Organizational Culture

We’ve talked about culture in a variety of different topics when discussing leadership and management within organizations. This got me thinking more about the depth and reach of an organization’s culture and how one can design and work to change that culture.

After doing some research around this idea, I found this article in Forbes from Steve Denning, discussing the complexity of an organization’s culture. Within our class discussions we’ve talked in depth about the impact an organization’s culture can have on the procedures and management of the company’s employees. We’ve also focused on the positives and negatives of strong and weak company culture when it comes to a variety of ideas.

Denning’s article, “How Do You Change An Organizational Culture?” delves even deeper into everything that defines and makes up the culture. He refers to three types of tools that are necessary for making any successful and long-term changes in culture. “…begin with leadership tools, including a vision or story of the future, cement the change in place with management tools, such as role definitions, measurement and control systems, and use the pure power tools of coercion and punishments,” (Denning).

This discussion illustrated to me just how deep an organization’s culture truly is. The study of one organization’s culture is so complex that it can be difficult to make any sweeping changes that can have a long-term impact.

Reference:

Denning, Steve. (23 July 2011). “How Do You Change An Organizational Culture?” Forbes. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com.

Training Employees

This week we talked a lot about training versus selecting employees. I’m personally in favor of the selection theory over relying on training programs to develop employees. I’ve always seen practical applications of considering the quality of employees when making selections, instead of simply focusing on how far they can be trained. Because of this, I chose to focus this post on analyzing the training program of one of the organization’s that does it the best.

In February of this year, Training Magazine released their list of the companies that provide the best training programs. Verizon took the number one position on this list for the second consecutive year. The reasons why they received this ranking are very innovative and focus heavily on incorporating technology.

“Training magazine cited Verizon’s implementation of Verizon Lean Six Sigma in 2012 as a key factor,” and “Verizon’s innovative use of technology and social media e-learning tools to help further the learning and development of its employees,” (Verizon).

I’m not sure that evaluating the training program that receives the highest marks has changed my opinion on the importance of training or selection when choosing employees. It did allow me to appreciate the extent to which company’s are willing to provide training opportunities for their employees. Verizon implements a training program that involves the proven and tested application of Six Sigma with the advanced technology tools. This investigation has shown me that training programs can be complex and also highly competitive because of the rankings they are given.

Reference:

Verizon. (20 Feb. 2013). “For Second Consecutive Year, Verizon’s Employee Training Programs Ranked Tops in the U.S.” Verizon Corporate. Web. Retrieved from: http://newscenter.verizon.com.

 

Goal Setting for Employees

As we examined goal-setting theory this week, it made me wonder about how and when to start the process of requiring employees to work from goals. After reading some articles about goal setting, I found this article from Inc. that addresses the idea of working with brand new hires from the beginning to set manageable goals.

For example, the article by Lou Dubois, begins by listing the four types of goals that every new employee should have:

1. Essence of the Job Goals

ex. My example of this would be for a salesperson to achieve “x” number of dollars in sales during their first six months.

2. Project Goals

ex. My example of this would be goals pertaining to a new employee redrafting the company’s internal communications procedures.

3. Professional Development Goals

ex. My example of this would be the employee enrolling in a Masters program to develop their overall business management skills.

4. Performance Goals

ex. My example of this would be the employer specifying the expectations of the position from a procedural point of view, like how the employee asks for time off, what is appropriate for a lunch break, etc. These will be necessary items for the employee to know, but in my experience are often not provided to the employee or the employee is too afraid to ask.

The most surprising item from this article was in relation to tracking the results of goals and the possibility of actually changing goals. I have only been aware of scenarios in which goals are set and the employee is then expected to meet those goals or not receive the award or incentive that results at that level. However, Dubois says “It’s a great idea to be flexible with regard to goals.” This got me thinking about the positive effect changing goals strategically could have, especially when considering the work of a new employee. Maybe the goals were set too high or too low because the employee was new to a position? By monitoring the goals on a regular basis they could be changed to help make the goals more valuable to that particular employee’s current productivity.

