger scale organization. Stein (2007) examined many of the methods of the organization in the modern economic world; it’s clear that many of the toxic elements Stein identifies were identifiable with the general manager in the grocery store. Stein (2007, p. 8) notes that, “narcissistic leaders appeal to an us/them polarization, demand unquestioning loyalty, and quash all internal dissent.” This perspective has been implemented by theorists (Glynos 2010; Declerq 2006) who, from a Lacanian perspective, link the modern work environment in terms of a master and capitalist imperative. To a large degree these descriptive measures accurately diagnose the leadership and management approach that the organization’s general manager implemented. This approach correspondingly influenced my personal conduct and had a structural impact on the entirety of the grocery store. Within the spectrum of my situation at the grocery store I recognize that because of my situation I largely became a susceptible follower of the general manager. The larger community had a great shortage of jobs because of the nearby university and its flux of students. This created an environment where the general manager had great leverage over employees. In other work environments the more egalitarian work structure created a situation where organizational policies had to be shifted to include more human concerns. This did not occur in this environment and the general managers toxic leadership approach afflicted both myself, and the larger scale organizational culture at the grocery store. Learning Environment To a great extent, there was a self-reinforcing system at the organization that reinforced the dysfunctional and toxic environment. Vince (2001) argues that the interaction between politics (power relations) and emotion within an organization establishes an organizational learning environment. It’s clear that within this specific grocery store the cyclical behavior patterns that I fell in were established and reinforced by the power dynamics at the store. Additionally, existing and new employees continually feel into this learning cycle. As an increased need for emotional focus in organizations is needed a means of counteracting these processes (Vince 1996; Vince & Broussine 1999; Vince & Martin 1993), the general managerial shortcomings at the organization indicate that in large part the toxic learning environment at the store were established by the general manager. Through further self-reflection I recognize that these negative and self-reinforcing patterns of behavior were further established and embraced by employees who had been at the store for extended periods. In my personal reflection I consider that I came to actively embrace these negative environmental elements. I personally witnessed the organization not in terms of larger human concerns, but instead as a means of pure employment and profit. Oftentimes I implemented splitting in broadly characterizing other employees as evil. In other situations, I projected my own discomfort and anxiety on other employees. After a period of employment at the organization I was tasked with training other employees. In retrospect I recognize the processes I learned upon entering the grocery store were greatly reflected in my training processes. For instance, rather than instructing new employees on ways of proper collaboration, I increasingly reinforced the toxic processes that had been adopted in the past. Regularly people then were indoctrinated into the dysfunctional environment and the self-reinforcing process was created. Not only did this negatively impact the grocery store, but also increasingly had a negative impact on my personal experience as an employee. Increasingly I came to embrace the notion that the negativity and anxiety I faced was normal, as the institution I worked for embraced and reinforced these perspectives. New employees who joined the company that in retrospect had a healthier outlook on the world were subtly ostracized until they conformed to the specific organizational culture. This negative culture created a situation that was not simply toxic for ultimate organizational productivity, but also for the maximization of my personal potential. In this way there seems to be a consideration that personal and organizational development may occur in a predefined pattern that is akin to human and emotional concerns. Through embracing the dysfunctional workplace environment then I tacitly came to embrace an environment that limited my personal capabilities through increased anxiety. Defensiveness Within my specific grocery store there were a variety of defensive inputs that contributed to the general levels of toxicity that I felt. As noted one of the primary contributing factors to my negative personal environment was my lack of collaboration with other employees. This lack of teamwork wasn’t simply limited to me, but extended to include the entire organization through cliques that developed. To a great extent it appears that the cliques emerged as a way of establishing defense mechanisms. This has been a process that has been identified by Krantz (2000). In reflecting on my personal involvement in the cliques throughout the organization, I realize they occurred for a variety of reasons. One of the prominent reasons was simply as a means of surviving at the company. Specifically if one did not have a team of people they identified with, it was easier to take advantage of them through shirking duties, gaining privilege in terms of scheduling, and receiving help for work tasks. While this personally may have contributed to my short-term gain, I recognize that these forms of organizational behavior hindered the cooperative environment and organizational efficiency. Within this spectrum of understanding there was also the implementation of cliques as ego defense mechanisms. Splitting was prominent in this area, as group personified other groups and people as negative or evil based on whether they were favorable to the person within the store. Rather than going through the process attempting to recognize my co-workers perspectives and question my own stance, I was able to join cliques as a means of ego defense. This way I could continue in my fantasy role. Moxnes (1999) considered archetypical roles within organizations. Projection within the organization occurred in many corresponding ways, as some individuals were viewed as ‘helpers,’ ‘slaves,’ and ‘clowns,’ while others were heralded as ‘princesses’ or ‘heros.’ For instance, group dialogue would oftentimes refer to other groups of people as lazy, ‘drugged-out’, or hyper-sensitive. To a large degree, however, these projections emerged as ego defence or merely as a byproduct of toxic environment. There is the consideration then that the cliques functioned as a splintered and repressed ego. Not only did this negatively impact my personal anxiety and functionality, but also impacted the entirety of the organization. PATCH III Change Management/ Adaptive Leadership After a period of time at the organization I came to recognize that I was one of employees that had the most seniority at the organization. During my tenure at the company I increasingly came to develop outside relationships and establish a greater amount of stability in my life. These outside influences increasingly came to inform my perspective on the specific organizational environment as toxic and dysfunctional. This recognition did not result in a conscious recognition that I must enact widespread change, but rather the subtle understanding that the organizational culture at the grocery store could be improved in small and meaningful ways. Krantz (2000) examined organizational change within the spectrum