Successful Change In An Organization example essay topic
Managers themselves must change first. Innovators or early adopters are the vehicles for change management. Style, staff, skills, and shared vision are imperative for the successful implementation of strategy in any organization. Senge's learning organization diagram is a guide, with the circle signifying learning being a continuous process. It is orientational and enduring. The key focus for activity is in the triangle wherein we can make changes, but it is short lived.
It has popularly entered the systems world, but its whole is not rigorous, even if the parts are. An entrepreneur takes risk and initiative to make money. They are not forever and are only when they are innovative. Leader is one who rules, guides or inspires others. An innovative organization to succeed needs to have shared values, intense customer focus and concentrate on new trends.
The management functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling should be modified to the five distinct stages of growth in an entrepreneurial business. To face the challenges of an uncertain, fierce and competitive world, the entrepreneurial leader needs to have a credible behavior with thorough knowledge and understanding of the world. Leadership development has to be evolved with changing times. Character, skills and knowledge are key ingredients which leaders who find deep success and fulfillment often practice. In my organization, Ignazio Messina & C., an 80-year-old Italian shipping company, the senior executives have these traits and act as mentors. They have clear ideas, strong values, take tough decisions and are good at narrating stories of their past experiences.
A management development programme based on the theme of! SSManaging relationships!" is most appropriate for the temperamental leaders in our organization. Leadership skills can be improved with coaching and practice. Introduction The world is changing at an accelerating pace. Life society and economies are becoming ever more complex. The nature of work is radically altering.
Jobs are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. It is an age of uncertainty. The past is less and less a guide to the future, these are the defining characteristics of the turbulent years ahead. These are the challenges that need to be met by one and all. The speed at which the world is changing demands a matching ability to learn faster. The increasing complexity of the world is changing demands a matching ability to analyse situations logically and solve problems creatively.
(Rose C. and Nicholl M.J., 1997, pg. 1) Taking this into consideration, in the first part of this assignment, I have discussed about radical changes in an organization and its implications. Given these challenges the strategy to adopt and have briefly touched upon the 7 S framework. I have analysed the Senge's learning organisation diagram and highlighted its strengths and weaknesses In the second part, I have elaborated on what entrepreneurial leadership is all about and. his role as compared to a leader. How an innovative organization could be created?
Finally drawing attention to the implications. In the third part, I have talked about the need for leadership development for the senior executives in my organization and I have devised a suitable programme, considering their present knowledge and skills. 1. Senge's diagram of learning organization presents a framework for thinking about organizations.
Critically evaluate the usefulness of this framework when devising a strategy for radical organizational change. Radical change is an extreme change or reforms by which firms regain competitive advantage after it has been lost. Change depends upon the firm's resources, capabilities, its competition and its leadership. The way we conduct business is undergoing a radical transformation. The winners in the new economy will be those who examine and change organizational structures and approaches to integration. Companies such as Nokia, Westinghouse, Black & Decker and Merck are incessantly making changes by improving production technologies, creating new products desired in the marketplace, implementing new administrative systems and upgrading employee's skills.
Implications of change: Broad based change projects are complex and some things will go wrong under the sunniest of scenarios, if only due to Murphy's Law (Murphy's Laws, 2001). Some of the common pitfalls that can occur are briefly discussed below: 1. Failure to deliver early, tangible results. It is said that the half-life of a change project is six months.
That is, if you are not showing measurable results in six months, expect your support to halve and the barriers to double. 2. Talking about breakthroughs, drowning in details. Even when breakthroughs are achieved on the conceptual level, implementation can be daunting. 3. Everything is high priority.
Projects fail when priorities are not established early and refined throughout the effort. 4. Old performance measures block change. Fancy words cannot improve on the well know assertion: ! SSWhat gets measured gets done!" . If the long established measures are not disassembled, they will continue to drive behaviour and block the changes you have in mind.