Reference:

Dubois, Lou. (2010). “How to Set Goals for New Employees.” Inc. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com.

Born or Made

In week nine, part of the discussion on leaders was centered on the historical phrase, “Leaders are born, not made.” I thought this was an interesting phrase, especially considering the more current theory that leaders are made, not born. This debate made me consider my personal beliefs on whether leaders are born or made.

While doing some research on this, I discovered a Forbes article written by Erika Anderson that addressed this exact theory. From a statistical standpoint, Anderson points out that the leadership capability falls along a bell curve model. She states, “folks at the top of the leadership bell curve start out very good” in their leadership ability, “bottom 10-15% of people who, no matter how hard they try, simply aren’t ever going to be very good leaders,” and the middle part of the curve is “where the real potential for ‘made’ leaders lies.”

I had never considered that leaders could be both made and born and that people could be fit to a certain spectrum. It makes sense that certain people are born with those central capabilities while others may have to work towards developing into leaders. I don’t think that there is any one right answer to this question. This spectrum analysis, presented by Anderson, is a great tool for displaying the true answer to this debate in a very visual manner.

Rather than focusing on the born or made debate, shouldn’t we be spending more time on developing people into leaders and how people can grow their skills? The debate on this topic should be more inclined to address how to develop the skills of leadership in a stronger manner.

Reference:

Anderson, Erika. (11 Nov. 2012). “Are Leaders Born or Made?” Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com.

Montag, Tamara. (2013). “Leadership Traits.” Module 4: Lecture 2.

 

Sources of Power

After this week’s topic of power and the bases for power, I wanted to analyze the bases for some of the world’s most recognized people. Forbes created a list entitled “The World’s Most Powerful People” and I figured this would be a good place to start. I’ve decided to analyze the top five people on this list to see if they share any common bases for their power.

1. Barack Obama: As President of the United States, his power comes from a couple of different sources. His power is derived from the legitimate, coercive and expert bases. The examples include his position as the top most leader of the US, his ability to punish others within the government and his expertise in how the government functions, respectively.

2 and 3: Angela Merkel & Vladimir Putin – These two world leaders of Germany and Russia respectively, have similar sources of power as President Obama. It seems that leaders of their countries all derive their power from multiple sources and from the same bases as one another.

4. Bill Gates – Bill seems to have derived his power from referent, legitimate and expert bases. His referent power comes from his celebrity status and his ability to interact naturally and be well liked amongst the public. Gates legitimate power comes from his leadership position as the head of a company and then the head of a charity foundation. Finally, his expert power is from his knowledge of the industry in which he built his fortune.

5. Pope Benedict XVI – Finally, I believe that the Pope has power derived from a legitimate base. His power came to be because of his promotion to be the leader of the Catholic Church. I don’t believe that his power results from any other source.

Overall, it seems that many of the world’s most powerful individuals receive their power from a position they serve within a certain organization or structure. Each of these top five individuals, receives power from the legitimate base.

Reference:

“The World’s Most Powerful People.” Forbes. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com.

Montag, Tamara. (2013). “Power.” Module 4: Lecture 5.

 

Financial and Social Growth

While working with my group on the Whole Foods case study over the past couple of weeks, I was compelled to think about other companies that work to combine and align these two types of objectives.

One example of a company that does this effectively is the shoe retailer, TOMS. This company has adopted a “One for One” strategy, in which they share services, including providing a pair of shoes, to a person in need. The company’s model is such that for every pair of shoes someone buys from their company, they “distribute the same number of pairs” to their people in need, (“TOMS”).

Although TOMS has an overall different purpose than Whole Foods, I still believe that they’re alignment between finances and social mission is extremely effective. TOMS still operates as a company that must make enough in profit to be able to support their social mission of gifting these shoes.

The TOMS website also speaks to the company’s overall corporate responsibility. In previous weeks we talked about a company’s use of corporate responsibility in their overall management structure. “Corporate responsibility at TOMS provides focus on the environmental and social impacts of our products and operations, responsible giving and employee life,” (“TOMS”).

