...Strategic Leadership Final Elements of Sustaining a Strategic Culture Viktor Kanzler Thursday, September 5, 13 Strategic Leadership Final Any organizational culture emerges out of the company’s norms, values and behaviors that are reinforced by the company’s role models, symbols and instructions. The organizational culture is usually marked and established by the management and founders, and then transferred to the employees of the company. The result is a common cultural identity within the company in terms of certain idioms, dress codes, myths or stories. Although the company primarily establishes the corporate culture, the external environment also influences it. The culture is in a constant process of change, driven by internal and external factors, which contribute to the change of the company. As a result, organizational cultures are often difficult to grasp because they are indeed a real fact, however, exist only in the minds of employees. Thus, as the culture is mainly formed by the employee’s belief in common values, behavior and attitude, which can also unconsciously control the employee’s actions and decisions, it plays a decisive role in the success of a company. In the following essay I will analyze and discuss what it takes to create and sustain a successful and enduring strategic culture that contributes to employee participation and ensures that the company remains competitive, sustainable and successful. In the upper management levels of...
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...Increased interest in and adoption of design thinking by governments, nonprofits, and commercial businesses has led to further research and discussion of the benefits of design thinking for business, design, and governments. There is a little country-specific literature in Australia regarding the ways in which design thinking is engaged by design and business. Barriers: Definition and understanding of design thinking – No clear definition of what design thinking is has been established. The problem is the difference in languages of business and design and the work contexts in which design thinking is discussed. Business perceptions of design – Design is often perceived as a high-risk activity or an artistic pursuit linked to creating a tangible product or output. The strategic engagement of design thinking to delivering outcomes related to more holistic business challenges is not well understood. The ‘hybrid’ space – the expectations of design thinking are different from business expectations to design expectations. Businesses are not necessarily seeking design thinking from designers, and the design industry’s agenda does not necessarily align to that of business. There is no hybrid space where design thinking is discussed by both parties at equal level. The traditional Australian business environment – Australian economy faces various problems of high Australian dollar, slump in manufacturing, limited investment in innovation. Australian businesses still rely...
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...learning organisation, the following will be covered in my essay. Firstly I will define the concept learning organisation; secondly I will address the characteristics of a learning organisation; thirdly I will identify the progress of Standard Bank in becoming a learning organisation with regards to the characteristics; furthermore I will identify barriers to organisational learning at Standard Bank; and lastly I will provide recommendations of Standard Bank’s efforts in becoming a learning organisation. 2.1 Learning organisation defined According to Senge (1990:3) learning organisations are “organisations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.” According to Garvin (1993:82) “a learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.” Senge (1990:27) “characterizes learning organizations by the shared all-embracing by all company philosophy, the shared vision and related goals, continuous personal learning by all organizational...
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...Module 6 Organizational leadership 3 marks 1) What do you mean by “charisma”? Ans: Charisma is a trait found in individuals whose personalities are characterized by powerful charm and magnetism (attractiveness) and superior capabilities of interpersonal communication and persuasion. According to Weber, charisma is a pure form of authority based on the gift of divine grace. The term charisma is applied to a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. 2) Who is a charismatic leadership? Ans: Charismatic leadership is a leadership based on the leader’s ability to communicate and behave in ways that reach followers on a basic, emotional way, to inspire and motivate. 3) Define the term “transactional leadership”. Ans: A transactional leader is one who guides and motivates his follows in the direction of establish goals by clarifying role and task requirements. It involves exchange relationship between leader and the followers. It is a perception for mediocrity and that transformational leadership leads to superior performance in organization facing demands for renewal and change. 4) Differentiate between transformational and transactional leadership...
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...[pic] The British Council [pic] Behavioural Competency Dictionary External Version: August 2006 Contents [pic] 1. Introduction and explanation of behavioural competencies 3 2. Behavioural Competencies 5 1. Introduction and explanation of behavioural competencies [pic] Introduction The purpose of the British Council is to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries and to increase appreciation of the UK’s ideas and achievements. The work of every British Council member of staff contributes in some way to the achievement of this purpose through contributing to one or more of the following outcomes: • Improved perception of the UK in other countries • Greater mutual understanding between the UK and other countries • Stronger ties between the UK and other countries It is therefore important that we all have a clear understanding of what our role is and what is expected of us. To do this we use job descriptions which describe the aims and objectives of jobs and the behavioural competencies and generic skills required to do a specific job. These form part of the Organisational Skills Profile together with a third element, job families. At the British Council we use a standard set of 13 behavioural competencies. This dictionary describes them in further detail. For further information on any aspect of the person...
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... economics, research and statistics, operations management, marketing, and strategic management (University of Phoenix, 2013). Two functional areas that involve leading people include leadership and human resource management. Organizations with a strong leadership team are poised for success in the marketplace. This success is a result of maximizing the human capital potential and growth opportunities within a company. Yukl (2009) in his book "Leadership in Organizations" proposes that the leadership function in business has 10 attributes critical for organizational success. The leadership function aligns objectives and strategies to facilitate movement toward a stated vision. To accomplish the organizational vision the leadership function must build mutual trust and commitment among all internal and external stakeholders. This sense of trust is developed through effective communication and sharing openly with others who have a stake in the business. Leadership teams explain the meaning of events and how that impacts the organization so that all stakeholders are well informed. This communication leads to building task commitment and optimism among the team to accomplish organizational goals and leads to a collective organizational identity. This results in creating a culture that encourages and facilitates collective learning to develop and empower others to take action. Once the culture is in place the leadership team can focus on structuring and coordinating activities...
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...Building leader the new Leadership challenges of the future revealed According to Hay Group’s Leadership 2030 research the leaders of the future will need a host of new skills and competencies if they are to succeed >> Contents Introduction 2 1 The global balance of power is shifting 5 2 Climate change and scarcity of resources is a mounting problem 6 3 The war for talent rages on 7 4 Accommodating growing individualization 8 5 Embracing the digital natives 9 6 Harnessing technology to innovate 10 Conclusion 12 2 Building the new leader | Leadership 2030 Introduction Leaders of the future will need to be adept conceptual and strategic thinkers, have deep integrity and intellectual openness, find new ways to create loyalty, lead increasingly diverse and independent teams over which they may not always have direct authority, and relinquish their own power in favor of collaborative approaches inside and outside the organization. Megatrends are long-term processes of transformation on a global scale with a broad scope and dramatic impact To successfully develop this combination of skills and qualities – and adopt what is, in effect, a ‘post-heroic’ leadership style – they may need to abandon much of the thinking and behavior that propelled them to the top of their organizations in the first place. But if they want their businesses to survive and thrive over the next two decades they have...
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...author’s preferred management philosophy using five different articles or books that have been published within the last five years in academic literature. Furthermore, a matrix will be included to depict the similarities and differences among the five different articles or books. The management philosophy that this author prefers centers on the learning organization. The learning organization is not a new concept however, it did not become popular until the 1990s when organizations begin to realize that in order to be successful well into the future they had to embrace new ways of thinking instead of hanging onto the old ways of thinking. A learning organization is able to continuously experiment and improve its capabilities by enabling individuals within the organization to identify and solve problems. Therefore, the organization is able to enhance its capacity to grow, learn, and adapt its culture. Furthermore, the organization will gain new knowledge and insights. By comparing the articles this author believes that there is no universal definition of a learning organization and that there are multiple viewpoints surrounding the characteristics of this type of organization. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: a discussion that focuses on the varying definitions of a learning organization and multiple viewpoints related to the characteristics of learning organizations. Discussion: Definition of a Learning Organization Organizational practitioners define...
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...Describe your impression of the culture of an organization or group to which you have belonged or for which you have worked. Be sure to explain both the positive and negative aspects of the culture and the effect that it had on you as a person. Justify your answers with research, examples and reasoning. Along with the process of international economic integration, and business in general, as well as the Commercial Bank of Vietnam, including Vietnam Export Import Bank (EximBank), has been facing many challenges , especially when Vietnam became an official member of the world trade Organization (WTO). There is a general difficulty that commercial banking system Vietnam experience, there is not a lot of experience, lack of qualified personnel, and lack of staff to do work, although it is not among few people are trained from major universities... The question is that Eximbank need to be not left behind, to strive. The experience of our country as well as countries that economic development can’t be sustainable if based on cultural background. Within the scope of this article, please set up the solution to build and develop the corporate culture in the network. Need to create a business philosophy, philosophy of private enterprise This job is very important because it is the tool orientation and strategic management, as a means of education and human resource development of EximBank. Through understanding is known, the business philosophy of philosophy for personal and business...
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...Running head: XEROX Case Assignment Two- Xerox Charmella L. Tyler Dr. Valencia Westray-Miller Strategic Human Resource Management – HRM 530 October 29, 2011 Discuss how human resource professional can ensure that top organizational leaders encourage managers and employees to follow laws and guidelines. It is the human resource professional’s responsibility to ensure the fair treatment of all employees. Human capital is one the most significant assets held by organizations. Weatherly (2003) identifies an organization’s human capital as “the collective sum of the attributes, life experience, knowledge, inventiveness, energy and enthusiasm that its people choose to invest in their work.” Organizational leaders are responsible for locating and hiring human resource professionals that are knowledgeable about federal and state laws and guidelines that support will manage and influence organizational culture, promote employee safety and fairness, and adjust and facilitate change quickly and efficiently within the company. Organizational leaders hire human resource professionals to provide adequate up-to-date information about federal and state laws and guidelines to employees. Human resource professional are faced with the tasks of developing and enforcing clear policies against employee discrimination, and keeping employees familiar with their rights and laws. Human resource professionals must abide by specific guidelines and laws to conserve employers’ money and...
