ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING + CHANGE + CONFLICT

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge or a skill; in order to understand this concept I am going to present some theories about this topic:

·         Classical Theories:

1.    Classical Conditioning: A condition stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

2.    Operant Conditioning: Modifying behavior through the use of positive or negative consequences.

·         Social Learning Theory: Explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences. (Learning theories knowledgebase, 2011).

One type of organizations that is important to analyze is “Learning Organizations” that are “Places where people continually expand their capacities to create the results they truly desire” (Senge, 1994).

This type of organization is really important nowadays because of the changes in workforce competency, high customer’s expectations, technological advancements and globalization.

There are four reasons for Corporate Failure associated with learning disabilities:

1.    Life-Cycle Decline

2.    Trapped by Past Success

3.    Inappropriate Strategic Biases and “Mental Models”

4.    Rigidity in response to Crises

To obtain and sustain competitive advantage, organizations must enhance their learning capability and must be able to learn better and faster from their successes and failures, from within and from outside (Marquardt, 1996).

Organizational Learning works in this way:

1.    Personal mastery

2.    Shared vision

3.    Mental models

4.    Team learning

5.    Systems thinking

There is also a process of knowledge creation that takes place when tacit knowledge is converted into explicit knowledge:

·         Socialization

·         Externalization

·         Combination

·         Internalization

 What is the relationship between organizational learning and individual satisfaction?

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Organizational learning is really closed to individual satisfaction because when people are involved in organizational learning is due to the objectives or goals they have, which at the same time became their motivation to behave in some way in order to obtain individual satisfaction. A clear example of this can be the Learning Organizations as Universities. People go to Universities because of their goal to become professionals and to be competitive in the work place, they are constant and motivated because of the benefits they will obtain in the future that will bring them individual satisfaction.

MANAGING CHANGE

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Organizations nowadays are facing many changes in its structure and environment, so it is important to study the following concepts:

·         Change: Is the coping process of moving from the present state to a desired state that individuals, groups, organizations undertake in response to dynamic internal and external factors that alter current realities (Kavita Singh, 2009).

There are some characteristics organizations need in order to succeed:

·         Adaptiveness

·         Flexibility

·         Responsiveness

The organizational change can be planned or unplanned. The scope of change can be:

·         Incremental change

·         Strategic change

·         Transformational change

For change to occur it has to be an internal or external change agent. Change can affect basic aspects of an organization such as: Strategy, Technology and Structure. It also threatens the status quo by creating: New problems, new situations, ambiguity, uncertainty (conflict).

Once conflict appears it can have positive (motivates change) or negative consequences (creates a negative climate).

Thomas-Kilman Conflict management modes:

·         Competing

·         Collaborating

·         Compromising

·         Avoiding

·         Accomodating

Now I am going to analyze change in an age of stability (1950-1970):

·         Force Field Analysis (Lewin): Unfreezing, moving and refreezing.

After the 1970s crisis:

·         Model of Beer: It focuses on enforcing changed ways of thinking, attitudes and behaving.

Managing change in the age of globalization:

·         Change as Contemporary Norm: Regulatory changes and privatization spawning new industries, customers learning to expect more.

Paths to Managing Change and Learning

·         Environmental Path

·         Psycho-Philosophical Path

·         Organizational Path

Globalization plays an important role in managing change, globalization means: “global interconnectedness constituted by numerous flows and processes, and not just the economic” (Hopper, 2006).

Ubuntu (Mangaliso, 2003) brings the idea of paying attention to local cultures.

Is it possible to change corporate culture? If so, how?

I think it is possible to change a corporate culture, but it is not easy to do. When a company wants to change its corporate culture it is because things aren’t going well. It could be possible that the company is big enough, has great revenues and a good image on the public or clients, but inside it, something is creating unconformities between employees who are unmotivated to work towards the same task; and for that reason the company could be in risk of losing its best people. In this case a change in corporate culture must be taken into account. The first step to change the corporate culture is the recognition of the necessity of change it, after it is important that managers and directors change their view of employees and stop looking at them as assets and start treating them as investors who choose to come back every day because of the benefits they are receiving, give rewards, integrations and other activities that can create motivation and it can also contribute to the change of corporate culture into a more sustainable one.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

·         Cooper, Cary L. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management. Blackwell Publishing, . Blackwell Reference Online. Retrieved from13 January 2011: http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/book?id=g9780631233176_9780631233176

·         Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2011, January). Social Learning Theory (Bandura) at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved from January 12th, 2011: http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html

·         Makridakis, S (1991) What can we learn from organisationalfailures ?, Long Range Planning, 24(4), 115-126.