This week provided me with an exceptional opportunity to connect a discovery topic from a previous week, corporate responsibility, with the current week’s topic of obtaining financial and social success. In my opinion, TOMS is a perfect example of this success.

Reference: “TOMS.” TOMS. Web. 2013 Oct. 3. Retrieved from http://www.toms.com.

External Environment – Technology in Public Relations

For this blog post, I wanted to take a discussion question from our weekly boards and apply it in greater detail to the industry I currently work in. As a member of the public relations industry, I’m required to constantly be up-to-date with the trends in the marketplace and the work that other agencies and companies are producing. Technology has an increased purpose when PR professionals reflect externally.

Within our class discussion boards, technology was identified by many contributors as the most important factor in the external environment. In my profession, staying current with (or even in front of) technology is absolutely critical to effectively completing an assigned communications plan or strategy. With the turn towards increased digital and social platforms, brands have migrated to wanting to incorporate as much technology into their plans as possible. Certain agencies have even begun to concentrate in their ability to lead the industry with their technology-enhanced plans. For example, when researching the effect of technology on the industry, I came across TopFire Media which distinguishes itself from its competition because of its focus on placing its clients in the digital environment. TopFire Media is described as, “professionals with extensive franchise and consumer marketing expertise, along with extensive experience in the digital media arenas of public relations, SEO, social media, publishing, online lead generation, web design development and creative development.” It’s hard to break into the industry, in the current environment, without having a background and knowledge of the most current technology and how to execute the technology most effectively.

I can’t imagine that the industry would ever backtrack in regards to its changing arena for needed qualifications. As technology continues to progress, it will be required by all professionals to have the technology background before entering the workforce. Additionally, I believe that this technology necessity will require that colleges and universities update their curriculums accordingly. It will soon become the responsibility of the colleges and universities to teach their prospective public relations practitioners all necessary and cutting-edge technology that will be required to be successful in their jobs.

Reference: “TopFire Media Stakes its Claim in Digital Media & PR for Franchises.” ABC 27. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.abc27.com.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility

For this post, I wanted to delve deeper into the corporate social responsibility program that is operated by a specific global and public company. The company I have chosen to examine is United Technologies Corporation or UTC. They produce a yearly corporate social responsibility report that recaps all of the tools and programs they have partaken in that year.

UTC as an organization is made up of Otis, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, UTC Aerospace Systems and UTC Climate, Controls & Security. All of these individual companies work in conjunction with one another in order to complete their corporate social responsibility goals within environment, community, people and customers & suppliers.

Environment:

• Their environmental goals are designed to fight against climate change and limit the environmental footprint their operations leave on the societies they operate in.
• This is an important goal for many companies. Environmental impact has become a sensitive and popular topic for many corporations around the world. For companies that build products and produce within factory settings, eliminating the environmental impact is critical.

Community:

• UTC’s goals within the community include – “building sustainable cities, investing in emerging markets, advancing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and supporting vibrant communities”
• As part of this, UTC partners with the American Cancer Society, the Special Olympics and the United Way in their charity efforts.
• This aspect of corporate social responsibility is the most popular type of program executed by corporations in the global space. This is also the most visual type of program for companies to market to and address in their communication programs. Without these type of programs, companies wouldn’t be able to obtain the goodwill from their constituents.

People:

• UTC’s programs in this section include: “health & safety, diversity and employee scholar program”
• This was a section of corporate social responsibility that I had never considered or thought about. The ability to provide jobs for a community’s workforce and work to grow those people as individuals is vitally important for CSR.

Customers and Suppliers:

• UTC’s programs in this section include: “supplier environment, health and safety, supplier diversity, energy management and UTC/United Way Supplier Golf Tournament”
• These programs seem to be aspects of other parts of UTC’s CSR plan. I don’t necessarily understand why they have broken them down into a separate category, other than to highlight the work that UTC customers and suppliers do in relation to the UTC CSR plan.

Overall, I was impressed by the amount of planning that went into UTC’s CSR plan. Before beginning my study of CSR, within this module, I associated CSR primarily with the charity work an organization participates in. However, after taking the time to analyze UTC’s plan, I have learned the extent to which a company’s CSR plan is present across many aspects of society.

Reference:

“Corporate Responsibility.” United Technologies. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.utc.com/Corporate+Responsibility

 

Motivation

As part of this week’s content, we delved into the idea of motivation. The focus of the class material focused on the different models and theories that have been developed on a person’s needs and/or motivation. I wanted to continue to delve into this topic by focusing on the motivation factors for employees. It seems that it would be difficult for a manager to learn and understand the differences in motivation for each of their individual employees. However, I believe that being able to manage by playing to an employee’s motivation is one of the strongest leadership capabilities a person can have.

According to a Forbes article, Glenn Llopis identified “The Top 9 Things That Ultimately Motivate Employees to Achieve”:

1. Leadership
2. Being Relevant
3. Proving Others Wrong
4. Career Advancement
5. No Regrets
6. Stable Future
7. Self-Indulgence
8. Impact
9. Happiness

Examining the list put together by Llopis, I was surprised to see “proving others wrong” as the number three motivator for employees. It made me wonder whether it was healthy for employees to utilize a negative action as their means for personal motivation. Should employees be setting out to prove the falsity in their co-workers beliefs and statements? I can understand the glory that a person may feel when they are able to show that they are correct, but should that come at the expense of another person?

This is a very relevant motivation in the competitive job market of the present economy. Llobis goes on to say it “has been heighten as of late from younger professionals that seek to prove themselves faster amongst older generations in the workplace.” With a high unemployment rate, I believe the younger generation is desperate to prove their value and worth, even at the expense of others in the competition for their job, for the glory and stability that being proven right can provide.

References:

Llobis, Glenn. (2012 June 4). The Top 9 Things That Ultimately Motivate Employees to Achieve. Forbes. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.

 

Health Issues Caused by Stress

As we spent the week discussing stress management, I wanted to take some time to look further into the health issues that are caused by stress. In lecture, we spent the time addressing stress as it relates to the workplace and how to manage the cycle of stress before it becomes problematic. I wanted to find out the damage that built up and continuous stress could have on a person beyond the emotional level. As I have found, when stress is not managed properly, their are many severe health problems that can result.

WebMD named “10 Stress-Related Problems That You Can Fix” with a focus on the more severe:

• “Heart disease
• Asthma
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Headaches
• Depression and anxiety
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Accelerated aging
• Premature death”

The connection between stress and Alzheimer’s disease was the most surprising of this list. To discover how exactly stress relates to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, I turned to the article “New Findings Show How Chronic Stress Contributes to Development of Alzheimer’s Disease” from the Huffington Post.

Carolyn Gregorie writes, “elevated levels of stress steroids in the brain during periods of stress have the power to inhibit general brain activity.” She continues to say, “a comparable acceleration of Alzheimer’s disease in humans due to chronically elevated stress steroids could mean the difference between living independently and requiring professional experience.”

The seriousness of chronic stress, especially as it relates to a disease like Alzheimer’s which has no medical cure, sparks enough fear to make a person look for ways to alleviate stress. I believe the key point in my research is that these negative impacts occur due to chronic stress. Finding ways to remove a source of stress, before reaching a chronic level, would be critical. Although it seems people encounter some amount of stress everyday, it’s important to find ways to cope and deal with those stressors. During the module lecture this week, de-stressing techniques include “finding control, exercise & active leisure, and coping strategies.” By utilizing these strategies, I believe that a person could keep their stress levels well in control and avoid dramatically progressing a disease such as Alzheimer’s.

References:

Gregorie, Carolyn. (2013). New Findings Show How Chronic Stress Contributes To Development Of Alzheimer’s Disease. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com.

Griffin, R. Morgan. 10 Stress-Related Health Problems That You Can Fix. WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com.

Montag, Tamara. (2013). MGT 500 – Module 2 lecture 1 – stress mgmt.