AIU Greenvale Correctional Facility Well Being of the Guards Response Discussion

I need an explanation for this Psychology question to help me study.

Greenvale Correctional Facility is experiencing large amounts of attrition. While the leadership does work well together, there may be a disconnect between them and the other employees. Exit interviews show dissatisfaction with the leadership and poor working conditions. The benefit that Greenvale has at this point is the data given in the exit interviews as well as the upper leadership being open to working together. Currently, the leadership is comprised of authoritarian style tactics. While this type of organization may require strict lines of communication and the employees being able and willing to listen and follow orders, there also is a reported issue with how that leadership is coming across. It is noted that the communication is top-down, indicating that there is little say taken from the lower level guards, likely aiding in the dissatisfaction.

Assessment and Steps to Take

As previously mentioned, the leadership level does have good communication with each other. The issue is that communication is falling short at the lower levels. In order to have effective changes within the culture of a work place, there needs to be collaboration from all levels and all participants (Timony, 2015). The OD professional in this scenario should strive to begin to bring the upper leadership into sessions with some of the lower level guards. This should be an open forum with the leaders being given feedback and bringing together their ideas (Timony, 2015). This is a critical stage. The leadership team should be advised from the start that they may hear things that they do not like or there may be some criticism. In those instances, the leaders need to bring about trust by allowing the open dialog without fear of reprisal from the other guards (Timony, 2015). This can help the leadership team and the consultant pinpoint the areas of concern that the guards have (Stone et al., 2018). The OD consultant should also be prepared to deal with unwilling participants or participants that fear reprisal for speaking out. To help with this, they can share some of the feedback that was given on the exit interviews or feedback from other sessions (Rothwell, 2015). The challenge is to identify real issues, rather than minor complaints. The issues that the employees bring up can be rated from the most serious to the least and action plans or long-term goals can be developed in order to combat those issues (Stone et al., 2018). This can be done through surveys or additional focus groups with peer leaders (Jex & Britt, 2014). Surveys can allow the employees the opportunity to anonymously address issues or give feedback and in these types of scenarios, may be highly effective (Stone et al., 2014).

Assessment of Factors

When an organizations leaders have an ingrained process or procedure, it may be difficult to help them see the faults or issues in the process (Kahn, 2012). This may be true in the instance of Greenvale. It was noted that the leadership is “siloed” and they tend to be removed from the general workers. This may make them less in tune to the issues that need to be addressed within the general organization and the day to day operations. The leadership group in this scenario has legitimate concern for the well-being of the guards. However, their strategy is not currently working and they need to face that and hear the issues before they can move forward (Kahn, 2012). Without that acknowledgement, they will remain stagnant.

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References:

Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2014). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Kahn, W. A. (2012). The functions of dysfunction: Implications for organizational diagnosis and change. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 64(3), 225–241. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1037/a00…

Rothwell, W.J. (2015). Organizational development fundamentals: Managing strategic change. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press

Stone, K. B., Brown, L., Smith, S. L., & Jacobs, J. (2018). Organizational Assessment: An integrated approach to diagnosis and interventions. Organization Development Journal, 36(1), 67–95.

Timony, B.C., (2015, November 30). Figuring things out: A guide for OD Practitioners. Retrieved from https://class.content.laureate.net/3f8df7e2c7b7c1b…