management

Introduction

Power distance refers to the difference in the distribution of power in the society or organizations, specifically involving the gap between those who are powerful and those who have little power. Indeed, organizations or cultures will have either low power distance or high power distance, and this status difference is viewed as a social norm (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2012).

The power distance index can be used to measure the degree of power and wealth between people in organizations, nations, or even cultures. Again, this concept or principle is always used to compare different organizations; it also helps to establish whether an organization has low power distance or high power distance.

The power distance concept always seeks to indicate and demonstrate the degree to which the subordinate employees in an organization or the general members of an organization submit to the people in authority and power.

To begin with, organizations with low power distance always expect democracy and employee consultation system, where the subordinate employees are allowed to contribute to the decision-making process in the organization (Thye & Lawler, 2006).

On the other hand, organizations with high power distance are always not free to allow subordinate employees to participate in the decision-making process in the organizations; in such high power distance system, the boss has the final decision (Locke & Latham, 2013).

In this system, employees are always affected if there is any negative change that is taking place in the organization because they must respect the authority and they are always expected to be submissive to their leaders without compromise. In this high power distance system, there is no questioning of the leaders, who are always expected to be right; leaders also tend to be earning more money and more respect.

The power distance index is always lower in organizations where the authority is working closely with employees and giving the employees more consideration towards decision-making. However, the power distance index is higher in organizations where the authority does not involve employees in the decision-making process, and mostly uses the authoritative method of leadership (Locke & Latham, 2013).

Therefore, it is clear that power distance is the method characterized by the extent and degree to which people in an organization consider and accept that power, status, and privileges are not distributed equally among individuals in the organization (Thye & Lawler, 2006).

This makes power distribution in the organization to have less influence in their lives. To avoid this problem, it is important that power, privileges, and even relationships between those in authority and the subordinates in an organization be given equal consideration, especially through power decentralization (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2012).

Effect of Power Distance on Team Performance

High Power and Low Power Distance

In most cases, those who are in authority or leadership roles are always associated with power and another status. In some organizations, the distinction between the leaders and other ordinary employees is symbolized using company vehicles given to them, the location of their offices, their rank, or titles given to them.

Again, in some organizations, power distance always has a strong effect on the performance of the team or employees. For example, in low power distance situations, there is always a lack of job satisfaction compared to high power distance environment. Therefore, proper team performance can be enhanced through the adoption of high power distance (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2012).

Also, in most organizations, there is always an unequal distribution of power and status, and most people expect this to be so. In most cases, employees must abide by the directives made by management without compromise, specifically in high power distance environments.

In other cases, the authority and the management sometimes have equal rights, while the management and other leaders are always willing to motivate employees in a participative manner. In such cases, the employees are allowed to have input in the decision-making process of the organization as well be allowed to share in setting organization’s goals, a process known as low power distance system (Michaelsen, ‎ Parmelee & McMahon, 2008).

In some cases of high power distance, employees are always intimidated by the authority’s command, making the employees less willing to challenge and compromise their leaders’ performance. This results from the fact that the employees fear their leaders, as they seek to protect their jobs; indeed, they may do everything to ensure that they are not in disagreement with their leaders.

In such cases, the subordinates’ views are not taken into consideration, as their opinions may be seen as not in agreement with their leaders’ opinions. In such cases, the power distance has a great effect on team performance, as it will affect the expectations and preferences of subordinates.

This is because the employees and other subordinates cannot express their views due to fear of reprisal by the management, and those who are in authority.

The fact that subordinates’ views and opinions are not heard derails the expectations of employees, leading to low morale and hence, poor performance in the organization. Therefore, it is important that a more democratic leadership be adopted, which involves listening to the needs and wants of subordinates (Locke & Latham, 2013).

Power distance has a close connection with perceptions that many people hold about leadership is one of the systems associated with the cultural perception of leadership. For example, some subordinates always expect those in power and authority to be bold, calm, and intelligent in decision-making.

In such cultures, the level of teamwork portrayed by subordinates will be affected when the authorities or those in power display characteristics that are not by their expectations. In most cultures, there are specific positive attributes and characteristics that a leader has to portray or exhibit at all times. Any display of a negative characteristic by the leader is always viewed as a discouraging factor for team performance.

Again, in different cultures, people prefer different systems of power distance; for example, some cultures prefer high power distance while others prefer low power distance. Therefore, the power distance contributes both negatively and positively towards employees or team’s performance.

It all depends on the culture and its preference for high or low power distance. Nevertheless, employees need to focus on the acceptance and support of the authority’s direction and directives (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2012).

Lastly, for effective team performance, it is important that those who work under high power distance organizations be willing to support those in authority. This is because, in high power distance, the greater the power distance in an organization, the more the employees will be obligated to support those in authority.

On the other hand, in an organization with low power distance, it is always important to seek to engage all members of the organization in making decisions, unlike in high power distance that focuses on gaining support from those in authority (Michaelsen,‎ Parmelee & McMahon, 2008).

In addition, for more effective power distance, it is important that those who are in authority have the ability to apply formal rules and procedures in management of the subordinates, as this will enable the subordinates to follow directives, rules, and policies, thereby encouraging effective team performance (Thye & Lawler, 2006).

Organization Learning

There are various types of learning in organizations, among them being operational learning to conceptual learning. To begin with, operational learning is the process that involves the transfer and acquisition of skills, values, and knowledge through practice and experience. On the other hand, conceptual learning is the process that involves transfer and creation of knowledge through the transformation of experiences.

Therefore, learning as a process increases people’s capacity to take appropriate actions. Another type of learning is situational learning, where an individual encounters a problem and improvises ways to solve the problem on the spot. Other learning methods include opportunistic learning and fragmented learning.

For effective, sustained existence of any organization, it is important that continuous learning is enhanced consciously or unconsciously.

This is because continuous learning is the only way the organization will be able to develop skills and capabilities essential in pursuing its objectives; this can always be done individually or through organized team learning. Generally, individual learning mainly precedes organizational learning (Locke & Latham, 2013).

On the other hand, organizational learning requires employees to be motivated to enhance proper, better, and effective learning to take place. Again, there is a need for continuous rewards to enable the employees to focus on organizational learning. In most cases, the organization always learns through its members; therefore, it is clear that organizational learning is greatly affected by individual learning.

However, most organizations always tend to protect their status quo by precluding others from challenging them, hence allowing little learning to take place. Nevertheless, there is always a need for rewards and motivation to allow proper organizational learning to take place (Locke & Latham, 2013).

Team Learning

Team learning is an instructional strategy and method of learning mainly used in developing skills and values in an organization or workplace. This kind of learning has many advantages, one of them being allowing the effectiveness of diversity of skills, as a group of employees comes together to diversify their skills (Michaelsen,‎ Parmelee & McMahon, 2008).

Again, through this learning, team building and socializing skills are built, and those who seem uninterested are encouraged by fellow members. Also, through team learning, interpersonal skills are developed, as employees are provided with an environment for interacting with each other.

One problem with team-based learning is that some people do not like working in groups, and this can lead to a feeling of loss of interest in team learning. Again, some members of the group can become lazy when working in groups, leading to poor or inadequate skills in the team learning process.

Also, when individuals work as a team, there are always chances of conflict arising, leading to intimidation of some individuals. Moreover, in some cases, there are always chances of delayed decision-making, leading to poor work; hence, there is need of trainer to help employees in some cases of problems.