·         Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal Worldand You. South-Western CollegePublication, 7th. Ed.

·         Nystrom, PC and WH Starbuck, (1984, Spring). To avoid organisationalcrisis, unlearn, OrganisationalDynamic@, 53-64.

·         Senge, P. (1998) Sharing Knowledge. At Society For Organizational Learning. Retrieved from January 12th, 2011: http://www.solonline.org/res/kr/shareknow.html

·         Shukla, M (1994) CORPORATE FAILURES: Why OrganisationsFail To Learn. Productivity, 34(4), 629-639.

·         Teece, D. (1998) Capturing value from knowledge assets: The new economy, Markets for know-how, and intangible assets. California Management Review. Vol40 No 3. Spring 1998. Retrieved from January 2011: http://apps.business.ualberta.ca/mlounsbury/techcom/readings/teece.pdf

·         Deal T. and Kennedy, A. (1982). A Corporate Cultures. Adison-Wesley.

·         Duck, J.D. (1993). Managing change: The Art of Balancing. Harvard Business Review.

·         Hopper, P. (2006) Living with Globalization. Oxford: Berg.

·         Mangaliso, M (2003) Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu. In Thomas, David Clinton, ed. Readings and cases in International Management: A cross-cultural perspective.

·         Nadler, D. and Nadler, M (1998) Champions of Change: How CEOs and Their Companies are Mastering the Skills of Radical Change. San Francisco: Jossey-     Bass.

·         Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Managing Change. In Organisational Behavour: Science, the real world and you.

·         Nicholson, N (1995) (ed.), Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior. Oxford, England: Blackwell.

·         Singh, K (2009) Organizational Behavior: Text and Cases. Pearson Education India, p. 421.

·         Weick (1985) The significance of corporate culture. In PJ Frost et al (Eds.) Organisational Culture. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

·         Zeira, Y., and Avedisian, J. (1989) Organizational planned change: Assessing the chances for success. Organizational Dynamics, Spring

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

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In order to know the differences between management and leadership, I’m going to clarify some concepts:

“Management is responsible for maintaining order; leadership is responsible for producing change or movement.”(Kotter, 1990).

Management process reduces uncertainty and provides stability; on the other hand, leadership process creates uncertainty and creates change.

The difference may be summarized as activities of vision and judgment –effectiveness versus activities of mastering routines –efficiency. (Bennis & Nanus, 1997).

Although these differences, both processes complement each other and the result of that complementation is a healthy organization.

Leadership is an important aspect that has to be analyzed more in detail:

·         Fundamental Act of Leadership: The leader’s fundamental act is to induce people to be aware or conscious of what they feel –to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action (James MacGregorBurns, Leadership, p. 44).

Now I will present some theories of leadership:

·         Behavioral Theories: Composed by:

1.    Authoritarian:  The classical approach, manager retains as much power and decision making authority as possible.

2.    Consultative: The consultative leader will talk to everyone involved in or affected by a task to get their views and ideas.

3.    Democratic: Keeps employees informed about things that affect their work and shares decision making and problem solving responsibilities.

4.    Laissez-Faire: manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible.

5.    Ohio State Studies: It is composed by Initiating Structure (getting things done) and Consideration (relationships).

6.    Michigan Studies: It is composed by Production-Oriented Leader (getting work done) and Employee-Oriented Leader (relationship).

·         Contingency Theories: Involve the belief that leadership style must be appropriate for the particular situation.

1.    Path-goal theory (Robert House).

2.    Normative decision model , Vroom-Yetton-Jago.

3.    Situational leadership theory, The Hersey-Blanchard Model.

Nowadays there are new researches about leadership, which are:

·         Transformational Leaders: Inspire followers to transcend their self-interests and achieve exceptional performance.

·         Charismatic Leaders: Use of personal abilities and talents in order to have profound and extraordinary effects on followers.

·         Authentic Leaders: A leader who is guided by explicit values that emphasize collective interest, enabling them to operate at high levels of moral integrity.

There are also Emerging Issues in Leadership such as:

·         Emotional intelligence

·         EI and Buddhism

·         Gender and Leadership

·         Servant leadership

Discuss transformational, charismatic, and authentic leadership. Would you expect these styles of leadership to exist in all cultures? Differ across cultures? Explain.