5. Failing to connect the dots. Failure to reconcile and integrate competing projects shaped by the method ologists can waste millions of dollars and exhaust an organization. 6.
The voice of the customer is absent. The customer's voice is loud and clear in virtually every successful change effort we encounter. However few organizations systematically assess what the customer really wants. 7.
The voice of the employee is not heard either. Winning in a change project requires belief that barrier can be overcome and the end result will be worth the price. Such belief must be widespread if not the outcome will be disastrous. 8. Senior management wants to help, but does not know how. It is our own experience that top management typically means well but sends the wrong signals, often in the context of empowering employees.
9.! SSWhat is in it for me!" is unclear. People change when the case for change becomes a personal matter. It is only human that when we cannot see what is in it for us, we are unlikely to change. 10. Too much conventional wisdom.
Exemplary solutions, even if they are reported in the most trusted business reviews, may not work for everyone. The facts may be different and conventional wisdom can obliterate an organization. 11. Same old horses, same old glue. Failure to form a talented, diverse team representing all stakeholders is a cause of a failure that often shows up too late to fix.
(The Price Waterhouse change integration team, 1995, p. 16-21) Furthermore people in the organization may be resistant to change for a number of individually oriented reasons. They can have a fear of being unable to learn new skills and abilities or to keep up with the pace of change. They may have apprehensions to assume greater responsibility, accountability or a concern of failing to comply with new standards or regulations. A strategic plan for change can be formulated based on the following framework: Establish an orientation to change: In the business world, change is the only constant. Hence for any organization to have a competitive edge, it needs to be well acquainted with change. The environment should be constantly monitored for any opportunities or to take appropriate and timely action to reduce the impact of environmentally generated changes.
Build a powerful lead team: The change leader should be high profile, trustworthy and having sufficient powers to be able to commit organizational resources and make high-level decisions in support of the change process. He needs to be supported by a unified and capable team who can guide the change. Create the vision: The leader needs to conceive a vision that is achievable and should be an inspirational snap shot of a brighter future. The aspires should gain something out of it. Communicate the strategic vision in clear, exciting terms and arouse organization wide commitment. Empowering people to perform: It is the need for power that motivates leader and effective leaders use power to empower as asserted by McClelland.
For an effective change there is a need to empower those affected by the change to contribute at all stages. Plan for and create quick wins: Due to change programmes being a long drawn affair, people can get de-motivated. The leader needs to create instances where they see results, which are rewarded for their efforts. Thus the leader encourages these people to persevere towards achieving the long-term objectives Consolidate improvements to enhance changes: By rewarding appropriate behaviors and encouraging people to actively pursue improvements, the leader develops an organizational idea of continuous improvement. Institutionalize the new systems: There is a constant need to positively reinforce new practices and encourage people to seek to move forward rather than to fall back on the old practices. Managers who initiate change are themselves part of the change process.
Hence managers themselves must change and be prepared to change in order to have improvements in performance. Changing the attitude of the individuals can bring about a successful change in an organization. The most effective way to change behavior is to place people into a new organizational context, which imposes new responsibilities, roles and relationships on them. This in turn leads to new attitudes and behaviors on people Moreover, co-ordination or teamwork, commitment and competencies are inter related elements which are prerequisites for corporate revitalization.
Resistance to change is a major consideration for organizations going through a transformation. Research has shown how some people adapt to change more quickly than others. Some people are innovators or early adopters. These people may be or may become, leaders and agents of change. Other people are late adopters or laggards because they are resistant to change. Change management processes are often aimed at these people in order to bring them on board with the rest of the organization.
The majority of people fall somewhere in the middle of the adopters and laggards. The Seven S frameworks as illustrated in the adjacent diagram are useful to analyze the strategic attributes of an organization. The Mckinsey's consulting firm identified strategy as only one of seven elements exhibited by the best-managed companies. Strategy, structure and systems can be considered the "hardware" of success whilst style, staff, skills and shared values can be seen as the "software". Companies, in which these soft elements are present, are usually more successful at the implementation of strategy (Mckinsey's 7! vs. & Pascale's adaption Thereof, 2002).