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...The Change Agent’s Strategy by Alex Bennet Surviving and thriving in a multifaceted world requires a multifaceted change strategy. Paraphrasing Ashby’s (1964) law of requisite variety, there must be more variety in the change strategy than in the system you are trying to change. So how do we change a complex organization to meet the challenges of this new world of exploding information, increasing uncertainty, and ever-increasing complexity? While there is certainly no simple answer---since change is situation and time-dependent---the change process for an organization moving toward becoming an intelligent complex adaptive system must engage every individual in the firm as well as external partners. Since organizational networks of people and knowledge have become more and more interconnected and more and more complex as the world has become more global, the larger an organization the more a self-organizing change strategy must come into play. An ICAS change strategy sets out to achieve what we call a connectedness of choices. This means that decisions made at all levels of the organization, while different, are clearly based not only on a clear direction for the future, but made in a cohesive fashion based on an understanding of both why that direction is desirable and the role that individual decisions play with respect to immediate objectives and their support of the shared vision. At the top level, a continuous increase of knowledge and sharing...
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...initiatives. However, due to the harshness of Best Snack’s situation, the company is forced to evaluate the likes and dislikes of their constituents in order to compete with success. This paper will address Best Snack’s circumstance in a manner of resolving issues and realizing future opportunities, engaging stakeholders throughout the process to ensure success, and implementing a strategic plan involving new innovative ways and creativity as a vital part of the company’s culture. Describe the Situation Issue and Opportunity Identification The snack food industries over the past number of years have come to understand how this increasing commodity has broadened its horizon in this changing arena. In order to create a constant firm stand in this industry, Best Snacks will have to address the issues of the declining in sales, market share decreases, stock prices taking a dive, the jeopardy of losing its long-term popular place in the snack market and lack of innovation or creativity. Best Snacks has the opportunity to incorporate a cultural change program designed to increase employees’ creative thinking skills in which would enhance creativity and innovation. By doing this, Best Snacks would open up new realm of strategies in organizational theory, design and change. The issues and opportunities that Best Snacks are faced with are explained in Table 1. In analyzing and identifying...
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...all leaders have to step up and become innovative thinkers in order to successfully achieve the goals set forth. But there are some leadership practices that support and foster innovation within organizations. “Among the factors that influence employees’ creative behaviors and performance, leadership has been identified by many researchers as being one of the most, if not the most important” (Jung, Chow, & Wu, 2003, p. 526). Leaders have the ability to affect an employees’ creativity by catering to their needs and motivation, and by setting up an organizational culture and environment that will allow for employees to attempt different methods of thinking and speaking up with ideas or concepts without fear of being punished. (Jung, Chow, & Wu, 2003, p. 526) Leadership Practices Supporting Innovation A few key practices particular, in my opinion, spurs innovation, including leading people, strategic planning, participative management, and change management. A final leadership practice – transformational leadership – is an essential practice in supporting innovation in organizations. Leaders who can effectively lead their members ensures that members are motivated and develops an environment that supports innovation. “Leaders who have good skills in directing and motivating people know how to interact with staff in ways that motivate them. They delegate to employees effectively, broaden employee opportunities, act with fairness toward direct reports, and hire...
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...SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research Antecedents and outcomes of strategic thinking Byeong-Joon Moon ⁎ Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea, School of Management, Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t This study focuses on the factors that influence strategic thinking at the organizational level. Based on previous research on strategic thinking in diverse management fields including marketing strategy, strategic management, and human resource management, this research provides a hypothetical model that links the firm's internal and external variables regarding strategic thinking at the organizational level, which in turn links to marketing performance. The results of empirical analysis provide evidence that the attitude of firms' management toward risk taking, the CEO's emphasis on strategic thinking, interdepartmental teams in the organization, and marketing competency foster strategic thinking at the organizational level, but formalization in the organizational structure impedes it. Contrary to the proposed hypotheses, centralization in the organizational structure is positively related to strategic thinking at the organizational level. The results also show that market turbulence and technological turbulence foster strategic thinking at the organizational level and there is a positive relationship between strategic thinking and marketing performance. © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Article history:...
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...#1 Honesty and Integrity Great leaders create an organizational culture built on these two core values and hold all employees accountable to them. Without honesty and integrity as fundamental cornerstones of an organization, they will rarely succeed long term. And creating such a culture starts at the top of the organization. Everyone watches the leader and takes their cues as to what is acceptable behavior. Effective leaders must also be trustworthy. They are recognized for always telling the truth and for practicing the highest standards of ethical conduct. Subordinates believe them and do not feel that their leader has hidden agendas. Good leaders readily admit their mistakes. Although difficult to do, this shows they are honest and can be trusted. Great leaders show they have the best interests of the company in mind rather than their own personal gain, by making good on their commitments. They hold themselves accountable for their actions and decisions, and encourage their employees to do likewise. Transparency is also important, even when there is bad news to share. Employees know when things are not going well. Trying to put a positive spin without acknowledging the organization’s difficulties will cost the leader his or her credibility. Sharing both the bad and the good creates deeper trust and respect. #2 Outstanding Self Awareness A leader must understand their own strengths and weaknesses. All of us have faults and instinctive behaviors that...
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