Transformational leaders are those who inspire their followers to achieve exceptional performance, they motive people by creating an intellectual stimulus. On the other hand, charismatic leaders use their personal abilities to have effects on followers. Finally, authentic leaders operate high levels of moral integrity by emphasizing in collectivity. These styles of leadership are not expected to exist in all cultures, because the differences in the life styles of people, in the customs of every culture, in the necessities and wants of societies. Each type of these leadership styles vary across cultures depending on the government regime, the social and the demographic environment. Also it is important to have in mind that in a culture there can be different types of leadership that represents certain segments of the population.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

·         Bennis, W. G. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

·         Brilhart, J. K., and Galanes, G. J. (1989). Effective Group Decisions.

·         Dubuque, IA: William C Brown Publishers. p. 201-203.

·         Kotter, J. P. (1990). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review, May-June, p. 103-11.

·         Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal Worldand You. South-Western CollegePublication, 7th. Ed.

·         Northouse, P. G. (2001). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

ETHICAL DECISION MAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS

There are two types of decisions, programmed and non-programmed, so for that reason there is a decision-making process that help us to follow the right steps to take a decision:

·         Recognize the problem and the need for a decision

·         Identify the objective of the decision

·         Gather and evaluate data and diagnose the situation

·         List and evaluate alternatives

·         Select the best course of action

·         Implement the decision

·         Gather feedback

·         Follow up

There are three Models of decision making:

·         Rational Model: Describes how individuals should behave in order to optimize some outcome.

·         Bounded rationality Model: A theory that suggests that there are limits upon how rational a decision maker can actually be.

·         Garbage can Model:  A theory that contends that decisions in organizations are random and unsystematic.

Managers have to assume risks in their jobs and they can be risk aversion or risk takers. The escalation of commitment is a tendency to continue to commit resources to a failing course of action.

In the decision making process there are individual and group decisions.

·         The individual differences to affect decision making are intuition and creativity. Creativity is highest when there is a match between individual and organizational influences on creativity. There are mental blocks that diminish creativity such as: Avoiding ambiguity, striving for practicality, being afraid to look foolish.

·         The participative decision making is the one in which individuals who are affected by decisions influence the making of those decisions.

Groupthink (Irving Janis): Is a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment resulting from pressures within the group. Some of the consequences are: Biased information processing, failure to work out contingency plans and incomplete survey of alternatives.

There are some techniques for group decision making:

·         Brainstorming

·         Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

·         Delphi Technique

·         Devil’s Advocacy

·         Dialectical Inquiry

Ethical Theories:

·         Consequential Theory: An ethical theory that emphasizes the consequences or results of behavior.

·         Rule-based Theory: An ethical theory that emphasizes the character of the act itself rather than its effects.

·         Character Theory: An ethical theory that emphasizes the character, personal virtues, and integrity of the individual.

The Ethical Behavior consists of acting in ways consistent with one’s personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society. It has individual influences such as: Values systems, Locus of control, Machiavellianism and Cognitive moral development.

One quality required for ethical decision making is the self-confidence to seek out different opinions about the issue and decide what is right in terms of a situation.

How can organizations effectively manage both risk taking and escalation of commitment in the decision-making behavior of employees?

Organizations can manage risk taking and escalation of commitment in the decision-making behavior of employees in a direct relation of both (the highest risk, the highest commitment and to lowest risk, the lowest commitment), with this technique managers allow employees to take decisions by themselves and to fail without fear of punishment when there is high risk- taking behavior, also it is a good characteristic because it is open to creativity and innovation. The level of sunk cost that makes escalations of commitment occurs and the risk perception that employees and managers have, contribute significantly to their willingness to continue a project.

The decision making behavior of employees is influenced by individual and group factors, for that reason it is important to split responsibilities for decisions, motivate them to be committed and allow them to be creative.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

·         Mintzberg, H. & Westley, F. (2001, Spring). Decision making: It’s not what you think. MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(3), 89 –93.

·         Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) Organizational Behavior: Science, The Real World and You. South-Western College Publication, 7th. Ed.

·         Wong, K. F. E., & Kwong, J. Y. Y. (2007). The role of anticipated regret in escalation of commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 545–554.

·         Keil, Mark; Tan, Benard C. Y; Wei, Kwok-Kee; Saarinen, Timo; Tuunainen, Virpi; Wassenaar, Arjen. A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON ESCALATION OF COMMITMENT BEHAVIOR IN SOFTWARE PROJECTS. MIS Quarterly; Jun2000, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p299-325, 27p, 7 Diagrams.

·         De Cremer, David; M Mayer, David; Schminke, Marshall. Guest Editors' Introduction. On Understanding Ethical Behavior and Decision Making: A Behavioral Ethics Approach. Business Ethics Quarterly; Jan2010, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p1-6, 6p.


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