Senge's learning organization Awareness and Sensibilities Attitudes Skills and and Beliefs Capabilities Guiding Ideas Theory Methods Innovation in and Tools Infrastructure Senge's diagram as illustrated above is an image depicting the full scope of the work of building learning organisations. The learning circle has no beginning and no end, with learning being a continuous process. The central causality of change is in the circle. The elements of the triangle are more tangible.
The key focus for activity is in the triangle. Both continuously affect and influence one another. Together they represent the tangible and subtle changes involved in building learning organization. A set of guiding ideas articulated by one generation of management can be changed by another. An infrastructure developed and implemented today can be re-designed tomorrow. Prevailing set of tools and methods can be replaced by a new set of tools and methods.
By focusing on the triangle, we can make changes that also imply that it is short lived. On the other hand the deep learning cycle is orientational and enduring. (Senge, P, Kleiner A, Roberts C. Ross, R. B, Smith B.J., 1994, p. 42-44) We are a learning organization however since it is a conservative family owned business, there is not much opportunity to make any drastic changes, but it is a well oiled machine running at full throttle since last 80 years. We elucidate below some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Senge! | framework: Strengths "X It is popular and has entered beyond the systems world. "X It links people with the more mechanical aspects of systems inquiry.
"X It stresses reflective processes, dialogue and experimental learning. Weaknesses "X It is powerfully driven on notions of consensus, which some feel reduces the potential for critical reflection. "X In any formal sense, it does not address power, knowledge distribution and ethical issues. "X Of itself it is not really a systems approach, it refers back to system dynamics for that, this can be constraining. "X Its whole is not rigorous, even if the parts are. "X There is no formal means of boundary setting.
(Bob Williams, 2002) To conclude, the Senge's framework needs to be used as a guide to our thinking. Once we experience the benefits of the model, then we can start introducing the model to peers, subordinates and managers. Understanding the less rational levels in this framework requires some ability for! SS psychological thinking!" and not all people will be able to utilize the full power of such structure. Although an understanding of the dynamic complexity of organizations can lead managers to feel overwhelmed and under skilled, such framework provides them with a means of focusing their attention to diagnose and to act on organizational dysfunction. This clarity of focus enables managers to utilize their existing skills and knowledge without getting lost in the chaos of complexity in organizational change.
The Senge's framework encourages managers to retain and apply existing skills in a more focused fashion than they would without the structure of this model. 2.! SS Your most important job as an entrepreneurial leader is not to find new opportunities or to identify the critical competitive insights. Your task is to create an organization that does these things for you as matter of course!" With reference to academic theory describe and discuss the implications of this statement for effective entrepreneurial leadership To begin with an entrepreneur, as the definition states is an individual who is the owner of the business and who attempts to make money by risk and initiative. (Friedman J.P., 2000, p. 222).
For example, the entire fleet of our company was destroyed during the World War II (1939-1945). Despite these setbacks, the founder of our company Mr. Ignazio Messina transformed the organization from a traditional conventional ship owner operating initially to Libya and East Africa, Red Sea and Saudi Arabia into a carrier specializing in container and Ro Ro services by extending our services to Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt and South and West Africa. Of all the management experts in the world, few can claim to have conquered and ruled a significant part of it. Napoleon Bonaparte did with audacity, speed, and skillful planning.
That is why I feel Napoleon's military maxims are relevant to today's entrepreneur. Napoleon was a veteran warrior, an enlightened sovereign, and one of the world's greatest generals. In the present world scenario, he would have been an outstanding entrepreneur. (Kuraoka J., 2002) Joseph A. Schumpeter (1883-1950), who made significant contribution to the study of entrepreneurship, defined the entrepreneur as an individual, who makes a new combination of already existing materials and forces. Nobody is an entrepreneur forever and are only when they are innovating and make things happen.
The management guru Peter Drucker, describes entrepreneurs as someone who see change as the norm and as healthy. They always search for changes, respond to it and exploit it as an opportunity. Entrepreneurs start with a vision and generally want something different from life than do traditional managers. They seem to place high importance on being free to achieve and maximize their potential. Six of the main personality traits in an entrepreneur is as illustrated in the exhibit below (Daft, R. L, 2000, p. 172): Leader on the other hand is an individual who rules, guides or inspires others. Yet when the terms entrepreneurship and leadership are applied to the business context there appears to be an overlap and the potential for confusion.
At the practical level we can consider an entrepreneur offering leadership and a leader needing entrepreneurial flair. As illustrated in the below exhibit entrepreneurship and leadership are similar notions and there are conceptual building differences, but also there are clearly still conceptual differences. Leadership tends to be more associated with conceptual building blocks that relate to people (e.g. communication and social skills). On the other hand, entrepreneurship tends to be associated with the personal search for independence and identification of market opportunities. (Perren L., 2002) ENTREPRENEURSHIP LEADERSHIP Comparison of the conceptual building blocks of entrepreneurship and leadership The entrepreneurial leaders constantly reinvigorate their organizations. They set the work climate, set practices for seeking and realising new opportunities and engage in problem solving, as well as involve others in pursuing new ventures.
The entrepreneurial leader needs to consciously and deliberately allocate a high proportion of his / her time to those activities, which will generate new ideas, concepts and new ways of thinking about how the organization is currently doing business and the scope to diversify. He therefore needs to have good knowledge on time management and should be efficient in his efforts. Starting an entrepreneurial firm requires a new business idea, during which a comprehensive business plan has to be carefully designed, by deciding a suitable legal structure and financing options. Tactical decisions like to whether start, buy, or franchise or to participate in the business incubator or to be a company spin-off, or to go global has to be mapped. Furthermore briefly outlined here below are nine essential characteristics, which are already fairly visible in my present set-up and that, I would recommend to create an innovative organization small or large: Shared values needs to be constantly expressed, reinforced and fostered into its culture. Members of the organization should make real efforts to live those values, rather than to simply have a plaque on a wall.
The whole individual needs to be appreciated of / for everything she / he can bring to the organization. Employees should be encouraged to incorporate things from the personal lives (e.g. hobbies), into the professional settings. Openness and Playfulness should be encouraged. An open book management policy has to be in place, and promote communication throughout all levels of the organization. Have random meetings and interactions and organize regular events with fun, which should be family oriented. Celebrate Successes with employee, contractor and customer appreciation activities.
There should be a regular schedule of company-wide events throughout the year to celebrate its accomplishments Company's history has to be clearly communicated to each new employee especially its origin. Maintain Intense Customer Focus, like in response to customer requests, develop software for its call center whereby the incoming calls are automatically routed back to the original call taker, so that customers always speak with someone who is familiar with their queries. Focus on trends, by appointing employee teams on a rotating basis to identify new trends or developments that will directly or indirectly have an impact on the product line. Incorporate Cross Functional Teams and / or some form of cross-functional training as a regular, formal methodology. By implementing the above mentioned concepts you may not achieve a world-class innovation like say Dell computers or Amazon. com, however you certainly would not achieve constant, ongoing innovation without them.
Once started, the entrepreneurial business goes through five distinct stages of growth, as illustrated in the below exhibit, with each stage requiring different management skills. The management functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling should be modified to each stage of growth. (Daft R.L., 2000, p. 185-187) The leader! | vision is the driving force in the early stages of development, combined with his personality, shapes corporate culture. This can help attract and retain good and qualified people. Entrepreneurs as we have stated earlier do not have good people skills, but have excellent task skills in either manufacturing or marketing. By the success stage of growth, the owner must learn to motivate the employees or bring in managers who can.
This can be achieved by adopting some of the concepts I have recommended earlier. Employee co-operation is a pre-requisite for a company to swiftly takeoff. With an ever-increasing globalization, it does not make our job easier, but is interesting. An entrepreneur who comprehends this has tremendous opportunities. New global communication possibilities, as well as increasing democracy and participation mean that organizations small or big are now exposed to the whole world and affected by all trends and tendencies. In order to face the challenges of this evolution, an entrepreneurial leader needs to have more courage to express his opinions, more experience and talent for communication inside and outside his company.
He must have a behavior that makes him credible. He should have more international knowledge and understanding of the world in order to better comprehend and deal with his own responsibilities. In order to master today's ever increasing fierce global competition and environment, the entrepreneurial leader needs to have a certain fighting spirit, which one cannot go without it. True to the proverb: ! She who fights may lose, but he who does not fight has already lost. !" 3.!
SS You are to devise a leadership training development plan for a team of senior executives. Your plan should give them an understanding of the key theories and concepts of leadership, explaining why these issues are important and presenting the opportunity for them to develop some of the skills of leadership. !"Leadership is the lifting of a man's vision to higher sights, the raising of a man's performance to a higher standard and the building of a man's personality beyond its normal limitations". -From The Practice of Management, by Peter F. Drucker Today's work world is becoming exceedingly complex.
Individuals and organizations are continuously challenged to create new value in non-traditional ways. New technologies, the events of 9-11, the recent state of corporate scandals, heightened market competition, and continuous global pressures on our environment, to name only a few, have dramatically shifted our traditional ways of knowing, working, and being. As a result, leaders of organizations find themselves under the same kind of public scrutiny as democratically elected political leaders. This scrutiny has raised the bar on leadership. The growing public attention on corporate leaders is redefining our expectations of our leaders. We demand that our leaders step out into the full light of day for review, for critique, and for a higher standard of accountability.
And we define our leaders success by measuring organizational flexibility and responsiveness to change. Where will we find the New Leadership we require? In the information era that we currently find ourselves operating in, the hierarchy has dissolved, leaving instead a highly complex network of work teams that come together and disband on a project-by-project basis. The flow of information required is formidable and the leadership required to succeed in this new context is still emerging.
This new work structure is burdened with complexity and ambiguity and requires emergent capacities to effectively navigate the challenges. Leadership Development has to be evolved with changing times to continue to understand current leadership development trends. Any such programme has to be based on developing the three areas of leadership i.e. character, skill, and knowledge, as illustrated in the below exhibit: This model defines the leader's character, values, and other personal qualities as the basis for leadership success, and suggests that real leadership comes from a focus on the qualities that characterize the person who is the leader. Competencies and knowledge are unarguably critical, but it is the unique character of the leader that makes the real difference. Those leaders who find deep success and fulfillment in their roles often practice it. It is also considered the key ingredient to weathering and even thriving in times of adversity.
(Mamprin A., Wyer K., Penrose S., 2003) Now coming to the question of who are the senior level executives? As Michael Walsh, the late CEO of Tenne co, once put it, ! SSE very person in a key position has to see himself or herself as a mini-CEO. They have to conceptualize what has to be done in the same way the CEO has. Then it cascades!" . (Sherman, S. and Tichy, N.M., 1993, p. 82) At the end of the day, leadership is about having smart ideas and getting them implemented well.
The present chairman and owner of our organization, Mr. Franco Messina's strategy has been to develop Line managers and Operations managers based in our head office in Genoa and Regional managers, mostly master mariners deputed abroad to be these mini CEO's. These leaders who are highly experienced and skilled know that the game is for everyone to see opportunities, and seize them. Some of these senior managers infuse into the junior level managers to think that they are the company's eyes and ears. Besides doing the day-to-day jobs they expect these junior managers to look at what is out there, what we could be doing, what are the best opportunities, what will have to change within our company and within our business units? These proven senior executives do the teaching. They have a teachable point of view about running, streamlining the business, as well as about leadership.
Most of them being ex-Ship Captain's, they are avid learners and draw from their pasts and reflect on their experiences to develop lessons for the future. They personally act as mentors and role models. They share the mistakes as well as the victories. Moreover, these leaders have clear ideas of what it takes to win in the market place and how the organization should operate. They keep upgrading their ideas to keep abreast to the changing circumstances, as well as help others to develop their own ideas.
They have strong values that everyone understands and lives up to. Their energy levels are very high, consequently energizing people through ever-greater modern day challenges. They are willing to take tough decisions, and they encourage and reward others who do the same. Since having been sailors and interacted with innumerable people, they are able to communicate their visions and ideas by narrating stories of their personal experiences. Thus they drive their messages home and with words and actions that engage and excite followers. (Tichy, N.M., and Cohen, E., 2002, p. 23-27) All the senior executives in our organization cannot be put in the same boat.
There are exceptions and some of these leaders have certain limitations and idiosyncrasies, which needs to be dealt with. All the senior managers are of Italian origin and it is a well-known fact that they are highly temperamental. This has an effect on the staff turnover in some of our offices abroad (most of our offices in the African continent), as well as in customer relationships. There is more than 1000 staff employed in the Messina organization in Genoa, Spain and France. Another 500 are working with the agency network. Messina business is about people and thus I have selected most appropriately a management development programme on the theme of!
SSManaging relationships!" for the senior managers worldwide. It is a general feeling that the management staff needs to be improved. The experience of developing senior managers points to the advantages of a behavioral approach for all levels of management. Our company is task focused, so I have devised a short course programme of three days. This is deemed to offer more potential for behavioral improvement and increase personal confidence, while retaining the flexibility of local delivery at key points around the globe.
The majority of the short courses designed for about 125 senior managers will have to be held in Italy close to our head office in Genoa for the managers based there. For the outstation executives comprising 25 managers, to be organized at an exotic location like Cape Town, where we also have an office. A specialist firm of external consultants, selected by means of a rigorous competitive tendering process, will deliver the course. The course will concentrate on behavioral skills, picking up on 360-degree feedback completed prior to the course. This is a review process, which extends to include a manager's peers, subordinates and other colleagues whose roles impinge on the subject's.
As well as contacts from external organizations, notably customers, other business associates like in our case, the port authorities, feeder operators, etc. etc. (Fee, K., 2001, p. 148) Such performance review becomes more an open discussion and it opens up potential for organizational development. Although such review systems can be expensive to implement, it stands more chance of being successful, as it caters for a wider range of learning style preferences. At the beginning of the programme, each participant's behavior will be analyzed via a videotaped group session.
Then there is some flexibility and individual choice about what exactly to focus on. The courses will be very participative, including little theoretical input, and more on establishing and maintaining good interpersonal skills. There will be a one-day follow-up clinic, which will help to evaluate and consider the leader's opportunities for further development. After three months another programme can be complemented to develop negotiating and influencing skills and managing diversity, and other courses addressing operational and procedural issues. The courses will be evaluated at a number of levels, from reaction sheets completed at the end of each course, to post programmed interviews with the managers, their peers, subordinates, customers and business associates. Such courses should be sound and a good investment and effective in meeting the objectives.
Successful companies like ours understand that not everyone can be an Olympian, but through training and encouragement, and by offering opportunities to exercise leadership, they make the most of every player. Some players have natural talent for coming up with good ideas and getting other people to help carry them out. Others have to work at expanding their own horizons, thinking bigger ideas and persuading others to go along. But such companies know, that like athletes, no matter how good or bad a person's inherent leadership skills are, they can be improved with coaching and practice. And they systematically work at it. Indeed, to develop a leader's edge, managers at every level need to have the same kind of trust in their knowledge of the business that they have in their opinions of sports teams.
With that trust comes the ability to clearly delineate problems, present solutions, and challenge the experts on the executive team with conviction. There are leaders-in-waiting in every organization. All they need is a chance to show what they can do and a process to help them do it.
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