Competing Values Framework - Essay Example

 Competing Values Framework The competing values framework, a theory developed from, initial research conducted on the major indicators of effective organizations, bases its evaluation on statistical analysis of a comprehensively prepared list of effectiveness indicators. The founders of this model, Quinn and Rohrbaugh in their research discovered two major dimensions that underlie conceptions of effectiveness. One of these dimensions is relative to the organizational focus. This dimension is highly concerned with the internal emphasis on the well-being and the people’s development in the organization (Ancarani et al., 2009). However, to a particular extent, it is also concerned with the well-being and the development of the entire organization. In the second dimension, Quinn and Rohrbaugh differentiated organizational preferences for structure. Thus, the focus of this dimension is on setting contrast between stability and control and flexibility and change. Organizational leaders and business managers confront particular organizational issues such as ways of ensuring innovativeness, organizing and deploying of organizational resources, as well as the means of growing and changing as a system. Thus, it is imperative for leaders to understand on the means and ways of confronting these issues effectively. However, for successful implementation of this strategy, leaders have to do so by keeping the organizational culture in mind as well as understanding that the daily tensions that exist in the within their organization greatly affect their plans (Hartnell & Kinicki, 2011). The competing values framework comprises of these competing positive tensions, divided into four quadrants. For over 5 years of research and testing, results prove that competing values framework is a successful way of fostering good leadership, improving organizational effectiveness and promoting value creation. According to model, the four quadrants comprise of four hotly competing values within every organization which include collaborate, create, compete and control. In an organization’s limited resources including time, finances and labour, these four values really compete with each (Thakor, 2010). How effectively the leaders of the organization allocate for these resources determine their level of success as business leaders. Their ability to respond to the tensions created by these competing values shapes the organization’s culture, practices, products and its efficiency in growing its operations (Rai, 2011). A  Competing Values Framework Questionnaire developed for this purpose measures three important organizational aspects; purposes, people and practices. Purpose measures the future outcomes that a company hopes to achieve in future, practices measures the current organizational practices while people determine the individual leadership approach of all members of the organization in their respective capacities (Moore, Kizer, & Jeon, 2011). According to Sharimllah et al (2011),the developers of the model urge business leaders to use the CVF model in measuring their level of effectiveness. Although there are different ways of defining organizational effectiveness as the competitive value model points out, companies ought to align themselves in the right definition of effectiveness. After aligning themselves, companies can thereby find an innovative potential in achieving their desired growth and outcomes. There are two ways of measuring the competing values assessment. One is at the individual level and the other at the team level. Individually, assessment focuses on the personal development and career planning ability while at the team level assessment focuses on the team development and creating a shared vision and shared valued among the group members. The initial step in competitive value framework is completion of the competing value assessment, which takes place either by the entire organizational members or by strategic business units. After successfully completing this step, the next step is comparing the aggregated results to other industry competitors by the use of competing value innovation index. This index enables leaders to understand quickly the different companies positioned for growth in the market place and the comparison of their company’s performance with the competitors. Moreover, the innovation index shows how adjustments along the four quadrants of the competing values framework are positioned to yield revenues for the company. As discussed earlier, the assessment values focused on the assessment values of three approaches geared towards change, innovation and growth. Purpose assesses the intended outcomes or organizational values it intends to create in future. Practices assess the culture, competency and processes of the organization. How these contribute to achieve the planned results is their focus. Finally, the people assess individual organizational employees and business leaders, specifically their personal values, both as leaders and as individuals. Different colours differentiate the four quadrants. The collaborate quadrant; represented by yellow colour is a human relations model whose major emphasis is on cohesion, morale, human resources and personnel training. It represents a cross between an internal, inter-personal oriented focus and a flexible change on the organization. Organizations and leaders who are nurtured in this quadrant nurture their employees, cultivate human capital and are quick in changing their actions as they focus on the long term development plans. Leaders who fall in this category are facilitators, mentors and team builders. Value driving forces include commitment, communication between the leaders and subordinates and development of the people. The theory of effectiveness anchored on this quadrant emphasises that human development and high commitment produce effectiveness. Mostly, the organization practices clan culture. Metrics associated with the collaborative quadrant include knowledge and community. There are advantages and drawbacks of associated with this quadrant. Zafft et al (2009) argues that as part of the advantages, there is a high value placed on the people as leadership is internally cultivated, human capital yields organizational success and the organization’s focus is on the long-term. Drawbacks associated with the quadrant include, if taken to the extreme, organizations resembles a club, there is slowness of projects in producing outcomes and goals become moving targets and hence the organizational focus suffers. Green colour represents the create quadrant, which is an open system model described as organic, flat, loosely coupled, matrix-oriented, and temporary. This quadrant represents an organizational structure, which is a cross between an externally organizational oriented focus that is flexible to change. Organizations anchored to this quadrant take risks, focus broadly on the bigger picture and bug ideas, and are highly agile in their actions and resources that they cultivate. Characteristics of leaders in this quadrant are innovativeness, vision and constant change that produce effectiveness. Organizations practice adhocracy type of culture. Its advantages include frequency of materialization of bold and breakthrough ideas, flexibility and novelty that yield organizational success and organizational focus on