...Effective Leadership Adaptive Challenge Every problem in an organizational context represents a gap between the aspirations of the management and the things that happen in practice. If the problem is related to some technical aspects it would be lot easier to solve the issues. However adaptive challenges represent a completely different dimension of organizational issues. They cannot be solved so easily as those of technical nature. The adaptive challenges require more than applying the current expertise. Even applying authoritative decision making or standard operating procedures may not really help mitigating the adaptive challenges. It must be understood that for an adaptive challenge can be found external to the current ways of operating. While it is possible to solve the technical issues by using the current expertise it may not be possible to solve the adaptive challenges in the same way. In the case of Figgie International the adaptive challenge was never identified. There have been resistances from the divisional heads for the changes mooted by the consultants. The resistances were either out of their anxiety to meet the budgeted bottom lines or out of genuine concerns about the change in the production process which ultimately would affect the quality of the output. While there can be no argument on the superiority of technical and adaptive approaches to organizational changes – since both are needed – the strategic principles of leadership are to be applied...
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...The Hard Work of Being a Soft Manager William H. Peace Leadership in a Combat Zone William G. Pagonis Leadership: Sad Facts and Silver Linings Thomas J. Peters The Work of Leadership Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie In Closing Followership: It’s Personal, Too Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones Best of HBR 1997 The Work of Leadership Followers want comfort, stability, and solutions from their leaders. But that’s babysitting. Real leaders ask Sometimes an article comes along and turns the conventional thinking on a subject not upside down but inside out. So it is with this landmark piece by Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie, published in January 1997. Not only do the authors introduce the breakthrough concept of adaptive change – the sort of change that occurs when people and organizations are forced to adjust to a radically altered environment – they challenge the traditional understanding of the leader-follower relationship. Leaders are shepherds, goes the conventional thinking, protecting their flock from harsh surroundings. Not so, say the authors. Leaders who truly care for their followers expose them to the painful reality of their...
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...company with its toughest challenges? Shifting markets? Stiffening competition? Emerging technologies? When such challenges intensify, you may need to reclarify corporate values, redesign strategies, merge or dissolve businesses, or manage cross-functional strife. 1. Get on the balcony. Don’t get swept up in the field of play. Instead, move back and forth between the “action” and the “balcony.” You’ll spot emerging patterns, such as power struggles or work avoidance. This high-level perspective helps you mobilize people to do adaptive work. These adaptive challenges are murky, systemic problems with no easy answers. Perhaps even more vexing, the solutions to adaptive challenges don’t reside in the executive suite. Solving them requires the involvement of people throughout your organization. 2. Identify your adaptive challenge. COPYRIGHT © 2002 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Adaptive work is tough on everyone. For leaders, it’s counterintuitive. Rather than providing solutions, you must ask tough questions and leverage employees’ collective...
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...How does organizational learning connect with change? | Much literature exists concerning how to create change in organizations. Change is a constant element in a global environment and the frequency of communication over great distances. Advances in technology are creating new opportunities like never before and new threats to existing markets as well. The ability of an organization to adapt and grow, innovate and identify new markets will determine which organizations thrive or even survive. Because of this increased need to learn to live in permanent white water organizational change processes must be understood by leadership and management. Perhaps one of the most effective ways to implement organizational change is John Kotter’s (1996) work on Leading Change. Kotter suggested reasons change efforts fail and steps for implementing change: Common reasons change initiatives fail: Allowing too much complacency. Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition Underestimating the power of vision Under-communicating the vision by a factor of 10 or more Permitting obstacles to block the new vision Failing to create short term wins Declaring victory too soon Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture | Steps for implementing change 1. Establishing a sense of urgency Kotter suggested that a sense of urgency is a crucial beginning step for a change program. Even a crisis or manufactured crisis can be used to heighten awareness...
