The Use of Communication and Clarification - Essay Example

?Leadership Test Contrast Bolman and Deals 4) and Gallos 13) view of organizational leadership and that of Kouzes and Posner 3).  Organizational leadership forms an important part of our everyday life. It is seen that leadership is an ability through which people can lead from the front. A leader has to possess the right skills in order to lead and these skills are discussed in the articles by Bolman & Deal, Gallos and Kouzes and Posner. The view of Gallos on organizational leadership revolves around the aspect sense making. He believes that leaders have to act right in the right situations. They have to sense the opportunities on the right time so that they can act on them. He highlights three important steps in order to become a successful leader which are to notice the opportunity, deciding about it and then determining as to what is to be done. This whole process requires interpretation and a leader should successfully be able to interpret. Bolman and Deals presents a somewhat similar situation of leadership in their article. They put forward that the most important aspect of leadership is the dealing with challenges. In other words the leaders have to act in the right manner to handle these challenges as Gallos has said. Bolman and Deals have further clarified the concept of Gallos by introducing the aspect of reframing leadership. Reframing according to them is a process through which leaders can analyze the situation from different perspectives. This process can help the leaders to take a competitive step by analyzing the whole situation and in other words carry out the process of sense making. Kouzes and Posner on the other hand put five principles which should be followed by the leaders to become a successful leader. Their view of organizational leadership revolves around these five principles. The leaders should model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act and encourage the heart to be successful. Kouzes and Posner like other authors give a specific way through which they can be successful. In the principle of challenging the process they talk about experiments through which the leaders can sense as to what they have to do in the future. a.What are the primary differences?  The differences between their views is significant. Kouzes and Posner believe in following the five principles of leadership whereas Bolman and Deals believe in reframing leadership by analyzing a situation from different perspectives. Gallos on the other hand believes that a successful leader has to have the right sense making capabilities to take advantage of the situation. Kouzes and Posner give certain steps which can be further exemplified with other leadership styles. They give a step by step commitment process which has to be followed by the leaders whereas Gallos and Deals do not give a step by step process. b.How can B & Ds work and that of Gallos be used to strengthen the perspective of the Kouzes and Posner leadership model? Be sure to provide enough explanation to let me know that you understand the intricacies of each of these authors perspectives.   The work of Kouzes and Posner is a piece which gives specific guidelines to the leaders so that they can be successful. But on the other hand the theories of B & D and Gallos can be integrated into the work of Kouzes and Posner to strengthen it. The work of Kouzes and Posner revolves around the ethics of the leader and involves a lot of risks if they challenge the process as it may result in mistakes. It tells that all the workers should work as a team with the leader so that he can be successful. The leader should create a shared vision with his followers so that they are interested in working as much as the leader is. Power and discretion should also be shared by the leader so that their interest is created. And lastly encouragement is also necessary as put forward by Kouzes and Posner. All these steps are necessary for an effective leader but the process of reframing and sense making can be introduced in these steps to make them more effective. The leader should analyze the situation from several viewpoints so that he can take a successful decision. In taking a successful decision he should then follow the principles as laid down by Kouzes and Posner. 2.Edgar Schein talked about creating a learning culture as a primary task of leadership. In fact, he described it as the essence of leadership. a. What did he mean by that statement? One of the basic tasks of leaders is to create a culture and manage it accordingly throughout the life cycle of the business or the leading phase. The culture of the organization helps in maintaining the quality of work and functional stability of the organization. The leaders, hence, are required to be successful in maintaining a stable culture where values are determined and understood by all members. The creation of culture, however, is not a matter of setting rules and regulations but to carefully incorporate the cultural values in the leadership tasks. Globalization, technological advancements, diversity, biotech and industrialization are some of the modern concepts which require us to adopt the changes these concepts bring. Leadership, hence, is the idea which helps people within the organization to adapt to these changes and incorporate them in their regular working area. The leader is the person who can promote and encourage a learning culture where every person is ready to learn, train and apply the modern concepts in their regular tasks. Schein gives an opinion on the learning culture by keeping the modern environment and current trends in mind. He believes that a flexible culture where members are committed to learn, able to communicate regularly, ability to foresee the future outcomes of actions and other facts which promote change adaptability are important for the leaders to be well understood. Since leaders help in motivating and directing other members, they need to understand the current changes and trends in the business environment to motivate