Mabhekiso B. Mdluli mmdluli@leomail.tamuc.edu April 18th, 2014
Positive Organizational Culture
Establishing a positive culture, in my opinion, is vital in every organization and should be the main focus for managers and executives. Society pushes us to find happiness in everything that we do, be it in relationships, school, careers etc. Since I 've been in college, all that has been preached to me is to find the job that I 'd love and be happy working in, than a high-paying job that I would not really be into but just attracted to because of the paycheck. Luckily for me, the career that I have chosen to go with is one that I have always loved dearly and conveniently comes with a nice paycheck. Anyway, moving along, as soon as we begin to feel
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When something goes wrong, like an unforseen downsizing or layoffs, instead of being harsh a manager might sugar-coat a negative situation to avoid any negativity or hard feelings. This is called the “sandwhich approach”. Communicating Negative Messages (Sandra L. French and Tracey Holden, 2012) describes it as an approach with a “prefatory buffer, the bad news, an explanation, and a closing buffer, thus “sandwiching” the bad news between pieces of …show more content…
Planning includes defining organizational objectives, finding a strategy to reach those goals, and developing a plan to coordinate activities. Organizing includes figuring out what needs to be done and the chain of command. Leading consists of directing and coordinating employees, and finally controlling consists of monitoring and correcting faults of employees. All of these functions are vital in creating an organization structure because they are the backbone for the success of an organization. If managers do not plan, there will be no objectives. If they do not organize, the organization will be dysfunctional. If they do not lead, there will be no direction in the company, and finally if they do not control there will be no accountability. If they ignored all these functions, the organization would not function and would collapse. This however comes with a toll to managers. Two students from East China University of Science and Technology along with one from Beijing Foreign Studies University conducted a research on 'role conflict and the buffering effect of proactive personality among middle managers ' and realized that most suffered from work-related anxiety and depression. I can see why, the support structure is not the same between CEO and manager and there is relatively a whole lot that is expexted of
Not all managers are leaders. There are managers that are not effective leaders, just as there are leaders that do not have a clue how to manage. Typically, a manager denotes a position whereas a leader can be someone who simply influences regardless of title or position. Warren Bennis, a pioneer in leadership studies explains that managers “do things right” and leaders “do the right thing” (Bennis, 1982). Managers have a fiduciary relationship normally requiring them to ensure the process or routine is maintained. Where managers produce
Much has been written about the difference between management and leadership. In the past, competent management staffs ran effective companies. In light of our ever-changing world, however, most companies have come to realize that it is much more important to lead than to manage. In today's world the old ways of management no longer work. One reason is that the degree of environmental and competitive change we are experiencing is extreme. Although exciting, the world is also very unstable and confused. In an article entitled What’s the Difference between Your Hospital and the Other? Gary Campbell states that the difference between a manager and a leader is that the manager “finds himself quite willing to take risk, but seemingly afraid to take the risk of being different.” That being true, a manager will always be reactive instead of proactive. A true leader will be proactive. He will embrace change and will look for ways to differentiate himself and his company from the competition.
Each individual has his/her character, by which his/her type or feature is defined. Similarly, each nation, race has its personality, known as its culture. Corporations, being a kind of organization, also have their own personalities, and are more typically known as organizational cultures. Understanding how culture is created, communicated, and changed in an organization is important for people in the organization and will help one be more effective in his/her organizational life.
To be an effective manager one must be able to mange with purpose not just manage the daily activities. All of the manager’s responsibilities need to be molded and developed to align with the company’s vision and mission. Mintzberg discusses a model image of what a manager’s job looks like from the inside out. His concept of new managers are “putty to be molded” (Mintzberg, 2005, p. 55) provided insight that not everyone that is a manager should be a manager. Many new managers want to take their own direction and work towards their own vision of what should happen. Whereas, managing with purpose is the fundamental framework of a manager’s job. I have always maintained that managers and leaders had very different roles and not every manager can lead and not every leader can manage. A manager focuses on deadlines, metrics and budgets while the leader motivates the people, develops the culture and focuses on the vision of the business. I found it interesting that Mintzberg contends an organization becomes dysfunctional if the manager is not a leader. I feel that organizations, in the 21st century, need to have managers that lead and leaders that manage. These positions should be synonymous in order to synergize innovation and cultivate creativity.
