Introduction the organization being discussed is a Foster Care Agency located in Detroit, Michigan. This organization provides foster care services to neglected and abuse children throughout Wayne County of Michigan. The goal of Foster Care is to give a child a home and a family to care for him/her until he/she is either returned to his/her birth parents or adopted. Foster Care is a part of a process that leads to a permanent home for a child. If a child is a temporary ward of the court, then the goal is to return the child home. The most desirable outcome for all parties involved is that the child be able to return to his/her birth parents. When this is not possible, the child becomes a permanent ward of the court, and the outcome is adoption. The primary current culture of the Foster Care Agency is Avoidance of the Passive/Defensive style. The secondary current culture of the Foster Care Agency is Oppositional of the Aggressive/Defensive style. These two styles will be discussed through this paper and how it plays into the Foster Care Agency.
Current Culture According to the Organizational Culture Inventory, the primary style of the Foster Care Agency is Avoidance which is a culture that characterizes organizations that fail to reward success but nevertheless punish mistakes. This negative reward system leads members to shift responsibilities to others and avoid any possibility of being blamed for a mistake. This culture style of employers waits for others to act first and take few chances. The second style of the Foster Care Agency is Oppositional which is a culture that describes organizations in which confrontation and negativism are rewarded. Employees gain status and influence by being critical and thus are reinforced to oppose the ideas of others. The employer point out flaws of its employees and is very hard to impress. The results of Organizational Culture Inventory for the Foster Care Agency are true. The Foster Care Agency current culture definitely has the characteristics of Avoidance. The Foster Care Agency does not reward their employees for going over and beyond their job duties but will punish their employees if they make a small mistake. The Foster Care Agency does not communicate with their employees. Upper management tends to blame employees for its mistakes. I think that if upper management learns how to effectively lead the Foster Care Agency then its employees will want to do their jobs successfully. The Foster Care Agency current secondary culture is Oppositional. The Foster Care Agency definitely is a confrontational organization who rewards negativism. Upper management opposes the ideas of its employees. At the Foster Care Agency upper management are older individuals who are set in their ways of how they want to run their organization. I think that the younger employees could have valuable ideas that can be used to better the organization. The Foster Care Agency needs to stop promoting negativity of its employees and begin rewarding its employees in which in return will motivate them to work at a higher level.
Targets for Cultural Change
There are some large gaps between the ideal organizational scores and those of the Foster Care Agency. The biggest gaps were seen in the Passive/Defensive behavioral group. Avoidance has the largest gap at -62%. The second largest gap is Power at -53%. The Passive/Defensive Styles is a style where employers promote employees and security behaviors.
OCI NORMS Ideal Score Current Score Gap
Achievement 78% 42% 36%
Self-Actualizing 82% 27% 55%
Humanistic-Encouraging 85% 69% 16%
Affiliative 71% 37% 34%
Approval 27% 42% -15%
Conventional 18% 62% -44%
Dependent 24% 26% -2%
Avoidance 27% 89% -62%
Oppositional 45% 84% -39%
Power 30% 83% -53%
Competitive 42% 75% -33%
Perfectionist 25% 64% -39%
Three behaviors that the Foster Care Agency culture should encourage are: 1.) Humanistic-
Encouraging, 2.) Self-Actualizing and 3.) Achievement. These are the three highest behaviors of the Ideal Score for the Organizational Culture Inventory. The Humanistic-Encouraging culture characterizes organizations that are managed in a participative and person-centered way.
Employees are expected to be supportive, constructive, and open to influence in their dealing with one another. The Self-Actualizing culture characterizes organizations that value creativity, quality over quantity, and both task accomplishment and individual growth. Achievement culture characterizes organizations that do things well and value members who set and accomplish their own goals.
Potential Benefits & Risks of Cultural Change
There are several culture styles that need to be changed at the Foster Care Agency. My concern is that the Foster Care Agency has been ran with the Avoidance and Oppositional culture style for so long that it will be difficult to get the upper management to want to change its style. With this agency I think that communication is the first starting point. The upper management needs to communicate effectively to it employees the vision of the agency. I also think that the Foster Care Agency should start hiring employees who have strong work ethics and a passion for helping other people in need. Upper management should define the roles of their employees so that they can know what is expected of them. This could also enhance the quality of services offered by the clients. I also believe that when all employees of an agency come together that everyone can brainstorm and come up with ideas to improve the agency and services the services they provide. Increase employees satisfaction and commitment could start with recognizing the work of it employees. The Foster Care Agency could do a reward system such as a paid day off of work, monetary rewards, and etc. to acknowledge their employees. This will in return encourage employees to grow in the agency and maximize their quality of services which will benefit the agency in the long run. The Foster Care Agency upper management need to also realize that if they provide its employees with the necessary tools they are able to perform their job better. Organizations that offer to pay its employees to pursue more education is a great benefit in its self and the Foster Care Agency can definitely benefit from taking on this action. Also training that would enhance employees skills is also beneficial. As stated earlier, communication is very important to the success of any agency. Teamwork also plays a tremendous role in how a agency functions. Upper management sets the standard for both communications between departs and team work. If upper management lacks communication skills and socializations skills, this will then trickle down to its employees. With any type of change we can expect to produce anxiety (employees not liking that they have to change their style of completing job duties); therefore leading to resistance from the employees. Finally the organization will have conflict because of the change. Ultimately, with applying these culture changes the Foster Care Agency will be better in the end.
Conclusion
This exercise has allowed me to analyze an agency that has had problem after problem since the day I began my employment and the day I left up until now. I realized how important it is to have an effective leader. If an agency does not have someone to lead its employees to be productive and then acknowledge them for the services it could lead to chaos within the agency. I also learned that a leader must have an open mind and cannot become complacent and set in their ways. Once everyone knows their roles and believe in the mission of the agency, employees can produce quality work successfully. If the employee of the Foster Care Agency realize how important their job is to the children who are in the foster care agency they would then began to communicate and start working as a team to protect the children who are in this situation by no fault of their own.