and encourage the incorporation of new concepts in the organizational working phenomenon. b.Would Drucker, Nanus, and Burns likely agree with Schein? Why or why not? Be sure to explain the rationale for your conclusion(s). Drucker would agree with the views of Schein because Drucker believes in a mission statement and a mission statement can only be followed if the company has the proper learning culture. A learning culture would ensure that the mission of the company is being followed as it was laid down. According to Drucker the performance of the company in accordance to the mission statement matters the most and this learning culture laid down by Edgar Schein provides a platform for the mission statement to be followed. Burns would also agree with Schein as he emphasizes on creativity and this creativity can be learned with the help of the perfect environment. The learning culture in the organization can ensure that an environment is provided for the creativity. Leaders can only be successful if they have the right culture in their organization and this is why Burns would agree with Schein. Lastly Nanus would also agree with Schein because he emphasizes on the aspects of a good vision. A good vision comprising upon idealistic perspectives and standards of excellence can only be achieved with the corresponding learning culture. A successful leadership would have both a perfect learning culture and a perfect vision. Both these things go together and this is why Nanus would agree with Schein c.What do you think Kanfer and Ackerman would have to say about the impact of Scheins ideas on todays multi-generational workforce? Kanfer and Ackerman would agree with the view of Schein on the learning culture as they believe that with growing age people tend to increase their Gc abilities. Kanfer and Ackerman would believe that the multi generational workforce these days would benefit from the learning culture as it would help them to manage diversity and use the knowledge that they have gained in an effective manner. Kanfer and Ackerman would believe that this multi generational workforce can benefit greatly from this learning culture as it would help them to know about the decisions that they want to take. Learning culture is a very important aspect of an organization and considering the Crystallized Intellectual abilities 3. Given the perspective taken by Ashkenas, et al, would they agree with the following statement by Michael Sales?  a. Why or why not?  b. Be sure to thoroughly justify your rationale.  In my view Ashkensas et al would not agree with the statement by Michael Sales because Ashkensas believes in a boundary less organization rather than an organization which is on automatic pilot. The last part of the statement however would be agreed by Ashkensas et al because these four are the basic principles which revolve around a boundary less organization. The automatic pilot mode which is being practiced in the social organizations these days should not be followed as Ashkensas believes that all the social organizations need a form of permeability like the human body. Information should be permeable to different departments in a social organization and everything should happen in accordance to the provided information. In the automatic pilot mode the social organizations are working in an environment where they the information permeability does not matter and individuation occurs on a large scale. This would clearly be denied by the principles laid down by Ashkensas et al. The latter part of the statement however would be agreed by Ashkensas et al as the information of these system elements would help to maintain a boundaryless organization. Homogenization is the concept on which Ashkensas would put emphasis on as it refers to the understanding of a certain topic within the organization. Integration is also an important element which should be known by the leaders in the organization. Individuation is a process which recognizes the distinctiveness of the individuals. It is associated with personal freedom within an organization and this can help the members of the organization to know about their rights. Knowing about the elements is necessary for the members to take specific decisions but according to Ashkensas et al the organization should maintain a permeability for information to reach different departments. The four elements plus the permeability would help an organization to become quite successful. 4. John Kotter argued in his Leading Change article that the goal of organizational restructuring efforts is often the same: ??make fundamental changes in how business is conducted in order to help cope with a new, more challenging market environment.? (p. 370, Gallos text). a. Given the perspectives offered by both the Kim and Mauborgne and the Rousseau articles, please discuss how the principles both discussed could be used to keep Kotter?s ?transformation efforts? from ?failing.?  b. Be sure to explain your understanding of the Kim and Mauborgne and Rousseau key ideas.  c. Explain how you believe they could be applied to at least two of Kotter?s ?reasons that transformation efforts fail?.  Rosseau article is much inclined towards explaining the psychological constructs of maintaining healthier relationships between people. According to Rosseau, the work environment requires careful attention in maintaining ‘good faith’ and trusting relationships where commitment is the key of every step people take. The commitment and agreements which are unwritten yet implied by the behavioral phenomenon form the basis of trust and mutuality of the group or organizational workforce. The perspective of Rosseau in this regard is the stability and commitment of the relationships in psychological manner rather than legally enforceable written agreements. The fall of many businesses is due to the lack of loyalty of the employees and weak relationships between employees and the employers. High turnover rates, wrong interpretation of the policies, misunderstanding about the change and authoritative behavior of employers