of psychodynamics. The recognition in these regards was that organizational change required great degrees of psychic challenges to organization members. These challenges are accompanied by a period of upheaval that frequently invokes anxiety. In this sense, the recognition that organizational change needed to be enacted was not simply accompanied by my enacting of this change. However, in small ways I came to reject past organizational standards. For instance, rather than simply embracing the culture of cliques, I increasingly came to embrace the belief that the humanity of the individual should be highlighted, not the features that differentiated that individual. This shift in consideration resulted in a small state of anxiety in the organization as people I had previously associated with increasingly began to look askance at me as I broken past patterns of social interaction. To a great extent it appears that this is akin to the forms of psychic challenges that were acknowledged in Krantz (2000). With the increased negative energy that I experienced from my changing approach to the organization, I came to discover new modes of managing change. French (2001, p. 408) considered change in terms of negative capability. Essentially, this perspective argues that when organizations experience periods of change there is a strong amount of anxiety that emerges and is dispersed throughout the organization. Successful organizational change then depends on negative and positive capabilities, with the positive capabilities the consideration of dispersing this negative energy in effective ways. Within the context of the organization I recognize that in large part the negative energy emerged from the general manager and the tension between varying cliques of employees. While it was not a conscious action at the time, in reflecting on the experience I recognize the ways that it contributed to my personal change and change within the organization. In these regards, my interacting with the increased levels of collaboration at the company was tempered with levels of interaction with my original clique. As I increasingly came to recognize the toxic nature of the environment, I increasingly recognized areas where there could be potential improvement. One such area of change occurred in terms of personal leadership responsibility. Bolden & Gosling (2006, p. 147) argue that leadership traits should increasingly be shifted from concerns directly related to traditional competencies and, instead, involve broader ranging human concerns. Leadership theorists have further shifted the emphasis of leadership characteristics away from traits and behaviors and more towards specific social and contextual processes (Bolden. 2006; Armstrong 1988). Finally, Gosling (1998) emphasizes the shift of leadership away from technocratic modes of understanding towards more multidimensional means of change and management. In large part I experienced these shifts in relation to my interaction with the general manager. While my interaction with the general manager continued along the previously established patterns of interaction, as a means of enacting increased organizational change I came to institute greater degrees of human considerations for employees. This process necessitated eschewing well-entrenched policies of foregrounding profit motives above everything, and instead worked to embrace different personal standards. PATCH IV Personal and Organisational Transformation The process of personal and organizational transformation occurred in a variety of elements. One of the greatest challenges was that the general manager had largely contributed to the toxic organizational environment through an overemphasis on profit motives over human concerns. Gabriel (2005) considers that through work people seek to fulfill deeper unconscious desires. While motivation theories rooted in the business environment consider the primacy of career and subsistence, this lens opens perspectives to the nature of the workplace environment as responding to deeper sorts of psychological inquiry. For instance, there is the recognition that in many ways workplace environments function not simply as a requirement intrinsic to the job, but rather as a means of combating stress or anxiety. Lyth (1960, p. 443) revealed that as a means of counter-acting the psychic stress that experienced in the hospital context, nurses developed defensive techniques. This process has also been observed in organizations experiencing downsizing (Clair & Dufresne 2004). Subsequently, as the personal and organizational change took hold I came to recognize the importance of building defense tactics against the manager’s overemphasis on rigid profit standards over human concerns. Rather than embracing cliques I increasingly came to embrace the human relationships that were developed through interaction. This then enacted a structural shift in the organization that had a corresponding effect on the general manager’s behavior as well as the organization. In addition to the specific modes of organizational change, I consider that the very self-reflexive process directly contributes to modes of discovery and future knowing. I understand this very reflexive assignment as empowering the sense that it articulated the process of change and the means through which challenging circumstances find resolution. Similarly, Driver (2009) considers organizational change in terms of a narrative construction. This mode of self-reflexivity as providing organizational insights is supported by Diamond (2007) who posited establishing a (triangular) space between self and other, subject and object, fantasy and reality, as a means of self-reflexive analysis. One of the prominent aspects of psychodynamic talk therapy is the recognition that in many situations the very process of articulating one’s experiences allows past repressed desires or experiences to be resolved. In this sense, this assignment and future examinations can be considered as a means of coping with difficult workplace situations and enacting change. I recognize multidimensional modes of advancing in future work and personal contexts. In this sense, there is the consideration of reflecting on fantasies of the self in terms of narrative potentialities. Indeed, one of the most overarching themes with psychodynamic literature on organizational change is the positing of subject and object relations (Arnaud 2007; Glynos 2010; Declerq 2006). The first modes of recognition are the earlier established processes of identity and leadership development. These processes can be established and implemented in my future workplace contexts. My other mode of recognition is that simply implementing psychodynamic processes of reflection result in a process of deepened-knowing and becoming. References Arnaud, G. (2007). The Division of the Subject and the Organization. Journal of Organizational Change Management. Vol. 20. No. 3. Armstrong, D. (1988). Professional Management. London: Grubb Institute. Bolden, R. (2006). Transforming Communities through Leadership Development: A Pan- African Example. British Academy of Management Conference. Bolden, R. & Gosling, J. (2006). Leadership Competencies: Time to Change the Tune? Leadership 2006; 2; 147. Clair, J. & Dufresne, R. (2004). Playing the grim reaper: How employees experience carrying out a downsizing. Human Relations. Volume 57(12): 1597–1625. Declerq, F. (2006). Lacan on the Capitalist Discourse. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 2006, 11, (74–83). Diamond, M. (2007). Organizational Change and the Analytic Third. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 2007, 12, (142–164). 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