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...Leadership Traits Most Valued Across Sectors A Research Paper Patrick Jinks University of Richmond October, 2008 Introduction: Leadership is a topic as broad as education or health care. Books, articles, workshops, lectures, and keynote speeches abound – not only in the area of business, but across sectors that include government, civic, academic, and charitable organizations. Leadership topics are limitless, as evidenced by the vast expanse of information available in bookstores, libraries, blogs, and corporate leadership schools. For the purposes of this paper, the focus is on the highest-profile trends embraced by thought leaders in the leadership arena. Specifically, this work centers on the similarities – and differences – in the way the different major sectors view and define the important competencies of their leaders. Questions prompting this research include the following: 1. What are the most valued concepts delivered in training sessions to leaders of non-profits versus leaders in the military? 2. How do governmental nuances determine the areas in which leaders must excel? 3. Do leaders in different types of business view the concepts of leadership differently, or do the trends relate to the same basic tenets? 4. Is the area of ethics limited to Fortune 500 CEOs or non-profit directors? The following outlines the key principles that appear to be the most valued leadership concepts and the most significant concepts imparted to each sector’s...
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...Norman’s dynamic approach. Norman believed that everything about the organization needed to be changed in order for the company to survive. His approach was significantly inline with the ideas discussed in Heifetz’s and Laurie’s article “Learning to lead: Real leaders say, “I don’t have the answer.”” Heifetz and Laurie state that effective leadership requires us to make the distinction between leadership and authority and between technical and adaptive work. By clarifying these two distinctions we are able to understand a major error that people often make – treating adaptive challenges as technical problems. The case of Norman and Asda is a prime example of a company that treated their issues as adaptive challenges. Norman was a firm believer that in order to turn around Asda, he would need to start from scratch, eliminating almost all infrastructures that were previously accepted. Heifitz and Laurie describe five interdependent principles that leaders can use to mobilize people to do adaptive work. The first is that the leader must identify the adaptive challenges. Companies often fail because they do not adapt to new market challenges and needs. Part of Asda’s initial failure was top management’s decision to divert much of the profit from the grocery operation into non-food acquisitions and the changing of their customer base, which was already a tapped market. One of Norman’s first orders of business was hiring a consulting organization to help him redirect the companies position...
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...Texas A&M University-Commerce Week 8 Assignment 1. What adaptive challenge did Ruud Koedijk, the firm’s Chairman, face in 1994? Though his company was leading the tax-prep and, auditing/consulting industry in the Netherlands, there was limited opportunity for growth in the segment the organization served. The auditing business was getting saturated and the margin was shrinking. In addition, competition in the consulting industry was ever growing. The Chairman did not know how to move the organization into business areas that showed more profitable growth. The partners in the organization had a culture of being resistant to change and Ruud did not know how to change their attitude and furthermore, the impact they had on the existing organizational culture was proved to be an adaptive challenge for the company. 2. What characteristics of the firm hindered their ability to be proactive and adaptive? The company had a history of being resistant to change because they were content with their position in the industry and felt that they did not need to learn new ways of running their business due to their long time success. The partners controlled everything. They ran the firm like a bureaucracy and did not tap into the creativity or the knowledge and ideas of the 300 partners that made up the firm. They saw success as only profitability and their individual units. They did learn from one other and only focused on the bottom line. They were no honest with...
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...The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft Journal of Managerial Psychology 16,7 534 Received September 2000 Revised May 2001 Accepted May 2001 Resistance to organisational change: the role of defence mechanisms Wayne H. Bovey Bovey Management (Certified Consultants), Queensland, Australia Andrew Hede University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia Keywords Organizational change, Resistance, Defence, Humour Abstract Observes that the published literature on resistance to organisational change has focused more on organisational issues rather than individual psychological factors. The present study investigated the role of both adaptive and maladaptive defence mechanisms in individual resistance. Surveys were conducted in nine organisations undergoing major change and responses were obtained from 615 employees. The results indicate that five maladaptive defence mechanisms are positively correlated with behavioural intention to resist change, namely, projection, acting out, isolation of affect, dissociation and denial. The adaptive defence mechanism of humour was found to be negatively correlated with resistance intention. Identifies two intervention strategies which can be used by management to address the effects of defence mechanisms on resistance during periods of change in organisations. Journal...
