A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior

A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior Fifth Edition

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A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior Fifth Edition

Matthew Reis Judith Geller

Copyright © 2010 American Management Association. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN-10: 0-7612-1241-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-7612-1241-6 Printed in the United States of America. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/ AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION http://www.amanet.org 10

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Contents About This Course How to Take This Course Introduction Pre-Test

1 People in Organizations: A Systems Approach

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Introduction Organizations as Systems Employees as Stakeholders in the System Learning Organizations The Role of Engaged Employees

Mission, Vision, and Strategy: How Are They Different? A Framework for Influencing Human Behavior Step One: Gather Information Step Two: Get a Realistic Perspective Step Three: Have Genuine and Sincere Interactions

Why Learn About Human Behavior? The Difference Between Management and Leadership The Role of a Manager The Role of a Leader Integrating Leadership Ability into Management

Action Plan Recap Review Questions

2 Self-Awareness: The Importance of Understanding Ourselves

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Introduction The Importance of Self-Awareness Building Self-Awareness © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Emotional Intelligence: Its Importance for Managers What Motivates You?

Gaining a Realistic View of Yourself What Is Your Self-Perception? Using the Johari Window What Should You Get Feedback On?

Enhancing Self-Awareness Through the Use of Feedback Multi-Source Feedback Personality Assessments Guidelines for Using Personality Assessments

Process of Personal Change Five Steps to Achieving Change Achieving Change Over Time

Action Plan Recap Review Questions

3 Motivation: What Inspires People to Do What They Do?

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Introduction How Does Motivation Come Into Play at Work? Can a Manager Really Influence Human Behavior? Motivation in the Organizational System

Theories of Motivation Integrating Motivation Theories for Application in the Real World Why Are There So Many Different Theories of Motivation? Needs Theories Process Theories

Management Implications Action Plan Recap Review Questions

4 Communication: Getting Your Message Across Introduction Managers as Communicators What Is Communication? The Communication Cycle Non-Verbal Communication The Role of Communication in Influencing Others Characteristics of Assertive Communication

Barriers to Communication and How to Overcome Them Noise Language and Cultural Differences Differing and Distorted Perceptions

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Strong Emotions Active Listening Inability to Give Useful and Truthful Feedback

Action Plan Recap Review Questions

5 There Is More to Performance than Just Management!

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Introduction Performance Management versus Performance Appraisal The Performance Management Process Define – Set Goals and Expectations Develop – Enable Employees to Succeed Review – Gather Information and Document Reinforce – Reward, Recognize, and Sustain Desired Behaviors

Problems with Performance Management The Dual Roles of a Manager Communicating Performance Standards and Expectations

Action Plan Recap Review Questions

6 Teams That Work: The Structure and Dynamics of Work Groups Introduction What Is a Team? What Is a Group? Types of Teams

Characteristics of Effective Teams Understanding Group Norms and Team Process Establishing a Team’s Direction and Charter Members Play Healthy Roles Open Communication

Team Dynamics The Role of Leadership on Teams Team Leadership Functions Roles Team Members Play Evaluating Team Roles

Team Decision Making The Levels of Decision Making The Phases of Team Decision Making Inspire Team Leaders to Emerge

Interventions for Teams Team Building Conflict Individual Approaches to Conflict © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Action Plan Recap Review Questions

7 Change That Works: The Process of Guiding Change

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Introduction Why Do Organizations Change? The Manager’s Role in the Change Process How People Are Affected by Change How to Handle Resistance

The Change Process Systems Change Change Process Model

Action Plan Recap Review Questions

8 Leadership: Translating Vision into Reality

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Introduction What Is Leadership? Engaging Employees The Role of Trust

Foundation of the Tasks-Relationships-Transformations Model Transactional Leadership Transformational Leadership Integrating Transactional and Transformational Leadership

Becoming a Better Leader Knowing Yourself Leadership Development Linking Leadership to Learning Organizations

Action Plan Recap Review Questions

9 Putting It All Together: Organizational Effectiveness Introduction Gaining Perspective Case Study: A Trip to the Bank Your Role in Shaping the Work Environment

Organizational Culture Why Bother with Organizational Culture? Definitions and Elements of Organizational Culture Influencing Culture

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Organizational Development Metrics for Effectiveness Action Plan Recap Review Questions Bibliography Glossary Post-Test Index

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About This Course

Understanding how and why employees behave as they do is a critical skill for managers in every organization. Managers are responsible for ensuring that the organization’s mission and strategic goals are enacted, so it is of the utmost importance they know how to motivate and engage employees. This thoroughly updated and revised edition of A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior will prepare managers to better understand, motivate, and focus the energies of individual employees and the collective energy of their work teams. This completely updated course reexamines key theories and focuses on their practical application to typical management situations. New topics in this edition include learning organizations and open systems, as a context for understanding how individuals contribute to organizational effectiveness; selfawareness; Goleman’s emotional intelligence; and Bridge’s transitions model of change. The performance management section has been enhanced with a simplified process model (define, develop, review, and reward), and the section on leadership examines the concept of the versatile leader who engages the spirit, head, heart, and hands of employees. Throughout the course, self-assessments, worksheets, checklists, and questionnaires give students the opportunity to apply what they are learning. Each chapter incorporates an action plan tied to the objectives and competencies for the topic area. Short case studies enable students to apply their new knowledge to analyze, understand, and influence human behavior. Matthew J. Reis, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist and organization development practitioner. He has over 20 years combined experience in business, management, and consulting in organizational development. Reis has extensive experience in the design, delivery, and evaluation of training programs in a variety of corporate and not-for-profit environments. In addition, he is the founder of Reis Consulting, and he consults with a variety of organizations in the areas of leadership development, strategic planning, team building, and organizational development. Reis is also a faculty member for the University of Phoenix and teaches part time in their Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership de-

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gree program. Courses taught include Transformational Leadership and Innovation, The Dynamics of Group and Team Leadership, Organizational Theory and Design, The Impact of Technology on Organizations, and Organizational Diagnosis and Intervention. He also mentors numerous doctoral students as they conduct research on leadership in organizations and complete their dissertations. Reis holds a doctorate in Organizational Psychology from the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Judith B. Geller, author of the fourth edition, is the founder of J. B. Geller Consulting, Inc. Geller is the author of How to Comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, published by American Management Association, and was the technical consultant and Leader’s Guide author of AMA’s FYI video Making Diversity Work. Geller has an M.B.A. in Human Resources from Clark University and a B.S. in Social Work from Syracuse University.

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How to Take This Course

This course consists of text material for you to read and three types of activities (the pre- and post-test, in-text exercises, and end-of-chapter review questions) for you to complete. These activities are designed to reinforce the concepts introduced in the text portion of the course and to enable you to evaluate your progress.

PRE- AND POST-TESTS Both a pre-test and post-test are included in this course. Take the pre-test before you study any of the course material to determine your existing knowledge of the subject matter. Submit one of the scannable answer forms enclosed with this course for grading. On return of the graded pre-test, complete the course material. Take the post-test after you have completed all the course material. By comparing results of the pre-test and the post-test, you can measure how effective the course has been for you. To have your pre-test and post-test graded, please mail your answer forms to: Educational Services American Management Association P.O. Box 133 Florida, NY 10921 All tests are reviewed thoroughly by our instructors and will be returned to you promptly. If you are viewing the course digitally, the scannable forms enclosed in the hard copy of AMA Self-Study titles are not available digitally. If you would like to take the course for credit, you will need to either purchase a hard copy of the course from www.amaselfstudy.org or you can purchase an online version of the course from www.flexstudy.com.

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THE TEXT The most important component of this course is the text, where the concepts and methods are presented. Reading each chapter twice will increase the likelihood of your understanding the text fully. We recommend that you work on this course in a systematic way. Reading the text and working through the exercises at a regular and steady pace will help ensure that you get the most out of this course and retain what you have learned. In your first reading, concentrate on getting an overview of the chapter content. Read the learning objectives at the beginning of the chapter first. They will act as guidelines to the major topics of the chapter and identify the skills you should master as you study the text. As you read the chapter, pay attention to the headings and subheadings. Find the general theme of each section and see how that theme relates to others. Don’t let yourself get bogged down with details during the first reading; simply concentrate on understanding and remembering the major themes. In your second reading, look for the details that underlie the themes. Read the entire chapter carefully and methodically, underlining key points, working out the details of examples, and making marginal notes as you go. Complete the activities.

ACTIVITIES Interspersed with the text of each chapter you will find a series of activities. These can take a variety of forms, including essays, short-answer quizzes, or charts and questionnaires. Completing the activities will enable you to try out new ideas, practice and improve new skills, and test your understanding of the course content.

THE REVIEW QUESTIONS After reading a chapter and before going on to the next chapter, work through the Review Questions. Answering the questions and comparing your answers to those given will help you to grasp the major ideas of that chapter. If you perform these self-check exercises consistently, you will develop a framework in which to place material presented in later chapters.

GRADING POLICY The American Management Association will continue to grade examinations and tests for one year after the course’s out-of-print date. If you have questions regarding the tests, the grading, or the course itself, call Educational Services at 1-800-225-3215 or send an e-mail to [email protected].

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Introduction

Human behavior in organizations has as many dimensions as there are employees. People’s behaviors can range from simple to complex, from functional to dysfunctional, from team oriented to self focused, or from powerful to ineffective. As a manager and a leader, you are called upon by your organization to manage your own behaviors successfully and to positively affect the behaviors of your work group and your peers. How can you do this successfully when each employee exhibits his or her own unique blend of behaviors based on different value systems, unique life and work experiences, various identity group memberships, and distinct personal and career objectives? A fundamental understanding of human behavior is the critical first step!

HARNESSING ENERGY When you manage and lead a group of unique employees, you will find that their behaviors interact with one another and with your behaviors to create conflict or beneficial energy. By harnessing this energy, you can develop a powerful and highly productive team for your organization. But how can you do this? You will learn to harness this energy from a number of sources: from this text; from honest self-assessment; and from your own organization—the people, managers, and leaders who drive for performance and growth. As manager, your role is to activate and engage the head, heart, hands, and spirit of your employees to contribute to your organization’s success. The best method to harness your own energy and that of your work group through the use of this text is to:

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Absorb the principles and theories presented. Honestly explore your own behaviors and their underlying causes. Tactfully question employees when they behave in dysfunctional ways and seek to determine underlying causes. Do the same for effective behaviors to encourage them to continue. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Interpret the results of your questioning. Recognize that each employee is unique and that each needs a unique and customized management response. Understand how all employees are interconnected and interdependent in the organizational system. Develop an action plan to modify behaviors that may be hindering your progress and to empower employees to be productive. This text includes a variety of self-assessment tools to assist you and your employees in developing personal action plans.

THE COURSE DESIGN This course has been designed to foster critical and innovative thinking and to improve your ability to find workable solutions to unique problems relating to human behavior. Each one of us must be responsible for acting and helping others to behave in healthy and functional ways. I have resisted the temptation to present too many theories or concepts on a topic and instead have integrated a number of contemporary and classical approaches that have proven to be most instructive or effective. You may wish to pursue some of these approaches in more depth by reading the sources listed in the bibliography. This book is organized around a set of three guiding principles that are integrated and reinforced throughout the text. The guiding principles are designed to help you with your role of getting employees to do what is needed for the advancement of the organization by:

1. Understanding the individual (yourself and others). 2. Managing employees effectively (your management and leadership actions).

3. Understanding the organization as a complex system (the “big picture” — what the organization needs from you and your employees). These guiding principles provide general direction and unifying themes for the nine chapters in the book: A foundational chapter (“People in Organizations: A Systems Approach”); three chapters that focus on understanding the individual (“Self-Awareness: The Importance of Understanding Ourselves,” “Motivation: What Inspires People to Do What They Do?” and “Communication: Getting Your Message Across”); two chapters on how managers interact with individuals (“There Is More to Performance than Just Management!” and “Teams that Work: The Structure and Dynamics of Work Groups”); and three chapters on the organization (“Change that Works: The Process of Guiding Change,” “Leadership: Translating Vision into Reality” and “Putting It All Together: Organizational Effectiveness”). The theories, perspectives, practices, and potential solutions presented here are just the beginning of your search to harness the energy possessed by you and your employees. As a successful manager and leader, you will need to apply the information in this text to empower your employees to discover AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

INTRODUCTION

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solutions that drive them to their personal and career goals and to propel your organization toward fulfilling its goals. However, this knowledge will only benefit you if you put it into action. To assist you in that task, there is an Action Plan component integrated throughout the text so that you can think about and apply what you have learned to existing work challenges. Use real situations from your work life to begin developing your action plan to apply the concepts in this course to areas that will make a difference. You may also wish to incorporate some of these action plan items into your long-term professional development plan. We can all develop our management and leadership abilities with effort, practice, and feedback. This text is structured around development of common skill sets and will serve you well no matter what organization or industry your career takes you to in the future. There is much available in the literature and through professional development workshops to expand your skills in these competency areas.

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Pre-Test A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior Fifth Edition Course Code 97001 INSTRUCTIONS: Record your answers on one of the scannable forms enclosed. Please follow the directions on the form carefully. Be sure to keep a copy of the completed answer form for your records. No photocopies will be graded. When completed, mail your answer form to: Educational Services American Management Association P.O. Box 133 Florida, NY 10921

If you are viewing the course digitally, the scannable forms enclosed in the hard copy of AMA Self-Study titles are not available digitally. If you would like to take the course for credit, you will need to either purchase a hard copy of the course from www.amaselfstudy.org or you can purchase an online version of the course from www.flexstudy.com.

1. To gain perspective on increasing organizational effectiveness, managers should view organizations from a systems perspective as: (a) a rigid arrangement of functions that need to be understood to achieve goals. (b) a loosely coupled group of people who may or may not share the same goals. (c) a collection of interdependent people, groups and processes, with complex and variable parts that are forever in flux. (d) a tightly connected assembly that can only run effectively if everyone has defined roles communicated through the hierarchy. Do you have questions? Comments? Need clarification? Call Educational Services at 1-800-225-3215 or e-mail at [email protected]. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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2. The manager’s role in the third step in the organizational change process is to do what? (a) Reward – Make sure employees are reinforced for desired behaviors. (b) Integrate – Help employees internalize new concepts and meanings. (c) Evaluate – Track the progress of the change initiative for reporting purposes. (d) Celebrate – Let employees know that their contributions are valued.

3. “Is the work complex?” and “Are members of the group involved in interdependent tasks?” are examples of questions a manager would ask to determine which of the following? (a) If a team is needed (b) If a new departmental structure should be requested for upper management (c) Whether an employee should receive a larger-than-annual increase at review time (d) Whether an employee should be promoted to team leader role

4. Planning and implementing, coaching, and monitoring behavior and outcomes are all part of this organizational function: (a) the organizational effectiveness system. (b) the conflict resolution process. (c) the succession planning system. (d) the performance management process.

5. The two major theoretical areas of motivation focus on: (a) why we are motivated (internal) and when motivation is most likely to occur (situational). (b) motivation as a learned response and motivation as an innate characteristic. (c) what motivates us (our needs), others focus on how we are motivated (the process). (d) organizational (societal) stimuli and biological (natural) stimuli.

6. A consistent predictor of management performance in research across thousands of managers in a wide variety of organizations has found that high performers are: (a) more self-aware than average performers. (b) at least 15 percent more intelligent on standardized tests. (c) less self-conscious than managers who are poor performers. (d) more likely to have had some formal education in management practices.

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7. The role of individual managers in the organizational change process is to: (a) help the employees focus on what they have been doing well in the past to minimize stress and anxiety. (b) track performance of all employees so that the organization can best allocate valuable resources. (c) ensure that employees continue to be productive when senior management is preoccupied with the initiative. (d) help interpret and translate these changes so that they make sense to employees.

8. Leadership, as a social influence process, only really works when: (a) people voluntarily allow themselves to be led to achieve an organizational goal. (b) people are paid enough to do things they cannot be persuaded to do voluntarily. (c) employees view the manager as an expert in the technical areas being considered. (d) employees view the manager as having a legitimate base of power.

9. A major limitation of needs theories of motivation is that they: (a) are not suitable for younger generations entering the workforce. (b) cannot be used with people the manager does not know very well. (c) do not explain why specific actions are taken in different situations. (d) are not effective for most management decisions because needs change over time.

10. Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for: (a) managing others effectively across situations. (b) managing emotions effectively in ourselves and in our relationships. (c) relating to people as they want to be related to on a personal level. (d) acknowledging that employees are only human just like us.

11. What outcome will an effective vision statement hopefully achieve with employees? (a) Greater loyalty to the manager if the vision represents his or her personal philosophy (b) Lower absenteeism and reduced turnover (c) Knowing what needs to be done in the organization to achieve goals and strategic objectives (d) A crisp, vivid, compelling, and inspiring picture or mental image of the future that the organization wants to create

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12. Sharing information about yourself that others did not previously know to build trust and credibility is an example of: (a) calculated influence management. (b) managerial enhancement. (c) too much information. (d) self-disclosure.

13. Motivating language, which can be used by managers to more effectively transmit and foster organizational trust, consists of: (a) direction-giving, empathetic language, and meaning-making language. (b) support, clarification, and understanding. (c) mission, vision, and individual goals. (d) sharing, personal caring, and organizational guidance.

14. To improve organizational effectiveness, OD practitioners seek to change norms, values, and underlying assumptions by: (a) rewriting the organization’s mission, vision and strategic objectives. (b) interviewing all employees and managers during the course of the intervention. (c) working primarily with the senior managers of the organization so as not to waste employees’ time. (d) using interventions designed to change some combination of affect, behavior, and/or cognition in employees.

15. That “team members agree on how to treat one another” is an example of which aspect of the model for team effectiveness? (a) Feedback and metrics (b) Team roles (c) Team processes (d) Purpose

16. The “organizational hierarchy, who makes decisions, work and process flow” are examples of which aspect of organizational DNA? (a) Systems (b) Structure (c) Combinatorial practices (d) Elements of configuration

17. Asking if an employee sees the importance of their role or task in the “big picture” is an example of a manager helping an employee with which motivational aspect of the building blocks of self-management? (a) Relevance (b) Competence (c) Feedback (d) Sense-making

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18. Being able to unlearn conventional wisdom, to be self-directed in learning, and to learn from others are all aspects of what? (a) Indications that an employee is ready for advancement (b) Becoming a better leader (c) Effectiveness in the performance management process with an employee (d) A successful change agent

19. The individual approaches to conflict relate to the degree of cooperativeness and assertiveness exhibited by the team member and include: (a) engagement, collusion, denial, and competition. (b) aversion, diversion, subversion, and mediation. (c) attraction, repulsion, collectivism, and individualism. (d) avoidance, accommodation, collaboration, competition, and compromise.

20. Assertive communication is the ability to openly and honestly express ideas in a direct manner, and can be broken down into two important dimensions: (a) goal achievement and goal impact. (b) how forceful the person is and how well the person reads the other person. (c) how assertive and how responsive the person is. (d) how self-assured the person is and what his or her negotiation ability is.

21. De-layering (“flattening” the organization), decentralization, autonomous work groups, just-in-time manufacturing, reduced development cycles, out-sourcing, and globalization are examples of what? (a) How second-order changes have changed the organizational landscape in the last 100 years (b) How organizations stay profitable when the environment changes (c) Different strategies that managers have used successfully over the years to demonstrate their leadership ability (d) Theoretical approaches to managing that do not always result in improved organizational effectiveness

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22. Organizational culture, in sum, determines the way things are done in the workplace. As a manager, you need to be able to: (a) convince employees to do what is needed even if they do not like the culture. (b) help your employees comprehend the characteristics of your organization’s culture and how they can work with (and in) it effectively. (c) show employees that the path of least resistance means going along with whatever senior management asks for. (d) shield your employees from the culture as much as possible by creating a protective sub-culture.

23. Communication is critical for managing human behavior for two reasons: 1) getting organizational goals across, and 2): (a) ensuring that employees are happy in their jobs. (b) detecting any sign of conflict before it becomes a problem. (c) ensuring that goals are achieved. (d) understanding what motivates the other person.

24. That it “appears that teams all go through a defined development sequence with a beginning and end; in reality, most teams never stop evolving” is an example of what? (a) Team dynamics (b) Natural team conflict (c) Diversity of team member composition (d) An opportunity for the manager to help the team stay on track

25. Managers should use beneficial feedback in the performance management process to correct, sustain, and improve an employee’s work performance, and this beneficial feedback has the following characteristics: (a) relevant, concise, direct, and unambiguous. (b) situational, directional, and motivational. (c) specific, honest, constructive, ongoing, and timely. (d) clear, concise, complimentary, and continuous.

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1 People in Organizations: A Systems Approach Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define organizational systems and the im• • • •

portance of systems thinking. Explain the elements of mission, vision, and strategy. Describe the framework for influencing human behavior. Discuss the importance of learning about human behavior. Explain how the roles and characteristics of leadership and management differ.

INTRODUCTION Organizations are comprised of people, and people can accomplish incredible things when they want to do so. However, people can also be stubborn and want to do things their own way. It is safe to say that organizations are only successful when people work together. This is where understanding human behavior is critical for a manager to be effective. Unfortunately, there is no one best way to manage human behavior in organizations. There is no pill you can take to make you an outstanding manager, and there certainly is no one formula or procedure that will always work. In sum, this is due to the fact that people and organizations are very complex. Many times the answer to problems such as how to turn around a poor performer, how to motivate a work group, or how to improve communication is “it depends.” It depends on your organization’s mission, vision, and values. It depends on how well information is communicated to organizational members. It also depends on the structure of your organization and on your organization’s unique culture. Finally, it depends on the specific people and work © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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groups with whom you interact, on your personality, on your management and leadership styles, and on your technical and managerial competencies. Many people dislike ambiguous answers such as “it depends.” Yet this ambiguity can actually indicate an opportunity for you as a manager, as you have a wide array of possible management actions to influence human behavior. As you master your management competencies, you can become an outstanding manager who enables people to work together as part of an integrated system to achieve shared goals. As a manager, it is critical to be able to see the big picture and assist those who work for you to keep the big picture in perspective. To that end, we will focus throughout this course on the theme of systems thinking. Organizations are complex systems with many parts and we are part of those systems. While we cannot control all the elements of the system, what we do certainly impacts the end result when it comes to the people we supervise.

ORGANIZATIONS AS SYSTEMS The organizational system is comprised of all the immediate and more removed stakeholders. The most obvious members are the employees, management, executives, owners, board, customers, clients, and various external entities such as the government. We are most concerned with the employees and management in the system, as they are primarily responsible for the production and work product. However there are many other parts that are interconnected in the organizational system (see Exhibit 1-1). There is a level of reciprocal dependence inherent in any organizational system. That is, employees need organizations and organizations need employees. Similarly, within the organization, the Manufacturing Department needs the Sales Department, and the Sales Department needs the Manufacturing Department. The trick is that organizations need employees to do what is needed, to do it at the right time, and to do it the right way. A symptom of when this is not happening is when you hear employees say things such as “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing around here” or “can you believe that we have to redo all these products before they can be shipped?” While almost everything in a modern organization is interconnected and interdependent, you may only have control over yourself and the members of your immediate work group. However, you should still be aware of how all the other elements in your organization interact and how the organization is impacted by the external environment. That is, the organization is open to other influences such as labor markets, competitive forces, and the economy. While it is important to recognize that organizations do not operate in a vacuum, we are limiting our discussion to the internal elements of the organization as depicted in Exhibit 1-1. The interactions of these internal elements, which can be understood as a sort of organizational DNA (Govindarajan & Trimble, 2005), combine to determine system effectiveness and entail the following:

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PEOPLE IN ORGANIZATIONS: A SYSTEMS APPROACH

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xhibit 1-1 A Systems Perspective of the Individual and the Organization

Organization

External Environment

Division Department Work Group Individual

1. Staff—includes leadership, staffing, competencies, and development 2. Structure—the organizational hierarchy, who makes decisions, work and process flow

3. Systems—financial, budget, production, control, benchmarks, measurement criteria, and compensation

4. Culture—what is valued, behaviors that are reinforced or condoned, biases These elements are intertwined throughout the organization and will be addressed throughout this course. What is important to think about is how well you and your staff understand your organizational DNA and how to change it through influencing human behavior.

Employees as Stakeholders in the System When trying to understand employee motivation, it is important to understand why people work. Some people work only for the money. However, many people work for other reasons: they like their trade or profession, they enjoy their co-workers, and they have pride in the mission of the organization. For many of us, it is a combination of things. Only when one of the things we take for granted, such as having interesting or meaningful work, is taken away do we then make that a priority or even realize how important it was. Whether we realize it or not, all employees have some stake or interest in the organizational system. Even if that stake is only to have stable employment, we need to recognize that as managers. In this age of mergers, buy-outs, right© American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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sizing, layoffs, re-engineering and out-sourcing, employees have a real reason to be concerned about their organization as a “system” in the global environment. Most employees, regardless of rank or educational level, know that the organization will need to adapt and change over time to stay competitive. This is not to say that employees want or even like change, but most do recognize that it is necessary at some point for the organization to adapt and survive. What makes this adaptation and future success possible is the ability of all the members of the system to learn and change together. It is the manager’s job to help employees see what their role is in the organizational system and to facilitate the continual learning that needs to take place. To be successful, organizational learning can only occur if employees are motivated to engage in the process and make necessary changes happen.

Learning Organizations Organizations need to be able to change and adapt over time. All the components of organizational DNA have to adjust over time, and this can only happen if employees are constantly learning and adapting. Your job as a manager is to ensure that people in your area are focused on the right things and are continuously improving in relevant areas. In sum, this means being a learning organization at all levels depicted in Exhibit 1-1. Peter Senge discusses how to create a learning organization in his book, The Fifth Discipline (1990). Senge focuses on the importance of having people with the right skills aligned and motivated in the system so that the organization can achieve more and greater things. Senge emphasizes how systems thinking is a core component of organizational learning. Everyone, not just the senior leaders, must be able to see how things are interrelated in the organization so that future needs can be anticipated. This is the classic “big picture” perspective that everyone needs to have and be able to apply consistently throughout the organization. While employees may have different versions of the big picture, it is the job of the managers in the organization to keep reframing these pictures. This is typically accomplished by creating and communicating a compelling vision of where the organization is going. However, a vision is more than just some inspirational words in a speech or a glossy brochure. It needs to be a roadmap for what new skills and knowledge employees need to acquire to prepare for that future. One of the most critical tasks in organizational learning (and thus, in successful change at all levels) is getting employees “on board” with the things that need to happen. Meaningful changes and improvements require continuous learning on everyone’s part. Organizational learning includes communication of problems, problem-solving, cooperation within and across organizational units, looking out for others in the organization, and so on. Organizations need to operate as a whole; that is, as coordinated systems distributed across many different people and departments. Smaller organizations may be faster, but larger organizations have more resources. Every type and form of organizational system depends on learning to decide what to do (or not to do) and how best to accomplish goals and strategic objectives. Managers need to serve as guides and leaders who can paint the picture AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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and identify the employee’s place in it to generate action and learning in support of the vision. That is, the manager needs to help people see what could be and how they can be a part of that future state. It is only those managers who can focus employees’ attention and energies at the right level, and at the right time, who can actually make this happen. These managers see that there are important relationships between the actions of individuals and departments, and these impact the whole system. Ideally, everyone else in the organization is doing their part as well, but you have to first start with your own area. Managers in learning organizations play a critical role by “continually helping people see the big picture: how different parts of the organization interact, how different situations parallel one another because of common underlying structures, how local actions have longer-term and broader impacts than local actors often realize” (Senge, 1990). We want to keep this systems perspective in mind as we interact with others, interpret the organization, and evaluate models and concepts presented in this course.

Think About It . . . Is your organization a learning organization? How effective are people in your organization at creating a learning organization? What do they do that is most helpful?

Are there employees in your area who can contribute more to enhance the capacity of your learning organization? How?

The Role of Engaged Employees For many years, it was generally accepted that a happy worker was also a productive worker. This belief arose in the 1930’s after an experiment at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric, where the researchers came to the erroneous conclusion that happiness was causing productivity in workers (Robbins, 2005). This myth has persisted for a long time in part because there is, in fact, an indirect link between satisfaction and productivity, but it is not what people originally thought it was. Research has subsequently found that workers who have interesting work that stimulates and involves them—and allows them be productive—contributes to their overall job satisfaction (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001). The main takeaway here is that the interesting, productive work is actually causing the satisfaction. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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The key concept here is employee engagement. Engagement can be defined as the extent to which employees commit to something in the organization and how much effort they expend to achieve organizational goals as a result of that commitment. An analysis of thousands of employees at a variety of organizations who had participated in the Gallup organization’s measure of engagement (called the Gallup Workplace Audit) found support for the relationship between employee engagement and higher levels of customer satisfaction, productivity, and profit, and lower levels of employee turnover and fewer accidents (Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002). In general, research tells us that an individual with a positive attitude about the work itself makes greater contributions in the organization (Harrison, Newman, & Roth, 2006). It is not sufficient to give workers free coffee and donuts at break time, although employees may certainly appreciate this gesture! Therefore, managers should seek to develop relevant abilities and enhance job attitudes in employees. Hopefully, you see now that organizations need much more than just happy workers to be successful. Organizations also need engaged workers who understand their role in the big picture of the organization and contribute as part of a larger learning organization.

Think About It . . . How engaged are you? Do you find the work you do appealing and stimulating?

How engaged are your employees? Is their work more than just a job to them?

Can you think of any ways that jobs in your area can be enhanced so that the work is more interesting and engaging?

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MISSION, VISION, AND STRATEGY: HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT? Over the years the terms mission and vision have often been used interchangeably, which can be confusing. Most organizations have mission and vision statements, but many employees do not know or fully understand them. One possible reason employees do not know their organization’s mission or vision is that these have been developed by someone else and have not been communicated well. Another explanation might be that most mission statements do not align with what really motivates individuals at the job level. Ideally, organizations have mission and vision statements that can engage and inspire employees, and a strategy that points the way. These elements are summarized as follows: Mission: What we do—current focus Vision: Where we are going—future focus Strategy: How we will get there—specific steps and goals Mission is a purpose or reason for the organization’s existence. A mission statement in its most basic form focuses only on explaining what service or product the organization currently provides and to whom they provide it. The mission statement is a concise and brief explanation of what the organization does and specifies why the organization exists today. Part of Walt Disney’s original mission was “to make people happy.” It’s clear and succinct. All stakeholders— customers, employees, stockholders, and the community—know what Disney is trying to accomplish. So mission defines a direction, not an end state or final objective. A mission helps an organization differentiate between courses of action and makes it easy to eliminate activities not aligned with the mission. Vision, on the other hand, is a crisp, vivid, compelling, and inspiring picture or mental image of the future the organization wants to create. Vision communicates a future goal toward which the organization is striving. Here is an example of a vision that was effective for one organization: “Put a computer on every desk in America.” Can you guess what company this was a vision for? It was Bill Gates at Microsoft! But wait, they do not make computers, so why would Microsoft have a vision for computers on every desk? The same reason the oil companies have a vision for a car in every driveway instead of a bicycle! The vision is to change the competitive landscape and enhance the organization’s ability to achieve its goals such as selling software or gasoline. Mission and vision should not be confused with strategy. Strategy involves looking at a competitive environment, assessing the current state of the organization internally, and then mapping a course to achieve the mission and vision. Strategy brings intention and focus to the organization’s actions. It creates a roadmap that gives context to all the organization’s future actions. The role of the manager is to help employees understand and carve out their roles from the organization’s overall mission, vision, and strategy. However, a vision does not need to be reserved solely for the organization as a whole. Departments and groups can and should have them as well. In fact, visions where people can see their participatory role will be much more effective than visions that are written for shareholders or external customers alone. These will be discussed further in Chapter 6 on teams. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Exercise 1-1 Organizational Mission and Vision Write in your own words what you believe are your organization’s mission and vision—do not copy these from what your organization may have already developed. After you have done this, go ask three or four other people at random in your organization the following questions. How do they compare? Do they agree? How similar are they to the official mission and vision? What is your organization’s mission?

What is your organization’s vision?

A FRAMEWORK FOR INFLUENCING HUMAN BEHAVIOR Now, let’s turn to a more individual strategy for how managers can influence behavior. While it is important to have the big picture in mind for the good of the organization, employees also want to know that you have their best interests in mind or at the very least, that you understand them. The following is a good general approach.

Step One: Gather Information As a manager, you need to continually learn about human behavior. Gather information about yourself, others, and the organization you work for. What styles, traits, needs, values, and assumptions do you and your fellow workers have? How do these fit with the culture of your organization? Find out about the individuals who work for you. What are their professional backgrounds and general career goals? Is this their dream job, or is it just tiding them over until they finish school at night? Do they prefer to work alone or with others? Are they detail oriented or more general? How do you gather information? Simple observation is one of the best tools. Pay attention to subtle cues. What puts employees in a good mood? AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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When are they more engaged in their work? What do they ask to do at work? What do they talk about? What upsets them? Ask questions. Listen . . . really listen!

Step Two: Get a Realistic Perspective Effective managers ensure that their personal biases and limitations do not influence their judgments. You need to be conscious of those things that you may unintentionally let affect your perceptions and actions. Be sure to check your facts and not just go with your “gut reaction.” Just because someone is different or has a different approach does not make him or her wrong, ineffective, or unmotivated. Do not just rely on a theoretical model, one person’s opinion, or on just one observation. Put all the pieces of the puzzle together and look for patterns. If you dig beneath the surface, you may find more information to put things in context. Be patient, as you cannot expect people to change overnight. You may be able to get people to comply with directives and formal warnings pretty quickly, but getting them to voluntarily do things that are best for the organization may take time and understanding on your part. We do not “motivate” people in the sense that we can “give” them motivation. However, by knowing what motivates people, we can help them see what is in it for them. Motivation comes from within. Compliance is what happens when we force someone to do something (even if it is important or if it would be personally motivating to us!). Obviously we need to look out for the organization, the safety of all employees and protect our department, but it is much easier if people are motivated from within and do not require constant monitoring and policing on our part. If someone needs to learn a new skill or routine, it may take weeks or months for them to get it right and do it on their own. Depending on the complexity of the task, it might make sense to find a mentor or buddy for the employee. You also have to be realistic about what can be changed or achieved in the organization. Do not promise things if you cannot deliver them. It is always better to under-promise and over-deliver.

Step Three: Have Genuine and Sincere Interactions No one responds well if they think they are being manipulated. You need to be genuine and sincere in your attempts to get to know people and what motivates them. This does not mean you need to hear their life story, be their best friend, act as a counselor, or take on their problems. What this does mean is that you understand the challenges they face, try to accommodate within reason, and work with them to find the best short- and long-term solutions. If you demonstrate respect for people, they are much more likely to take your feedback and guidance to heart. For example, have you had difficulty communicating with an extremely upset customer or coworker? Do you really want to help someone if they are yelling, using sarcasm, or acting unpredictably? Probably not—so make sure that when you get upset or frustrated you do not inadvertently communicate those messages to your employees. Sometimes all that people need to be motivated is the feeling that they © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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have been heard and understood. Many times there may not be much we can do as managers to resolve a problem, but showing that you care can go a long way. Here are some useful guidelines:

• • • • • • • • • •

Listen attentively and show genuine concern. Provide honest, timely, and constructive feedback. Try to activate as many of the person’s senses as possible. Tell him or her your thoughts; write an email; provide graphical data; shake his or her hand for a job well done. Be patient. Show respect. Allow the employee to show his or her feelings; do not interrupt or lecture. Evaluate, but do not be judgmental. As a manager, you do need to enforce policies and make tough decisions; however, this should not be done in a way that devalues the person. Encourage employees to engage in the work and the workplace. Set boundaries; establish the playing field for employee behavior. Believe in your employees and tell them so. Be as rational, logical, and consistent as humanly possible.

Think About It . . . Can you think of two or three employees who could benefit from increased levels of motivation? Jot down a few names and ideas for what you can do to assist them. You will want to come back to these people in the subsequent chapters on motivation and performance management.

WHY LEARN ABOUT HUMAN BEHAVIOR? Why should you learn about human behavior? Simply because people are the most important part of an organization’s success. Whether that statement is viewed as a trite platitude from senior managers or taken seriously by everyone in the organization, it is the truth. Organizations rely on people to achieve daily and strategic goals. The best managers are those who understand enough about people and what drives their behavior to get them aligned and doing what needs to be done in the organization. People are very complex and no single book (or even fifty) can provide a magic formula for predicting behavior or fully understanding what motivates people. However, you can learn the basic principles so that you are more effective at activating the levers that AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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stimulate and energize a majority of employees. A good foundation in understanding human behavior, coupled with an honest appraisal of the situation or context, will allow most managers to be more effective than they could be without that knowledge. It is important to recognize that different employees have different needs. At a basic level we have a need for food, water, shelter, and security, and at the higher levels we have a need for some measure of belongingness, recognition, and personal growth. We will not deal with the basic needs in this course, as the assumption must be made that most employees have these needs met outside the workplace. At the higher levels, people have a different mix of needs. Some people need more recognition while others have greater social needs. What is important to recognize is that we are all in some state of motivation in relation to our perceived needs. Managers need to quickly determine what motivates different employees and then see how those motivators align with organizational systems and goals. We are all different, so the challenge is how to systemically offer things as an organization that will be appealing and motivating to the greatest number of employees. We will cover motivation in much greater depth in Chapters 2 and 3. Now, let’s turn to the different roles we have in ensuring that employees are motivated and aligned with the organizational system.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP There is a difference between management and leadership, and each has its place in the organizational system. Organizations need both functions, but in different quantities at different times. How you use these abilities can be critical to connecting successfully with your employees and motivating them to do what is needed in the organization. Sometimes people use the terms interchangeably, so it is helpful to define the primary functions of each as follows: Management • Establish objectives. • Short-term focus on the work: realize the mission. • Focus on operations: planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, problem solving, and production. Leadership • Establish direction. • Long-term focus on the people: realize the vision. • Focus on strategy: vision, aligning people, motivating and inspiring, and producing change.

It should be clear that organizations require that all of these functions be accomplished to operate effectively. Management and leadership are equally important and, more often than not, you must wear both hats on the same day. We can all develop our management and leadership abilities with effort, prac© American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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tice, and feedback. Once these skills are developed, it is also important to be able to differentiate when you need to lead and when you need to manage. Let’s explore these two areas in greater depth.

The Role of a Manager A successful manager is flexible in nature and comfortable with current ways of doing things, such as maintaining structure and enforcing rules. He or she is always looking for new ways, or improving upon current ways, to solve problems. An effective manager balances the needs of the individual employee, the needs of the work group, and the needs of the organization. He or she facilitates communication in his or her work groups, encourages open dialogue between employees, and listens actively. Many of the management ideas, both traditional and contemporary, that are discussed in this course are related directly to improving your management competencies and to helping you understand and influence human behavior.

The Role of a Leader John Kotter (1990) explains how “management” has historically been focused on control and contrasts this with leadership in his book A Force for Change. Kotter describes motivation—a key component of leadership—as follows: Leadership is different. Achieving grand visions despite the obstacles always requires an occasional burst of energy, the kind that certain motivational and inspirational processes can provide. Such processes accomplish their energizing effect, not by pushing people in the right direction, as a control mechanism often does, but by satisfying very basic needs: for achievement, belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a sense of control over one’s life, and living up to one’s ideals. These processes touch us deeply and powerfully, and elicit a powerful response (Kotter, 1990). Leadership does not reside in a role or title. Leadership is an ability that exists in people. A manager does not need to have a lofty organizational title to benefit from leadership ability. However, if a person does have a title such as president, vice president, or divisional manager, he or she clearly needs to have leadership competencies. Some positions obviously require greater levels of leadership than others, but every manager has a capacity for leadership that needs to be developed and practiced in the organization. A leader understands his or her organization’s current vision, whether he or she created it or inherited it from another, and recognizes when changes or modifications are necessary. He or she then leads the employees in the organization from the current mission to a new mission (or from a current purpose to a new purpose) in light of the vision. Exhibit 1-2 lists some contemporary leaders who have successfully recognized opportunities and led their organizations to new organizational forms or purposes. These examples can serve as an inspiration to all of us to bring leadership—as well as management—to our organizations. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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xhibit 1-2 Real-Life Leaders The following people are real leaders. Each of them had the foresight and courage to bring their visions to fruition through their organizations and employees. Each saw opportunities in the industry or the environment and capitalized on those opportunities. Each one understands the big picture, successfully creates a shared vision, and has the ability to mobilize systems to achieve the vision. Jack Welch, GE (CEO, 1981-2001) Welch realized the demands of technology and the global world required a new type of organization. He changed the culture and infused systems perspective such as six sigma quality efforts. Welch has been criticized and praised for his restructuring and reengineering efforts, but he turned the old-fashioned, bureaucratic GE into one of the most profitable and best run companies in the world. Darwin Smith, Kimberly Clark (CEO, 1971-1991) Smith saw that paper manufacturing was not a very profitable future for the company. He sold the mills that made the paper (this was a core business) and went into consumer products and R&D. It was a remarkable success. Perhaps, you have heard of the Kleenex brand of facial tissue? Herbert D. Kelleher, Southwest Airlines (Founder and Chairman, 1978-2008) Kelleher saw that the old hub-and-spoke model of the 1970’s airline industry was terribly inefficient. He decided to fly point to point using one type of plane and not assign seats. He also combined this with a culture of fun, low prices, and incredibly efficient operations. The airline has been consistently profitable and is heralded as a true leadership success. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank (Founder and Managing Director, 1976-present) Dr. Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist who founded Grameen Bank in 1976 to lend money to poor people who could not qualify for regular bank loans. His concept of “microcredit” has allowed loans to millions of people and the bank is 90% owned by the people themselves (10% was purchased by the government after it legislated the bank as independent in 1983). In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Anita Roddick, The Body Shop (Founded in 1976) Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop, a British cosmetics chain that produces and sells beauty products. Roddick helped define the concept of ethical consumerism by producing and selling products made from natural ingredients that were not tested on animals. The company was also one of the first to promote fair trade with Third World countries to assist in their economic development.

Let’s consider Ray Kroc of McDonald’s fame as another real-life leader illustration. He recognized that fast, convenient food service with only a few choices on the menu was a wave of the future. He purchased a few hamburger restaurants from the McDonald brothers and proceeded to build the new rules of the fast-food service game. As another leadership example, Ted Turner of CNN turned the rules of television upside down and proved that an all-news network format would work. Some examples of not recognizing shifts in the environment are found in the computer industry. Wang, Data General, Digital, and IBM all have downsized or disappeared as a result of company leaders not recognizing that the world had changed from proprietary hardware and software to nonproprietary products. You may not have the opportunity right © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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now to bring about large-scale change in your organization, but never underestimate your potential to contribute in significant ways to the organization’s long-term health and prosperity. It all starts with a fundamental understanding of what your organization is trying to achieve in the long run.

Integrating Leadership Ability into Management A manager guides, pushes, and pulls the organization and its members to fulfill its vision. To do this, a manager must understand the systems perspective and human behavior at the individual level. A manager gains support by communicating the organization’s values, beliefs, mission, and vision in a concise and compelling form which energizes and engages organizational members. Effective managers know that they cannot do it all, so they surround themselves with talented people and know how to motivate them. Effective managers engage employees on multiple levels, switch gears quickly, and anticipate what followers need. This versatility allows a manager to engage an employee through his or her head, hands, heart, and spirit. These four areas must be stimulated in meaningful ways, and the effect on employees for each area is as follows:

• • • •

Head – know why they are doing things and how their role relates to other parts in the organization (the mission and their part in it). Hands – have the ability to do it (the behavioral competencies). Heart – feel valued (the relationships). Spirit – inspired to do it (the vision is compelling).

The important thing to remember is that human motivation, just like the human body, is a complex system. You would never think that exercise alone would keep you healthy or that reading a lot of books on writing would make you an accomplished author. While these things are certainly necessary, they are not sufficient to make one healthy or intelligent. Motivating employees requires involving the head, activating the hands, engaging their hearts, and inspiring the spirit. Motivation is a complex proposition that we often wish could be simplified to money, a good boss, or a nice office, but this concept usually involves much more. Organizations need flexible managers who can perform many roles and work with many different types of employees. Your task is to use your leadership and management abilities to keep employees motivated to do what needs to be done in the organizational system. Exercise 1-2 is a good way to assess where you are in regards to these abilities and preview many of the competency areas we will cover in this course. Use your results to start formulating an action plan for your future development.

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Exercise 1-2 Do you have what it takes to be a good manager and a good leader? INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little 1. 2. 3. 4.

____ ____ ____ ____

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

25. ____

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

I am an active listener. I give meaningful and frequent feedback to my employees. I understand my organization’s mission, vision, and strategy. I work with my department to translate mission, vision, and strategy into specific objectives for our area. I monitor progress towards objectives. I foster pride, self-respect, and responsibility in employees. I understand and celebrate the differences employees bring to the workplace. I encourage employees to be independent and take initiative. I can describe my actions and those of my employees in objective behavioral terms. I am able to confront employees tactfully. I have a sense of humor and let my employees see and hear it. I am able to admit mistakes and develop solutions to correct them. I manage stress well. I am a positive role model. I anticipate problems and take proactive steps to correct them. I am creative. I recognize and work well with the established systems of my organization. I can shift perspectives and help my employees see other points of view. I am patient and understand the principles of adult learning. I am known to be reliable and trustworthy and I keep my promises. I build alliances, networks, and teams. I think conceptually and I can see the big picture while not losing sight of the details. I am flexible, can adapt, and am able to lead change. I can change my interpersonal communication style depending on the needs of people I communicate with. I have a bias for action and am willing to make decisions or delegate them when needed.

Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 101-125: You probably have a very good foundation to be an effective manager. Continue what you are currently doing and seek feedback from others to confirm your self-perceptions. 76-100: You probably have a good foundation to be an effective manager and should look for opportunities to receive feedback to continue to improve. With this feedback, you may be able to target specific developmental opportunities and assignments. 75 or less: You could probably benefit from ongoing development in general management and leadership and should actively work on finding people you trust to give you feedback on your relevant skill areas.

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ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development: What parts of the organizational system that are connected to your department are you least familiar with in your organization? Who can you contact to get a better understanding of these system components? List them here and make an effort to speak with these people in the coming weeks.

What areas of management and leadership do you feel you need to work on and why? List them here.

Human behavior in organizations is complex and often difficult to understand. As a manager, your role is to synthesize and integrate a variety of management theories, models, and concepts and to figure out a way to apply them to your team recap and organization. There are no magic formulas; it takes hard work, intuitive judgment, and sometimes trial and error to determine what is best for you. To understand human behavior, it is helpful to follow a general framework for influencing it: gather information, gain a realistic perspective, and engage in genuine and sincere interactions with employees. Human behavior also needs to be interpreted and directed in the context of your organizational system. So it is crucial that you understand how the fundamental aspects of staff, systems, structure, and culture are all interconnected and interdependent in your organization. The people and systems in most organizations are guided by the organization’s mission and vision. The mission and vision convey a guiding philosophy for directing the efforts of employees. This guiding philosophy includes cultural elements such as values and beliefs. The vision needs to be crisp, vivid, and compelling. Most of all, the vision needs to be shared by members throughout the organization. The overarching goal is to create a learning organization where people are competent, share a vision for the future, and understand the organizational system. To achieve this, organizations need managers throughout the system to coordinate and motivate people. The differences between leadership and

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management may appear clear-cut at first, but in reality there is a fair amount of overlap. Leadership focuses more on the direction and future to foster the growth and evolution of new visions within the organization. Managers are more tactical and focus on operations and getting things done through people. There is a need for leadership and management in most positions, and it is through the successful combination of both that the organization is able to manage human behavior. The effective manager knows how to truly engage the heads, hearts, hands, and spirits of employees by making sure they know what their part is in the organizational system, have the ability to do it, and feel engaged in meaningful work that is guided by a shared vision.

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Review Questions INSTRUCTIONS: Here is the first set of review questions in this course. Answering the questions following each chapter will give you a chance to check your comprehension of the concepts as they are presented and will reinforce your understanding of them. As you can see below, the answer to each numbered question is printed to the side of the question. Before beginning, you should conceal the answers by placing a sheet of paper over the answers as you work down the page. Then read and answer each question. Compare your answers with those given. For any questions you answer incorrectly, make an effort to understand why the answer given is the correct one. You may find it helpful to turn back to the appropriate section of the chapter and review the material of which you were unsure. At any rate, be sure you understand all the review questions before going on to the next chapter.

1. The major elements of an organizational system are:

1. (b)

(a) staff, budgets, production, and culture. (b) staff, structure, systems, and culture. (c) staff, leadership, production, and distribution. (d) staff, technology, production, and culture.

2. Why should managers learn about human behavior?

2. (d)

(a) To help the organization avoid lawsuits in case employees are dismissed for cause (b) Because knowledge is power in organizational systems (c) To force employees to do what needs to be done without making it seem like punishment (d) Because people are the most important part of an organization’s success

3. The mission is different from the vision because:

3. (d)

(a) the mission needs to be vivid and the vision is specific. (b) a mission is the sum of employee suggestions and the vision is developed by the leaders. (c) the vision is a strategy for achieving the mission. (d) a mission describes the organization’s current purpose and the vision is future-focused.

4. The three phases of the framework for influencing human behavior are as follows: (a) gather support, provide your honest perspective, and pay for performance. (b) define behaviors, remove any limits or boundaries on employees, and reward. (c) gather information, gain a realistic perspective, and have sincere interactions with employees. (e) define behaviors, give feedback, and reinforce desired behaviors.

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4. (c)

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5. The roles and characteristics of leadership and management differ because: (a) managers focus on the short-term production and leaders focus on long-term profitability. (b) managers are concerned with operations and leaders are concerned with the external environment. (c) managers focus on people to get the job done and leaders focus on people to innovate. (d) managers focus on achieving the mission and leaders focus on aligning people with the vision.

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2 Self-Awareness: The Importance of Understanding Ourselves Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain why self-awareness is critical to your • • • •

success as a manager. Demonstrate how applying the concepts of emotional intelligence and motivation can build self-awareness. Describe what managers need to do to get a realistic view of their development needs. Understand the importance of feedback in developing self-awareness. List the steps in the personal change process.

INTRODUCTION Have you ever wondered why some people advance quickly in their careers and others never seem to get ahead? One key to continued career growth stands out—self-awareness. Your effectiveness as a manager depends on how well you understand the impact your actions have on the people you work with. That is why self-awareness is one of the guiding principles for this text. Many new managers come into their roles thinking only of the tasks to be accomplished. While this may produce spectacular short-term results, it can have negative long-term effects on the organizational system. While technical expertise is critical to success in many jobs, it is rarely sufficient to advance in terms of management and leadership. As a manager, you perform crucial coordinating and direction-setting functions for the systems in your organization, so it is imperative that you understand yourself and how to be most effective in your work context.

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The purpose of this chapter is to raise your level of self-awareness and develop an understanding of how others around you may perceive your actions. To help improve your self-awareness, there are a number of self-assessments included in this chapter. Self-awareness contributes to our ability to effectively self-manage our behaviors. You are probably not going to change your fundamental personality type or the personalities of the people around you, but you can better understand what enhances your ability to work successfully with others in the organizational system.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-AWARENESS Self-awareness has been shown to be a consistent predictor of management performance in research across thousands of managers in a wide variety of organizations. The truth of the matter is that high-performing managers are more self-aware than average performers (Atwater, Waldman, & Brett, 2002). You cannot possibly get others to do what is needed if you do not have the self-awareness to gauge your impact on others. Knowing your real impact on others can help you avoid making costly mistakes. Managers who experience a major set-back or fail to reach full potential in their careers are commonly described as having derailed or gone off-track. To avoid this, you need to really know yourself to be effective in a variety of situations. This includes knowing what your true abilities are in relation to what is required by the job, as well as knowing when you are not good at something. These insights can also help you surround yourself with people who are strong in areas where you are not. Known weaknesses can be addressed or developed, but “blind spots” can be fatal to your career, and you may not know it until after you lose a sale, a promotion, or an employee. A blind spot is something about you or your behavior that you do not see and that impacts others in a negative manner or prevents you from achieving desired results. Sometimes a blind spot occurs when managers focus solely on the end result or stubbornly insist on doing things only one way. This can also be the case for the employees who work for you, so you need to help others see their blind spots as well. The goal of management is ultimately to get others to do what needs to be done in the organizational system, and it is not always about being right or wrong. Once you know yourself and how others react to you, you can better manage reactions and influence others to complete the tasks that need to be done. In fact, knowing how others perceive you can be critical to success in all walks of life. Exhibit 2-1 presents an example that demonstrates why this can be so important for managers, and we will revisit this example throughout the chapter.

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xhibit 2-1 Bill’s Story, Part I Bill works for a mid-size organization in the U.S. managing an IT group that handles custom software programming. He has outstanding technical skills and is usually the first to introduce innovative technical solutions. He has risen rapidly in the organization and now supervises a large department. He expects a lot from his employees and his department is one of the most productive and highly praised in the company. In spite of this track record, Bill does not know himself well enough to understand the impact he has on others. For example, he will yell when things do not go as planned and gets visibly upset when employees do not meet his high standards. He has lost some very talented employees, and others have complained about him to the Human Resources Department (most of them anonymously, for fear of reprisal). Bill does not understand the negative impact his temper has on others. One employee said he belittles the team and can make people feel “small” and worthless with his relentless criticism. Nothing ever seems good enough for Bill. Here is an example from a department meeting called to solve a problem with an incentive plan for online ordering. Here is how one employee described the meeting: Bill just lost it during the meeting. The assistant manager of Product Development, Joe, was trying to get the demo of the program to load, but the laptop kept freezing up. After a few minutes of waiting while Joe tried to figure out the problem—he had to reboot the computer several times and still encountered the problem—Bill jumped in. Bill assumed that the problem was due to incompetence and said, “If you don’t know what you are doing, let someone who does run the program!” in a condescending tone as he grabbed the computer and started to debug the program. After several minutes of Bill’s not-so-quiet cursing, Joe suggested that they try a different laptop. Bill dismissed the idea and shot back that if Joe knew anything about the system, he wouldn’t have screwed this one up and wasted everyone’s time. Bill continued to make derogatory statements about Joe for five minutes until someone brought in another laptop. It turned out that the original laptop did have a hardware problem, but the damage had been done. Bill was actually surprised when Joe resigned the next month and told him that he had a better offer from a competitor. In his exit interview, Joe compared Bill to a “bull in a china shop” and said that others might be leaving as well. Joe’s departure came at a critical juncture for the company. Susan, the vice president in charge of Administration, became concerned with the number of valued employees leaving to “pursue new opportunities” and decided it was time to have a talk with Bill. Susan had worked with Bill for a little over two years. Initially, she had been very impressed with his ability to get things done. However, the recent spike in turnover and rumors that Bill was merciless with anyone who complained led her to take action. With coaching and feedback over a six-month period, Bill gained awareness that his relentless drive for high performance and short fuse had an adverse impact on others. With support from Susan, he was able to turn things around before getting permanently derailed. The critical learning for Bill was that his anger, tirades, and general lack of patience so intimidated and even frightened some employees that his behavior was impacting his department’s performance. While some people may respond well to a direct and combative approach, it tends to turn off more people than it engages. This was certainly the case with Bill’s group. Until Bill got feedback from his manager, he was not aware of the full impact he had on other people. This was the classic blind spot that could have ruined his management career. Bill admitted to Susan that he had behaved this way for years because his first boss was very tough on him and Exhibit 2-1 continues on next page. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Exhibit 2-1 continued from previous page.  he thought that high standards would be as motivating for others as they had been for him. He also confessed that he probably was not ready to get this feedback until Susan stressed that teambuilding and retention—and not just the end results—would be critical parts of his performance review for the year.

BUILDING SELF-AWARENESS The goal of building self-awareness is to make our actions at work as deliberate and mindful as possible. Doing more of the same does not always work— even when those actions worked well in the past. Even managers who have acquired outstanding skills over time should seek to expand their repertoire so they can change course and choose appropriate actions when they encounter an unexpected negative reaction. First, we need to understand the different “frequencies” at which we operate to influence others. This is like knowing when to turn up the intensity and when to turn it down, but with more precision. Think of your different behaviors and abilities as frequencies on a stereo equalizer. If you only had a “volume” control before, now you will be able to selectively emphasize or deemphasize certain frequencies when you know what each one does and the impact it has on others. For example, you probably already know it is less effective to yell at someone to “pick up the pace” than to call them into the office to discuss, constructively and privately, why a project is late. Knowing that your behaviors have an impact on others is smart people-management, as well as good business practice.

Exercise 2-1 Self-Assessment on Self-Awareness INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

1. ____ People consistently describe me as a “people-person.” 2. ____ Co-workers and employees are willing to give me constructive feedback about my personal style. 3. ____ I am comfortable with myself. 4. ____ I know my strengths and my weaknesses. 5. ____ I recognize my emotions when they occur and not just “after the fact.” 6. ____ I know what “pushes my buttons” and can avoid over-reacting to people or situations. 7. ____ I understand the impact that my behavior may have on others. Exercise 2–1 continues on next page. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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Exercise 2-1 continued from previous page.  8. ____ I have a sense of humor about my own limitations and development areas and I take it all in stride. 9. ____ I find it easy to work with people I have just met. 10. ____ I understand my triggers for anger or frustration. Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 41-50: You probably have a very a good sense of self-awareness. Continue doing what you are currently doing and seek feedback to confirm your selfperceptions. 31-40: You probably have a good sense of self-awareness and should look for opportunities to receive feedback to continue to improve. You may be able to do more of some things and less of others to enhance your effectiveness. 30 or less: You could probably benefit from greater level of self-awareness and should actively work on finding people you trust to give you feedback on your behaviors and their impact on others. A skilled coach or trusted mentor can really help make improvements here.

Self-awareness is about recognizing our abilities, personality type, and preferences. It is also about knowing our strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and “hot buttons.” Developing self-awareness can help us to recognize conditions that may cause us to react ineffectively when stressed or under pressure. A realistic sense of self is also necessary for effective communication and interpersonal relations with others in the workplace. A good deal of research has been done on this topic under the name of emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence: Its Importance for Managers Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions effectively in ourselves and in our relationships (Goleman, 1998). Emotional intelligence is certainly not a new concept, but it does provide a useful way to differentiate self-awareness from other critical abilities such as self-regulation, social awareness, and social influence. The standard measure of academic intelligence, or the intelligence quotient (IQ), has little to do with emotional intelligence according to Daniel Goleman, one of the premiere thinkers in the field (Goleman, 1995). The focus of emotional intelligence is on knowing yourself, your emotions, your impact on others, and your true abilities and limitations. It is also about knowing how and when to express emotions rather than simply suppressing or controlling them. We all get angry and frustrated at times—that is only human. However, how we express our feelings and behaviors is within our control if we know what to look for and develop our capacity to respond appropriately. It takes a desire to improve, effort, and practice. This process is also greatly aided by honest feedback from others. Is there any evidence backing up the importance of emotional intelligence for managers? Absolutely, because emotional intelligence has been © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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found to be positively related to leader effectiveness (Carmeli, 2003; Rosete & Ciarrochi, 2005) and has even been shown to be related to effectiveness across cultures (Shipper, Kincaid, Rotondo, & Hoffman, 2003). Emotional intelligence is part of a broader competency that represents a learned ability to use our emotional intelligence in such a way as to improve job performance. The important thing to remember here is that this emotional competence is a learned ability, one that people can develop if they apply themselves. This is similar to people who are “book smart” and have to learn to apply their academic knowledge to the real world. While emotionally competent people are not guaranteed to be better managers, they are certainly in a favorable position to achieve this goal over time.

Think About It . . . Think about a current work situation where you are not as effective as you would like to be, and where you think you may not be understood by your employees or colleagues. Describe the situation and how having more specific feedback would help you understand why this is true.

We will come back to this situation later in the chapter for inclusion in your Action Plan.

What Motivates You? Understanding what motivates us is a key part of emotional intelligence and helps us to better understand our own (and others’) behavior. While we will go into much more detail on motivation in Chapter 3, a brief introduction is presented here. Psychologist David McClelland (1985) has defined three primary areas of human motivation as residing in our needs for affiliation, achievement, and power. How we understand and balance these needs can be critical to our management effectiveness (McClelland & Burnham, 2003). While people typically display a mix of these needs, one may be relatively higher than the others and serve to motivate us to a greater degree. • Managers with higher needs for affiliation seek to be liked and accepted by others. Decisions may be motivated more by social status than achieving goals of the organization. They tend to prefer jobs with lots of contact with people. Managers with higher needs for achievement strive for high levels of performance. Decisions may be motivated by the probability for goal success rather than by what others might think. They like regular feedback on their progress and prefer to work alone or with other high performers. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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Managers with higher needs for power tend to fall into one of two groups. One group desires personal power and likes to direct people. At the extreme, this need comes across as controlling and is often perceived negatively. Others desire institutional power and desire to organize the efforts of employees to achieve organizational objectives. Managers with a high need for institutional power can be more effective than those with a high need for personal power. As you might expect, people in senior roles tend to have a strong need for achievement. Successful leaders know what their primary motivation is and then purposefully adopt other strategies that complement and balance their strengths. These managers coach others to higher levels of performance, foster strong teams, and strive to improve the capacity of the entire organization (Spreier, Fontaine, & Malloy, 2006). In sum, their behaviors enhance the capacity of the organizational system to achieve desired results. The lesson for us is that we need to recognize which behaviors are desirable, incorporate these into our repertoire, and try to add new behaviors to complement our existing ones. This strategy should make us more well-rounded and decrease the likelihood that a strong need to achieve might overwhelm others. Exercise 2-2 can give you a sense of where you derive the most motivation in your work life.

Exercise 2-2 Motivational Assessment Rate the following nine statements using the three-point scale below. You can only use each rating three times. 1 2 3 Less Important Important Very Important How important at work is it that you: __ be liked __ are popular __ be known and respected by many people __ be successful __ accomplish important things yourself __ receive recognition for achieving important organizational goals __ get to decide which projects are undertaken __ can tell people what to do __ plan and direct the work of the organization

Affiliation Total ____

Achievement Total ____

Power Total ____

Interpreting your score: Add up the points for each area. The area that receives the most points is likely to be your strongest motivator. Be sure not to ignore the other two areas in your day-to-day management practices (see examples of these behaviors in the chapter). Knowing that other people appreciate these areas can help you to be better-rounded in your management approach.

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By now you have an understanding of the importance of self-assessment and the role of emotional intelligence in identifying your feelings and reactions to others. In the rest of the chapter, we will explore the following four steps to help you build on this understanding and increase your effectiveness in the workplace:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Gain a realistic view of yourself. Get honest feedback. Understand your personality type. Plan for meaningful development and to change behaviors if needed.

GAINING A REALISTIC VIEW OF YOURSELF A realistic view of our strengths and weaknesses is necessary to develop an accurate self-perception and determine where to focus our improvement efforts. It is helpful to use a variety of tools to help gauge and adjust our selfperceptions to keep them in tune with what others see.

What Is Your Self-Perception? To develop self-awareness, it is critical to have an accurate view of ourselves. The Johari Window is a framework designed to help us achieve that view, and was named after its creators Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (Luft, 1970). It is a human interaction model that is very useful for framing self-awareness and enhancing the accuracy of our self-perceptions. The four fundamental components of the Johari Window are the Public, Private, Blind Spot, and Unknown areas. Public The “public” area includes everything you know and understand about yourself and that other people know about you as well, such as your name, if you smile a lot, or if you are usually punctual. This knowledge includes feelings, behaviors, desires, and any other information that represents you. When you first meet someone you usually know very little about them, so this area is small. As you get to know a person, this public area increases in size as you gain more information. Much of what is known about you in the public area is information that you have voluntarily disclosed to others over time. Private The “private” area represents things that you know about yourself, but that others do not know. These are the things you know but choose not to share with others such as hurt feelings, anger, or jealousy. I have not told you that my favorite color is blue or that I love dark chocolate. This information remains private for as long as I keep it to myself. Blind Spot The “blind spot” represents all the things that others know about you, but that you are unaware of personally. These are things about you that others clearly AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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recognize but that you do not see yourself, such as the extremely loud person at a meeting who does not realize that people think he is loud and obnoxious. Until you tell people or give them feedback about something in this area, they cannot begin to address it. We may have blind spots in areas that are very important to our success. For example, you may notice that a co-worker never looks you in the eye and cuts you off in mid-sentence when speaking to you. The co-worker may not realize this behavior is causing you not to trust or like him, and that you avoid working on projects with him for this very reason. You can see the impact of this behavior quite clearly and therefore may even assume the person is doing it on purpose. Unknown The “unknown” area represents all the things that neither you nor others know about you, such as your unconscious thoughts or undiscovered preferences. We learn new things about ourselves all the time. For example, you may talk about a desire to try a new career direction with a friend. As you discuss the things you would like to do, a new awareness may emerge of what areas you would like to explore but had never considered in the past, such as becoming a professional chef or developing a consulting practice. When we encounter new situations, such as working on a project team or volunteering for a community event, we can uncover information previously unknown to ourselves or others.

Using the Johari Window Self-disclosure is the process of sharing information about yourself that others did not previously know. Done appropriately, this can serve to build trust and credibility. This is a give-and-take process with the people that you interact with at work. If you share something about yourself, such as moving information from your private arena to your public one, then hopefully the other person will reciprocate by sharing information with you. Self-disclosure can be very productive in building relationships as long as you are comfortable with the disclosures, so be sure to start small. It can be very effective to chat informally with employees, peers, and even superiors about hobbies, family, sports, travel, or other safe topics that demonstrate you are a person with interests outside work. More importantly, this opens the door for the other person to share with you and build a relationship. Be aware that everyone has a different threshold for what is considered too personal or too much information. As a general rule, do not tell people anything that you would not want revealed publicly at some other time. Take note of what others in your organization tend to talk about at lunch or on breaks and then match their level of disclosure. Exhibit 2-2 highlights a practical application of self-disclosure by a manager.

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xhibit 2-2 Bill’s Story, Part II Remember Bill from our case study? Imagine that you work with Bill. The common perception is that Bill can be very nice at first meeting, but that he becomes demanding and controlling when work had to be done. If he asked for your feedback on his performance, would you tell him the truth? Would you tell him the whole truth if you reported to him? Most people would probably not, and his employees certainly did not dare to tell him! Bill used the following self-disclosure technique after he had gone through a management workshop and was working on his professional development with a coach. During a half-day planning retreat with his staff, Bill told the story of his first boss, Harry. Harry was an ex-Marine who firmly believed that the strong survived and that employees should not be coddled. Because Bill was rather tough himself, he actually did well working for Harry, but it took several years of selfdoubt and working very long hours to get Harry to grudgingly admit that he had done something right. By contrast, Bill felt he was a much fairer boss because he did not fire someone the first time they made a mistake. Bill shared with his staff that while he did learn a lot from Harry, not all of it was good. By sharing a personal and relevant story with his staff, they got to know and understand him a little better as a person. Bill is still a tough boss, but he is learning when to be firm and when to cut people some slack. More importantly, his staff has begun to give him honest feedback about his management style and when he is doing things that work well!

We are often unaware of our blind spots until we get some honest feedback. At the most basic level, people operate like a heating and cooling system that cannot adjust the temperature up or down until it gets feedback from the thermostat. A signal must be sent before the heat or air-conditioning can be activated. Humans are obviously much more complex than a heating system, but we do rely on feedback so that we can act (or not act) in a particular situation. In the absence of information, we may be unaware that we are failing to do what is necessary. Establishing and maintaining feedback loops is absolutely essential to a manager’s success. Giving constructive feedback is hard, so we have to encourage and facilitate the process for others whenever possible. Finally, when we do have the opportunity to get feedback, we want to make sure it is in the areas that will do us the most good developmentally.

Think About It . . . Using the Johari Window model to frame your self-reflection, think about areas where you want to know more or receive guidance. List two or three areas connected to your ability to manage others in your organization for further exploration.

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What Should You Get Feedback On? Before discussing sources of feedback, you should be clear about the areas you want to address in your development. There are three general categories to think about before soliciting feedback: Abilities – What you need to be able to do to be competent at your job, often described as skills or competencies. We are sometimes judged by outcomes alone, so it is important to know if you are seen as effective. Ideally, our abilities are matched to the needs of the job. Behaviors – These are the specific actions you perform. Behaviors are critical because they are observable and can be seen and evaluated by others. Your behaviors can be modified and controlled on a day-to-day basis. You may want to know what should be emphasized and what you should cut back on. Perceptions – This is how others see you and can be the most subjective area. Perceptions may be judgments or attributions (such as your intent) about your actions. It does not matter if these are right or wrong, as this is “reality” for others, and can be crucial to your career. Generally, perceptions are directly connected to your behaviors and demonstrated abilities. Keep in mind that changes in perceptions may lag behind your behavioral changes for weeks or even months.

Think About It . . . Identify specific areas related to abilities, behaviors, or perceptions that you would like to get feedback on. Look back at the areas you identified on pages 26 and 30 to make sure these are related to a current management issue.

ENHANCING SELF-AWARENESS THROUGH THE USE OF FEEDBACK There are a number of potential sources of information about your abilities, behaviors, and the perceptions of others. Each source has advantages and disadvantages. Self-assessments are easy to obtain, but sometimes we do not see

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the whole picture. A good source of feedback is usually your boss, but even he or she may not see everything. Therefore, you should strive to expand your circle of feedback providers to include those people you work with on a regular basis. Be aware that some people may be reluctant to give us constructive feedback if it could be perceived as negative, because they do not want to hurt our feelings. One way around this is to get feedback from a trusted coach or mentor, which is a good way to ensure that the information is less filtered. Unfortunately, professional coaches can be expensive and good mentors can be hard to find. Two very good sources of information are multi-source feedback instruments and personality assessments, such as the DISC and MyersBriggs. These both have been shown to be very useful in developing managerial self-awareness (McCarthy & Garavan, 1999).

Multi-Source Feedback Multi-source feedback is often called 360-degree feedback. 360-degree feedback provides input from multiple sources, and can lead to much richer information than a self-assessment or feedback from just your boss. Getting feedback from multiple sources can help fill the gaps such as potential blind spots between how you see yourself and how others see you. Most people interact more frequently with co-workers than their boss, so it makes sense to get their input as well. One of the strongest features of 360-degree feedback is the ability to combine multiple assessments and contrast that data with your self-perception. Because feedback comes from a variety of sources, it will less likely be influenced or biased by one person. In addition, people tend to “manage up” and interact with the boss in a more cautious and self-flattering manner than they do with subordinates or peers. Thus, our managers do not always see us at our everyday work the same way direct reports, peers, or our customers do. A comprehensive 360-degree feedback assessment can provide good information on your current job performance (“How am I doing?”) and can shed some light on where you might need improvement (“What am I not doing so well?”). A good 360-degree instrument identifies the behaviors and skills that are most important to a person’s job, identifies strengths and development areas, and provides a clear picture of how different rater groups (such as the boss, co-workers, and direct reports) view your effectiveness. Unfortunately, this information is not always readily available and you may need to actively seek it out. Formal Versus Informal 360-Degree Feedback People sometimes use the term 360-degree feedback for any process that solicits input from more than just the boss. Be aware that feedback gathered informally may not be treated as confidential and that it could damage relationships if others are inadvertently identified or sensitive information is not handled properly. Therefore, it is recommended that you get a formal 360degree feedback assessment if possible. While there is nothing wrong with feedback on performance from multiple sources (I highly recommend it to managers whenever they are assessing performance), it is best to be clear about

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how the data will be collected and handled, and to protect confidentiality at all costs. There are many formal 360-degree feedback instruments available. Most require certified facilitators to manage the process and deliver the feedback. Poorly designed surveys can be detrimental to your development, so be well informed. Good 360-degree feedback survey instruments can cost as much as $200-400 each. The good news is that this type of formal assessment is usually only done every three to five years, so look at it as an investment. If your organization is willing to pay for a good 360-degree feedback assessment, you should jump at this opportunity for self-development. What to Look for in a Formal 360-Degree Feedback Instrument Look for the following characteristics in a 360-degree feedback instrument:

1. Easy to use. Look for assessments that focus on well-defined competencies and behaviors. No assessment will meet all your needs, but make sure that if you are trying to develop communication skills that the assessment being used will provide an adequate information in that area. Online assessments are the easiest to use. 2. Benchmarked data. A good instrument will be benchmarked against an appropriate database of comparable managers such as entry-level, mid-level, for-profit or non-profit, and so on. This will help you understand if a score of “3.5” on a five-point scale is actually pretty good or something you should work on right away. 3. Tested for reliability and validity. That is, it should measure what it says it measures, and should do so consistently across many different types of managers and organizations. 4. Confidentiality is maintained for participants. The common exception to this is that the “boss” rating is often a single score and can be identified. This is actually desirable in most cases as you usually want to know what your boss thinks about your performance and abilities. Just make sure that participants know what to expect in terms of confidentiality and that the survey providers are reputable (whether internal or external to your organization). Multi-source feedback is a great way to get feedback on how your recent behaviors or performance has been perceived by others. What if you want to dig a little deeper and see why you get along so well with some people and not others? The best way to learn about how people interact effectively and harmoniously with each other is by understanding a little about personality.

Personality Assessments Personality assessments can help you: 

• • • •

Understand yourself and your behaviors.  Identify areas for personal development.  Learn constructive approaches to problems.  Recognize individual differences in the behavior of others.

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People have been trying to figure out why we do what we do for thousands of years. Unfortunately, psychology is not a science like physics or chemistry, where there is only one exact answer to a question. Thus, the answer to the question, “What is my personality?” may contain many shades of gray. The good news is that personality in adults tends to be fairly stable. Some people think personality may be a result of innate traits. This is partially true, but many aspects of our personality are also acquired throughout our lives. The bottom line is, even though we may have a biological or learned preference, our behavior is always within our control. Personality assessments can be very helpful, but they are not an absolute determination of a person. Measures of personality are often self-assessments, so you have to be honest! Your results are useful only if they accurately reflect your personality and how you behave in most typical work situations. Many different types of assessments are available, but the most popular and useful assessments are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the DISC. The MBTI is the most widely recognized personality assessment in the world. It popularized the terms introvert and extrovert. Jung also identified four psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting. We all use each of the functions, but in different proportions. The official MBTI is only available through qualified facilitators. We recommend that you take the MBTI if you get the opportunity. Personal Styles and the DISC DISC assessments have two dimensions and four basic styles as represented in Exhibit 2-3. The AMA DISC Survey from the American Management Association was developed by Human Synergistics and the language from that assessment is also represented in the model. The first distinction is that some people can be identified as more assertive; they actively try to change the situation. Others can be considered more reserved and tend to accept the situation as it is. These two groups can be further divided into people and task categories to describe people in terms of how open to experience and others they are.

Personal style as measured by the DISC assessment has the following characteristics:

• • •

We have preferred primary and secondary styles, but use all four styles. Each style has strengths but also weaknesses if used to an extreme. Each style has preferences in terms of organization, delegation, communication, and cooperation.

Dominance/Directing:

•

People with a strong “D” style tend to be very direct in dealing with problems and challenges. They can be perceived as demanding, strong-willed, controlling, self-centered, assertive, determined, competitive, and pioneering. They tend to be decisive, and drive for action and results. They prefer realistic, pragmatic people in an efficient work setting.

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xhibit 2-3 DISC Model DISC assessments generally have the following two dimensions and four styles (the AMA assessment dimensions and styles are indicated in parentheses):

More Assertive (Change-Oriented) Dominance (Directing)

Influence (Influencing)

More Closed (Task-Oriented)

More Open (People-Oriented) Conscientiousness (Contemplative)

Steadiness (Supportive)

More Reserved (Acceptance-Oriented)

•

People with low “D” scores like to do their homework before committing to any course of action. They tend to be more conservative, cooperative, laid-back, cautious, non-confrontational, agreeable, modest, and may even be seen as passive.

Influence/Influencing:

• •

People with a strong “I” style tend to talk more, gravitate towards social situations, display emotions easily, and try to influence others. They are often seen as very enthusiastic, convincing, opinionated, persuasive, warm, expressive, trusting, and optimistic. People with low “I” scores may try to influence others with logic, data, and facts. They are more reserved, thoughtful, critical, matter of fact, and may even be seen as pessimistic.

Steadiness/Supportive:

• •

People with a strong “S” style tend to prefer consistency and stability, and do not like sudden change. They tend to be calm, patient, predictable, thoughtful, deliberate, and less emotional. People with low “S” scores tend to like change and different experiences. They are often described as restless, impatient, energetic, and may even be seen as impulsive. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Conscientious/Contemplative:

• • •

People with a strong “C” style tend to adhere to rules, regulations, and typically like structure and organization. They prefer to do things right the first time and value quality work. They tend to be careful, cautious, organized, systematic, diplomatic, accurate, and tactful. People with a low “C” score may question the rules and act independently. They are often described as stubborn, opinionated, unsystematic, and may even be seen as lacking detail orientation. A common misunderstanding is that a person can be adequately described by a single style (D, I, S, or C). This is not true, as everyone possesses all these characteristics in varying degrees. As with the MBTI, the true value of this tool comes from knowing our style relative to others we interact with at work. These differences in style can give us important clues about how people approach their work and relate to others within the organization. Make an effort to take a DISC assessment. The AMA DISC Survey is available online at www.amanet.org.

Guidelines for Using Personality Assessments No matter which personality assessment you decide to use, be sure to follow these guidelines when evaluating your results (or those of your employees and co-workers):

1. Personality type is not a simple yes/no or on/off condition. 2. People tend to be a mix and we all differ in the strength of our preferences. Get to know the person’s abilities and motivations.

3. Personality can explain some, but not all human behavior. 4. Scores on any personality assessment do not indicate a person’s skill level or ability in a particular area. Competence is separate from personality. 5. Personality assessments are not designed or effective for hiring or promotion decisions. 6. Whenever possible, have a trained professional administer the assessment, facilitate feedback, and manage team-building sessions. 7. Above all, be sure to avoid labeling or stereotyping people based on personality. The goal of seeking feedback is to determine where it makes sense to change things. Discovering how others see us, how we see ourselves, and where our strengths reside are some great first steps. However, these insights will be useless if we cannot translate our newfound wisdom into meaningful and sustained personal change as a result. Having an understanding of how personal change actually occurs in individuals can help us better ensure that our change efforts will be successful.

PROCESS OF PERSONAL CHANGE Why do some people seem to change in response to feedback and barely miss a beat, while others seem to struggle with ineffective behaviors for a long time? Is there a common trigger for personal change? A “yes” answer to the AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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xhibit 2-4 Personal Change Process

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Awareness

Understanding

Acceptance

Commitment

Action

Source: Reis Consulting (2007).

question, “When the pain of staying the same is greater than the perceived cost of changing,” is the trigger for many individuals. The stages that people go through in the personal change process are fairly consistent and are depicted in Exhibit 2-4. This model is valuable in understanding how people can make meaningful and sustained changes in their lives.

Five Steps to Achieving Change We will go through a step-by-step description of the process of achieving change and follow a hypothetical example along the way. After familiarizing yourself with the steps, take a look at Exhibit 2-5 for an example of a real world application of this change process. The first two steps are where feedback on past behaviors can be most helpful.

1. Awareness – This is the fundamental step of realizing who are we and how are we perceived. • Example: Juan was told that Rhonda, a new co-worker from another department he had just met last week, thought he was rude at their last project meeting. He is now aware of her perception, but he does not know why she feels that way.

2. Understanding – This step has to do with the knowledge of causality. That is, seeing how our behavior impacts others and causes them to have certain perceptions. • Rhonda thought Juan was rude because he hurried out of the room and did not come over to say “hello” at the end of the meeting. Juan tends to be a little shy and normally does not engage in friendly chitchat until he gets to know someone (usually over the course of several months). He now understands Rhonda is more social than he is and she may have taken it the wrong way when he did not make an effort to say “hello”. TIP: Coaches or trusted colleagues can be a tremendous help with the first two steps.

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3. Acceptance – This is the acknowledgement that a behavior is something within your power to change or influence. • Juan accepts that his behavior was interpreted as a slight by Rhonda. He knows that in order to work well with Rhonda on the project team he is going to have to make an effort to get to know her more quickly than he might otherwise.

4. Commitment – This is the promise or resolve to make a genuine effort to change behaviors that are within your control. • Juan decides that he really needs to make this project a success and makes a commitment to chat with the new team members so that they can get to know each other better. TIP: We generally need to accept that the areas that need to be improved are actually within our control. In addition, we have to make the commitment to actually change! Steps 3 and 4 can only be performed by the individual considering making the change. We can get lots of advice on how to do it, but we have to actually believe it is within our power to change and then make the mental promise to follow through.

5. Action – This is what you actually do and what others can observe. Actions need to be sustained over time for other people to view them as representing a real change. • Juan makes sure to say “hello” to Rhonda the next time he sees her and asks if she has plans for the long weekend. He feels a little uncomfortable at first, but her warm response quickly puts him at ease. The following week at the project meeting, he makes sure to say “hello” at the beginning of the meeting and ask how her trip to the lake had been. His action was both deliberate and sincere.

xhibit 2-5 Bill’s Story, Part III Personal change will not occur until we take action on the intended areas. Let’s come back to our manager, Bill. In the beginning of his management career, Bill had little, if any, awareness that others were not motivated by his management style. Only after the loss of several valued employees and intervention from his vice president was Bill able to increase his understanding of the impact his behavior was having in his department. He also had to understand that not everyone had the “thick skin” that he claimed to have and believed was so important for success. In actuality, Bill was upset that people took his behaviors and tactics in a way that was not intended. This understanding and desire to improve his effectiveness led to an acceptance that he was responsible for his behaviors and a commitment to work on those areas where he needed development. This did not mean that he abandoned his belief that a top-down management style was the most efficient, but he now realized it was not effective with everyone. With support from his vice president and the assistance of an outside coach, Bill was able to make a plan for development based on the areas identified through 360 degree feedback and other assessment tools. He took action and saw noticeable results over the next year. He now incorporates the DISC assessment in his team-building activities.

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xhibit 2-6 Steps to Competence 1. Unconscious Incompetence

2. Conscious Incompetence

We do not know that we are not good at things we have not tried to do yet.

3. Conscious Competence

4. Unconscious Competence

With mastery of a We try something With practice, we new skill or new and become become better, but behavior, we no acutely aware that we still have to think longer need to we cannot do it very about how to do it actively think about well at first. each time. how to do it.

Achieving Change over Time Have you committed now to making some real change? If so, great! In this chapter, we have presented some tools and information to help with this critically important process. Now you need to take action. Do not be discouraged if the first time you try something it does not go as well as you hoped. Things that are worth changing take time and dedication on your part. You cannot learn to be a master guitar player or an inspirational public speaker overnight, so give yourself some time. It takes practice and guidance. You will go through some predictable steps as you are learning. Exhibit 2-6 describes the steps need to become proficient at a new behavior. For example, if you have never tried downhill skiing, you may not know that you are not good at it when you first go out on the mountain. This is called unconscious incompetence. You head to the mountains and rent some skis. The first time you try to stand up on a ski slope you may be surprised to discover that you are not proficient at this new activity. You become painfully aware that you do not have the right muscle coordination to keep your balance. This is conscious incompetence. After a few days of lessons and practice, you have confidence that you can get on and off a chairlift without falling and even navigate the “bunny slope” with a fair degree of skill. You might even begin to enjoy it! However, you still think very purposefully about shifting your weight, bending your knees, and keeping your poles out of the way of your skis. This is conscious competence. After a few seasons, you may be cruising down the slopes and daydreaming about other things. This is unconscious competence. However, when you come to a really steep section, you may temporarily be transported back to the conscious competence level where you need to think about precise edge transfers and where your center of gravity is relative to your skis. Once the trail becomes a little more predictable, you go back to your effortless cruising. The point is that you may actually be less effective at doing things while you are learning and acquiring new skills and behaviors. That is why having feedback and a safe place to practice is really an advantage. If you want to get better at public speaking, would you want to try out new techniques and lan© American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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guage at an important meeting with your company’s president and CEO, or would you rather try them out in the supportive environment of the local Toastmasters Club meeting? Clearly, you want to be able to practice when the stakes are not so high and you can get constructive feedback. We all are new to something at some time. If you never try anything new, then you will never be able to expand your skill set. Start small and identify areas that are most meaningful to you and your career.

ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development that will help you manage more effectively in your organization:

What three development areas do you feel are most important to receive feedback on? List them here (refer back to Exercises 2-1 and 2-2).

List three goals for developing self-awareness and indicate what stage you are currently at for each.

What tools or resources are available to help you achieve these goals?

Identify at least two people you feel can provide you with honest feedback on your development areas.

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Self-awareness is one of the foundational elements of successful management and essential to emotional competence, but it does not necessarily come without some hard work. The most effective way to build a broad emotional competency is recap to take what we know about ourselves and translate it into effective behaviors and actions with the people with whom we work. Part of your emotional competency comes from knowing what motivates you and how this may differ from the motivations of others. Self-assessments on your personality such as the DISC and MBTI can aid tremendously in the process of self-discovery. Only by understanding our personality and preferences relative to others can we begin to leverage these differences to the benefit of ourselves and our employees alike. Receiving honest feedback can give us critical insights into how others may perceive our actions in the workplace. By having a realistic picture of what others see, we can understand and more effectively manage the impact we have on others. This is absolutely critical if we are to manage others in the pursuit of organizational objectives. The only way to achieve clarity on our impact is by getting feedback from multiple sources. Multi-source assessments such as 360-degree feedback are invaluable for uncovering any blind spots or development areas we might need to address. If available, coaches, mentors, and trusted colleagues are also good sources. Once we have received feedback, we need to figure out what most matters to us. The areas that cause us the most pain tend to be the areas that we are motivated to incorporate into our development plans and take action on. Having an action plan identified with reliable sources of feedback is a good first step. Having a coach or mentor to work with is a good follow-up step.

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Review Questions

1. Self-awareness and emotional competency are important because:

1. (c)

(a) managers who are well-liked tend to be the most effective. (b) organizations value and promote emotionally stable managers. (c) managers need to have a realistic sense of their impact on others to be effective. (d) research shows that these contribute to job satisfaction.

2. When gaining a realistic view, the “blind-spot” in self-perception

2. (d)

represents: (a) the things you know other people cannot see in you. (b) your good behaviors that co-workers do not recognize. (c) all the things that other people know about you. (d) the things others know about you, but that you are unaware of.

3. Self-awareness is about recognizing our:

3. (b)

(a) desire to influence others in the organization. (b) abilities, personality type, and preferences. (c) need to achieve strategic objectives through our employees. (d) desire and abilities to direct the efforts of others without being perceived as controlling.

4. Two good sources of information for enhancing self-awareness, beyond

4. (d)

what your boss already provides, are: (a) the Human Resources Department and your close friends. (b) free Internet surveys and the organizational grapevine. (c) trusted colleagues and family members. (d) multi-source feedback and personality assessments.

5. The process of personal change model includes the following steps: (a) discussion, admission, transition, and action. (b) awareness, understanding, acceptance, commitment, and action. (c) perception, contracting, implementation, revision, and review. (d) accountability, behaviors, contracting, development, and effectiveness.

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5. (b)

3 Motivation: What Inspires People to Do What They Do? Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Discuss the role of motivation at work. • Describe how motivation theories can be ap• •

plied to individuals you supervise. Evaluate how the theories in this chapter complement or contradict one another for application in your workplace. Explain the management implications of needs and process theories of motivation in practical terms.

INTRODUCTION What motivates people? What are our inner workings—those ill-defined, sometimes unconscious “things” that motivate us to behave the way we do? Everyone wants something. People have agendas; they want to know what is in it for them. People have been said to “get motivated” and people also “find motivation” in the things they do at work. Some people want money, some want fame, and others want power. Some people want all three. Others are motivated by more humble things such as satisfaction in a job well done, family, or compassion. Human motivation is very complex. If you like simple answers wrapped neatly in a box, you will not find them by exploring this topic. We behave the way we do—towards our employees and bosses—because of our personalities, our value systems, our unique past experiences, the jobs we have, the people with whom we work, and the organizations in which we work. However, by understanding the fundamentals of motivation, managers can systematically engineer jobs and work environments to be more motivating. What is really important for us to understand is that motivation is not © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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something you have or do not have. Motivation is not a fixed trait, but is more a transitory state that people experience at varying levels depending on the situation. Have you ever felt unmotivated to get out of bed to go to work early in the morning, but bounced out of bed at the same time when your vacation started? Do you sometimes look forward to a boring project when it is with co-workers you like and avoid interesting work with co-workers you are less fond of ? These are examples of how motivation can vary, depending on the situation or the task. A wide range of theories on motivation have been proposed over the years. Some theorists believe we need to focus on what motivates us (our needs); others focus on how we are motivated (the process). While there is no one theory that is always right, motivation theories can help you manage the individuals in your work group more effectively. If you can help increase the motivation of your employees, your employees’ productivity is likely to increase as well. We do not directly motivate others because motivation comes from within and no external force can really make an employee want to behave a certain way. However, we can indirectly help people improve their motivation levels. This practical application of theory will be the focus of this chapter.

HOW DOES MOTIVATION COME INTO PLAY AT WORK? What motivates people to work is complex; we have to assume that most people enjoy some part of their work or get something out of it beyond just a paycheck. While some people may find greater motivation in their work than others, your job as a manager is to find what is motivating for your employees and to do what you can to help them stay motivated. For some employees, this will be easy and require little more than feedback and recognition from time to time. For others, it will be a struggle to get them to respond favorably to any of your attempts and you may wonder why they are in the job in the first place. The strategies in this chapter will not make a difference with employees who are clearly a poor fit for the job or organization. However, for the vast majority of employees, a working knowledge of motivation will help you position things, allocate work, and communicate with employees in a way that allows them to discover the motivational aspects of the job that resonate for them.

Can a Manager Really Influence Human Behavior? The answer is yes! While you cannot control people or change what motivates them, you can influence their behavior by understanding what motivates them. It should be made clear up front that punishment is not a motivator. People will almost always avoid punishment such as warnings, sanctions, fines, suspensions, or termination, but this sort of management by intimidation is not the same as motivating employees. Some managers think that being feared is a sign of effective managerial motivation. It is not! What happens when the manager is not there or moves to another job? Will these employees who were doing things solely out of fear—and not because they were motivated—be AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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likely to continue their behavior? As this is not very likely, you need to identify and focus on enhancing those parts of the job that employees find motivating.

Motivation in the Organizational System From a systems perspective, what most organizations really care about at the end of the day is the job performance of employees. If jobs within the organizational system can be enhanced or enriched so that they are inherently more interesting, then we should seek to do so across the board whenever possible. At the individual level, job performance is primarily a result of an employee’s ability (skill) and motivation (will). That is, performance = skill + will. Asking the simple question, “Is it a matter of skill or a matter of will?” can quickly differentiate between a lack of motivation and need for training in your employees. Knowing how to do something has to do with competence or having the knowledge, skills, and ability to get the job done. A lack of competence needs to be identified in the performance management process and addressed appropriately through training. Motivation is the voluntary application of a particular ability to get the job done. Ideally, you have employees who want to be in the jobs they are in, and these roles clearly support your organization’s mission. It is likely that many employees may not feel they have their dream job, but hopefully the work itself has some interest for them. Your task is to find those things that are appealing from a motivational standpoint and start by enhancing them. For example, jobs that require interacting with customers, solving problems, serving the public, fixing things, being creative, collaborating on a team, or are intellectually challenging are often motivating. Motivation results from the right combination of individual, task, and environmental factors. The right level of challenge for the individual is required. While managers are only responsible for their employees’ behavior and results at work, managers need to have some level of understanding about what their employees think and feel to get them to perform actions that move the organization toward the successful achievement of goals. Now that we know that motivation can be influenced, let’s take a closer look at it.

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION Robbins (2005) defines motivation as “the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal.” We will limit our discussion to motivation as it pertains to the goals of an organization. (People may be motivated by other goals, such as climbing mountains or painting landscapes, but these tasks are usually not required in the organizations most people work in.) Performance on organizational goals is a result of how hard someone may try (intensity), what he or she is focusing his or her energies on (direction), and how long he or she will keep at it (persistence). Managers want to influence employees’ intensity and persistence in achieving organizational goals and motivation theory can help us do just that!

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Integrating Motivation Theories for Application in the Real World Motivation can be powerful stuff, especially when it gets employees to do what is needed without the manager constantly looking over their shoulders. The ideal situation is one where employees manage themselves much of the time towards the achievement of organizational goals. Central to an employee’s ability and willingness to self-manage are their feelings of competence and self-control (Neck & Houghton, 2006). Thus, our goal as managers is not to control, but to inspire employees toward better self-management to produce higher performance. The only way to effectively achieve this across large numbers of employees is to have them exercise the degree of self-direction and self-motivation necessary to perform. This fits in nicely with the systems perspective as it requires managers to share information and responsibility. We will cover those topics in more detail in subsequent chapters. Early theories focused only on behaviors and accomplishing tasks. However, an early breakthrough idea—at least for the 1940’s and 1950’s business world—was that people will continue to do things that are followed by pleasurable or beneficial consequences. This concept of contingent reward such as getting paid or getting a good grade for a class is alive and well in the work world today. However, many of the early motivation studies were primarily concerned with extrinsic motivators (tangible – money, and intangible – praise). While it is true that people need to work to earn money, it is not always a primary motivator for completing the day-to-day work on the job. Many of these pioneering efforts have been incorporated into later theories and have influenced learning and management practices in terms of reinforcement and reward. Reinforcement of those things that people find motivating, whether that is public praise, more money, control of a project, or more vacation time, is certainly something organizations want to continue to do. Pay for performance, variable pay, quality incentives, and other structured reinforcement plans are all in existence because of the early work on reinforcement and learning. If it is valued by the employee, then we should work to appropriately incorporate those “rewards” into the overall strategy to get the employee doing what needs to be done. Rewards such as salaries, bonuses, commissions, benefits, and so forth are all extrinsic motivators. They certainly are necessary for general motivation, but they not always sufficient to increase a person’s motivation to do something beyond the minimum requirements. Intrinsic rewards are things that workers experience from doing the work, such as pride, sense of accomplishment, and satisfaction in a job well done. Self-management, where employees do the right things without being told, is the goal and is most easily brought about when the work itself is intrinsically motivating. In the past, behavior was thought to be controlled by the external environment. Thomas (2002) refers to this period as the “psychology of the compliance era . . .[and] managers experienced themselves as thinking human beings but were advised to think of workers as unthinking creatures whose behavior needed to be controlled with rewards and punishment.” In the factories of yesteryear, it may have been possible to watch over everything a worker did and provide monetary incentives for specific aspects

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of the work, but this is not so with today’s knowledge worker. Managers must find ways to ensure the necessary work gets done by having motivated employees who take the initiative to figure things out independently. A greater emphasis needs to be placed on employee self-management, where they maintain their own self-direction and self-motivation necessary to perform at high levels. The four building blocks that enable self-management are:

1. Competence – employees know how to do the job (ideally it is a challenging and engaging task). Train them when necessary. 2. Empowerment – employees are involved and feel that their input matters. Give them autonomy when possible. 3. Relevance – employees understand their tasks as part of a whole job in context of greater vision and are hopefully inspired by this vision. Explain the importance of their work in the system. 4. Feedback – employees know how they are doing in terms of progress and performance. Measure and recognize achievements and milestones along the way. We can use these building blocks as a framework for assessing whether a job or position allows the employee a sense of empowerment, relevance, and feedback, and whether it allows the employee to use his or her competencies. We can then focus on the potential for increasing intrinsic motivation by enhancing these aspects that enable self-management. Obviously this is not possible for all employees in all situations, but managers can help structure jobs and tasks so that motivation is more likely to occur. We will use these building blocks in combination with the knowledge of what motivates the individual employees we supervise.

Exercise 3-1 Evaluate a Job INSTRUCTIONS: Evaluate a job in your area in terms of the building blocks of self-management. Describe the actions that can be taken to enhance the motivational potential of the job. Job You Are Evaluating: _________________________________________________________

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Exercise 3-1 continued from previous page.  Building Block

Action

Empowerment – Does the employee have autonomy and discretion? If not, what can you do to enhance? Competence – Does the employee have the skills necessary to do the job? If not, what sort of training is needed? Relevance – Does the employee see the importance of their role or task in the big picture? If not, how can you help him or her obtain a greater understanding of this? Feedback – Does the employee know when the job has been done correctly? Are there ways to get more timely feedback to the employee?

Why Are There So Many Different Theories of Motivation? The truth of the matter is that there is usually no single cause for why we or our employees do things. The four building blocks of self-management only allow us to structure the task so that it might be motivating in general, but we need to better understand the actual worker to truly influence motivation. That is, it is the interaction of the individual person, the situation, and the task that will determine behavior at any given point. The good news is that we can identify most of the major factors involved, and these are captured by the following two types of motivation theories:

1. Needs Theories. What internal needs motivate a person? Some of this may be personality- or trait-based, while some are based on deeply-held values. The essence is that these are stable, internalized needs or desires. 2. Process Theories. How does motivation occur cognitively and what aspects of the situation or goal motivate people? What are people thinking? Emotions can be included here because they impact a person’s thought process. Needs and process theories complement one another and can be used in conjunction to explain behavior more fully. That is, if we know what the motivational needs are for a person in general such as working with others on a team rather than solitary tasks, then we can try to structure the task environment to allow the person more time to do these things and give them goals that are optimally challenging. In addition, for a specific person we can apply our knowledge of process theories and set clear goals. This process needs to be informed by meaningful discussion with employees to tailor it further. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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xhibit 3-1 Summary of Motivation Theories

Theorist / Theory

Summary

Needs Theories McClelland’s Need for Affiliation, Achievement, and Power

People generally favor one of three types of motivational needs: achievement, affiliation, or power. The person may have desires for all of these; however, people tend to prefer one over the others. The goal is to match an employee’s needs to the job tasks and requirements.

Herzberg’s Motivation Model

People are motivated by two distinctly different factors: maintenance factors that keep people from becoming dissatisfied at work and motivators that propel people to be productive. Managers need to focus on the motivators while still ensuring maintenance factors are adequate.

Process Theories Expectancy Approach

People are motivated by work activities they find attractive and that they feel they can accomplish. The attractiveness of work activities depends on the extent to which the person expects his or her actions to lead to favorable results and on the person’s perceptions.

Social Cognitive

People are motivated when they feel that they have the ability and the desire to complete a task. Self-efficacy is a product of cognitive processes and emotions within the individual. Self-efficacy has a powerful motivational effect on task performance.

Exhibit 3-1 summarizes the motivation theories covered in this chapter that can be applied in the work setting. Motivation theory can be used to improve individual performance, develop interventions, and structure work environments such as job design and incentive programs.

Needs Theories Needs theories focus on what motivates people in general. These theories answer the questions: What specific kinds of needs do people have? What propels people to act as they do? Needs theorists believe that if you can learn and understand the factors that motivate people to behave in specific ways, you can predict how they will behave and motivate them by changing factors in the work environment. Needs theories do not explain why specific actions are © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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taken in different situations. People choose to pursue certain goals and not others, and theories cannot be used to predict these exactly. Individual differences play a role, so get to know your employees. Needs theories make a number of assumptions about human nature:

1. People have inner needs that they desire to meet or reduce. People act to satisfy or to reduce these needs. Take providing caring and respectful customer service as an example. One employee might act pleasantly because he knows if the customer buys the product he will receive a bonus. Another employee might act pleasantly because she desires to be liked. Both employees behave as the organization wants, but both employees are acting to fulfill very different needs—financial (or security) needs versus acceptance (or social) needs. 2. Because every person is different, each person’s needs are different. The difficult role of a manager is to figure out each employee’s unique needs and value system and then to help the employee to satisfy those needs. This process becomes complicated because the manager also has unique needs and values; it can be difficult for a manager to understand and empathize with an employee who has needs and values that are opposite from his or her own. 3. How each person translates needs into actions differs from person to person. One employee who has a high need for affiliation or belonging might meet the need by joining a number of task forces and committees; another person with the same need might strive to work closely with employees in her department and choose specifically not to reach outside of her work group. Both employees have the same need to belong, but each fulfills it differently. 4. People react differently in different situations when their needs are not met. Some people may become irrational, feel frustrated, be resigned to not getting what they want, or act more determined to fulfill their needs by figuring out a different way to satisfy their needs. McClelland’s Need Theory We were introduced to McClelland’s (1985) proposed areas of human motivation—the need for affiliation, achievement, and power—in Chapter 2. How we understand and balance these three needs can be critical to management effectiveness (McClelland & Burnham, 2003). While people typically display a mix of these needs, one need may be relatively higher than the others and serve to motivate us to a greater degree. Need for Affiliation. The need for affiliation is the desire to develop and maintain friendly social and professional relationships. Employees with higher needs for affiliation seek to be liked and accepted by others. Decisions may be motivated more by social status than achieving goals of the organization. They tend to prefer jobs with lots of contact with people and communicate frequently. They may avoid conflict and look for compromise. Need for Achievement. The need for achievement is the desire to perform challenging tasks well. It is the desire to excel or reach a goal that supports a specific set of standards. Employees with higher needs for achievement probably are not as worried about what people think about them. They want to

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perform at high levels and may even avoid high-risk situations where success is not likely. They like feedback on their progress and prefer to work alone or with other capable performers. People with a high need for achievement prefer taking personal responsibility for a variety of complex and engaging tasks. Need for Power. The need for power is the desire to strongly influence others. Employees with higher needs for power tend to fall into one of two groups. One group desires personal power and likes to direct people. At the extreme, the need comes across as controlling and is often perceived negatively. The other group desires institutional power and wants to organize the efforts of others to achieve organizational objectives. Employees with a high need for institutional power can be more effective than those with a high need for personal power. They can be strong communicators, enjoy an audience, and are willing to take risks. They like the power that leadership positions offer. The major implication of McClelland’s theory is that managers should strive to match employees to the job tasks. For example, it might be a poor fit to hire a person who has a high need for affiliation into a position as an accounting assistant doing work alone in the back office. This person might perform better as a customer service representative. The only way to really know is to discuss the job role candidly with the person. Exercise 3-2 can help you identify your employees’ primary needs and what roles they might find most motivating.

Exercise 3-2 Identifying Needs In Your Employees Identify the primary needs of employees who work for you or with you. If you are not sure, take them to lunch or coffee and chat with them. What are some things you could do to make their work situation more motivating?

Need

Person

Strategy

Achievement Recognition Power

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Model At one point, the prevailing wisdom in the business world was that the “kick in the pants” philosophy of motivation was effective. This is essentially using fear of punishment, which may work in the short run, but does not activate long-lasting intrinsic motivation. In an effort to advance business practices, © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Herzberg (1987) conducted research and found that there are two distinct types of factors that either motivate people or keep people from becoming dissatisfied. Factors that motivate people or give job satisfaction are called motivators. In essence, job satisfaction comes from actual achievement of a task and the work itself, whereas job dissatisfaction arises from other aspects of the work environment. Herzberg theorized that it is not enough simply to remove the causes of dissatisfaction by improving the working environment; managers also need to offer employees the opportunity for intrinsically motivating work. To motivate people, rather than just to prevent them from becoming unhappy, managers need to focus on the job content, or intrinsically motivating factors. The top four motivators Herzberg found are:

• • • •

Achievement Recognition Work itself Responsibility

To keep people from becoming dissatisfied—to prevent the loss of performance—managers need to also ensure maintenance factors are in adequate supply. The top four maintenance factors are:

• • • •

Policies and administration Supervision Relationship with supervisors Work conditions

What about salary? It was fifth on the list of maintenance factors. Many managers would argue that pay and benefits motivate people. Herzberg contends that compensation and benefits, as extrinsic factors, only keep people from becoming unhappy. If these factors are present in adequate amounts, adding to them does not result in more motivation (although workers certainly might be happy to get them, they would not necessarily be more motivated). Research supports this, as Bassett-Jones and Lloyd (2005) found that money and recognition are not top motivators for employees to participate in efforts to improve the organization. They found that motivators associated with intrinsic rewards outweighed financial inducement. Organizations that rely solely on economic rewards put themselves in a no-win situation. In today’s economic environment, pay increases only hold off dissatisfaction. Thus, we should focus on the job itself and the factors that are intrinsically motivating to employees. One way managers, and organizations as systems, can put the focus on motivators is to enrich the jobs—that is, to have employees share responsibilities that used to be limited to supervisors. Examples include adding interviewing duties to a personnel assistant’s job, having a staff accountant prepare a presentation to senior management, or asking a machine operator to supervise two other junior machine operators. When you want to enrich an employee’s job, try to increase the employee’s accountability for his or her own work, grant greater job freedom, provide regular feedback on progress, and introduce new and more difficult tasks that AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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enable the employee to become an expert. While you focus on these motivators, diligently ensure the continuation of appropriate maintenance factors such as pay increases, improved benefits, and fair and reasonable personnel policies.

Think About It . . . What motivates you on the job? What factors keep you from becoming dissatisfied? Does your manager know this about you? Make it a point to communicate with him or her.

Process Theories Process theories focus on how people are motivated and what goals motivate them. Process theorists believe that needs are just one part of why an individual behaves the way he or she does. The underlying assumption is that if you can understand why you act the way you do, you will be able to be more goaldirected. The goal itself, not specifically a certain need, becomes a motive for your behavior. Managers who understand this theory can set goals accordingly. This is also a critical element of systems thinking, as individual employees need to have their goals and jobs aligned with the organization’s purpose. Expectancy Theory According to the expectancy theory, the effort exerted to reach a goal is a function of the perceived likelihood that the goal can be achieved and that a reward will be obtained. A person will be motivated toward accomplishing the goal if the goal has value to that person. The expectancy approach is based on an individual’s perspective and perception, and not on the value the manager or organization may put on the goal. For instance, imagine that you must prepare a presentation for your manager. If you expect to be rewarded for using a new software program to prepare a presentation, then you will learn to use it. But if you expect that the new program will be a waste of time because you need to first learn how to use it, and if you think that your boss will criticize you for wasting time, then you will probably prepare the report as you always have in the past. In the latter case, your desire to avoid criticism is stronger than your desire for recognition. In both instances your expectations influenced your behavior.

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Expectancy theory suggests that people ask themselves a series of questions:

1. What are the expectations and assumptions in the situation? Using the example above, you might expect that you will be recognized if you use the new software to prepare the presentation. You also might expect that if you waste time you will be criticized. 2. What goal does the person prefer and how strong is his or her desire? Using our example, you might prefer not being criticized for taking too long to prepare the presentation rather than receiving recognition for using the new software. 3. How will the person react? In our example, you will choose not to use the new software so that you will not be criticized for taking too much time to prepare the report. In essence, people decide among alternative behaviors based on their expectations that these behaviors will lead to desired outcomes. If you believe that certain consequences will happen, if you are interested in reaching the goal, and if the level of difficulty to achieve the goal is acceptable to you, then you will be motivated to act. Different employees will have different expectations determined by their individual perceptions and values, desire for a specific outcome, and effort they choose to expend. As a manager, you need to help clarify what the potential outcomes are for employees. You should work hard to articulate your own assumptions and to discuss the employees’ assumptions. Once you establish your desired goals and learn what your employees value most, then you can let the employees know the “game plan” so they will understand what they must do to get rewarded. As the supervisor in our earlier example, you might say to your employee, “Although I believe doing the presentation quickly is important, I also believe that the new software creates a more dynamic and engaging presentation. If you learn to use the new software to create the presentation and teach others how to use it, then you may be recognized with the Employee of the Month Award. This month, it is a weekend for two at the gorgeous Beachside Inn!” The perceived outcome should have an important value to the employee. If a weekend for two is not valuable enough for the employee, use a different reward such as time off or a $200 gift certificate. Expectancy theory is usually helpful for major decisions such as whether to pursue a certain client, develop a new solution, or take on a challenging new project. However, for lower-level positions, it may not as useful. Some employees may not have enough discretion in their roles to choose between different goals, and may only see a downside for not doing things. At the very least, be sure that your expectations for performance and their goals are clear to avoid potential misunderstandings.

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Think About It . . . Do you have an employee who could benefit from clearer expectations in a job or for a certain project? What can you do to make these expectations clearer to him or her?

Social Cognitive Theory A core concept of social cognitive theory is that self-efficacy (the belief you can do something) is an important driver of work motivation and effort. Selfefficacy is a result of the cognitive processes within the individual and has been found to have powerful motivational effects on task performance (Bandura, 2001). Evidence from research studies demonstrates that self-efficacy beliefs contribute significantly to the levels of employee motivation and performance (Bandura & Locke, 2003). What does this mean? If a person thinks he or she can do it, it is more likely that he or she can and will put forth the effort. Work motivation is not only that employees think they can do the tasks technically, but it also entails the emotions they experience at work. Erez and Isen (2002) have demonstrated that affect (emotions) impacts motivation through changes in cognition. That is, how we feel impacts how we think about work. Managers can dispute whether this is logical or not, but promoting positive cognitive beliefs in employees results in beneficial changes in the direction, intensity, and persistence of work behaviors (Seo, Barrett, & Bartunek, 2004). Thus, it is clearly in a manager’s best interest to understand what influences their employees’ emotions and make a reasonable effort to give employees enough support so that their cognitive processes are not working counter to the goals of the organization.

Think About It . . . Think if a time when you did not think you could accomplish something at work. What did you do to get better? Who helped? How can you identify and help employees in similar situations?

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MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS Trying to make an employee do something he or she truly does not want to do will not result in greater motivation. Instead, try to establish conditions in the workplace that enable employees to improve their motivation. This means knowing how to engage and activate the head, heart, hands, and spirit of your employees by giving them work that is meaningful. You should try to match employees’ behavior that you observe with some of the theories in this chapter, explore the topic of motivation with your employees, and discuss options openly. Be prepared to be flexible and to shift your judgments, as what motivates some people may surprise you. Exhibit 3-2 identifies the management implications of the motivation theories to help you activate the levers of motivation in your employees.

xhibit 3-2 Management Implications

Implications for Management Actions

Related Theories

Recognize that motivation theories rooted in American culture may not translate directly to other cultures.

All

Examine job tasks to determine whether they call for achievement, affiliation, or power behavior patterns. When selecting employees for jobs, determine if their motivation need levels match the job tasks and requirements. Match the person to the job.

Needs Theory

Focus on motivators (achievement, recognition, job tasks, responsibility, and stimulating work), while simultaneously providing adequate levels of maintenance factors (good human resources policies, adequate pay and benefits, and so forth). Managers should enrich jobs by allowing employees to perform some of the duties their supervisors do.

Needs Theory

Be up-front and clear about expectations. Explain what underlies your expectations. Link rewards to performance shortly after performance is completed. Give adequate rewards.

Process Theory

Make performance levels attainable. Understand your employees’ self-assessments of skill. Are they accurate or not? Provide coaching and training to ensure that employees feel capable of attaining desired performance levels.

Process Theory

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ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development: Who is your best employee and which of these theories applies to him or her? What can you do to keep motivation levels high?

Who is your problem employee and which of these theories applies to him or her? What can you do to increase his or her motivation levels?

Motivation can be defined as factors that cause, channel, and sustain an individual’s behavior. Performance is a result of how hard someone may try (intensity), what he or she is focusing his or her energies on (direction), and how long he or she will revap keep at it (persistence). First, answer the question, “Is it a matter of skill or a matter of will?” to differentiate between motivation and need for training. Next, assess whether a job has the building blocks of self-management and allows the employee a sense of empowerment, relevance, and feedback, and whether it allows the employee to use his or her competencies. Motivation theories include the needs theories: McClelland’s need theory and Herzberg’s Motivation Model. The process theories include: the expectancy approach and social cognitive theory. These various theories can be combined to help create a more complete picture of what motivates people in the workplace. Much of today’s performance management systems are still based on the behavioral approaches to motivation and may rely heavily on extrinsic rewards. While it is certainly appropriate to use extrinsic rewards, the ideal is to find what intrinsic motivators work for a person. The goal is to allow employees to self-manage. We can facilitate this process by ensuring that the building blocks that enable self-management (competence, empowerment, relevance, and feedback) are in adequate supply for our employees. There is usually no single cause for why we do anything. It is the interaction of the person, the environment (situation), and the task (what the person finds motivating) that will determine behavior at any given point. The good news is that, given time, we can identify many of the things that may be motivating for an individual. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Review Questions

1. Motivation is defined by Robbins (2005) as the processes that

1. (b)

account for an individual’s: (a) ability to get out of bed in the morning and get to work on time. (b) intensity, direction, and persistence of effort. (c) effectiveness and accuracy in completing tasks. (d) ability to get valued rewards from the organizational system in the course of their employment.

2. What are the four building blocks of self-management?

2. (b)

(a) Compensation, progress, communication, and autonomy (b) Competence, empowerment, relevance, and feedback (c) Communication, meaningfulness, authority, and coaching (d) Budgetary control, autonomy, social networks, and influence

3. An assumption of needs theories that can help managers is that:

3. (b)

(a) most peoples’ needs are similar. (b) people act to satisfy or reduce their needs. (c) people behave consistently over time to fulfill the same need. (d) needs are determined by the interaction of the organizational reward system and the employee’s style.

4. Asking “Is it a matter of skill or will?” can help a manager determine:

4. (d)

(a) if the employee is ready to move on to a new level of responsibility in the organization. (b) if the employee should be put on a corrective action plan. (c) if the employee would rather be told or shown how to do the job. (d) if the employee would benefit from training or greater levels of motivation.

5. Process theories of motivation attempt to explain: (a) how motivation occurs cognitively and what aspects of the situation or goal motivate people. (b) what the manager should do at each step of the employee’s life cycle to increase motivation. (c) how the work and organizational processes serve to motivate employees. (d) what an employee needs to do from a process standpoint to keep motivated on the job.

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5. (a)

4 Communication: Getting Your Message Across Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain why effective communication is crit• • •

ical to a manager’s ability to enhance loyalty and influence outcomes. Discuss the definition of communication and its related assumptions. List and discuss the barriers to effective communication and corresponding solutions. Apply methods to improve listening habits.

INTRODUCTION Have you ever felt as if you were not being understood by another person— as if you were talking to a brick wall? Have you ever been in a meeting, looking directly at the person speaking, and yet missed 90 percent of what he or she said? Have you ever told an employee exactly what to do and yet realize later he or she heard you ask him or her to do something else entirely? These are prime examples of breakdowns in communication. Communication often breaks down somewhere between what a person says and what another person hears, sees, and interprets. This chapter focuses on the interpersonal communication process, what can happen to prevent your message from getting across, and how you can reduce or eliminate these communication obstacles. Communication is critical for managing human behavior for two reasons: 1) getting organizational goals across, and 2) understanding what motivates the other person. Effective communication involves what, at first glance, might seem to be simplistic activities: listening actively and giving useful feedback. To be an effective communicator, you need first to understand what is going on within © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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the context of the interaction you are having with your employee. Then, you need to craft an appropriate reaction that will bring about the desired behavior on the employee’s part. The best way to learn to listen actively and provide useful feedback is to learn about your own patterns of communication and those of your employees; then, you can develop appropriate responses. Your role as a manager is to orchestrate your communication style in concert with the communication styles of your employees. Because managers spend about two-thirds of their time communicating, learning to communicate effectively is an essential responsibility of a manager. As Carl Rogers said, a manager’s objective is “to think with people instead of for or about them” (Kolb, Rubin, & Mclntyre, 1979). Seek to perfect your communication skills by learning communication concepts and by developing inner awareness so that you can think with your employees to solve organizational problems. This may sound easy, but it is harder than we might imagine.

MANAGERS AS COMMUNICATORS Many of our communication abilities were learned during our childhood. A majority of us received about fourteen years of training on how to write, eight years on how to read, one year (if at all) on how to speak, and no training on how to listen. Yet we use reading skills during only nine percent of our day, writing skills only sixteen percent of the time, speaking thirty percent of the time, and listening forty-five percent of the time. The two most used communication skills (listening and speaking) are taught the least (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988). No wonder that only fourteen percent of employees in one survey indicated that their (first-line) managers were “good” or “very good” at communicating (Shaw, 2004) Why all this concern with communication? One reason is that managerial communication is the way managers foster and build trust with employees (Willemyns, Gallois, & Callan, 2003). To that end, Mayfield and Mayfield (2002) have found that managers’ use of motivating language can increase motivation and performance. The motivating language consists of direction giving such as helping an employee understand the proper sequence of steps in a computer program, empathetic language such as encouraging an employee in a positive manner to boost morale, and meaning-making language such as helping an employee understand the culture or political processes in the organization. Motivating language can be used by managers to more effectively transmit and foster organizational trust, which, in turn, can significantly enhance worker loyalty and organizational outcomes. However, you must be sincere and genuine—employees catch on if a manager is trying to fake it with a formula or script. Motivating language is just one important component of communication. We will revisit this concept throughout the chapter. Even if the speaker has done everything he or she can to communicate well, studies have shown that people “understand and retain about half of what is said immediately after a presentation . . . and within 48 hours, this level drops off to 22 percent” (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988). Unfortunately, your employees may choose to retain information differently from what you AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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intended them to remember. This is why it is so important for employees to feel that your communication has been motivating, because while they do not always retain the specifics, they do remember the general nature of the communication. To complicate the topic of communication further, we think or process information three to four times faster than we speak. In effect, our brains get bored as people speak to us. In response to our boredom, we tend to let our thoughts roam. We have internal conversations and every once in a while we return to the training or conversation to determine what the other person is saying. Most skilled trainers are aware of this phenomenon; they recognize that the fastest way to lose an audience is to speak veeeerrrry sloooooowwwwly. Seasoned trainers actually speed up their rate of speaking in training sessions. These statistics may seem somewhat disheartening. If we think faster than people speak (and get distracted in response), if we retain only twenty-two percent of what we learn forty-eight hours after a speech, and if we are listening- and speaking-deficient due to a lack of training, is it even possible to improve our communication skills? We can improve our communication skills by gaining perspective on how people communicate in the first place and by learning to actively listen, to give usable feedback, and to recognize our communication style and that of our employees. Let’s begin by first reviewing the definition of communication and the communication cycle model.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? There are many definitions of communication, but for our purposes, we will define communication as an ongoing process of information exchange, by means of a channel (or medium), where both the sender and receiver of the message create their own perceptions of the message’s meaning. Let’s look at the parts of this definition. An “ongoing process of information exchange” means that communication does not stop happening. This means “You cannot not communicate” because everything you do or do not do communicates a message to another person. For instance, when you meet with an employee to discuss a project, you are communicating as you listen to him or her speak. You may be attentive to what he or she is saying or you may be daydreaming about your upcoming vacation. He or she will “read” your level of interest from what you say and do. Another example is being absent from a meeting. What does your absence say to others? It may communicate that you are sick, that you disagree with the topic being discussed, or that you do not want to belong to the group. “A channel (or medium)” is how you get your message across or how the other person gets his or her message across to you. The channel may be a faceto-face meeting, where the message is transmitted both verbally and nonverbally, or by telephone, email, fax, or memo. Your choice of a channel is important because it can hinder or help the communication process. For sensitive and complex topics such as performance appraisals, problem solving and brainstorming, face-to-face meetings are imperative (high-channel richness). For technical information exchange, a memo or report is best (low-chan© American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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nel richness). The type of channel you choose is dependent upon a number of factors such as the nature of your message, your reasons for sending the message, the speed at which you want to communicate the message, and the characteristics of the person receiving the message. The focus here is on faceto-face interpersonal communication. “Perceptions of the message’s meaning” relates to the concept that all people have personal filters (experiences, memories, biases, expectations, values, beliefs, and assumptions) that may distort what they see, hear, and feel in the message. Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses or seeing that a glass is half-full versus half-empty are perspectives people bring to their interactions with others. These perspectives help create the perceptions people develop in relationship to the messages they send and receive.

The Communication Cycle The communication cycle is based on the following five assumptions (Harris & Moran, 1979):

1. You cannot avoid communicating. Everything you do communicates something 2. 3.

4. 5.

to someone, even yourself. Communication is an ongoing and dynamic process. There is no beginning or ending to communication. It is a constant cycle of sending and receiving messages. Communication does not necessarily equal understanding. Sometimes someone will indicate he or she understands something when he or she really does not. In certain cultures, such as in the United States and some European countries, nodding your head up and down is interpreted as “Yes, I understand.” In some Asian cultures, however, this gesture may mean “I may or may not understand your words, but I surely don’t understand your meaning. But I don’t want to embarrass you because it is your fault I don’t understand.” This reaction relates to the “doctrine of saving face” (Thiederman, 1988). In other cultures such as Iran, Turkey, and parts of Greece, nodding your head up and down means “no,” not “yes” (Axtell, 1991). You cannot take communication back. Once you send your message, you cannot reverse the cycle. Communication occurs within a frame of reference. Communication occurs in a context. It happens in a certain place; at a specific time; by the use of a specific channel; with certain people; and under specific rules, norms, and parameters.

These assumptions create a foundation for and are interwoven within the communication cycle model. Exhibit 4-1 shows that to have communication there must be a sender and a receiver. The sender determines the need to communicate—either on a conscious or unconscious level—and translates his or her thoughts and feelings, through his or her personal filters, into a message. He or she decides which channel to use to send his or her message and then sends it. The receiver decodes or translates the message and its symbols (verbal and nonverbal) through his or her own personal filters into thoughts and feelAMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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xhibit 4-1 Communication Process

Sender Intended Message

Receiver ENCODING

Message

DECODING

Received Message

NOISE

FEEDBACK

ings from which he or she derives meaning and perspective. After receiving, decoding, and interpreting the message, the receiver chooses to send a message back, thus continuing the cycle. Sometimes the receiver may anticipate the message before it is completed by the sender (commonly known as interrupting or finishing a person’s sentence and train of thought). This can create inaccuracies or trigger the receiver to respond too early. Throughout this cycle there are a number of places where the communication process can break down and where barriers can develop. Some barriers come from within the sender or receiver and are internal, while others are external. Some barriers are more controllable than others. Noise, both the audible and psychological varieties, is one such barrier that can impede the communication exchange.

Think About It . . . Think of a recent work problem that had miscommunication at the core. Where in the communication process did things go wrong?

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NonVerbal Communication You read or interpret a message’s meaning by translating symbols such as words, gestures, sounds, letters, and numbers. These symbols most often are separated into three categories: (1) verbal symbols (what you say), (2) vocal symbols (how you say it—your voice characteristics such as tone, pitch, and loudness), and (3) gestures. Vocal symbols and gestures often are combined to create the joint category of nonverbal communication. Humans can produce about 250,000 different expressions and over 1,000 different body postures (Axtell, 1991). This means that your nonverbal actions—intended or not—can have a great impact on how communication takes place and how it is interpreted. Gestures can also help us to communicate meaning quickly. Gesturing is a universal way to communicate but unfortunately, gestures are not universal. In the United States, the “okay” sign (creating a circle with your thumb and forefinger while partially straightening your other fingers) communicates that “everything is fine” or “all set.” In Australia and Islamic countries, however, it is a derogatory symbol (Robbins, 2005), while it could also mean “money” in Japan, “sex” in Mexico, or “homosexual” in Ethiopia (Archer, 1997). Even in the U.S., managers should be very careful about using gestures that are potentially ambiguous. Consequently, you must recognize who your receiver is during your information exchange, otherwise misunderstandings may arise. A person develops credibility when his or her verbal and nonverbal actions are in synch—when they match one another. For instance, when you say “yes” and your tone of voice is enthusiastic, you smile, and you nod your head up and down, your messages are matching. However, if you say “yes” and you whisper, frown, and shake your head from side to side, your messages are in conflict—they are dissonant. The receiver would be confused and would have to figure out which message to believe, your verbal “yes” or your nonverbal behaviors that indicate “no.” Essential to successful communication is the ability to match and complement your verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Because verbal and nonverbal dissonance may reflect inner conflict, it may signal to you that an employee is confused. Where dissonance exists, the employee’s performance is often affected. For instance, suppose you assign a project to an employee. She says she is happy to do it for you and lists her action plan in detail. But her tone of voice is dull, her facial expression forms a slight frown, and she slumps in the chair as she speaks. Clearly her verbal and nonverbal behaviors disagree. You should ask probing questions and point out the conflict between her verbal and nonverbal messages: “Mary, I understand you have said you’d be happy to do this project, yet your body language shows me that maybe you really don’t want to do this. What is the trouble?” She may respond with relief (a sigh, a smile, and a relaxed body posture) and say, “Gee, I wasn’t going to mention it, but I really am overloaded with projects and I’m afraid I won’t be able to do the quality work that we both expect.” By noticing and pointing out discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal behaviors, you open up a useful dialogue that could lead to better communication and possibly higher productivity. Exercise 4-1 lists questions you can ask yourself to help improve your ability to recognize nonverbal behaviors in others and in yourself.

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Exercise 4-1 Improving Awareness of Non-Verbal Behaviors Ask yourself the following questions about your nonverbal behaviors. Are you sending mixed messages? You also may want to apply these questions to how you view your employees. What patterns do you see? How might you improve your behaviors? Indicate your areas for potential improvement in the right-hand column.

Non-Verbal Behavior

Your Area for Improvement

Posture and Movement 1. How do you place your hips and legs when you are sitting? 2. How do you place your upper body?

3. Where do you place your body in relation to the person with whom you are speaking? Behind a desk? Side by side? 4. How do you exhibit body movements that show impatience or other emotions? Eye Contact 1. Where do you look when you talk with a person? Do you change your behavior depending on the person (your boss, an employee, a customer, and so on)? 2. Where do you look when you listen to another person? Do you change your behavior depending on the person? 3. How long do you maintain eye contact? Does the topic of the conversation make a difference? 4. Where do you look when you look away from a person?

Exercise 4-1 continues on next page.

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Exercise 4-1 continued from previous page. Non-Verbal Behavior

Your Area for Improvement

Gestures and Facial Expressions 1. How often do you smile during a fiveminute conversation? 2. What do you do with your hands as you speak? 3. What facial expressions do you make while on the telephone? 4. Are you aware of your facial expressions as you talk? Are you aware of the reactions your facial expressions have on your listener? Voice and Vocal Quality 1. How well does your voice project? Are you loud- or soft-spoken? 2. How much vocal variety does your voice have? 3. What image does your voice create over the telephone? 4. How well do you develop consistency between your tone of voice and the content of your message?

The Role of Communication in Influencing Others Communication is the primary means of sharing information and coordinating activities in an organization. In order to get things done, we have to communicate and influence others. Some people just seem more effective at getting people to do things than others. While some people are too timid and do not stick up for themselves, others are too aggressive and run over people like the proverbial steamroller. There is a middle ground, however, and the proven techniques for having effective communication described in this chapter can help you to find it.

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Having effective communication with employees has been shown to result in higher levels of productivity (Whetten & Cameron, 2007). David Whetten and Kim Cameron describe this as a supportive communication process, where you seek to maintain a positive relationship with the person while still addressing problems and giving feedback. Ideally, you can take a collaborative approach, as research demonstrates that this is the most effective communication approach to get peers and direct reports to commit to do something (Yukl, Chavez, & Seifert, 2005). Thus, effective communication when trying to influence others is characterized by the following attributes:

• • • • • • •

Be direct and honest (also be genuine and sincere). Use specific and descriptive statements (do not make vague, general statements or be judgmental). Focus on the behavior or the problem (do not focus on the person). Respect and acknowledge the other person’s points (especially if they are right). Address their concerns (do not just change the topic or ignore their point of view; connect it to your point or position, even if you do not agree). Take ownership and responsibility for your decisions and positions. Use active listening techniques.

Characteristics of Assertive Communication While we certainly want to focus on collaborative approaches to communication whenever possible, sometimes we cannot seem to get our point across. Communication can be broken down into two important dimensions: how assertive the person is and how responsive he or she is (Anderson & Martin, 1995). People who are both assertive and responsive are seen as the most competent communicators. However, overdoing it can result in poor communication and lower influence. We want to avoid being too aggressive or too passive. Assertive communication is the ability to openly and honestly express ideas in a direct manner. We certainly need to be respectful of others, but we also have the right to assert our positions so that they are understood. Assertive communication skills allow you to take responsibility for your own situation and constructively confront others to address problems and conflict. It is one thing to advocate for what you want; it is quite another to be overly aggressive. Exhibit 4-2 presents an overview of three common styles and their associated behaviors so that the appropriate level of assertiveness can be gauged and applied to your interactions. Our focus here is on what you need to do to be a more assertive communicator. There are a number of skills and techniques that you can use to improve your effectiveness as an assertive communicator.

1. Practice: You need to script and rehearse how you want to look and sound. Just as with a formal speech, your assertive communication messages will benefit from practice. Do not be afraid to use family and friends as a test audience! 2. Speech: How you say it can have a tremendous impact on your overall effectiveness as an assertive communicator.

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xhibit 4-2 Overview of Communication Styles

Communication Type

Description

Assertive

Non-Assertive

Verbal Behavior

Non-verbal Behavior

• Push to influence

• Direct

• Confident

• Listen actively

• Strong, neutral voice

• Open body posture

• Too responsive

• Passive

• Not confident

• Give in easily

• Weak voice

• Little eye contact

• In an appropriate location

• Weak posture • Avoidance Aggressive

• Too assertive

• Domineering

• Take advantage of others

• Angry or hostile voice

• Arrogant or condescending • Staring • Challenging or threatening posture • Public confrontation

•

•

Use “I” statements to avoid creating emotional reactions in the listener. Avoid using “you” statements, as these make people defensive. People interpret statements that begin with “you” as blaming them for something. As an alternative, you can use “I feel . . .” statements that help defuse emotional reactions and move on to the real issue. People cannot argue that your feelings are right or wrong. Talk about yourself in a positive manner. Do not use qualifying statements that may negate or diminish your statements or requests such as “you might think this is crazy, but . . .” or “. . . that’s just my opinion”).

3. Repetition: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, you may need to repeat your request numerous times. Persistence is required if you are being ignored or “given the brush-off.” Have you ever tried to get a refund for a defective product and had to argue to get it replaced or issued a refund? To be effective, you need to calmly repeat what you want and stay AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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focused on the issue. You may alter the message slightly if the words or description of your issue are not being understood. 4. Acknowledging: This technique allows you to recognize criticism without letting the other person derail your overall message. Sometimes people will criticize or attack the speaker so as to change the topic or demonstrate why they are not to blame. To deal with this, you need to acknowledge the criticism, agree that there may be some truth to what they say, but defer any summary judgments of your actions. For example, you can say “I agree that there are probably times when I don’t respond to your questions immediately, however the issue at hand is . . .” This demonstrates that you are listening to the other person, but are serious about redirecting the conversation and addressing your concern. 5. Compromise: Being assertive does not mean never “giving an inch.” If changing does not conflict with your values or diminish your self-respect, consider compromising with the other person. Sometimes, this allows you to work through an impasse and address your issues or concerns.

BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM Communication barriers are obstacles or factors that hinder rather than totally block information exchange between a sender and a receiver (Stoner & Freeman, 1989). Barriers can be obvious, such as noise or strong emotions, or they can be subtle such as poor self-esteem and distorted interpersonal perceptions. When you can identify the barriers that exist within the context of an interaction, you can devise responses that may eliminate or reduce the barriers. The resulting outcome may be an effective dialogue with the employee who then chooses to modify his or her behavior and improve his or her performance. Let’s discuss some common barriers and possible solutions that are summarized in Exhibit 4-3.

Noise Noise is anything that externally interferes with or distorts the transmission and comprehension of the message. Examples of external noise include a very hot work area, a poor fax transmission, a bad telephone connection, illegible handwriting, or an air conditioner that mutes the ability to hear a person’s voice. Internal noise can result from differing perceptions, fatigue, strong emotions, and inattention. Noise can be a major distraction to communication; however, it often is controllable. You can turn on or turn off an air conditioner, ask for a typewritten document instead of a handwritten one, or mail the document instead of faxing it. One of the best solutions to the problem of noise is to eliminate it. If you cannot eliminate it, consider rescheduling your conversation until the noise is removed.

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xhibit 4-3 Communication Barriers and Common Solutions Barriers Noise

Solutions • Shut the door. • Turn off radios, TVs, computers, telephones. • Move to a neutral location like a conference room.

Language and cultural differences

• Implement language courses so everyone can speak the same language. • Learn what to do when people are not fluent in your language. • Learn about other cultures and their customary patterns of communication. • Define acronyms and technical jargon.

Differing and distorted perceptions

• Encourage accurate and honest disclosure of information and feelings. • Repeat your message using a variety of channels and wording at different times during the day. • Share your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions to encourage the other person to do the same. Listen carefully and clear up distortions. • Clearly and fully explain the reasons for a decision.

Strong emotions

• Carefully choose how you send your message. • Support conclusions with facts and details. • Tune into your vocal characteristics. • Watch your body language and make adjustments. • Learn how the employee copes with stress and anticipate behaviors; develop responses to thwart the behaviors if they are dysfunctional.

Poor listening habits

• Listen attentively. • Do not interrupt. • Summarize main points in your head as the speaker talks.

Inability to give useful and truthful feedback

• Be direct but respectful. • Focus on relevant work behaviors. • Provide constructive and beneficial information.

Source: Reprinted with permission from Judith Geller, A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior, Fourth Edition (New York: AMACOM Books, 1994).

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Language and Cultural Differences Language and cultural differences can create sturdy barriers to communication. In order for your message to get across, everyone involved needs to agree with and understand the language being used. Because “the 500 most common English words have an average of 28 definitions each” (Stoner & Freeman, 1989), it is imperative to agree on the language being used and provide precise definitions when the potential for ambiguity is high. Without common language and common cultural background, people often make assumptions based on their perceptions rather than on the reality of the situation. When people speak a different language, use jargon, or come from a different culture, communication barriers can arise. People who are raised in the same culture have specific things in common: early childhood experiences such as family, religion, and customs; the language they speak, elements of personality patterns, and underlying values and assumptions about life and death. People from the same culture also have similar body language, dress, food and feeding habits, consciousness of time, sense of space (their “body bubble”), philosophy on relationships, approach to learning, and need for implicit or explicit communication. Clashes can occur when different cultures interact because the characteristics that make people of one culture similar make them very different from other cultures. When we add feelings of prejudice, bias, and need for affiliation with one’s own identity groups into the communication equation, the communication cycle can be greatly impacted by cultural differences. Some solutions to the problems of language and cultural differences are as follows:

1. Implement an English as a Second Language (ESL) program in your organization. This will establish common ground. At the same time, you might consider implementing other language courses for English-speaking employees to learn the primary language of non- or limited-Englishspeaking employees. Not only does this increase the likelihood that the communication cycle will be less distorted, but it will also improve employee relations as they see that you are not attempting to assimilate “them” into “us” but are seeking to develop common ground. If you do not have the opportunity to implement an ESL program, at least become aware of how you communicate with someone who is not fluent in your language. Follow the suggestions shown in Exhibit 4-4. 2. Implement a diversity or cross-cultural program in your organization and possibly include a valuing differences program. 3. Learn about other cultures—their customary patterns of communication. Unfortunately, we often judge others by the standards of our own culture, thus limiting and negatively affecting communications. For instance, many people from Asian countries and the West Indies tend to avoid direct eye contact (Axtell, 1991). This does not mean that they are lying or avoiding an issue (as it might with a person raised in the United States, Britain, and some European countries). It means only that they are following the patterns of the groups to which they belong. Be careful not to create stereotypes about people as you study different cultures. The information you © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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learn should be used to help you understand that people act in certain ways and to respond appropriately. The goal is not to judge others by their “foreign” or “unusual” customs. 4. Technical and corporate jargon is also considered a foreign language to those that do not understand it. People who do not understand the jargon that is used often feel that they do not belong. Not understanding jargon can quickly turn an information exchange into an incomprehensible speech on the part of the sender. A solution to this problem is to create a dictionary of commonly used terms, jargon, and acronyms within the organization and distribute the glossary to new hires at orientation. If you are using jargon, determine whether or not the listener knows the definition of the words being used.

Differing and Distorted Perceptions Each person is unique and has differing personal filters that help to create interpersonal perceptions. Interpersonal perception is the result of the gathering and processing of information by one person in relationship to another person. When one person first perceives another, he or she has a restricted and limited

Exhibit 4-4 What to Do When Employees Are Not Fluent in Your Language • Do not shout. • Speak slowly and distinctly. • Avoid culturally specific expressions (for example, “You’re pulling my leg” or “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”). • Use visual aids. • Use information sheets that the employee can take with him or her. • Write down in advance an outline of your intended conversation with the employee so that he or she can use it as a guide. • Repeat and summarize frequently. • Ask the employee to repeat, in his or her own words, what you have said. • Ask the employee what he or she plans on doing in response to your request. • Limit the amount of information you cover in one conversation. • Watch for nonverbal signals of confusion. • Recognize that head nodding does not necessarily mean “I understand and will respond accordingly.” • When an employee has no questions, he or she may not understand. • When an employee laughs inappropriately, he or she may be confused or embarrassed. Source: Paraphrased and summarized from Thiederman, 1991, p. 62.

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amount of information about the other person. The person’s psychological background, personality, and emotions influence both the gathering and processing of information. The perceiver often is inclined to process information that best suits his or her purposes and that is not threatening. Some information may be lost in the information-gathering process and selective filtering and false assumptions may distort the perception. When a receiver of a message is given little information from the sender (when the communication exchange is limited), the receiver will tend to inject his or her own bias and prejudiced set of assumptions in order to form an opinion. Once that opinion is formed, it will tend to block out or ignore other accurate and useful information that may be sent later. Stereotyping is an example of this phenomenon. For example, employees at lower organizational levels may feel that top management is “stuffy” and unconcerned about them because top management may be sending incomplete messages. Then, when top management decides to implement an open-door policy and meet with employees monthly to get and give feedback, they may still have beliefs that management does not care because the employees are still holding onto the original opinion, based on incomplete information. The importance of perceptions and misperceptions is that they mold and may distort the communication cycle. They help in forming the foundation of current and future relationships. Misperceptions can become self-fulfilling. For example, if a manager believes that a certain employee is a troublemaker, the manager may treat that employee as though he or she actually were a troublemaker. As a result, the employee probably will become a troublemaker. Likewise, if an employee thinks that a co-worker is a hostile person, that employee is apt to treat that co-worker in such a way that there will be real hostility from the co-worker after a short time. Accurate perceptions of others can be difficult to form when people are evasive about the information they provide. People sometimes intentionally manipulate and distort the information about themselves that they allow others to perceive. People often behave as actors by putting on a performance to convey the impression of themselves that they believe is to their best advantage. These performances make it difficult for others to form accurate perceptions of what and who they really are. The lack of information, misinterpretation and filtering of information, stereotyping, and the deliberate distortion of information all work to hinder those who are trying to communicate effectively and develop accurate perceptions. The barriers created by differing and distorted perceptions can be reduced by developing ways at the beginning of your relationships to encourage and nourish full disclosure and accurate, honest information exchange. The old adage of “starting off on the right foot” applies here. Initial discussions with employees should focus on establishing a comfort level about sharing and exchanging information. These discussions can help employees reduce the masks they wear. They also can serve as a benchmark to which you can return in future discussions. For instance, you might say to an employee who seems to be keeping facts about a project from you, “Remember when you first started working here and we agreed that sharing information was so important? Well, I am wondering if we are really following our original commitment.” © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Another solution is to repeat the messages you send using different channels, wording, and times for relaying your messages. In order to pierce through an employee’s already distorted perceptions, you need to repeat the message in a way that he or she will understand. You should discuss with your employees the underlying reasons for your decisions. Discussing underlying reasons enlarges each of your perspectives of the situation, allows you and the employee to recognize that there are differing (and possibly distorted and dysfunctional) perceptions, and opens the door for dialogue on whether these differences are hindering work-related behaviors. A final hint to determine whether or not an employee comprehends your message is to ask the employee to rephrase the message in his or her own words.

Think About It . . . What types of noise, language and cultural differences, and differing and distorted perceptions act as potential barriers to communication in your work group?

Strong Emotions Each of us has a natural tendency to judge a sender’s message through our own filters and this is especially true of a message that has strong emotional content. Emotions can create denial of communication, defensiveness, aggressiveness, or passivity, depending on the individual’s perceptions and motivating needs. When we feel emotional, our unique coping mechanisms get triggered, and these then distract us from the current content of the conversation. For instance, if you feel threatened by your boss removing you from an assignment, the message you actually receive about the removal may become distorted by your sense of loss of power, reduction in prestige, or lack of control over the situation. You actually may block out most of the conversation or distort comments made by your boss. Dissonance of communication also may occur. You may send one message to your boss verbally and another message nonverbally. To overcome barriers created by strong emotions, carefully and tactfully choose how you send your message—the channel and words you use and the vocal and other nonverbal signals you send. Your sentence structure, sentence clarity, and choice of vocabulary can insult, impair, or inspire. Ambiguous wording can leave a person confused or can create inaccurate assumptions. Making statements that are conclusions without supporting facts and details AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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can create defensiveness. Your voice characteristics such as rate of speech, diction, tone, rhythm, and volume can help to magnify or reduce an employee’s emotionality. Finally, your body language—body posture and placement, eye contact, facial expressions, and gestures—can threaten or comfort an emotional employee. Another solution to reducing the barriers created by strong emotions is to learn about each employee’s background and how his or her coping mechanisms have developed throughout her life. Ask the employee what he or she does when under stress or is confronted with a threatening situation. Let the employee know that you care about his or her well-being by actively listening to the emotions he or she is experiencing and using the motivating language techniques discussed earlier. Sometimes, all a person needs is for someone to truly listen and reflect those specific feelings back so he or she can make sense of them. After actively listening and possibly responding to strong emotions, you can move the conversation along to the original topic you wish to discuss.

Active Listening Many of us do not know how to listen as effectively as we could. Earlier in the chapter, we noted that people’s minds think faster than they speak. How we use the spare time between our spoken words and thought is the key to listening comprehension and retention. Effective listening requires that you pick upon hidden messages. These often come from nuances, the intonations, facial expressions, and understanding the context of the speaker. Among all other things, listening involves making the effort to understand what the other person is saying. When you are having trouble listening, ask yourself two key questions:

1. Did I hear? 2. Do I understand? Active listening is a way of listening that ensures you hear the words and understand the meaning the other person is trying to convey. People do not always listen attentively when they talk to one another. People can be distracted or only half listening if they are thinking about something else. When people are engaged in a heated discussion, they may be too busy forming a defensive response to actually listen. People often think they have heard it all before, so they focus on how to respond instead of on understanding the other person’s point of view. To become a good listener, try to use the following strategies while listening to another person speak:

1. Anticipate what the speaker is leading to and follow his or her messages to confirm your accuracy.

2. Review and summarize, in your mind, the speaker’s major points. 3. Look for the speaker’s nonverbal signals and listen to his or her vocal characteristics. Determine if these are congruent with the verbal statements. If there is incongruence, why does it exist? 4. Focus on the broad ideas and patterns rather than the facts. Having an understanding of the major points triggers memory of the details.

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5. Look for both positive and negative evidence that supports and refutes the speaker’s comments. Your goal should be truth, not ammunition to prove someone right or wrong. 6. Recognize the emotional reactions you may have in relation to what the speaker is saying. What do these emotions tell you? How different is your perspective from that of the speaker? 7. Recognize your own non-verbal and vocal behaviors. Are you sitting in an open posture, making the appropriate amount of eye contact, and using facial expressions that indicate you are listening? 8. Withhold judgment until after you have heard all the points the person has to share and have interpreted his or her non-verbal signals. Listening actively is not an easy task. You must choose to listen with your eyes, mind, gut, and body. It takes practice and focused energy. Active listening focuses the attention on the other person who is speaking. The listener fully attends to the other person and paraphrases the speaker’s point to ensure understanding. This is just a feedback loop. When the listener does not agree, and only provides feedback on what they think they understood, it allows the speaker an opportunity to clarify positions and explain, if necessary. Active listening, while more time-consuming, has some real benefits. First, it forces people to listen closely to the speaker. Second, it helps to avoid any misunderstandings by using a feedback loop. Third, it can encourage people to say more. This is especially helpful if there is a negotiation in progress or a conflict to resolve. When people feel that the listener is genuinely concerned and wants to hear what they have to say, they are more likely to provide details about what they feel and why. If both parties are willing to take this approach, then the chances of being able to develop a mutually agreeable solution is much greater. According to Carl Rogers, a renowned psychologist, our goal as managers and leaders is to listen to employees to help them “gain a clearer understanding of their situations, take responsibility and cooperate with each other. . . . When people are listened to sensitively, they tend to listen to themselves with more care and make clear exactly what they are feeling and thinking” (Kolb, Rubin, & McIntyre, 1979). Adopting a nonjudgmental, nondirective approach to listening can result in improved communication. The objective is to understand the actual content of the message and conversation, and the personal context and perspectives of the speaker. As you seek to gain this understanding through listening, the speaker will sense a genuine desire on your part to fully comprehend the true meaning and value of his or her comments. Understanding, acceptance, and genuineness are the keys to effective active listening. Exercise 4-2 is an active listening assessment that you can use to begin to assess your strengths and areas that need improvement.

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Exercise 4-2 Active Listening Behaviors Assessment INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

Once you have completed this assessment, ask for feedback from your manager and your employees. Do they agree with your self-assessment? Statement

Score

I give non-verbal signs while I am listening (facial expressions, nodding my head, leaning forward, smiling).

1 2 3 4 5

I maintain appropriate eye contact.

1 2 3 4 5

I use silence and pauses to give the person time to think and encourage the person to continue.

1 2 3 4 5

I understand emotional language and comfort people if they are upset.

1 2 3 4 5

I recognize when I am upset and when my emotions hinder my ability to listen.

1 2 3 4 5

I compare the verbal and nonverbal messages for consistency.

1 2 3 4 5

I listen objectively without judging.

1 2 3 4 5

I take notes related to our conversation.

1 2 3 4 5

I do not interrupt or change the subject.

1 2 3 4 5

I do not do other things while I am listening (reading email while talking on the telephone).

1 2 3 4 5

I match my voice tone and rate with the person to whom I am speaking.

1 2 3 4 5

I summarize the speaker’s major points in my head.

1 2 3 4 5

I restate the speaker’s points to ensure I understand.

1 2 3 4 5

I ask clarifying questions.

1 2 3 4 5

I show understanding, acceptance, and genuineness in my listening behaviors.

1 2 3 4 5

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Exercise 4-2 continued from previous page. Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 61-75: You probably are a very good listener. Continue doing what you are currently doing and seek feedback to confirm your self-perceptions. 46-60: You probably are a good listener and should look for opportunities to practice more of the behaviors listed in the assessment and this chapter. 45 or less: You could probably benefit from better listening behaviors and should actively work on doing more of the behaviors listed in the assessment and this chapter.

Inability to Give Useful and Truthful Feedback Let’s suppose you are a wonderful listener. You pay attention to all the verbal and nonverbal cues and you send the appropriate verbal and nonverbal cues back to the other person. You develop rapport well. But what good is this if you do not transmit useful and truthful information in return for your listening? If you are not skilled at confronting employees about their behaviors, both positive and negative, if you cannot develop helpful probing and questioning techniques that seek to solve problems, and if you cannot word your messages in behavioral and concrete terms so quick change is possible, all the listening in the world will not make you a great communicator. Both listening and feedback go hand in hand. To perfect your feedback techniques and obtain behavioral changes from employees, make sure that your feedback is:

1. Given in a descriptive or a questioning format. 2. Broad and encompassing. (You might say to your employee if his or her 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

report has mistakes, “Quality is an essential ingredient to our business.”) Specific, detailed, and accurate. (In the same example as above, you could then continue, “To communicate effectively, it is imperative that you proofread your reports before distributing. Accuracy is part of our value of high quality.”) Useful in developing solutions to problems. Congruent. (Verbal messages should be reflected in nonverbal messages.) Tactful and sincere. Ongoing and frequent. (Give daily, if possible.) Focused on one topic at a time. (Giving corrective feedback in the same conversation as positive feedback may negate the positive effect.) Shared persistently; given to all employees, not only your “problem children.” Given at an appropriate time in an appropriate, private place. Given as soon as possible after the related behavior is enacted. Focused on behaviors, not attitude. (Attitude is abstract and difficult to change in the short term) Given directly to the person. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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14. Supported by the reasons for giving the feedback. 15. Planned out in your mind before you give it. 16. Reflective of your prior active listening, probing, and observing skills. The barriers to communication at work are many and varied. From the environment to the characteristics of the individuals trying to communicate, there are many potential obstacles that you should be aware of as a manager and be prepared to address constructively. To start, you cannot be a good communicator if you are not a good listener. Once you are listening actively, your awareness of these potential impediments will help you structure communication situations, incorporate motivating language, and address employee needs and concerns in your feedback to be a more effective communicator. Barriers are only problems when they are not addressed, so take a proactive stance with your employees to ensure they do not get in the way.

ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development: What areas of communication do you think you need to develop? How can you incorporate more motivating language into your communication with employees?

What are barriers to effective communication that you see in your department, your employees, or yourself ? What are some appropriate responses you can take to address these barriers in the next several weeks?

Describe a specific situation where there was a communication breakdown with an employee and what barrier got in the way. Describe specifically what you would change and when it can be accomplished.

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Getting your message across so that it is clearly understood and so that employees respond appropriately is not easy. It takes honest self-assessment, active listening skills, and the ability to observe and interpret others’ verbal and nonverbal recap behaviors. It also requires the ability to recognize communication barriers that exist and to develop corresponding solutions. Seeing as you must orchestrate communication between yourself and your employees, and because most managers spend about two-thirds of their time communicating, learning to communicate effectively is essential. Communication is defined as an ongoing process of information exchange, by means of a channel, where both the sender and the receiver of the message create their own perceptions of the message’s meaning. The communication cycle model involves the sender determining the need to communicate and then translating his or her thoughts and feelings through his or her own personal filters into a message. The sender then decides which channel to use to send his or her message. The receiver translates the message and its accompanying symbols through his or her own personal filters into thoughts and feelings from which he or she derives meaning and perspective. Unfortunately, the communication cycle can break down because of barriers. The barriers can include noise, language and cultural differences, differing and distorted perceptions, strong emotions, poor listening habits, and the inability to give useful and truthful feedback. Possible solutions to these barriers include defining jargon when it is used, establishing values of honesty and full disclosure of information at the beginning of the relationship, actively listening, taking care in your choices of channels, being aware of and consciously choosing to send nonverbal messages, recognizing and pointing out discrepancies between a person’s verbal and nonverbal language, and giving specific yet broad feedback on a frequent basis. Getting your message across is like putting a puzzle together. You must look at it from a broad perspective and from a detailed and analytical view. You need to see the relationship of the pieces and how they fit together. This is as critical for the functioning of the organization as a whole as it is for your own area.

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Review Questions

1. Identify three important methods of delivering useful and truthful

1. (c)

feedback. (a) Tactful, focused on behaviors, and documented during the quarterly review cycle (b) Based on observed behaviors, timely, and scripted (c) Given directly to the person, ongoing and frequent, and focused on behaviors (d) Given to the person in writing, frequent and meaningful, based on observed behaviors

2. “Communication is an ongoing process of information exchange”

2. (a)

means that: (a) communication does not stop, and you cannot not communicate. (b) the message’s meaning should always be verified by the sender. (c) speed and accuracy of communication are critical for efficiency. (d) a dedicated channel of information from the manager to the employee should be set up as soon as possible.

3. The keys to effective active listening are:

3. (d)

(a) understanding, confrontation on difficult topics, and sincerity. (b) insight, avoidance of difficult topics, and sincerity. (c) understanding, avoidance of difficult topics, and genuineness. (d) understanding, acceptance, and genuineness.

4. The communication cycle involves:

4. (b)

(a) the use of personal filters that ignore thoughts and feelings. (b) barriers that interrupt, interfere with, or distort the transmission. (c) the recoding of symbols. (d) messages that are 45% verbal and 14% nonverbal.

5. The most common barriers to communication are: (a) noise, language and cultural differences, diversity perceptions, strong emotions, listening skills, and an ability to give useful feedback. (b) noise, language and cultural differences, diversity perceptions, strong emotional reactions, poor listening skills, and an ability to give useful feedback. (c) noise, cultural differences, differing and distorted perceptions, strong language, poor listening skills, and inability to give useful feedback. (d) noise, language and cultural differences, differing and distorted perceptions, strong emotions, poor listening skills, and inability to give useful feedback.

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5 There Is More to Performance than Just Management! Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain the difference between performance • •

management and performance appraisal and why both are needed. List the stages of the performance management process and explain why they are critical to managing human behavior. Explain how to balance the dual roles of a manager to avoid problems in the performance management process.

INTRODUCTION What is the least liked, most often avoided management activity besides firing an employee? Many managers would say conducting a performance appraisal. Many dread the annual performance appraisal because it involves giving feedback that may not be favorably received by the employee. Receiving and giving performance appraisals have been likened to going to a dentist or paying taxes—they are necessary, but perceived as unpleasant. Some managers dislike giving any feedback to employees. While employees usually want to “know where they stand,” they also tend to avoid performance appraisals, lest they hear something they would prefer not to hear. However, this is a tremendous opportunity for the manager to turn the task of giving feedback into one of motivating the employee while fulfilling obligations to the organization to document past performance.

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Although managers often dread and avoid giving performance appraisals and managing performance throughout the year, they know on a deeper level that if they actively managed employees’ performance with an emphasis on motivation, departmental productivity would soar. Most understand and believe they have an obligation to employees and to the organization to manage performance, yet they put activities related to performance management on the back burner. Performance management, if done correctly, can help motivate employees and align them with the mission, vision, and strategy of the organization. In sum, by managing employee performance effectively, we can ensure that their behavior makes a positive contribution to the organizational system.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT VERSUS PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL Managers need to make sure that their employees attain levels of performance in areas that best support the achievement of organizational objectives. Performance management is a systematic approach to ensuring that employees know what to do and taking action when things get off track. The primary mechanism for this is providing specific, honest, constructive, and ongoing feedback to employees on their work-related behaviors with the objective of performance improvement. This process incorporates the aspects of motivation and communication discussed in the previous chapters. If you find that performance management is used just for compliance purposes in your organization, then there is clearly more that can be done using the strategies outlined in this chapter to engage and motivate your employees. Performance management involves planning, implementing, coaching, and monitoring behavior and outcomes. The performance management process also includes blending the organization’s vision, mission, and culture with an employee’s communication and problem-solving styles. It is about managing human behavior for the benefit of the individual and the organization. This is an ongoing process and it should be recognized that performance appraisal, in terms of evaluating employees, is just one small part of performance management. Unfortunately, the primary form of feedback in many organizations is the performance appraisal meeting. Too often organizations and managers focus only on documenting the past with a formal performance review session. This typically happens at an annual performance review, which is the formal, sit-down review session where all prior performance feedback for the year is summarized and reviewed. Usually, right after the meeting, the review form is promptly filed away and forgotten. How can organizations expect to use a one-hour, annual performance appraisal meeting to convey the manager’s views of an employee’s performance? Does it make logical business sense to dedicate only one hour a year to formal performance management? Is it not logical to assume that if you increase the amount of time you devote to giving feedback, you will get better performance from the employee? If you are springing any surprises during a performance appraisal meeting, you are not managing the employee’s performance well. Performance management happens daily; formal performance AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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appraisal usually happens only once or twice a year. Employees do not always know where they stand in terms of performance and may wonder: “Is it viewed as effective?” or “Is it helping the organization achieve its strategic objectives?” They are expected to perform at optimal levels throughout the year, yet many performance appraisals emphasize an overall rating given only once a year. Clearly, we need to start with the basics of giving feedback. Learning to give useful, honest, direct, and continuous feedback can be difficult and even uncomfortable at times. But the consequences of not managing performance throughout the year are dangerous to the life of the organization, especially in the fast-changing and competitive environment of most organizations today.

Think About It . . . Think about the best and worst performance appraisals you have ever received. What are three or four characteristics of each that stick in your memory? Make sure you look for and apply the strategies in this chapter that will ensure that your future appraisals are beneficial for employees.

Why do you, as a manager, need to manage performance? The bottom line is that it is your job! Most performance management activities, such as performance appraisal, training and coaching, are conducted by managers. Managers are the primary connection for employees to the greater organizational system, and as such, they need to coordinate employee activities and ensure that goals are met in the organization. While some managers view their role narrowly as one that ensures compliance like implementing goals and ensuring completion, the role can be more than that when it comes to inspiring and guiding employees to higher levels of performance. Performance management emphasizes the behaviors and outcomes at the individual level. How this impacts productivity at the greater organizational level depends on how managers enact these systems. To summarize, performance management involves managers actively aligning the activities of the individual employees with the overall goals of the organization. Effective performance management accomplishes the following goals:

1. It sets and communicates organizational and departmental expectations, which include standards of behavior. 2. It is a driving force behind achieving goals—departmental, organizational, and individual. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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3. It improves communication between manager and employee, and within 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11.

the work group. It motivates employees. It differentiates between issues of skill and will to identify appropriate training and development needs. It highlights problems as they are occurring and gives managers more time to respond with a plan of action. It helps identify marginal performers before they affect other employees’ performance. It assists in determining human resources decisions such as merit increases and other rewards, disciplinary action, terminations, transfers, and promotions. It assists in employment law compliance because it shows there were discussions prior to and during any disciplinary actions. It shows the historical basis for decisions. It creates a means for managers to have more control over their departments’ results. As managers empower employees to perform in the “right” way for the department and organization, managers can connect behaviors and performance to reaching predetermined goals. Performance deviations are highlighted by performance management and can be corrected before they do damage. It reduces employee and manager anxiety because of the honesty and frequency required and because of the focus on performance and behavior rather than personality and attitude.

THE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PROCESS The performance management process is an ongoing cycle. While there may be larger organizational milestones and deadlines associated with the process (such as annual performance reviews or merit increases), it should be occurring independently for different tasks and projects at all different levels. For performance management to actually help guide behavior and keep employees aligned with organizational objectives, it needs to be an ongoing endeavor. The Define-Develop-Review-Reinforce model (adapted from Mohrman, Cohen, & Mohrman, 1995) presented in Exhibit 5-1 depicts performance management as an ongoing process.

Define – Set Goals and Expectations Setting goals and expectations for employees are fundamental parts of management. How you determine and communicate these expectations will influence whether employees will find them to be motivating or maddening.

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xhibit 5-1 Performance Management Process Model

Organizational and Work Group Objectives

Defining Setting Expectations and Goals

Reinforcing

Developing

Recognition and Rewards

Coaching and Training

Reviewing Providing Ongoing Feedback

Source: Adapted from Mohrman, S.A., Cohen, S.G., and Mohrman, A.M. Designing Team-Based Organizations (San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers, 1995).

Communicate Performance Standards and Organizational Expectations Performance standards are ongoing performance criteria that must be met time and time again. They provide a basis for comparison and are applied to how an employee reaches a goal and to the quality of the goal achieved. Performance standards, which can be somewhat abstract, stem from the organizational expectations and its leaders. They are the foundation of how an employee knows how to perform in the “right” way and how a manager can gauge whether an employee is fulfilling his or her obligations. Organizational expectations are the set of values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, and performance paradigms that an employee must support and follow in order to reach goals and be accepted by members of the organization. Organizational expectations are often abstract. Both performance standards and organizational expectations need to be communicated to new employees in order for them to understand the underlying ground rules for success in the organization. Managers can communicate these by discussing the following information:

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1. Philosophies under which the organization operates such as total quality, continuous improvement, and teams.

2. Personnel policies such as attendance, dress codes, safety rules, and per3. 4. 5. 6.

sonal conduct. How to treat customers. What the organization values. Who the players are who have power within the organization. Jargon and acronyms used in the organization.

If you choose to skip the defining phase and instead hope that the employee will figure it out, be forewarned. If the employee does figure it out, he or she will have done so on the basis of limited information (information from co-workers’ or customers, which may be somewhat distorted). This can lead to communication barriers, which will then lead to performance barriers. Sometimes employees never figure it out and falter throughout their employment. These people become may never become fully engaged and may eventually be asked to leave or even be fired. On the other hand, many employees find concrete goals to be motivating and appreciate that expectations have been made clear. Let’s take a look at how we can set goals that are both attainable and worth doing. How to Set SMART Goals Goal setting, also referred to as setting performance objectives, tells employees where they and the organization are going. Performance standards and organizational expectations show the employee how to get there. As the Cheshire cat said to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Your role as manager includes establishing the destination and developing the map with your employee so that he or she knows how to support the strategic goals of the organization. The following examples are goals we might find in a typical organization. A machine operator’s goal might be to produce thirty circuit boards of the highest quality in one eight-hour shift. The employee would reach his or her goal once thirty boards with no defects were counted. An accountant’s goal might be to ensure compliance with IRS regulations in completion of the annual report within thirty days of the close of the fiscal year. This goal can be measured by comparing the actual completion date to the target and by seeing if the external CPA finds any errors on IRS compliance. Both of these goals have features that are common to all goals; they focus attention on a target so that we are not distracted by tangents and they help drive us to reach them when they are worded in ways that define our tasks. Research indicates that the more difficult a goal the higher the performance—until the goal becomes impossible to reach. When employees are given specific, difficult goals, performance usually improves significantly over those employees given easy goals (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). Feedback enhances the effect of specific, difficult goals. Goals can be assigned, established collaboratively, or set by the individual. What matters most is that they are set and that they are meaningful to the employee. (A variety of books and articles AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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dedicated solely to the topic of goal setting are available if you wish to expand your skills in this area.) It helps to first practice goal setting before guiding employees, and you will do that later in the chapter. Over the years, management experts have created a catchy acronym for people to use when setting goals: SMART. This stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Results-Oriented, and Time-Bound. Identifying these five characteristics of a goal will help to determine whether it is worth doing and ensure that it is accomplished if included in the strategic plan. Exhibit 5-2 details how to set SMART goals.

Exercise 5-1 Set a SMART Goal Think of an existing employee who has a new project or needs direction on an existing project. Write a SMART goal and review it with your employee in the next week.

Develop – Enable Employees to Succeed Employee development within an organization is exceedingly important for two reasons:

1. Employee performance is critical to achieving the mission in the short term. 2. Retention and development of employees will lead to greater probability of achieving the organization’s vision in the long run. The performance management process should be tailored to help develop employees. Proper performance management can foster good relations and yield productive, motivated employees. The two most valuable types of employees to most organizations are:

1. High Potentials – The high-potential employee (often called a “hi-po” for short) has a greater than average potential to advance in the organization. This is the basis for succession planning; your organization may have a formal process for identifying and developing these employees. Check with your Human Resources group to find out. If so, you will probably have extra resources to help develop the employee. The drawback is that these employees will probably move on to greater challenges (and another company) at some point—usually a lot sooner than you would like!

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xhibit 5-2 Setting SMART Goals Specific: Provide enough detail in the goal description so that there is no indecision as to what the person should be doing when the time comes to accomplish the goal. • A goal of “Increase participation at marketing events and activities” is poor. Are there specific activities that need work? If so, which ones? What types of changes are necessary? • A much better goal would be: “Increase participation in XYZ Program by September 21 by putting together a customer outreach program with the following components…” or “Complete the Supervisor Training workshops for all staff by March 20.” Measurable: Goals should be formulated so that when the person is finished with the task, the organization has some tangible evidence of completion. The measurement should not only reflect whether the goal was achieved, but the quality of the service or program over time. • The end result of a goal such as “Increase participation at marketing events and activities” cannot be reliably assessed. Did what you do actually increase participation in a specific program by people who should be there? Did it result in more business? • A much better goal would be: “Contact 100 prospective clients who have previously expressed interest, get a commitment from 50 percent to attend a session by September 21, and track attendance.” • Producing tangible evidence requires that you are able to quantify what the employee did or achieved. Implementation of workshops and their successful completion by the target group is a good example as well. Actionable: A goal should be something that the person can take action on and attain. This may seem obvious, but do not set goals that are outside of the person’s control. • It is okay to include other people or organizations as resources, but do not include items to be done solely by others. Reserve that for project planning and resource allocation sessions. The exception would be if the other person reports directly to the person with the goal, then it would be part of his or her goal to manage the employee to achieve the goal. • Do not ask an employee to “Contact 100 prospective clients who have previously expressed interest” if they don’t have access to the client database. Results-Oriented: Goals should be focused on an end result linked to the organization’s goals. Do not set goals that do not support the organization’s mission and vision. • Plan a few things and be successful rather than plan many things and be unsuccessful. • Do not include running a new program next year if it is only “nice to do” and not critical. Also, is it realistic to count on getting support from multiple constituencies for a certain project or goal? • Make sure that the goal of contacting 100 prospective clients and getting 50% to attend an information session by September 21 is aligned with the organization’s vision. If you know that a new product will be unveiled November 1 that will target these same clients, do not assign goals that are at cross-purposes with the organization’s longer-term objectives. Time-Bound: Make sure goals have realistic dates for completion. • Use a project timeline for larger projects and list the major milestones as the employee’s goals. This helps you know where the project stands at any given point in time and gives the employee a sense of accomplishment as things are accomplished. • If a thorough contract review usually takes four hours, make sure that you allow at least a week to review ten contracts.

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2. Solid Performers – This is the person who is reliable, consistent in work production, and has a good attitude. These are the “keepers” who you do not want to lose. They may not be your superstars, but they may be perfectly content in their existing role. These employees can be engaged in the organizational process (such a change or process improvement efforts), understand the systems perspective, and tend to respond well to new challenges and interesting work. Both high-potential and solid performers need to be developed. The emphasis in development will be different for each, however, so it is best to find out what motivates the person and tailor assignments to keep him or her stimulated and engaged.

Think About It . . . Are there are any high potential employees in your work group? What can be done to develop them? Who are your solid performers and what kinds of things can be done to retain and motivate them?

Coaching – The Heart of Performance Management Coaching is the process of equipping people with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop and become more effective in their roles. Coaching used to be perceived as something that was done only for people with performance problems. Now coaching is focused on “how to take good people and make them the best they can be, positioning them to work more effectively and cohesively in their environments, and making the most of their capabilities” (Morgan, Harkins, & Goldsmith, 2006). Coaching, if done well, goes far beyond providing feedback and therefore, has a much greater likelihood of getting at what actually motivates people. While many models of coaching exist, no one model is right or wrong. Some have more steps or greater levels of detail, while others are geared more towards certain groups. There are also at least four major types of coaching: tutoring (teaching new skills); counseling (gaining personal insight into problems); mentoring (better understanding of the organization and how to be successful in it); and confronting (improving sub-standard performance) (Osland, Kolb, & Rubin, 2001). Our focus here is on the tutoring and mentoring types. The essential elements of the coaching process are presented in Exhibit 5-3.

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The responsibility for making any behavior changes and improving performance clearly rests with the individual employee. However, you can contribute significantly to his or her success by effectively taking on the role of coach. Coaching should be viewed as a series of conversations aimed at exerting a positive influence in the motivation, performance, and awareness of areas for improvement and development of the employee to help him or her be as effective as possible. This involves building a partnership for continuous improvement through the use of constructive feedback. Thus, an effective coaching partnership requires a positive relationship, mutual trust, appropriate coaching style, and effective coaching skills. Coaching means focusing on the one-on-one relationship between you and the employee. Take the assessment in Exercise 5-2 to make sure you are using effective coaching skills.

xhibit 5-3 Coaching Process Steps Build Trust – Trust is essential for coaching and effective management. To develop a real coaching partnership, the employee and manager must have genuine trust between them. Define the Issues – Help the employee define the topic and prioritize needs. Ask specific questions of the employee to understand the issues, but do not evaluate. Help the employee focus on developing specific knowledge, skills, and abilities that will make a difference in the long run. Discover Motivation – The employee needs have a compelling reason to change. A coach can only help the person find that motivation. Use open-ended questions to help the employee find out what truly matters to him or her. Work to inspire commitment by using motivating language based on what the employee values. Create a Plan of Action – Employees need to own the action plan, so be an advisor at this stage. Provide only enough guidance to keep the employee focused on the areas that will have impact. The plan should use SMART goals. Gain Commitment – Once a plan of action has been worked out, assign roles and timelines. Get verbal commitment to the overall plan as well as the next step. This is a great opportunity to clarify expectations. Provide Feedback and Support – Coaching is an ongoing process; do not leave the process to chance. Be sure to check in if your employee does not provide updates. Sometimes employees do not want to ask what they perceive as “dumb” questions or admit to missteps. It is your job to provide crucial support in these areas by: • Getting input from others on how they perceive the employee. • Promoting persistence and resilience—do not let the employee give up. • Reflecting on what has happened and asking questions. Hold up a “metaphorical mirror” so that the employee can see his or her behavior from another perspective. • Confronting excuses and resistance. You want to foster self-insight when things do not go as planned. • Clarifying consequences—be a reality check.

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Exercise 5-2 Coaching Skills Self-Assessment INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

Statement

Score

Are you using active listening techniques?

1 2 3 4 5

Are you asking primarily open-ended questions?

1 2 3 4 5

Do you let the employee set the agenda?

1 2 3 4 5

Does the employee feel understood? Have you asked him or her?

1 2 3 4 5

Are you probing to find out what motivates the employee?

1 2 3 4 5

Are you summarizing the employee’s thoughts and ideas without editing?

1 2 3 4 5

Does the employee express what he or she thinks is important?

1 2 3 4 5

Are you incorporating motivating language to reflect the employee’s interests?

1 2 3 4 5

Are you reflecting events and providing a reality check for the employee’s perceptions and feelings?

1 2 3 4 5

Are you following up after the more formal coaching sessions?

1 2 3 4 5

Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 41-50: You probably are a very good coach. Continue doing what you are currently doing and seek feedback to confirm your self-perceptions. 31-40: You probably are a good coach and should look for opportunities to practice more of the behaviors listed in the assessment and this chapter. 30 or less: You could probably benefit from better coaching behaviors and should actively work on practicing more of the behaviors listed in the assessment and this chapter.

Career Planning Managers should have a general sense of where their employees want to go in their careers. This does not mean that the manager takes responsibility for the employee’s career, but that the manager demonstrates concern for the em-

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ployee and makes an effort to help develop him or her to achieve long-term goals. Oftentimes, an employee’s career aspirations give tremendous insight into what he or she finds motivating. You can only find this out by asking the right questions. A good question to ask an employee is, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” to get the conversation started. If the employee’s career goal overlaps with the competencies required for the current role, you can help him or her achieve both. You can probably incorporate development activities and provide feedback to address both short and long-term goals over the coming months and years. For example, if you know that an employee wants to go into management, you may want to start providing opportunities for the employee to lead project teams, manage vendors, or facilitate meetings. You can also solicit feedback on the employee’s behalf in areas that you know will help prepare him or her for management. This may also mean giving up a valuable employee sooner than you like. However, if it means that the organization can retain this person for a longer period, then you will have another ally in the organization and you will both be able to achieve more working together in the organizational system in the long run. Most large organizations have formal succession planning or talent management programs. These usually reside in Human Resources, Workforce Development, or in Training and Development Departments. McDonald’s has a sophisticated career development program to ensure that it has a steady supply of qualified managers “in the pipeline” at all times. McDonald’s senior leadership partnered with management to develop a systemic engagement process for developing employees (Rasins, Franze, & Russell, 2007). The organization realized that there were not as many opportunities for career growth as there once were and these opportunities were not systematically developed or uniformly available to employees. One of the problems with advancement in the past at McDonald’s was that it was not always tied to the business needs, performance results, competencies, or employee potential. By partnering with middle management, senior leadership made them accountable for developing people in their areas to meet the needs of the employees and the organization. Employees now own their career development and know what types of established career paths are available. Career development is now more than just promotion at McDonald’s; it is about learning, ongoing development, and career enrichment.

Review – Gather Information and Document The review process entails documenting performance during the year and providing beneficial feedback as needed. Feedback should not be an annual event or only occur when an employee has made a mistake. Recognition is one of the most powerful motivators available in the workplace, so be sure to use it! Most organizations also want a formal performance review conducted each year and this is usually tied to the compensation system. Provide Ongoing Feedback Goals and development are absolutely critical in helping set the direction in which employees should direct their energy. Once the goals are set, then what? AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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Giving clear feedback is as important as setting clear goals. Employees often report that their managers could provide them with more and better feedback on their work progress. This is unfortunate, as performance feedback, if given appropriately, can lead to substantial improvements in performance (Balcazar, Hopkins, & Suarez, 1985-86; Klein, 1989; Taylor, Fisher, & Ilgen, 1984). Performance improvements result from feedback helping individuals to understand their behavior in relation to the performance standards of the organization. Employees also find feedback, if beneficial and delivered sincerely, to be quite motivating. Performance feedback is essential to correcting, sustaining, and improving an employee’s work performance, so it needs to be received and accepted by the employee. Managers can do a great deal to ensure their feedback is perceived favorably by their employees. Beneficial feedback is intended to improve performance and has the following characteristics: Specific – Tells the employee what situation you are commenting on or what they did. Give examples of relevant behaviors or recent performance. Honest – Identifies areas in need of improvement so the employee can work on them. You need to be direct and address the real issues, even if you think the employee may not want to hear the truth. Do not apologize for giving honest feedback. Constructive – Provides feedback on what needs to be improved in a positive manner. Focus on the behavior and do not criticize the person. Do not mix positive and constructive feedback in the same conversation. Ongoing and Timely – Do not assume that because you told an employee something once three months ago that it never needs to be repeated. Feedback—whether positive or constructive—should be a regular occurrence. Do not wait until review time to give feedback—make feedback contingent on the behavior or performance in question. When giving feedback, be sure to consider the setting. Generally it is okay to praise in public if the person is comfortable with this, but be sure to provide constructive feedback in private. One of the best ways to ensure that feedback will be ongoing is to have prescheduled progress meetings, at least once a week, with every employee. The progress meetings can be planned for fifteen minutes and informal agendas should be established jointly with the employee. Ask the employee how he or she feels you are performing as his or her supervisor and how you might be able to help him or her reach his or her goals. Monitor your communication to ensure the feedback is being received accurately and is not being distorted. The Formal Performance Review Most organizations have a formal performance appraisal, which is typically known as the annual performance review. Most have a paper or online form for this review with a list of objectives (usually set at the beginning of the year) and space to comment on outcomes. A number of methods are used to © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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evaluate employee performance; the written essay, critical incidents or behaviors that differentiate good from poor performance, rating scales, behaviorally-anchored rating scales, or multi-rater feedback are some of the possible types. Be sure you are familiar with the review forms and the review process of your organization. Prepare for the Performance Review Meeting The performance appraisal meeting should reflect a culmination or summary of many months of feedback given in relationship to goal achievement. Not only have you provided feedback to the employee throughout these months, but, if done properly, the employee should have been given the opportunity to give feedback to you. There should not be any surprises at this meeting if you both have been doing your part. One of the most important activities you can do in preparation for a performance appraisal meeting is to develop a focused agenda. This should cover only the major points as it is not a review of every project and every report. Hopefully, you have previously debriefed all of the minutiae, so that the review can focus on “lessons learned” and what the employee is doing to proactively move forward. Ask the employee for his or her input on topics to be covered. Without a pre-established agenda, the performance appraisal meeting can fail to accomplish its important goals. An agenda will guide the dialogue and make sure that the employee has had the opportunity to offer his or her input on the agenda. If you ask an employee to join you for this meeting who does not know the topics, he or she may become unnecessarily anxious and may arrive emotionally unprepared. Many companies have the employee do a self-assessment on the goals, competencies, or other areas of performance ahead of the review. This affords the manager a good sense of whether the employee “gets it or not” when comes to how he or she is performing. You can note any gaps between an employee’s assessment of his or her performance and your assessment. You will have a much easier time discussing performance issues if you know that the employee is already aware of these issues and is willing to work on them. If your organization does not have a self-assessment component, you may want to have your employee do a preliminary assessment for you to review prior to your official meeting. Other activities that will help you to prepare for a performance appraisal meeting are:

1. Schedule the meeting at least one week in advance. This gives you both time to prepare and consider topics for the agenda.

2. Plan for no interruptions. Schedule a private conference room for at least one hour. Remember that you send a message to your employees about the amount of time you choose to spend with them. Fifteen minutes for an annual performance meeting sends a message of “you are not very important.” 3. Review the employee’s history in your department and at the company. Are any apparent patterns? 4. Review the job description. Does it need to be updated? How does the employee’s performance compare?

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5. Review the last performance appraisal. How has the employee progressed? Has the employee reached his or her prior goals?

6. Review written documentation—positive and corrective—during the past feedback period.

7. Consider career opportunities. Is the employee promotable? When? To where? Evaluate the employee’s performance during this past performance management cycle and choose an initial performance rating, if the performance appraisal form requires it. Be prepared to change your judgment after speaking with the employee. He or she may shed light on a topic about which you were unaware. Complete a draft copy of the performance appraisal form and consider jointly completing the final form with the employee during the meeting. By doing so, the employee will recognize that responsibility for performance management is jointly held and that he or she can directly affect how his or her annual appraisal form is completed. Consider having the employee do a self-appraisal beforehand, even if it is not required, to help begin the discussion. After you have completed these activities, you should be prepared to conduct the formal performance review. Conduct the Performance Review Meeting The performance review meeting, sometimes called an appraisal, is when you provide a summary of feedback to the employee and ask questions so he or she can provide feedback to you. By the end of the performance review, your role may be to play judge and to determine a rating. Some performance appraisal forms are designed without a final rating; nonetheless, you are still evaluating the employee. This can become difficult if you have been playing the role of coach. It often helps to let the employee know how difficult it is to be both a coach and judge; sometimes just talking about it helps to alleviate the discomfort you both may feel. A performance review meeting should have a predictable set of steps. First, you open the meeting by stating the agenda and developing rapport. Then, you move into the second phase, which is to identify and explore accomplishments and concerns. Ask the employee for his or her self-appraisal and use active listening and questioning techniques. After issues are put on the table, discussed, and resolved (or at least options are reviewed), you may want to move on to develop an action plan and goals for the next performance management cycle, and discuss any anticipated obstacles. Finally, you provide an overall rating of the employee’s performance (either with your organization’s formal rating scale or in qualitative terms) and summarize what has been accomplished during the meeting. Ask the employee if he or she agrees with your summary and if he or she has any questions or comments. Types of Questions to Ask During a Review Questioning is a great technique to use to elicit more information from an employee about past performance. Oftentimes we want to understand what © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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the employee was thinking when he or she made a decision. One of the most difficult parts of the questioning technique is to wait for the answer once you have asked the question. We often think we know what the employee will say, or we really do not want to hear the answer, or we are anxious to get to our point, or we are in a power play with an employee for “air” time, so we answer the question ourselves and do not wait for an answer. We do not actively listen. The goal is to keep an open mind and be respectful of the employee’s point of view. There are a few types of questions you can use. Open and Closed Questions – An open question results in an answer that is descriptive and that usually explains an opinion, prior experiences, or knowledge. It usually begins with What, How, or Why. A closed question results in a “yes” or “no” answer and usually begins with Did, Can, Is, Will, or Have. Both open and closed questions have important uses and are often combined to help guide a conversation or feedback session. Here are some examples: Open:

What happened? Why do you think the machine broke?

Closed:

Can you tell me what happened? Did you break the machine?

Hypothetical Questions – Hypothetical questions are “what if ” questions that seek to gain the employee’s perspective of an imaginary situation or problem. Hypothetical questions are useful when a topic is of a sensitive nature because they can depersonalize the situation, but they may not be as effective for performance reviews. Hypothetical questions are usually open questions. The following are examples: • If we automate the production department, how do you think the employees would feel? • If you were the supervisor, what would you do if an employee insulted a customer? Reflective Questions – A reflective question rephrases what a person has said or implied in the form of a question or statement. In order to reflect accurately, active listening is required. Reflective questions are used to clarify, to show the employee the impact of what he or she has said, and to gain further insight into his or her initial points. To ask a reflective question, determine the most significant thought or feeling and rephrase it. The following are examples: • You seem to be saying that you were concerned with the number of defects in the final product so that the customer would be satisfied rather than getting the product done on time. Am I hearing you correctly? • Did I hear you say you are expecting an increase in customers? Probing Questions – Probing involves using a combination of open and reflective questions to direct a person’s comments toward a specific topic that you believe is important, or to gather information about a specific point or issue. Probing helps clarify and expand. Here are some examples:

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xhibit 5-4 Questions to Ask During a Performance Review Meeting The following are suggested questions to ask during a performance appraisal meeting. Notice that all of these are open-ended questions and begin with either What or How. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

What has gone right during the past six months (or year)? What could have gone better during the past six months (or year)? What is preventing you from reaching the goals we set last time we met? How do you feel about your accomplishments during this past year? How can I help you to improve your performance? What are the top two achievements you are most proud of completing this year? What makes these your top two achievements? How are things going in your work group? How do your accomplishments this year relate to our organization’s mission, vision, and/or strategy? Source: Reprinted with permission from Judith Geller, A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior, Fourth Edition (New York: AMACOM Books, 1994).

• Because you indicated the customer was already upset, how did you respond? • If your report was already complete last week, why did you wait to submit it until now? In general, it is best to ask questions that begin with What, How, When, and Tell me rather than ones that begin with Why, Did you, or Can you. The latter series of introductory question words often provokes defensive responses. Sample questions you can ask during a performance appraisal meeting to elicit useful information and promote a constructive dialogue are presented in Exhibit 5-4.

Reinforce – Reward, Recognize, and Sustain Desired Behaviors Reinforcing desired behavior is one of the most important activities a manager can engage in for the organization. When many employees and managers think of the annual performance review, they assume that the main reward is the salary increase that will hopefully result. Unfortunately, in these competitive times, many increases are small and often equated with nothing more than a cost of living increase or market adjustment. While it may be the case in your organization that salary growth is slow, there is no reason you cannot reinforce desired performance all year in meaningful ways. What sorts of reinforcements are effective? Well, it depends on the employee. We covered many of the principles of motivation in Chapter 3 and the best way to find out is to directly ask your employees what motivates them. Here is a list of possible reinforcements for employees:

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• Positive feedback – tell them if they do a good job. • Recognition – have a formal lunch, publish in the company newsletter, an• • • • •

nounce at the town meeting, or just email your boss to tell him or her what a great job the employee is doing. Small spot rewards – provide gift certificates for $5 for coffee, $25 for bookstore, or $50 for restaurant. Non-cash rewards – give company trinkets or logo items. Time off – give extra paid time off. Visible project – lead an important and visible task team. Nomination – refer for the company development program.

Think About It . . . What sorts of reinforcements would be effective for the employees you supervise? How many of these are currently available in your organization? Can you talk to your boss about some of those reinforcements that are not available?

PROBLEMS WITH PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT In theory, the performance management process should work flawlessly and employees should appreciate both your time and sincere efforts. In practice, however, performance management can be problematic, and you can stumble and fall flat on your face if you are not proficient at the multiple roles required. Inherent conflict in your role as manager is one of the major reasons for such failures.

The Dual Roles of a Manager Your role is to act as both judge and coach—to evaluate and develop employees. Sometimes these roles are on opposite sides of the spectrum, and the communication styles needed to play these roles may seem contradictory. To coach you must listen actively; to judge you must evaluate and provide constructive criticism. Sometimes you must be both judge and coach in the same five minutes. An employee may find it difficult to absorb the changes and apparent contradictions in your dual roles.

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Another reason performance management can be problematic is because an employee’s personal and career goals may differ markedly from the organization’s goals. Employees often want to confirm a positive self-image or, receive positive information by means of rewards such as money, promotions, recognitions, and challenging projects. Employees also want to improve their skills and knowledge in order to reach their career goals. The organization may want the employee to improve performance. Consequently, organizations want to share constructive criticism or potentially negative information with the employee. But an employee rarely desires or invites negative information because of the potential damage to self-esteem. The employee wants to feel good while the supervisor wants to focus on constructive criticism that may not feel good to the employee. Many managers are thus reluctant to give constructive feedback because they are afraid it may serve to de-motivate the employee. Employees often collude unconsciously with managers to avoid negative feedback. Avoidance behaviors include humor, conversation tangents, small talk, ambiguous statements, and accepting conclusions without factual foundations. The result is an ineffective performance feedback meeting which only lightly touches on the important issues. An employee’s response to the manager’s role of judge is often to become defensive. The employee attempts to protect his or her self-esteem from the perceived threat of a manager’s negative comments by doing the following:

• Projecting blame on others for uncontrollable events. • Questioning the performance management process in the organization and how useful it is. • Arguing with any data that is presented. • Smoothing over the issues by apologizing and saying he or she will do a better job next time. • Superficially acting as if the evaluation is accurate but internally denying the accuracy. The following list provides ways to deal with the problems of conflict and dual roles:

1. Separate the two roles of judge and coach as much as possible. 2. Remember to use good questioning techniques and active listening; pay attention to the non-verbal messages that the employee sends.

3. Separate pay increases from the performance appraisal meeting. Pay can relate to performance, but pay does not have to be discussed at the performance appraisal meeting. Pay is dependent on a number of issues outside the realm of performance and is outside the control of either you or the employee (market rates, business conditions, where the employee’s current pay is in the market range, and so on). 4. Refrain from comments that may be perceived as an attack on the employee. 5. Use supportive communication techniques are constructive way and that show empathy and respect for the employee. 6. Reduce the authoritarian nature of the feedback by asking for feedback on your performance. Be prepared for both positive and critical feedback. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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7. Point out when you and/or the employee is avoiding, denying, or being defensive. Talk about the reasons for such behavior. State what you observe and how you are feeling; then ask the employee what he or she observes and how he or she feels.

Communicating Performance Standards and Expectations Performance management can become problematic when the employee never really learned how to perform his or her job correctly in the first place. During the early part of the performance management cycle, it is the responsibility of the manager to communicate standards and expectations and to help the employee to carry out activities to reach goals. If the manager fails to do this adequately, then the employee has been set up for failure. Time spent on the prevention of poor performance and poor behaviors is well worth the effort, because the cost of correction is exponentially higher than the cost of prevention. Here are some hints that are useful when communicating new or revised job responsibilities:

1. Remember that employees have different ways of learning. When you

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

teach a new task, use the best approach for each employee, or use all of the approaches: tell or describe, provide documentation, show or demonstrate, and let them try it firsthand. Set a feedback time during each day for progress discussions of the employee’s completed tasks. Let the employee know he or she should contact you if he or she has any problems. Remember that mistakes are part of the learning process and that it is normal for an employee to be anxious about his or her ability to perform. Tell the employee which job tasks require independent thinking and which require going by the book. Try and foresee potential problems and forewarn the employee. Do not set the employee up for failure. Focus on specific behaviors, not on personality. Jointly review an up-to-date job description and discuss any areas of concern. Jointly establish a training plan with small goals. Use job aids that help the employee remember his or her tasks. Job aids are lists of instructions, flow charts, graphs, and cookbooks.

Performance management does not just happen. It takes planning, analysis, self-assessment, perseverance, and time. Remember that one of your primary roles is to get things done through people, and the only effective way to do this is to carefully manage the performance of your employees.

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ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development: What areas could you do a better job of in terms of defining expectations, developing employees, reviewing or reinforcing? Create a SMART goal for yourself in one of these areas that can be addressed in the next week or two.

Have you received feedback on your feedback and coaching ability? Whom can you ask for feedback? Who knows you well? Find a mentor in your organization with whom you can discuss your performance management efforts.

Managing performance involves providing ongoing, honest, direct, and useful feedback to employees on their work-related behaviors with the objective of continuous performance improvement in areas that align with the organizational strategic recap goals. Performance management is an ongoing process of defining, developing, reviewing, and reinforcing at the individual level. Proper performance management can serve to motivate employees and move the organization closer to its goals. Performance management should be viewed as a continuous cycle of events throughout the year: communicating performance standards and organizational expectations; planning and implementing goals; gathering information and documenting throughout implementation; providing ongoing feedback and tracking progress; coaching; conducting the performance review, and then returning to the first phase or communicating standards and expectations. Proper goal setting is part of effective performance management. Setting SMART goals is done by making the goals specific, measurable, actionable, results-oriented, and time-bound. Goals should be worded in a way that helps drive the employee to accomplish them. Coaching and feedback are critical skills to let employees know how they are doing and how to improve. Beneficial feedback is specific, honest, constructive, ongoing and timely information intended to assist the employee in

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making meaningful workplace improvements. Be sure to give feedback that can actually help the employee improve while there is still an opportunity to make improvements. Focus on specific behaviors and outcomes and not on subjective judgments. Explain the impact of actions on the organization and others. Look for ways to reinforce employees throughout the year in a manner that they would find meaningful and motivating. To conduct an effective performance appraisal meeting, you must prepare ahead of time. An agenda is very useful for guiding the meeting. During the meeting, you should follow a set process: Open the meeting, identify and explore accomplishments and concerns, develop an improvement and action plan, develop goals for the next performance management cycle, and evaluate the employee’s performance during the past performance management cycle. All of these phases require active listening and good questioning techniques. Managers play the dual roles of judge and coach, and thus have to give both positive and constructive feedback concerning behaviors. An employee probably does not want to receive critical feedback because it might harm his or her self-image, affect opportunities for promotion, or cause conflict. These conflicts can then result in avoidance behavior. However, managing performance effectively can lead to greater motivation if the employee sees that he or she is supported and feels capable of higher levels of performance.

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Review Questions

1. The primary mechanism of performance management is:

1. (a) (a) providing specific, honest, constructive, and ongoing feedback to employees on their work-related behaviors with the objective of performance improvement. (b) delivering specific, honest, constructive, and ongoing feedback to employees on work behaviors at the annual performance review. (c) balancing the dual role of judging and coaching that managers must use to get things done through their employees. (d) providing honest feedback to employees on their behaviors with the objective of making them realize where they have gone wrong.

2. The performance management process involves the following stages:

2. (d)

(a) define, develop, review, reward. (b) define, deliver, review, reward. (c) define, deliver, revise, reward. (d) define, develop, review, reinforce.

3. What does it mean for a goal to be SMART as presented in this chapter? 3. (d) (a) Special, Meaningful, Achievable, Realistic, Tangible (b) Specific, Memorable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-specific (c) Specific, Meaningful, Action-oriented, Rational, Tangible (d) Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Results-oriented, Time-bound

4. Coaching is the process of equipping people with:

4. (b)

(a) the information they need to the job the right way. (b) the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop and become more effective in their role. (c) the information and knowledge they need to become more efficient in their role. (d) the knowledge of what needs to be done in the organization before they engage in counterproductive behavior.

5. Performance management can pose a problem for managers because of what inherent conflict? (a) Providing constructive feedback may damage relationships with people the manager may also view as friends. (b) Telling people the truth will result in lower performance and avoiding the truth often results in higher performance. (c) The manager’s role is to play both judge and coach—to evaluate and develop employees. (d) The manager must take on the role of parent and friend when managing performance for the good of the organization. Do you have questions? Comments? Need clarification? Call Educational Services at 1-800-225-3215 or e-mail at [email protected]. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

5. (c)

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6 Teams That Work: The Structure and Dynamics of Work Groups Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define what a team is and how it is different • • • •

from a group. List the characteristics of effective teams. Identify and describe the manager’s role in influencing team dynamics. Describe the effective strategies for managers to use in team decision making. Explain the manager’s role in team building and conflict management interventions.

INTRODUCTION How people interact in a group to achieve shared goals and what we can do as managers to promote effective team behavior are the topics of this chapter. Groups develop into teams in predictable stages as members take on certain key roles and responsibilities. A group becomes a team when the members have shared goals and view themselves as interdependent. Successful managers understand the team dynamics that get groups to work together effectively, and can facilitate decision making and conflict resolution processes to enable the team to achieve at higher levels. The manager’s primary roles involve understanding that team members may need coaching and feedback, and that the team may need an occasional intervention to assist in achieving its goals.

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WHAT IS A TEAM? Before teams are even formed, managers need to determine if there truly is a need for them. Sometimes a group of employees working together effectively is all that is needed. A work group can simply be defined as two or more people interacting to achieve a common goal. Organizations form and use work groups all the time and these are entirely appropriate for many tasks and projects. A team, on the other hand, is two or more interdependent people, with shared responsibility for outcomes, who view themselves as an intact unit in a larger system. Just calling a group a “team” does not necessarily make them one, or instantly infuse them with the necessary skills and working relationships to perform as a high-functioning team. Exhibit 6-1 presents an overview of the basic types of organizational groups and teams. Sometimes a work group is all that is needed. