It is common understanding in business that to stay ahead of the competition, change is necessary. Employees are consistently told they must continue to find new ways to achieve better results. The direction is clear – improve productivity, become more effective, get more done with less, get it right the first time. When groups in the middle or the bottom of an organization begin to change how they do their work, does the rest of the organization give them unqualified support?
“Top-Down” vs. “Bottom-Up” Change
While much of senior management at large corporations today might claim to want “self-empowered” employees, the opposite would seem to be the rule. Rarely is change initiated from somewhere other than at or from the “top” allowed to significantly alter an organization, unless the higher levels of authority within the organization have envisioned the change or, at a minimum, fully sanctioned the proposal for change. One finding in a recent study surveying 4,300 U.S. companies with 100 or more employees seems to support this perspective as forty percent of hourly employees, versus only sixteen percent of managers, cited a lack of management visibility and support as a major impediment to change. (Zoglio, 1998) Organizational politics, which inevitably makes managers fear losing control more than reaching for success, inevitably lead to the demise of changes originating in other ways within the organization. This move to control people often occurs when these changes are near or at the point of creating significant benefits for the organization.
Organizational Creative Thinking
In order to have sustainable, ongoing change, the work must be done with full ownership and accountability of those producing the results. The typical scenario, however, is that employees are given direction and complete work as they are told to do so by those in authority. A dependence on authority to create new ideas gets perpetuated. Perhaps those in corporate leadership positions are self-serving and realize that recognition is given most to those who create and implement profitable new ideas.
Unquestionably, leadership is most capable when it is able to keep work aligned with the strategy and direction of the organization. The best executives today have the ability to ensure the company progresses while challenging thinking. The resulting unspoken message to employees is to be creative, but only within the framework of sanctioned thinking. In other words, employees must follow someone else’s thinking while continuously improving performance.
The direction and resulting message are in conflict.
It states that as the job process change a team must be able to change strategy, actions and goals in accordance with it. It is necessary to be able to transcend from one stage to another in other to achieve the groups aim and objectives. (Ancona & Bresman, 2007) p119. These capabilities are central to leadership in the sense that its involves sense making, relating ,visioning and inventing. The sense making entails having knowledge of which the team and members operate. The relating aspect explains developing key relations within the organization and outside the organization. The visioning explains envisioning new ideas and finding creative ways of achieving it. The inventing explains the developing and generating ways to achieve the
He is in love with a woman named Brett who has been divorced twice. She is broken inside, which is why he loves her. She sleeps with random people even though she is engaged to marry one of the wealthiest mans yet. Yet she loves Jake but only because he is broken too. He can not physically have sex which is what she craves in life. She sleeps with his friend Robert Cohn. Knowing that would kill him she still did it. Robert falls in love with her like every man. Which upsets Jake more because others get to be physical with her yet he can’t. He helps her and she helps him throughout the novel. He pays for what she needs, and she helps him when he is sick from the war. One example of Jake saving Brett is when Romero who is a bullfighter leaves Brett because he realizes he can’t fix her. She is stuck in a motel and needs Jake to come and save her. Even though it kills him that she ran off with him, he goes and saves her. He realizes even though he loves her, he will never have her. She realizes that she leaves a trail of broken hearts and doesn’t want to make Jake one. She knows Jake can never be what she needs him to be. They go with their heart and leave each other knowing what could have
For Jake and Alfred, the male characters from Love in L.A. and “M” is for Moon Among Other Things, respectively, reality is far from their perception of the good life. Both men dream of living quite differently from the one they have been leading, yet neither deserve what they desire. Jake and Alfred are a true example of getting what one deserves.
Elite Engineering has been unable to successfully implement change because they haven’t been able to get the employees to see the need for the change and to believe in the change. “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.” (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008) Change is often met with resistance. When it comes down to it many people fear change. At Elite Engineering, the engineers were happy with the way things were being run. They enjoyed the billable work they were doing and did not want to take the time to collaborate with others, as it would take away time from their billable work. The engineers saw the billable work they were doing as a way to ensure they received their bonus at the end of the year. However, they were failing to see that the litigation business was going to begin to shrink and in order for them to remain competitive, changes needed to be made. Kotter and Schlesinger state that there are for common reasons that people resist change. The four reasons are the desire not to lose something of value, a misunderstanding of the change and its implications, a belief that the change does not make sense for the organization, and a low tolerance for change. (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008) At Elite Engineering, I think upper management was unsuccessful at implementing change because the employees didn’t want to lose their bonuses (something of value to them), they misunderstood the change, and they didn’t feel that the change made sense for the organization.
This kind of uncertainty always puts employees at risk. Their knowledge and skills might be out of date; their valued work space, or social relationships might be removed and disrupted. Therefore, people resist change out of worry that they cannot adjust to the new work requirements or they will produce unknown costs. Issues such as “fear of the unknown” and “the inability to see the need for change” are common in resistance to change research (Hickins, 1998; Wienbach, 1994). For instance, if change had been poorly implemented during the past and employees have been subject to broken agreements, unfair treatment and poor management decision making, it is unlikely that trust damaged by such actions will be easily restored (Dent and Goldberg, 1999; Ford et al., 2008; Piderit, 2000). Ultimately, employees also would feel bad towards
Gothicism has been a very popular genre of book, through past and present, and Bram Stoker’s, Dracula, is no exception. One of the most widely read novels of all time, Dracula possesses all the features of a classic gothic novel. The various dark and dreary features throughout the entire novel paints a perfect gothic picture for the reader and contribute to the mixture of feelings One gets while reading Dracula. The first feature of Gothicism found in Dracula is a constant and oppressive darkness. This feature is a reoccurring theme that is related to everything in the novel from the characters to the events that take place. Another feature found in Dracula is presence of a ‘supernatural’ villain. Supernaturalism also surrounds the villain, Count Dracula in the countryside of Transylvania with the numerous superstitions that consume the local inhabitants. Finally, the reference to sleeping, dreaming and the blurriness of reality faced by some of the characters adds eeriness and unrest, enhancing the gothic premise of the novel. These examples are all traits of which gothic literature consists of. Through this paper, I will prove that due to the use of darkness, the supernatural and the blurred sense of reality, Dracula is a prime example of gothic literature.