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...Samsung’s products and services. The Customer Support Specialist III is a multifaceted role requiring hands on triage, escalation and resolution of customer’s issues. As the representative for the customer, you will be relentless in seeking prompt resolution of customer’s technical issues. Your technical aptitude will enable you to properly assess customer issues and assign them to the team that will most effectively resolve them. In addition to resolving customer’s issues, you will work to define new processes and procedures to improve the effectiveness of the Samsung Customer Support. Your ability to project manage the implementation of customer support improvements across cross functional groups and international offices will result in better customer experiences. An innovative spirit, collaborative demeanor and unrelenting “can do” attitude will enable you to excel in this position. Duties and Responsibilities: • Serve as Tier 2 Technical Support for growing line of Samsung media service offerings • Evaluate, diagnose, troubleshoot and triage customer issues to proper team for resolution • Track open tickets and follow up with responsible party to ensure that issues are resolved in a timely manner that exceed customer’s expectations • Collaborate with technical subject matter experts to determine root cause of issue • Recognize pattern and root cause/sub-root cause analysis and define process improvements that will enhance customer experience • Ultimately responsible to...
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...Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 8(1), 34-48, 2010 COMPLEXITY IN ORGANIZATIONS AND ENVIRONMENT - ADAPTIVE CHANGES AND ADAPTIVE DECISION-MAKING Robert Fabac* Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb Varaždin, Croatia Regular article Received: 14. May 2010. Accepted: 30. June 2010. ABSTRACT The features of complexity are ever more present in modern organizations and in environments in which they operate, trying to survive and be as competitive as possible.) In the processes of, the socalled emergence, the formal organizational structure, designed purposefully and with a plan, is going through a change due to complexity and the need for adaptation. As a result, there is a variety of new informal groups. At the same time, the intended structural changes and business process changes occur because of the perception that the leadership and senior organizational management have of the strategic situation. Managers in modern organizations often use business intelligence (BI) systems when making important business decisions. These systems offer support to the decision-making by gathering and processing relevant data and information about the company performance, but also about the data on conditions in close and remote environment. A modern company is characterized by the complex adaptive system, but the environment in which it operates together with other business subjects (agents) is also complex. Consequently, the requirements for appropriate...
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...IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 8, Issue 5, No 3, September 2011 ISSN (Online): 1694-0814 www.IJCSI.org 256 Comparative Study of 3G and 4G in Mobile Technology K. Kumaravel Assistant Professor Dept. of Computer Science, Dr. N.G.P. Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, India – 641 048 Abstract—Mobile communication is one of the hottest areas and it is developing extremely fast in present times, thanks to the advances of technology in all the fields of mobile and wireless communications. Nowadays the use of 3G mobile communication systems seem to be the standard, while 4G stands for the next generation of wireless and mobile communications. This comparative study between 3G & 4G tells about the background and the vision for the 4G. We first present a review on the development history, characteristics, status of mobile communication and related 3G - 4G perspectives. An overall 4G framework features, having the basic keys (diversity and adaptability) of the three targets (terminals, networks, and applications). We present it in both external and internal diversity of each target to illustrate the causes and solutions of the adaptability feature. Then, the 4G domain of each feature in the framework is discussed from technical point, showing techniques and possible research issues for sufficient support of adaptability. At the end, a summary on 4G visions and some of the issues this new technology may face. Keywords: OFDM, HSPA, LTE, MIMO, MC-CDMA, WCDMA...