limit the psychological contract of trust and commitment. Hence, change in this area is highly important in order to maintain healthier relationships, motivational levels and work satisfaction in the employees. Rosseau’s perspective encourages ‘good faith’ relationships to increase the adaptability of employees to change and acceptance of the changes brought in by modern technologies and concepts (like globalization, information technology, automated systems and so on). The communication and clarification of the change is the best option provided by Rosseau to keep Kotter’s transformation efforts from failing. The step by step psychological procedures of preparing them to change, training them, new contract generation and checking the results are some other steps set out by Rosseau. Kotter gives the reasons for the failure of transformation efforts and provides an indepth analysis of those failures in the study text. The perspective of Rosseau can easily be applied to curb the issue of not establishing great enough sense of urgency as described by Kotter to be a reason of failure of transformation efforts. The psychological efforts to motivate and prepare employees on change are the best practice to curb this issue. As per Rosseau’s perspective, challenging the old contracts or practices by identifying the weaknesses of results may be the best practice applied in order to emphasize urgency of transformation. Once the urgency and need of transformation is clarified, it is much easier to motivate people on adopting the new plans, practices and efforts which are proposed. Another reason of transformation failure is the lack of strong guiding coalition as described by Kotter. The sense evoking processes to have people understand the changes which are required and implemented is the first step. Preparing people on transformation requires more than motivational words. It requires personal involvement in the transformation process and provision of training facilities and reality check as per the transforming psychological contract perspective given by Rosseau. The proper guidance and advices on each level of management by proper allocation of work and individualistic efforts to maintain change is the key to successful transformation strategy. Rosseau provides concepts encouraging active involvement and re-emphasizing the missions as some steps to guide the employees on the track which best suits the transformation strategy. Kim and Mauborgne provide the ‘fair process’ approach to be followed in order to successfully implement the change without shedding the transformation efforts in failures. They consider three elements to be important in order to implement change or transformational plan successfully. These elements include employees’ input, communication of the need for change and the clarification of performance expectations after the change. Their idea, hence, highly depends on clarification and satisfaction of employees on change. They offer an idea of mutuality by stating their consent of taking employees’ ideas and perspectives in the decisions made for transformation. This does not necessarily imply that their ideas have to be adopted but it further adds confidence in the employees about their role in the organization. They feel motivated and involved in organizational affairs when they are asked about their beliefs and ideas about the change. They are motivated when they are given valid and legitimate reasons with supporting evidence to justify the transformation philosophy and plan. Lacking a vision under communication poses as a threat to the success of transformation goals. Kim and Mauborgne give much emphasis on communication, clarity and focused discussion. Each step in their model calls for effective communication with the members of the organization. They emphasize on the communication in the first stage i.e. engagement by welcoming employees’ ideas and building collective wisdom. The second step motivates communication by properly explaining the reasons for the final decision and the last step illustrates that clarification of expectations is a necessary phenomenon in the success of transformation. The importance of vision in their communication is given importance in each step. They call for a communication pattern where ideas clearly direct employees towards transformation and change. The explanation for the changes required, the reason for choosing the decision made and the clarification of expectations from the employees are all directing towards the transformation or changes in the organization. Kim and Mauborgne welcome a focused discussion to eliminate any confusion from employees’ minds and to focus their efforts on achieving the targets. Kotter defines failure of removing obstacles as a hurdle in the way of transformational success within organizations. The ‘explanation’ principle clearly answers this question. The written oral or collaborative explanation of the ideas and decision may help a lot in curbing the issues related to employees’ satisfaction. The use of communication and clarification, again, is the key to solve most of the obstacles in the way of transformational success. Kim and Mauborgne’s fair process leads to high employee confidence and satisfaction in the decisions made by management. The explanations and assurances by management help in gaining the trust and builds relationship stronger. The collaboration of employees and executives, then, leads to the successful implementation of transformation and change. References Gallos, Joan V. Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. Print. Kim, WC, and R Mauborgne. "Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy." Harvard Business Review. 75.4 (1997). Print. Kanfer, Ruth, and Phillip L. Ackerman. "Special Topic Forum on the Future of Work Motivation Theory - Aging, Adult Development, and Work Motivation." The Academy of Management Review. 29.3 (2004): 440. Print. Rousseau, Denise M. "Changing the Deal While Keeping the People." The Academy of Management Executive. 10.1 (1996): 50. Print. Read More