Conclusion

From the discussion above, it is clear that power distance has a significant effect on team performance. Generally, in cases where there is a high power distance system, employees rarely give out their views and opinions; hence, they are not involved in the decision-making process.

On the other hand, in cases of low power distance, employees are involved in the decision-making process of the organization; hence, they contribute their views and opinions successfully.

For proper organizational learning to take place, there is always a need for motivation and rewards to encourage the members of the organization to be involved in the learning process. Additionally, independent learning is always mainly geared towards the organizational goals and self-improvement of an individual. Again, independent learning is self-directed learning that allows individuals the capability to solve their problems.

Therefore, it is important that most of the organization’s gear towards independent learning since it fosters creativity and allows most of the concept to stick to an individual’s mind. Again, it is very efficient and effective, as once mastered, the concept will flow easily.

Nevertheless, team learning helps individuals to develop interpersonal skills and make learning more interesting, as diversity is achieved. Indeed, teamwork is one of the most effective tools that organizations use to enhance skills development as well as overall organizational performance; diversity, and team building are necessary ingredients for success in organizations.

This is despite the drawbacks associated with team learning, especially the tendency of some employees to be joy riders in team operations and duties, as well as the likelihood of conflicts emerging due to differences in opinions.

References

Locke, E., & Latham, G. (2013). New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance. London, England: Routledge.

Michaelsen, L., ‎ Parmelee, D., & McMahon, K. (2008). Team-based Learning for Health Professions Education: A Guide to Using Small groups for Improving Learning. Virginia, USA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Samovar, L., Porter, R., & McDaniel, E. (2012). Communication between Cultures. Boston, USA: Cengage Learning.

Thye, S., & Lawler, E. (2006). Social Psychology of the Workplace. Bingley, England: Emerald Group Publishing.

AT&T, one of the largest mobile carrier companies, has agreed to purchase Leap wireless company. The deals are a series of procurements that have seen bigger companies buy off smaller upstarting companies that offer cheaper plans.

The move aims to maximize the telecommunication’s company dominance over the airwaves. The deal will cost approximately $1.2 billion. It will be the first acquisition the for Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chief Executive. Randall’s initial deal to buy T-Mobile was stopped by the justice department in 2011 (Gryta).

Concerned regulators are closely monitoring the AT&T deal. The company is hopeful, stating the odds are good and the regulators will let the deal materialize. This means that AT&T will have to give up the US wireless spectrum. Spectrum is the frequency through which mobile phone carriers can transmit wireless signals. Subscribers for the services are to face several changes because of the deals.

Providers that offer cheaper services are fast diminishing, while smaller players in the industry like T-Mobile are a growing threat to AT&T. These deals have also had effects on the stock markets, raising the prices. In July, more than a third of Leap’s shares increased to 7.98$ between 12th and 15th. This had no impact on the price for AT&T who are still purchasing the shares at 15$ each.

The company had its most active day on 12 July, with many of the investors hoping for stock gains before the deal was publicly announced. This gave the buyers a chance to purchase the shares, letting them set the price. Leap’s shares rose to 16.70$ in just a few hours due to this.

Stakeholders are individuals who have an interest in a firm or a business setup. They are affected by the firm’s activity, either directly or indirectly. According to AT&T stakeholder’s engagement, the company has diverse stakeholders. The AT&T stakeholders include owners, employees, customers, consumers, suppliers, analysts, public interest groups, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, investors, and the community.

All stakeholders share certain responsibilities and interests within the company. In the AT&T and Leap deal, the stakeholders will be interested in the welfare, protection, and rights of the workers. These organizations and groups will be directly affected by the activity of the two firms.

The owners are specifically interested in the company’s profit margins. The workers’ main interest is in the wages they receive. The lenders are interested in getting refunds of credit owed. The community around the business is directly affected by the firm’s activities.

Leap had been focused on prepaid services, so their subscribers did not have to sign contracts; the plan expected them to pay monthly. They also enjoy the option of paying monthly. Because Leap lacks diversity and scale of its competitors and focuses on prepaid services, it has been losing subscribers.

AT&T boasts about 107 million subscribers. It hopes to maintain Leap’s subscribers by offering them network access. It also plans to gain more users in new cities. AT&T controls very little spectrum per subscriber, while Leap brings a spectrum that covers 137 million subscribers.

Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst with New Street Research, explains this. The move aims to improve its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) by expanding it and gaining more capacity. This will increase its usage and give it better connectivity (The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights, 2013)

Analysts speculate that AT&T will increase its earnings and success by gaining more spectrum, LTE technology introduction, and better connectivity. After the deal is completed, AT&T will be better equipped to compete with other mobile service providers who offer cheaper alternatives to their subscribers.

In San Diego, Leap operated under Cricket prepaid brand. The brand covers 96 million subscribers and ranks sixth in the US. AT&T is planning to start its expansion by using Cricket to expand its prepaid operations (Gustin, 2013).

Young people and low-income earners mainly use Leap technology services. The acquisition by AT&T will create a gap in the market. When AT&T takes over, the subscribers will be misplaced, and this is because AT&T does not offer Leap’s unique services. The effect will leave the subscribers misplaced. The effect may lead to the withdrawal of subscribers, as well as the hesitation of potential subscribers to join.

AT&T may not get the success and expansion they expected. Although Leap’s stocks were going up, the takeover is under speculation because interested parties fell AT&T was trying to monopolize its services in the market by taking over smaller companies. The company might not be successful if Leap’s prepaid subscribers did not sign up for AT&T services. This is because AT&T does not offer prepaid services or contract- fewer plans.

Public sector regulators and interested parties are still forming inquires to stop the takeover. AT&T might not enjoy the much-awaited monotony it expected. The deal runs for approximately eight months. Anything can happen considering the attention it has created. The concerned parties are worried about AT&T already holding more than it can handle.

The acquisition of Leap by AT&T suggests the analysis of Stakeholders. In the analysis, power is the control and effect that stakeholders might have on a business. An example of power has voting rights. In the case of Leap and AT&T, the members in the power docket are the managers and the owners.

They can pursue their interests even in the case of resistance. Legitimacy is a socially accepted and desirable good; it is the valid claim a stakeholder has over a firm. This is explained further as “the who in the firm or what counts.” Urgency is defined as a situation that is time-sensitive. In this case, two situations can be described as urgency. This is when a claim is crucial to stakeholders or when it is time-sensitive.

Salience is the process through which stakeholders are examined to find out the level of importance and expectations from a particular firm. In the case of AT&T and Leap, the managers and owners will be highly prioritized because of the power they hold, the urgency, which in this case is the requirement for the action of the managers, and lastly the legitimacy, which is involvement of the managers, their relevance, and appropriateness.

Managers should ensure they are aware of all interests and concerns of their stakeholders. This includes the decision-making and operations of the firm. There should be good communication. The managers should communicate well with stakeholders and take account of their concerns. They should carry out processes that are sensitive to every stakeholder’s code of operation.

As a set, stakeholders should be treated with fairness irrespective of their power, urgency, and legitimacy. The AT&T and Leap deal will have to take into account their stakeholders’ interests in the process of the acquisition since the move will affect all stakeholders in both firms.

Works Cited

Gryta, Thomas. “AT&T to Buy Smaller Rival Leap.” Wall Street Journal, 15 July 2013. 18. Print

Gustin, Sam. “AT&T’s $1.2 Billion Leap Wireless Buyout Faces Static.” Business Time. 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. http://business.time.com/2013/07/15/atts-1-2-billion-leap-wireless-buyout-faces-static/

” The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: AT&T, Verizon Communications, Atlantic Tele-Network, Leap Wireless International and DTE Energy.” Prnewswire Web. 15 Nov. 2013. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-zacks-analyst-blog-highlights-att-verizon-communications-atlantic-tele-network-leap-wireless-international-and-dte-energy-223456401.html

In his paper, Euchner states that innovation implies “giving something new to the world” (10). However, the simplicity of this definition is deceptive. Many organizations throughout the time have implemented unsuccessful innovation strategies by merely trying to develop new products and technology without taking into consideration that favorable changes may take place in a great variety of organizational processes and areas: corporate culture, customer service, supply chain management, and so on.

In support of this idea, Sawhney, Wolcott, and Arroniz note that “innovation is relevant only if it creates value for customers” which does not necessarily mean the enlargement of a current product range (76). What it really means is that organizational leaders need to take a holistic approach to innovation by evaluating their companies’ strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, as well as the external environment, and engage in change management.

Based on the results of the analysis of the three articles, it is possible to say that organizational change management should start with the assessment of current needs for change and possible directions for the development, be it customer value creation or redesign of internal corporate processes. Palmer calls this stage “measuring readiness” for change, and it is meant to reduce possible risks and losses (35). After that, managers may proceed towards the creation of a sense of urgency for change, the allocation of new professional roles, as well as the development and integration of necessary knowledge and vision.

The implementation of such few-step change models in an organized and well-managed fashion is highly important. Conversely, the lack of assessment data, chaotic and poorly applied measures will likely be inefficient in dealing with the resistance to change, i.e., the unwillingness of the personnel to move towards innovation and change habitual patterns of behavior. Thus, the performance in accordance with one of the change models, e.g., Kotter’s seven-step model, may help companies to embrace new opportunities, capture new values, innovate, and increase profits much more effectively.

Introduction

Management role in modern organizations is not an easy task because of the work environment that is characterized by constant change and complex organizational structures. A dedicated manager ensures that only qualified workforce is recruited in the company. Again, highly competent managers are innovative meaning they are likely to adopt the best strategies in terms of introducing new products in the market, as well as improving the quality of existing brands. Under-qualified and less dedicated managers often encourage continuous and effective production of existing brands without considering whether such products meet and exceed the needs of consumers (Mintzberg 2011, p. 85).

Leadership and management enjoy a close relationship because one supplements the other. An individual charged with the role of leading has to share the vision with the followers without necessarily forcing people to abide by the rules and regulations. This means any leader should possess special skills and knowledge that are utilized effectively in influencing people to achieve a common goal (Yukl 2013, p. 16). Provision of important information, application of the best methods, and knowledge of the market are some of the best practices needed in the realization of vision. Since organizational members have conflicting interests, the leader should ensure that such aspirations, interests, and wishes of individual members are coordinated and linked up to help the organization in attaining the dream.

An organization is said to be sustainable whenever it observes the principle of sustainable development meaning any expansion strategy has to meet the needs of the present without compromising the capability of the upcoming generation to convene its requirements. Therefore, sustainability in organizations has to address critical issues at the macro level, such as competence, which entails novelty, prosperity, and production.

Leadership and Management

Definitions

Leadership and management have varying definitions, which bring out their differences. Leadership entails setting a new direction or vision for organizational members whereby the role of the leader or the head is to spearhead the new agenda. Anyone believed to be a leader has to step up in times of crisis meaning leaders have to think and act innovatively in tricky situations. Leadership differs from management because an individual is not taught, but it can be enhanced through coaching and mentoring (Kinicki & Mel 2011, p. 41).

Bill Gates is considered a great leader in the business world because he oversaw the growth of Microsoft and the entire software industry even though he was an academic dwarf. On the other hand, management focuses on controlling and directing resources, both human and capital by simply following the established principles and values. Unlike leadership, management is all about organization and coordination of events with the major aim of convening the desired objectives.

Many studies consider management as part of the factors of production together with machineries, materials, and capital. The scholars of management, such as Parker and Stone (2003, p. 25) observe that the major role of any manager is to market the organization and ensure it remains competitive through innovation. A business manager has the responsibility of making major decisions, as well as overseeing the growth of the enterprise. The successfulness of any organization lies with the quality of managers, as well as their experience in handling affairs.

Sustainable Organization-Definition

Sustainability in business refers to managing what is commonly referred to as the triple bottom line. This entails an extensive process where an organization manages financial, social, and environmental risks. Financial management is related to profits whereas social risks are linked to organizational employees and the environment is associated with the planet. Sustainability may also refer to the resiliency of the business over time meaning the ability of an organization to survive economic, social, and environmental shocks.

Moreover, social equity has to be put into consideration since it helps in reducing poverty, boost the welfare of the community, and promote human rights. Finally, the organization has to develop strategies to address environmental issues where climate change, land use, and biodiversity are discussed frequently. An organization has to adopt the best practices in business in order to achieve sustainability one of these practices being stakeholder engagement. Based on this, the organization has to draw lessons from clients, employees, and the members of the surrounding community (Pierce & Newstrom 2011, p. 14).

In other words, the organization has to understand the nature of opposition, reaching at a compromise, and include all concerned parties in the decision-making process. The second practice is management of environmental systems implying that certain structures and processes have to be developed, especially those that help in mitigation of risks and development of culture. Reporting and disclosure is an additional practice, which entails measuring and controlling production (Pardey 2007, p. 54). The final practice is life cycle analysis and the main aim is to evaluate the environmental impacts of the production process.

Theories of leadership: Trait theories (big five personality traits)

Scholars of leadership and management borrow heavily from psychologists. The big five personality traits refer to the important qualities that often shape the behavior of an individual. Researchers are constantly engaged in studies to establish whether any relationship exists between the five personality traits and leadership. The traits include conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion. Conscientiousness is characterized by thoughtfulness, as well as goal-directed behavior. Any leader exhibiting this personality is likely to be mindful of other people’s desires and wishes.

In other words, it refers to a leader who is responsive to the sufferings of employees in the organization. A consciousness leader is always organized and organizational members can depend on him or her in the times of crisis (Jackson & Parry 2008, p. 64). A leader portraying this personality is always prepared to handle difficult situations using the available resources in the organization. Additionally, such a leader follows the schedule, company principles, and values when dispensing his or her duties. A conscious leader observes order and regularity in handling issues.

The second trait is agreeableness, which includes aspects such as hope, benevolence, and friendliness. A leader with this personality feature is considerate, assistive, and welcoming. Agreeableness is associated with excellent teamwork skills, but individuals with this personality suffer from poor leadership skills (Northouse 2010, p. 16). Unfortunately, this trait influences people to take back seats, as far as decision-making is concerned. Consequently, agreeableness is related to followers rather than leaders. Followers are interested in the affairs of other people and mostly take time to interact with employees in the organization.

A good leader should never be emotional because decisions made out of sentiments are illogical and inapplicable in real situations. For instance, a leader with this feature may end up compromising the organizational values and principles, which might result in incompetence. Neuroticism is a personality trait that makes an individual angry, anxious, and depressed easily. A leader with this trait is unstable, as far as decision-making is concerned given the fact they are susceptible to stress.

An individual with this trait is definitely a poor leader because he or she is likely to suffer from mood swings. Openness is the fourth trait and is characterized by creativity, curiosity, insightfulness, and knowledge. A good leader is likely to posses this trait because individuals possessing it are adventures and highly imaginative. Effective leaders globally are extraverts because the personality trait is characterized by excitability, hospitability, and boldness (Thompson, Strickland & Gamble 2005, p. 29).

Sustainable Organization-Wal-Mart

The company has three key values that guide it as it continues to offer top service to clients. They include respect for the individual, irrespective of whether it is the company worker, clients, suppliers, or any other stakeholder including the community and owners of the business. In other words, it does not treat people based on their ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation (Watson 2002, p. 7). Members of minority groups, such as the blacks in the US, homosexuals, and physically challenged have an equal chance of being employed, as well as being given the top service.

Many companies in the world rarely give minorities an opportunity of developing their careers since they are discriminated against. Service to customers whereby customers are given what they want in the sense that their expectations are surpassed is an additional strategy that is aimed at realizing sustainability (Hill & Jones 2012, p. 10). This is meant to develop customer loyalty with an aim of strengthening the market share. Striving for excellence implying the company tries its best to be innovative, especially when it comes to selecting and promoting products and services is the final strategy.

Empirical Evidence

Wal-Mart is one of the multinational companies committed to making profits with an aim of satisfying the stakeholders. In this regard, the management and the leadership have put in place several objectives and strategies to facilitate profitability. Based on the 2011 annual report, the company outlined several strategies to achieve the desired goals. Expanding multi-channel initiatives, which means the company has been trying to diversify its marketing strategies with an aim of capturing an important market segment is one of the strategies.

Through this, several strategies are in place including developing and implementing a worldwide online marketing strategy through the use of modern techniques, such as the social media, speeding up global online channel expansion, and availing stores and shopping centres in order to satisfy the increasing number of customers (Western 2007, p. 90). The company further realizes that meeting the above strategies is not an easy task and has put in place tactics to facilitate goal realization. For instance, it has established a department that engages in customer research to establish their wishes, expectations, and desires using new formats in introducing products in new markets, especially in rural areas (David 2009, p. 56). It also ensures transactions are completed in time to avoid inconveniencing clients.

Relationship between Leadership and Management

Leaders and managers in various organizations are always expected to deal with unfavorable economic climates whereby competition is the order of the day. The emergence of new ways of dealing with issues, technologies, influence of the social media, the need for greater transparency, the ever-increasing consumer demands, and issues touching on the environment are additional challenges that organizations have to address in order to achieve sustainability in the global market (Harrison 2005, p. 90). The strategies that an organization devises to handle these challenges determines the successfulness of the institution.

Therefore, an organization is constantly engaged in a process of getting the right mix of inspirational leadership and effective management skills as it influences performance regarding profitability, sales, growth, and survival. Theories of management and leadership suggest that sustainability in the organization is achieved through effective managers and inspirational leaders. In other words, leadership and management play a critical role in the improvement of business performance in the sense that organizations with qualified managements are likely to have a sophisticated and higher production and marketing strategies (Grint 2005, p. 17).

Conclusion

A debate is ongoing regarding the differences and similarities between leadership and management. Scholars ask themselves questions on whether the two are needed in driving the organization to the next heights. For instance, one wonders whether a manager has to possess some leadership skills to be effective in his or her position as the chief executive officer. For some scholars, a leader has to acquire managerial skills if he or she is to deliver in any position. The broad definitions of the two terms indicate that leadership is mainly related to the ability of people to influence and motivate others with an aim of realizing the major organizational goals.

On the other hand, management is focused on directing and controlling both human and capital resources. In other words, managers are expected to coordinate and harmonize various groups within the organization to realize a common goal. In terms of personality, a leader is regarded as brilliant and mercurial because he or she is likely to be charismatic. A leader is known to take risks and is highly innovative, unlike managers who are rational in their thinking. This means a manager is goal-oriented and tends to follow the established structures.

The outcomes of leaders is achievement whereas managers focus on results, which means leadership is likely to devise new ways of doing things after analyzing the problem while a manager would simply create a strategy or a policy to handle an issue. Irrespective of the differences, sustainability in the organization calls on individuals charged with decision-making to apply both leadership and managerial skills. At Wal-Mart, the management is known to apply inspirational leadership where employees are encouraged to produce the best results while at the same time established structures and processes are observed.

List of References

David, FR 2009, Strategic management: Concepts and cases, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River.

Grint, K 2005, Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke

Harrison, JS 2005, Foundations of strategic management, Thomson/South-Western, Mason.

Hill, WL & Jones, GR 2012, Strategic Management, Cengage Learning, New York.

Jackson, B & Parry, K 2008, Very Short, Interesting, and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Leadership, Sage, London.

Kinicki, A & Mel, F 2011, Organization Behavior–key concepts sills and best practices, Sage,London.

Mintzberg, H 2011, Managing, BK Publishers Inc, San Francisco.

Northouse, PG 2010, Leadership Theory and Practice, Sage, Los Angeles.

Pardey, D 2007, Introducing Leadership, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.

Parker, C & Stone, B 2003, Developing Management Skills for Leadership, Pearson, New Jersey.

Pierce, JL & Newstrom, JW 2011, Leaders and the Leadership Process, McGraw-Hill, Boston.

Thompson, AA, Strickland, AJ & Gamble, JE 2005, Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases, McGraw-Hill, Boston.

Watson, T 2002, Organising and Managing Work, Free Press, Prentice Hall.

Western, S 2007, Leadership A Critical Text, Sage, London.

Yukl, G 2013, Leadership in Organizations, Pearson, New Jersey.

Introduction

Generally, a Change Management Strategy consists of a plan on how to make things work differently. However, in business, a change management strategy addresses definite ways in which organizations address its project scope (Aladwani, 2001). According to Nickols (2010), the objectives of formulating a formal strategy in rescheduling a business infrastructure is to minimize on the negative effects that might dampen the ideals of this process.

To institute a change management strategy effectively, stakeholders must formulate a work plan that identifies the needs for change, how to implement, and monitor the change process to make them bring the desired effect. Change management may experience fatalities especially when it does not consider the aspirations of the various stakeholders. Apart from that, poorly managed change motif may end up causing distrust and confusion within the workforce leading to resistance. Often, organizational change efforts run into aggressive forms of human resistance.

Resistance to change is usually a feature in business leadership and management. While experienced managers might be aware of this fact, only a few take to assess organizational change systematically as to cushion those who might resist the envisioned change (Coran and Burnes, 2001). This is not to say that resistance to change is unwelcome in the change process. In fact, the change committee should take increased advantage of the divergent opinions to bring the aspirations of the various stakeholders into play.

Determining what exactly needs to change

There are certainly distinct areas within an organization that may require or demand change. However, the main idea is to make the change management to be reasonable for the organizational ideals for it to be successful (Muduli & Kaura, 2011). Within an organization, various initiatives may need change from time to time depending on the momentum of the growth structure and the needs involved.

While each of the initiatives expects a successful change management process, what needs to change and the right amount as well as the approach for the change management will be different nonetheless. Change must define what is central to the legacy of an organization. As a result, any change within the organization affects every party in the organization in one way or the other. What needs to change must affect the people and the manner in which the employees go about their jobs. Acknowledging that bringing change is not an easy venture, what has to change may suffer from reduced implementation hence creating lower exploitation in the process.

Normally, what needs to change will have hazards that affect people that do not accept new operations in the organization. Leadership should take their time to invest in the process to identify what might be wrong. Experienced managers may use their proficiencies to make the change initiative a success. This process, according to Coran and Burnes (2001), could be demanding and it requires careful thought to make it a success.

However, instead of using past experiences as guidelines, all too often, many managers chose to cling on a simple set of beliefs to insinuate that certain individuals may resist the change because their skill sets demand that they became independent thus rendering their suspicion to top management. Such an approach deems itself limited and often creates serious problems that may make it hard to realize the change itself.

Given the varied ways in which individuals, employees, and groups often react to change, appropriate assessments are necessary to find grounds to appease the aspirations of all the parties involved. There must be a clear separation of duties between management and leadership to make individuals contribute within their respective positions. Proper training for new employees as well as current refresher training for current employees is necessary to make all forces work symbiotically.

Brainstorming potential solutions

Precisely, it is prudent to make the right decisions that will ensure implementation of the change in the organization. This is to create a sense of responsibility in handling the resources when implementing the change in an organization. Within these schemes, leadership becomes the focus of all endeavors. Framing the change management strategy as Aladwani (2001) notes is central to the complete implementation of the change management methodology.

Clearly, any new move within the organization must aim at maintain the project and show how the new move will affect the parties within the organization. The strategy must seek to offer direction and provide informed decision-making kits during the change process. The change management strategy must also communicate the formulation of the change management campaigns. For example, the groups identified in the strategy must partake of the communication plan (Nickols, 2010).

Leadership could possibly summon other parties to enhance the production. Maybe formation of group people that looks into the problem and come up with amicable solutions. Every succeeding change actions and strategies are regulated by the outcome of the management of the change. Leadership should keep an open mind throughout the brainstorming (Nickols, 2010). There should be no belittlement of any parties in this process, the opinions of all the stakeholders count

Deciding on how to move forward

While acknowledging the instrumentality of engaging the employees in the organizational change process, leadership has to set the direction for the rest all their contributions. Though essential in change process, employee engagement could occasionally pose challenges with which a business may have to contend. As part of the change process, the business may decide to conduct employee satisfaction survey to identify the key areas of concern in strategic planning.

Engaging employees in the change process is part of the agenda to protect their interests (Muduli & Kaura, 2011). Usually to protect worker interests, an anonymous feedback mechanism becomes an option so that individuals feel secure to offer their honest opinions. There should be a time when the parties should held a discussion on the changes to be made. The parties to ensure the organizational change are the employees and the managers.

Engaging employees in the change process will definitely make it possible for individuals to open up and to volunteer insightful observations that will for part of general decision-making. The moment an organization obtains employees’ feedback, the management can embark on synthesizing various opinions and address the dissenting views. Incorporating various opinions from various stakeholders and different employees is highly beneficial (Nickols, 2010). These endowments usually keep worker morale high since they feel part of the mainstream management.

Action steps

Leadership, according to Aladwani (2001), must decide on how the organization addresses the change and then communicate it to the various stakeholders as part of the change management plan. Since this is inherent in their jobs specifications, it is upon the leaders and other stakeholders within the organization to find out the best ways to embrace changes in the organization. While some leaders and stakeholders are excellent in ensuring this effort, others may not reach the target despite their struggle. In this regard, one will be able to differentiate the performance of each manager in the organization in the struggle to embrace the change.

Ultimately, setting out a formidable work plan is the basis of evading an ineffective strategy that might frustrate the process. Identifying critically important priorities that the change process must address is vital (Nickols, 2010). The plan must roll out systemic problems that might befall the plan and fix exciting visions that makes change meaningful. The leadership structure should be precise and give an allowance for individual persons to find out how these stages should play out to undertake successful and meaningful change in addressing these priorities in the organization.

Set a time frame

Perhaps setting a timeframe for which the desired change must occur is among the fundamental ideals that the change process must consider. The change process must move in steps in line with the stipulated paradigms to make the change process and pace to transit smoothly. The change process must set achievable objectives spread out along the change wavelength to determine the change progression as well as the success and faults to necessitate adjustments where necessary and possible (Aladwani, 2001). Leadership particularly should be aware of the pace of change because this could influence how efficacy of the change implementation and how well the employees respond to it.

The effects of the changes on the parties within the organization

Managing consists of handling complex priorities in the process that constitute both negatives and positives. Change is about evaluation, planning, and implementation of operations, tactics, and strategies while making sure that the process and the ultimate change is worthwhile, necessary, and relevant. Leadership should be concern with the effects of changes in the organization.

All these attributes of change might cause friction with the traditional establishments within an organization. Leaders acknowledge that managing change is a very complex, challenging, and dynamic process. Change, as it seems is never a choice between people-oriented or technological solutions but rather a combination of all the parties involved.

Effective change is more of unfreezing old behaviors while introducing new ones to conform to the growth apparatus prevailing in the markets (Muduli & Kaura, 2011). Change occurs in many forms, it may be continuous or sporadic, however whenever it occurs, it affects different groups of people. However, predictable change permits room for preparation, while unpredictable change could be more demanding to respond to efficiently.

Since changes in organizations occur so rapidly, they are less likely to be predictable hence, they will always affect different groups of people. To mitigate this concern, the leadership should ask employees how the expected change might disturb their workload and their daily activities (Muduli & Kaura, 2011). The biggest factor of all though is to consider the aspirations of the customers to maintain a rich consumer base for enhanced competitive advantage.

Identifying potential obstacles

Although leadership cannot identify or anticipate all obstacles, leadership should be able to identify what they can and create our plans to help employees work around them and the organization. The trajectory of organizational change passes through a series of obstacles that may either slow down the process or kill it prematurely. With the best intentions, probably that never delivered the desired value or results to the organization, a change process can be a real sham.

Nevertheless, within the change management itself, there are still major obstacles to innovation that makes it hard to rule out such incidences. Statistically, the impediments of change organizational are 98% management while 2% are technological. This infers that process improvements and technological factors are both effective enablers of change (Aladwani, 2001). Particularly, governmental bureaucracy and managerial hierarchy parties to these elements.

A bureaucracy’s rigidity may hinder the whole process of change. Moreover, most of the obstacles to organizational change are structural and cultural. While creating a successful organizational change is not an easy task, there are tried, tested, and trusted approaches to make organizational change a success even in the face of the looming obstacles.

Encoding of the plan

From the research, there are certain characteristics of the parties that embrace changes within the organization. For instance, they are supposed to be adaptive and do their duties diligently. As a result, the management should be selective while choosing the individuals to embrace change within the organization. In addition, the management should devise various methods of selecting individuals based on their strengths and weaknesses.

Similarly, the successful of changes in the organization depends on the influence of the leaders. The leaders should select the best strategies of achieving changes within the organization. Secondly, the leaders should find out the challenges that may affect the development of changes in the organization and find out the amicable solutions to the challenges.

References

Aladwani, M. (2001). Change management strategies for successful ERP implementation. Business Process Management Journal, 7(3), 266-275.

Coran, R., and Burnes, B. (2001). Managing organizational change in the public sector. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 14(20), 94 -110.

Muduli, A., and Kaura, V. (2011). Southwest Airlines Success: A Case Study Analysis. Management Edge, 4(2), 115-118.

Nickols, F. (2010). Four change management strategies. Web.

Introduction

The book by Goldratt and Cox presents some of the challenges that organizations face pertaining to the delivery of goods on time. The book shows that organizations should be managed in a scientific way meaning that elements of science ought to be employed in executing some of the organizational duties. The two scholars of management compare organizations to the family, which is always faced with conflicts and other problems related to communication. In the first chapter, the role that communication plays in management is worth remembering. The first chapter proves that the organization is unable to meet its targets because of lacking effective communication mechanisms. For instance, the deputy president of the organization is not aware of the challenges that the manufacturing plant is facing until one of the customers call to complain about the delivery delay.

Instead of applying scientific techniques in the management of the crisis, the deputy president interrupts work by demanding immediate answers from all the concerned employees, right from the unit manager to the mechanist. In each organizational unit, the manager in charge is always tasked with the role of controlling work hence any other person, irrespective of rank, should not interfere with the communication channel. Order 41427 is of great importance to the organization, as it belongs to one of the most loyal customers, but the deputy president should not use force to ensure that the product is delivered (Goldratt and Cox 7). The deputy president should serve as an example to other employees, by employing the best managerial practices, one of them being timely and effective communication. Communication is known to improve the performance of any organization, as it plays a critical role in resolving conflicts.

Review

Effective Communication

For any management to play effectively its main functions, communication is paramount, as it allows planning, organization, leading, and controlling. This implies that the management is unable to carry out some of the responsibilities in case communication is poor. It is factual that communication is the foundation of planning since poor development of plans results to delay and non-delivery. In the organization, the manufacturing unit is unable to offer quality customer service that is related to timely delivery mainly because it does not have an established link with the top management. Scholars of management underscore the fact that management is the building block of victorious companies implying that it acts as the organizational blood.

With effective communication, employees are motivated to undertake their responsibilities without being forced to do so. The top management, including the organization’s deputy president, should consider informing employees and clarifying to them the organization’s goals and ambitions. The urgency of any order should be communicated in time to avoid any type of delay that might bring about customer dissatisfaction. The organization can easily lose the most trusted customers simply because various departments in the organization do not respect the idea of a chain of command, which relies on communication. It is illogical for the deputy president to yell at the manufacturing unit mechanist who should be receiving orders from the unit manager. This might perhaps affect the morale of a junior employee who needs motivation from the top management to perform better. Through communication, chances are high that communication can strengthen its financial muscles in the market.

In matters related to decision-making in the organization, communication is believed to be the source of critical information to all organizational members. In this regard, communication helps line managers to identify and evaluate the alternative courses of action instead of relying on a single strategy that might bring about the delay. The attitude of members in the organization is negative hence elements of effective communication ought to be invoked in order to change the perceptions of employees. Employees have a negative attitude towards work because they have little knowledge as regards the goals and objectives of the organization. Research shows that a highly informed individual will always have a positive attitude towards what he or she intends to do while a poorly informed person will have a negative attitude towards work. In the organization, employees should be encouraged to change their attitude since it will help them deliver goods on time.

Instead of delivering the much-needed products, the manufacturing manager complains of lacking adequate personnel needed in the production of goods. The deputy president reminds him that he needs to show results with the available employees before requesting additional workers. The conversation does not comply with some of the best managerial practices, as the junior employee does not respect his seniors (Jimmesion 464). As noted, effective communication is the only solution to the problems facing the organization as it plays a role as far as the controlling process is concerned. In other words, effective communication tends to control the behavior of employees in such a way that it encourages members to respect hierarchy and the chain of command. Each employee in any organization is always expected to follow certain principles, guidelines, and rules. This means that workers have to comply with the established standards and policies for them to undertake their responsibilities without any difficulty. This would probably motivate workers to air their grievances to their seniors.

Change Management Process

Organizational change is a structured driven process that creates the roadmap for growth. The growth and development of an organization are centered on the correlation between the objectives and the processes involved (Ahmad 2000). When the need for organizational changes arises, managers must focus on their employees, which are the agents of change. The research will study the impact evaluation of the inclusion of employees in decision-making during the management of change in the telecommunication sector in the Sultanate of Oman. The study of the management of change in the telecommunication sector will focus on the inclusion of employees and the decisions taken by the employees during change management to analyze the value of the impact of change. The decision-making process during an organizational change requires careful implementation. The management can achieve success when decisions are taken with reference to other agents of change. The impact of change in an organization will influence the growth of the organization. It will strengthen its market sales and boost productivity.

The positive influences of organizational change motivate most organizations to implement change. Thus, the value of the impact of employee’s inclusion in the management of change in an organization is significant. The assessment of an organizational change is measured by the successful implementation. Thus, the model used for evaluation comprises the inclusion of employees and decision-making by employees. These concepts influence the value of the impact of change. The employees are the primary obstacles to organizational change and they determine the extent of success or failure of the change. Managers try to manage the effect of change instead of actualizing the change in the organization. The obstacles of the change cause this. Employee’s inclusion can reduce the obstacles to organizational change. The model seeks to address the impact of the employee’s inclusion in the management of change. To understand this evaluation, I will investigate the variables surrounding the inclusion of employees in decision-making during organizational change.

Feelings, attitudes, and perceptions of employees towards change

Feelings

In the book, the feelings, attitudes, and perceptions of employees towards change are negative, which affects the performance of the entire organization, particularly the manufacturing unit. Feelings can be described as the sense of touch or understanding towards a particular thing. The feelings of employees during organizational change influence the success of the process. Managers must consider several factors that could influence or change the feelings of an employee towards an organizational change

Cognitive dissonance theory proposes that an individual will always be motivated to undertake a certain responsibility in order to balance attitudes with the social environment. The theory has generated debates that have led to the creation of other related theories, particularly equity theories of motivation. An understanding of how attitudes are formed is equally important in the study of the behavior of employees in the places of work. A review of the literature shows that the process of attitude formation relies on learning from co-workers, modeling other employees, and experiences. In many cases, attitudes tend to influence the decisions of an individual, guide the actions of an employee, and determine the level of performance of an individual in terms of remembrance. Based on this, an organization or the management should put in place mechanisms of attitude measurement. To measure an attitude, a clearly established procedure ought to be followed, with a number of scholars insisting on the use of employee surveys since they are effective in extracting information as regards the attitudes of various organizational stakeholders.

Employee’s attitude towards organizational change

Each employee is saddled with the responsibility of implementing the organizational change. Thus, an employee’s attitude can limit the process of change. The communication gap in the organization can hinder the process of change. Employee’s exclusion from decision-making during organizational change will cause resistance and it is influenced by the employee’s dislike for the change. Effective communication will reduce the negative thoughts on the management change and thus influence a positive attitude). From the review of literature, it is eminent that organizations are expected to improve their chances of enhancing employee support in order to incorporate all employees into change programs. Based on this, they are expected to come up with change initiatives that are all-inclusive, comprehensive, and attainable. Studies focus on attitudinal constructs, which represent the views and opinions of employees towards change in the organization (Powell 876).

Change, as well as the process of change, is very important to any management. In fact, attitude is described as a tendency to feel, think, and behave in a way that would determine the performance of the individual employee and the organization in general. The behavior resulting from attitudes could be positive or negative, depending on the situation, the object, or the event. An attitude explains an individual’s favored or unfavorable review of another person’s behavior. An attitude entails the belief of a person towards a certain product, service, or even concept. If the product or service is good, the person’s attitude towards such a product or service is positive. The reverse is true for poor service or quality product. In this regard, the attitudes of employees in the organization have a direct influence on performance and productivity. In other words, attitudes are indicators of effective and efficient work in many organizations. As earlier discussed in the previous section, an attitude is manifested by the rationality and regularity of individual conduct, which perhaps permits investigational study. Therefore, it is noted that the attitude of employees should be positive towards certain change programs for any success to be realized.

Scholars of management identify that theories of consistency and congruity, which were mainly formulated in the late 50s, suggest that the change process is rational because an individual aspires to maintain motivation, be consistent in what they do, and avoid any form of discrepancy. A model created in 1989 proposes a valid attitude change conception. The recent study on attitude change suggested that the study of the relationship between change and attitude should be based on three concepts, one of them being cognitive while the second is effectiveness. The third principle is behavioral. The study of attitude change based on cognitive processes means that the understanding of rewards, shortcomings, profits, necessities, and knowledge is obligatory if change management is to be successful. On the other hand, affective aspects of change management entail the feelings that are related to displeasure and concerns over the process of change.

Employee’s perception of organizational change

The need for change is inevitable, and the processes for organizational change can be counterproductive. The employee is reluctant to leave his or her old job description for a new assignment. Sometimes, the resistance could be due to the fear of losing his or her relevance in the organization. Some employees perceive a loss in their inheritance should the change succeed (Piderit 789). Employees who communicate with executives are likely to accept the change without resistance. Employees without attachment to the management may resist any change in the organization.

The level of influence in the decision-making process influences the employee’s perception of organizational change. When the management gathers employee’s opinions prior to the organizational change, the chances of resistance from the employees are slim. Consequently, the level of education of the employee influences his or her perception of organizational change. The impact of employee’s inclusion in the decision-making of an organization influences the smooth transition during the change process.

Employee’s feelings towards change

The emotions of an employee towards change can be positive or negative depending on the level of responsibility attached to the employee. The employee’s profile influences his or her feelings towards organizational change. The belief of a better job description may influence his or her desire towards the change. Management of change could be achieved when the feelings, perceptions, and attitudes of the employees are captured in the processes of change. The feelings of the employees towards change affect their performance, thus, employee’s inclusion in decision-making during the management of change will provide a positive response.

Works Cited

Goldratt, Eliyahu, and Jeff Cox. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Great Barrington, MA: North River Press, 2008. Print.

Jimmesion, Newton. “Job uncertainty and personal control during downsizing: a comparison of survivors and victims’”, Human Relations, 58.4 (2005), 463-496.

Piderit, Sandit. “Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: a multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change.” Academy of Management Review, 25.4 (2000)783-794.

Powell, Tim. “Competitive advantage: logical and philosophical considerations”, Strategic Management Journal, 22.9, (2001), 875–888.

Introduction

Organisational development entails a deliberately planned effort that aims at augmenting the effectiveness of the company in the ever-competitive market. Many scholars underscore the fact that the major aim of organisational development is to promote readiness in the company in order to facilitate change. In this regard, it is viewed as a developmental strategy that is expected to alter the beliefs, attitudes, and values of employees towards acceptance of modern technologies and practices, diminishing markets, and absorption of challenges that present themselves in the business environment.

Many people misinterpret organisational development to mean introduction of new training opportunities, facilitating tram development, enhancement of human resources, and learning, but the case is different (Brooks 2004). In reality, organisational development is specifically about change in the company meaning people must be involved in the process always (Brown 2011).

Organisational culture is defined as the behaviour of individuals at work, which determine the successfulness of the organisation. In this paper, the organisational culture of HTC Corporation will be analysed in various aspects. Changing an organisation’s culture has never been an easy task since it entails behaviour transformation. The organisation has to involve each person in the process meaning that it calls for commitment and loyalty from employees, the management, and other stakeholders.

Organisational culture is a complex pattern of assumptions as regards to group’s roles. In this case, it is expected that all values that guide behaviour should be learned, but the process has to follow the established procedure to prevent the emergence of conflicts. On one of the challenges that an organisation is likely to face is adaptation to external change. Members have never wanted to adopt the new ways of doing things, especially the old since they view this as an interruption to the normal work schedule. Another difficulty that an organisation is likely to face is establishing a survival mechanism, which calls for the development and sustenance of an integrated, firm, and internal distinctiveness (Cole 2004).

Review of OD definition

Various theories defined organizational development differently. According to complexity theory, change is something that cannot be managed in complicated systems meaning an organization would first have to redesign its systems and structures before attempting to introduce change. Additionally, the theory suggests that all organizational members must support change in case the desired results are to be achieved. In this regard, a leader has to encourage his or her followers to adopt the new ways of doing things. Brown developed a model that involved six focal areas to explain how planned change could take place in the organization.

Previous scholars, such as Beckhard, suggested that an organization is a system that functions independently meaning each employee has to follow the rules and regulations and ensure that the desired change is achieved. However, a shift from such models to the most current ones that focuses on human capital and open systems approach has been witnessed implying that each individual has something to contribute in the organization. The global market presents varying challenges to organizations and organizational behaviour has to appreciate the dynamics of the business environment by adjusting its view on change.

Organisational behaviour has enjoyed a robust history because the focus on T-groups is has shifted. Under the model, the management believed that formation of groups was the first step towards achieving the best results, but action research was introduced to explore and understand some of the challenges that faced organisations, as far as goal attainment were concerned. Again, the issue of quality assurance came in since it was realized that customers were not given an opportunity to participate in the change process.

This meant that clients had to be given the top most service as one way of improving the image of the organization. The issue of setting up an organizational culture came in and it took time to be adopted since members were requested align their beliefs, values, and principles to those of the organization. Reengineering entailed stimulating members to produce the best results by requesting them to do what they liked most. Through this, it was realized that taking employees through a learning process was critical to their success (Brown 2011). Currently, employee engagement seems to be the new model, as workers are often consulted before introducing new policies.

There has been a significant shift in organizational development right from the time of Beckhard to Brown. Organisational development has six major features that focus on certain aspects. The first is change, which should be planned by the management with an aim of attaining the much-desired goals. For this to happen, collaborative approach has to be adopted and it involves consulting other important stakeholders before introducing change policies.

The third feature is performance orientation, which places much emphasis on the improvement and enhancement of performance. The fourth feature is humanistic orientation whereby the organization is expected to make effective use of human resources to maximize profits. Systems approach means that the organizational leaders develop strong relationships with other elements to facilitate excellence. The last feature is scientific method whereby a problem is approached carefully by establishing its causes, determining the effects, and suggesting solutions (Brown 2011).

The need for change at HTC

HTC Corporation is a company based in Taiwan that specialises in the manufacture of Smartphone and tablets. The company was established in 1997 as an original design manufacture of electronic equipments, particularly mobile phones that operate with windows. In 2008, the organisation expanded its operations to include the manufacture of android devices. In 2010, the organisation reached a different level when it manufactured the windows phone.

In 2011, the company started marketing high quality mobile phones under its name, HTC. However, the organisation received a negative media attention in 2013 when it was claimed that its shares in the company were less than three percent while its profitability had fallen significantly since 2011. The organisation is applauded for contributing in the formation of Open Handset Alliance, which is an organisation that is dedicated towards the growth of android device (George 2011).

Client / Practitioner relation

Studies show that the strength and the effectiveness of any management determine the successfulness of the organisation. Based on this, change should be initiated at the top meaning all senior managers should approve the new ways of doing things before introducing them to the juniors. In this case, the targeted client in the organisation would be the senior management, including the CEO, departmental head, branch managers, and board members. The practitioner will employ an approach that allows the client to participate fully in diagnosing the problem.

Diagnostics

Research plays a critical role in establishing the new problem and providing sufficient answers. If any intervention strategy is to be applied successfully, the practitioner will have to engage in some form of research to establish the views of organisational members on the performance of the organisation (Brown 2011). This will play a critical role in establishing the facts before moving on to set up the strategy. In this regard, the form of study to be undertaken would be quantitative in nature since the aim is simply to capture the number of employees who approve the introduction of change (Hogg & Vaughan 2007).

Therefore, questionnaires will serve a great purpose of collecting employee’s views and opinions. In other words, the practitioner will interview members of staff to capture their views in the planned change. The diagnostic model to be employed would be differentiation and integration meaning coordination would be one of the aspects to be considered when issuing an advice to the organization. In other words, HTC would have to assign duties to employees based on their prowess, knowledge, and skills since it would allow improvement.

Action plan and Strategies

The action plan would be based on Brown’s stages, as shown below.

An extensive research on the various aspects of leadership reveals a number of concepts and practices that organisational members have to conceptualise in order to realise the desired goals and objectives. Team leadership model is one of the terms often used to suggest one of the ways through which a manager could lead his or her team in achieving the goals. Based on the model, the leader is simply expected to monitor the performance of the team before taking the most appropriate action to ensure that effectiveness is enhanced (Brown 2011).

While monitoring and evaluation has never been an easy task, the leader has to develop various strategies that will help him or her understand the functionality of the team. Through the model, it is noted that each person has a unique way dealing with an issue meaning giving members of the group an opportunity to contribute their ideas results in enhanced decisions as opposed to coming with unilateral decisions that are insensitive to the beliefs, values, and expectations of the majority (Herzberg 2003).

Action mediation is concept suggesting that group members should employ various courses of action before formulating the final decision. Task leadership function is a practice that entails job supervision, policy formulation, problem solving, adopting changes, making plans, and ensuring that goals are achieved. Additionally, maintenance function is another practice that includes development of positive climate, solving problems at the interpersonal levels, developing strategies that satisfy the needs of all members, and encouraging cohesion.

Boxall and Purcell (2011) presented a leadership model that is of great significance when it comes to diagnosing problems in various groups and designing appropriate courses of actions. First, it is noted that a leader has to possess a stable mind to help in determining whether an action has to be taken or the situation is to be monitored for some time. The theory plays a role in building commitment and loyalty among members of the team, which leads to conflict management. In their analysis, Armstrong (2007) was of the view that enhancing self-determination and developing competence, as well as confidence plays a role in improving the performance of the organization. Therefore, instilling confidence on employees would be the first step towards solving the problem at HTC Corporation.

Evaluation: Self-Renewal, Monitoring, and Stabilizing

If the organization adopts scientific methods of management, it would be said to have changed (Brown 2011). Organisational goals cannot be realised without application of planning techniques, best implementation strategies, and control concepts (Latham 2011).. Research shows that the management is charged with at least five major functions and the first one is planning, which entails generation of the missions, goals, and strategies that will guide the members of the institution in achieving both personal and organisational goals (Adair 2009). In case something is not being done in the proper way, corrective measures must be taken.

Level of communication would the second yardstick to measure whether the organization is improving. Without communication, the manager might not understand the problems affecting the organisation (Brown, 2011). Many managers have never paid attention to several aspects of communication and they end up underperforming because the information they pass is always misinterpreted leading to conflicts and disappointment at personal and professional levels (McGregor 2006). However, effective communication calls for an extra effort since it does not simply rely on exchanging information, but instead it depends on understanding the message (Kreitner & Kinicki 2013).

Conclusion and Recommendation

Each organisational member is expected to identify and communicate a clear vision statement since it plays a critical role towards goal attainment. Therefore, business leaders are required to understand the elements of visioning, as well as the way in which they are to be communicated to teams and other stakeholders. In case members share a common vision, chances are high that an organisation will benefit since it will have a clearly defined value meaning that the behaviour of employees will be easily controlled (Phillips 2012).

Based on this, a vision statement helps in enhancing productivity and efficiency in the organisation. Studies show that visioning is the first step towards strategic planning meaning that setting of common goals is facilitated (Guilmartin 2010). Without a vision statement, an employee would not be motivated to perform his or her expected duty implying that setting a vision helps in empowering workers. In this regard, visions act as guiding principles towards ideal planning.

With visions, people’s work are considered meaningful since they mobile workers to swing into action, as well as helping them to make wise decisions when faced with difficult situations, as they carry out their daily functions (Stredwick 2005). A vision is defined as an idealised picture of the desired future implying that it reflects the aspirations of the organisation. Therefore, it is known to stimulate the need for greatness among team members, teasing them with individual gains, and appealing to their desires to make a difference. Visions have a tendency of grabbing team members and bringing them to the fold meaning that they facilitate cohesion.

1. Teams are likely to survive in case they employ a clear form of communication that allows feedback. For instance, each member should be allowed to express his or her view freely while others members are listening patiently. In this regard, teams have to understand the important of listening as an important skill that paves way for conflict resolution (Brown 2010).
2. While the structure of the company focuses on what members intend to achieve and who is in charge of what, the process is focused on how the goals and objectives should be realised. Based on this, the company has to come out clearly on how decisions are made, how conflicts are handled, and how information is distributed from one member to the other. To address these issues, five factors have to be analysed and taken into consideration, one being decision-making (Sims 2007).

List of References

Adair, J. (2009). Leadership and Motivation: The Fifty-Fifty Rule and the Eight Key Principles of Motivating Others. London: Kogan Page.

Armstrong, M. (2007). A Handbook of Employee Reward Management and Practice, Kogan Page, Philadelphia.

Boxall, P., & Purcell, P. (2011). Strategy and Human Resource Management. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Brooks, I. (2004). Organisational Behaviour. London: Pearson Education Limited Essex.

Brown, D. (2011). Experiential approach to organizational development. New York: Pearson Education.

Brown, P 2010, “Having their backs: improving managers’ skills in developing others”, T+D, 64(4), 60-64.

Cole, G. (2004). Management Theory and Practice. London: Thomson Learning.

George, J. (2011). Understanding and Managing Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: George Pearson Education.

Guilmartin, N. (2010). Giving one pause: learn how cultivating humility can drive success, even in the most time, budget, and attention stressed workplaces. T+D, 64(3), 72-73.

Herzberg, F. (2003). One more time: how do you motivate employees?” Harvard Business Review, 1(5), 87-96.

Hogg, M., & Vaughan, G. (2007). Social Psychology. Harlow: Prentice Hall.

Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2013). Organisational behaviour. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Latham, G. (2011). Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice. London: Sage.

McGregor, D. (2006). The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Phillips, J. (2012). Organisational Behaviour: Tools for Success. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Sims, R. (2007). Human Resource Management: Contemporary Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities. Conn: Information Age Publication Greenwich.

Stredwick, J. (2005). Introduction to Human Resource Management. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.