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...Table of Contents Abstract 3 1- Introduction: 4 1.1 - What is decision making? 4 1.2 - What is a Decision Support System? 4 2- Literature Review 6 2.1 - DSS in the technical support world 6 2.2 - Important attributes of a Decision Support System 6 2.3 - Capabilities offered by DSS 7 3- Discussion and Analysis: 9 3.1 – How is technical support and Decision support linked together? 9 3.2 – Technical Support and Decision Support Systems 9 4 - DSS implementation: 11 4.1.- Implementation Strategies 11 4.1.1.- Divide the project into manageable pieces 11 4.1.2.- Keep the solution simple 11 4.1.3.- Develop a satisfactory support base 11 4.1.4.- Meet user needs and institutionalize system 12 4.2 - A real-life case on how a company implemented and integrated a decision Support System. 13 3Com ASSIST Customer service web site 13 Speeding problem resolution 13 Minimum development and maximum benefit 14 Quick Resolution 14 4.3.- Support delivery process 15 4- Conclusion 17 References 18 Abstract In today’s world, business is rapidly evolving and there’s a greater need to make better-informed decisions using the fast flowing and wide variety of information available. This paper is about how Decision Support Systems (DSS) contribute positively to technical support department in different organizations and how managers across several industries use a DSS to assist in tactical decision-making. We discuss what a DSS is and how it plays a significant...
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...difficult situations. Unlike management, leadership cannot be taught, although it may be learned and enhanced through coaching or mentoring. As our course material pointed out an effective leader is one who can impart effective change through the adaptive behaviors of others and shape that behavior through mobilization. Asda needed just such a leader in order to bring them back from the brink of self-destruction. Archie Norma was that leader. Asda is a grocery store chain located in Great Britain that has once seen great success during the 90’s that is until they made a fateful decision to change their customer base. This created a landslide effect in which an increase in competition resulted in decreased profits, customers and morale amongst its employees. It was through this bad management decision that a change needed to take place and this is when Archie Norman was brought in to impart that change. In the Heifetz and Laurie article “Learning to Lead” they describe five principles that leaders can use to mobilize people to do adaptive work. They are: identify the adaptive challenge, regulate distress, maintain disciplined attention, give the work back to the people and protect leadership form below. Archie Norman was able to identify the adaptive challenge from the outset. When he first came onboard at Asda he realized that there was a complete demoralization of the workforce through the highly political subdivisions within the central headquarters and that many of the internal groups...
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...“Exercising adaptive leadership is about you (an individual system) making interventions in a social system of which you are a part” (Heifetz, Grashaw, & Lisnksy, 2009). Leadership is a complex process and may have different meanings depending who you ask. This paper discusses strategies that promote more effective organizational leadership and interventions based on my assessment of organizational culture and adaptive challenges at Chipotle. Leadership “Leadership is a process, involves influence, occurs in groups, and involves common goals” (Northouse, 2013). Over the years, there have been many studies and theories defining and conceptualizing what leadership is. The common component described by Northouse (2013), is that nearly all classifications of leadership describe leadership as an influence process toward goal attainment. Leadership is not a linear, one-way event, but rather an interactive event according to Northouse (2009). Northouse (2009) describes leadership as working with people and leaders changing the way people think about what is possible. Strategies As described by Porter (1996), “Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value. Strategy renders choices about what not to do as important as choices about what to do (para. 2). Strategy involves setting goals and actions to achieving them. Diagnosis first and then action is the practice of adaptive leadership...
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...Developing Criminological Skills 40205/01 “People learn in different ways” Different people have different style of learning, David a. Kolb explored into the development of different learning styles. Kolb created his famous learning style model “Experiential Learning Theory” (Kolb 1984) based on four elements: concrete experience, observation and reflection, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. Concrete experience and abstract conceptualization are ways of how we think and transform experiences through the emotional responses. The concrete experience type emotionally converts the experiences through experiencing the feeling and concrete during the process. Whereas, abstract conceptualization type through planning, analyzing and thinking. Active experimentation and observation and reflection are methods of how we approach to the tasks and how we do. Active experimentation type, approach to tasks by actively doing the actual experiments. While observation and reflection approach to experiences by watching others throughout the tasks, and reflect on the situation. Based on the four elements, Kolb defined four distinct definitions of learning styles: diverging, assimilating, converging and accommodating (Kolb 1984). Diverging type has the elements of concrete experience and observation and reflection. Diverging type of people performs better in situations where creation of ideas needed, and collecting information. They look at things...
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