Change affects more than just a program or a process within an organization, change affects employees, collecting data on employee’s readiness and willingness to accept a change will help leaders know if the organization is socially ready for change (Cole, Harris, and Bernerth, 2006). A change might be positive for an organization but if the employees who will be affect by the change are lost in the process then it could create a greater issue than not making the change. Leadership needs to communicate and inspire the employees to be positive toward the change, seeking to enhance their job satisfaction not make changes that will increase their desire to leave. This data is best collected early in the change initiative allowing leadership to properly cast the vision while addressing concerns. This requires leadership to create platforms for employees to engage in the change initiative freely (Ford, 2006). Employee attitudes can be measured through these dialogues providing leadership with necessary measureable data (Hughes, 2007).
Jake suffers from the nagging fear of the loss of his sexual prowess as a result of the wounds suffered during the war. Although this condition is not explicitly mentioned in the story, it is nevertheless implied. This physical dilemma brings psychological consequences so that leaves him insecure about his masculinity. Compounding this feeling is the fact that Brett, the love of his life, refuses to have a relationship with her. Once when there were in a taxi, and he tried to kiss her, Brett's response was, "Don't touch me. Please don't touch me" (33). Although Brett says that she loves him, she really doesn't want to deal with what she perceives as related problems. With other women, like in the case of another character Georgette, Jake can be charming and funny, though he seems to get bored with them quickly. Brett's apparent reservations lead Jake to believe that there could never be a sexual rel...
Why do teens use drugs? Many reasons contribute to adolescent drug use. It may be stress, peer pressure, or even the difficulty coping with the ills of school life. Teens use drugs because they have no true guidance. The absence, of certain vital components such as, someone to talk to, morals, values, or even responsibility forces teens to use drugs. One major contributing cause of adolescent drug use and abuse is a dysfunctional family, a family that does not provide all of the above.
Each employee has a differing level of tolerance to change. Some may be able to adapt while others will be afraid and resist (Ferguson, 2004). Many people will be afraid and oppose change, or find it to be incompatible with their current job; they will often view it as a conflict. Three conditions help conflict arise, communication, structure and personal var...
Implementing change in the workplace is a dynamic process. Although change itself can be controlled and limited to some degree, innovation is substantially even more dynamic. This dynamic, unpredictable process introduces vulnerability, which can lead to employee frustration. Just as the scenario addresses, many individuals become motivated at the thought of change and innovation; however, the change does not occur due to resistance or other obstacles. Much of this resistance arises from the unpredictability and vulnerability of the process. Managers must be able to prevent or manage resistance by using tools and strategies to smooth the process.
Leadership, without doubt, is a significantly important function of management. It helps to aggrandize efficiency and to fulfil an organization’s goals. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence, determination, courage and zeal. It is also defined as ability to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders should have the capability of developing future visions, and to drive the organizational members to want to attain the visions. This paper states my points in which I duly believe, justifies the importance of an outstanding leader in any organization.
Teenagers want to fit into society and they think that by doing drugs they can be cool and get accepted by the other teens. Also, teens may use drugs in oder to cope with life events that they don’t want to think about it. Teenagers often use marijuana and alcohol as “experimenting” drugs. Marijuana is one the most common drugs used by teenagers. Teens find that excuse to experiment so that they don’t get in trouble. But what they don’t know is that those drugs can cause severe damage and/or consequences. Using drugs can cause severe damage to the body especially A teenagers brain is much more delicate and can get addicted pretty fast because their brain is still developing. And using drugs, the chemicals in the brain are being interrupted by the substances in the drugs which makes them get addicted much more faster. Once that chemical is in the system, then the teenager’s body will need that drug, and they would be addicted to it. Drug addiction symptoms is very easy to determine because their mood will change, and all of a sudden they would want to spend a lot more time with their friends. Also their grades will go down dramatically because they don’t do their homework or don’t show up to
Individuals go through a reaction process when they are personally confronted with major organizational change (Kyle, 1993; Jacobs, 1995; Bovey & Hede, 2001). Within this process there are four phases that it consists of: initial denial, resistance, gradual exploration, and eventual commitment (Scott & Jaffe, 1988; Bovey & Hede, 2001). Resistance to change is the initial area to focus on. The issues of organizational change and resistance to change have received a lot of attention over the past decade (Macri, Tagliaventi & Bertolotti, 2002). The perceptions of individuals play a fu...
The employee reflects change in an organization as a shift of role, responsibilities and skill. However, in an organizational level its refers change as a framework structure around the changing needs and capability of an organization to perform. Both employee and organization’s perception of change are needed to ensure the change is successful. Brown (2011) reported that “the role of change as a corrective action often affect patterns of work or values, and in consequence meet with resistance” (p. 144). Once an organization and its member decide to conduct a change program, they intensify the forces that driving the change. The life cycle of employee’s resistance is necessary in accomplishing change in an organization. There are five important phases in a life cycle of employee resistance to change in an organization, namely introduce the change, forces of change emerge, direct conflict happens in an organization, residual resistance appear in an organization and lastly, establish the change. (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).