the long-term (Naranjo-Valencie, et al., 2011). Colour blue represents the compete quadrant. This rational goal model emphasises profit and bottom line measures. Compete quadrant is underlined by the concept of rational action. This quadrant represents a cross between an external, organizational oriented focus and a focuses organizational structure. Organizations anchored in this quadrant do things quickly for immediate gain, focus heavily on bottom line measures of profitability and relentlessly acquire resources that give them a competitive advantage (Belasen & Frank, 2010). The type of leaders in this quadrant is hard-drivers, competitors and producers. Values driving this quadrant include the market share of the organization, goal achievement and organizational profitability. The culture type of this quadrant is market. In this quadrant, the theory emphasis on aggressive competition and customer focus that produce effectiveness. The red colour defines the control quadrant. This is an internal model that adheres to a traditional notion that holds that organizing occurs in a highly structured a very hierarchical way. This quadrant mainly represents a cross between an internally oriented focus and a stable organizational culture. Organizations anchored in this quadrant minimize risk; focus on details and continuous improvement. Further, an organization exhibits a great strategy in their actions and resources that they cultivate. Characteristics of leaders in this quadrant are coordinators, monitors and organizers. Values driving this quadrant include efficiency, timeliness, consistency and uniformity (Gupta, 2011). The theory of effectiveness applicable to this quadrant majors on control and efficiency with capable processes produce effectiveness. Analysis of my result of that test with other classmates An effective leader requires different characteristics to succeed in conducting their leadership functions. Despite a manager having immense knowledge and understanding in their leadership functions, different characteristics define an effective leader. Any organizational leader with the ability to coordinate others, both intellectually and as a community defines their level of success. These qualities define the strength of the leader, especially their ability in balancing the requirements of the four quadrants to achieve results. Although as a manager and a leader I cannot have all these qualities, trying to balance the strengths and weaknesses determines my efficiency as a leader. As results of independent evaluations by a number of friends as well as a personalized evaluation reveals, I have my own strengths and weaknesses. From the results of the evaluation, the similarities in the results indicate either my weaknesses or strengths in leading others. Personal evaluation reveals mentorship as my biggest strength. Further, I score second best in the facilitator quadrant. However, I score poorly in the producer and director quadrants. This shows my major strengths and weakness in the various categories of assessment. As a leader, both in the organization and in the unit, mentorship is essential in motivating employees and team members. These qualities, falling in the category of collaborative quadrant, show my strength and capabilities on building community and knowledge of the people. Three of my friends further revealed my leadership capabilities after they did an evaluation of my leadership capabilities. From their assessment results, my biggest strength lies in the mentor and broker sections of the quadrants. According to these results, I performed well in certain areas and poorly in others. These are similar with my personal evaluation, especially with the mentor and facilitator area. Two of my friends found out that I am strong in the Facilitator and the innovator segments. In these two, I scored similar results, indicating that there was no bias in the evaluation process. Such an evaluation shows that despite the fact that I am a good leader, I am yet to achieve the status of an efficient leader. However, I have several areas of strength, as well as weakness. I am a strong mentor, a good facilitator, and an innovator. On the other hand, I am a weak broker, director and producer. From personal evaluation results, I am a good facilitator and a mentor. This compares with the results of my friends in their evaluation tests. These qualities help me grow my leadership capabilities to become more efficient. Having the knowledge and understanding of where my knowledge lies, I can effectively improve my capacity as a leader through research. By understanding the various qualities defining a good leader, I can improve on these weaknesses. There is the need to know how to handle people, especially in a group and a community. Thus, observing how other successful leaders have managed in their leadership roles helps me successfully grow my leadership qualities, making me a successful leader. Having an understanding of the qualities that forms my weaknesses as a leader increasingly influences my ability to improve my efficiency in leaders. These are the steps that I need to adopt to become a more efficient leader. References Ancarani, A., Di Mauro, C., & Giammanco, M. (2009). How are organisational climate models and patient satisfaction related? A competing value framework approach. Social Science & Medicine, 69(12), 1813-1818. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.09.033 Belasen, A., & Frank, N. (2010). A Peek Through the Lens of the Competing Values Framework: What Managers Communicate and How. Atlantic Journal Of Communication, 18(5), 280-296. doi:10.1080/15456870.2010.521475 Gupta, B. (2011). A comparative study of organizational strategy and culture across industry. Benchmarking, 18(4), 510-528. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14635771111147614 Hartnell, C. A. & Kinicki, A. (2011). Organizational Culture and Organizational Effectiveness: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Competing Values Framework's Theoretical Suppositions. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 677-694. Moore, J. R., Kizer, L. E., & Jeon, B. P. (2011). Leading groups to create healthy culture through accomplishing tasks aligned to strategy. International Journal of Management and Information Systems, 15(2), 55-64. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/864899621?accountid=45049 Naranjo-Valencia, J., Jiménez-Jiménez, D., & Sanz-Valle, R. (2011). Innovation or imitation? the role of organizational culture. Management Decision, 49(1), 55-72. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251741111094437 Rai, R. K. (2011). Knowledge management and organizational culture: A theoretical integrative framework. Journal of Knowledge Management, 15(5), 779-801. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13673271111174320 Sharimllah, D. R., Siong, C. C., & Ismail, H. (2011). Organisational culture. The International Journal of Educational Management, 25(6), 615-634. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513541111159086 Thakor, A. (2010). The Competing Values Framework and Growth Strategy. Mergers & Acquisitions: The Dealermaker's Journal,45(1), 46-47. Zafft, C. R., Adams, S. G., & Matkin, G. S. (2009). Measuring Leadership in Self-Managed Teams Using the Competing Values Framework. Journal Of Engineering Education, 98(3), 273-282. Read More