Peter F. Drucker once said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” (Famous-Quotes-And-Quotations.com, n. d.). Leading is a key function of management. Without leadership, valuable time spent on planning, organizing, and controlling can be lost with no productive end result. Because leadership is the core of management, a great deal of focus must be placed on its key components. “Leading means influencing other people to get the job done, maintaining morale, molding company structure and managing conflicts and communication” (Dessler, 2004, p. 3).
The concept of organizational cultures was first raised in 1970s, and soon became a fashionable topic. Organizational culture is the shared beliefs, values and behaviours of the group. Theorists of organizations believe that organizational culture represents the pattern of behaviours, values, and beliefs of an organization. Hence, studies around organizational culture have been seen as great helpful and essential for understanding organizations and their behaviours. Additionally, organizational culture has been considered to be an important determinant of organizational success. Therefore, leaders and managers pay more than more attentions on this topic, focusing on constructing and managing organizational cultures.
While the degree of organizational culture varies throughout every agency, according to Kubilay Ocal, there is a clear link between organizational culture and an organizations performance. (2011). Neubert and Dyck define organizational culture as “the set of shared assumptions, values, and experiences that influence the ways in which individuals, teams, and groups interact with one another and work toward company goals” (2014). Consequently, these shared assumptions and values are highly influential on an organizations performance. Furthermore, leaders in organizations have a substantial impact on how an organizations culture cultivates. When Robert Behn asks the three questions regarding micromanagement, motivation, and measurement,
The process of their working is different but sometimes they work together. Managers are maintaining the organization structure and status. On the other hand leaders are setting goal, direction, find new ways and challenging. Manager’s activities depend on human, time, money and equipment included decision making, problem solving, planning, budgeting, controlling, discipline etc. Leader’s activities depending and leading on inspiring and empowerment included inspiration, motivation, team work, make relationships, teaching and couching etc.
In the following assignment, we are going to talk about motivation and how important it is for every organization to keep its employees motivated. Also, we will discuss different types of motivational theories, characteristics of a positive work environment, HR practices that positively influence affective process and behavioral process which includes motivation, job satisfaction, commitment, fair treatment, respect, health and wellness, diversity, effort, reduced turnover, absenteeism etc. In addition to this we will learn synthesis of Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics, employees’ psychological state in relation to work outcomes and relationship between Maslow’s general components and job characteristics in view of motivating
A 2012 management research article published in Problems of Management in the 21st Century provides the foundation for understanding the positive correlation between organizational culture (including schedule options) and employee motivation and performance (Sokro). The findings establish the crucial role organizational culture plays in employee motivation, calling motivation “the key component of organizational culture” (p. 106). The article defines organizational culture as “the set of beliefs, behaviors, customs, and attitudes that helps the members of the organization understand what it stands for, how it does things, and what it considers important” (Sokro, 2012, p. 106). Flexible Work Arrangements are considered a piece of the organizational
Establishing culture in the workplace can have positive results on employees in the organization, but has also been perceived as being manipulative. As I cover both topics and what your organization’s true intensions of creating a positive culture for you to come to work you may begin to see things in a different light.
According to Evans Sokro (2012) there is a strong relation between organisation culture, motivation and performance of employee. In Ghana there is an automobile company in which study was conducted to study the influence of organizational culture on employee’s motivation and their performance, moreover to also determine the relationship between employee’s motivation and performance. They found that organisational culture value and reorganisation of company was depending upon the motivation to the employee. Such environment of the organisation gives support for new comers and cutting down any negative behaviour of the current employee. However, some workers especially, temporary workers, do not believe to be associated with the company, hence
The concept of organizational culture is one of the most debated topics for researchers and theorists. There is no one accepted definition of culture. People even said that it is hard to define culture and even more change it. It is considered a complex part of an organization although many have believed that culture influences employee behavior and organizational effectiveness (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa 1985; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1985a, 1990).
Planning and organizing is another vital quality needed for managers. If manager can do effective planning he can really contribute in the long term progress and development of his organization. Proper planning helps in useful and efficient use of the existing resources of the organization. After planning if you are not able to organize the things, this can really worsen your planning.
Planning involves establishing the organizations strategy and deciding how to best allocate and use resources to achieve organizational goals. Through organizing, managers establish a structure of relationships that dictates how members of an organization work together to achieve the organization's goals. Leading involves encouragement from managers for workers to do a good job and coordinate individuals and groups so that everyone is working to achieve the organizations goals. (George & Jones, 2005)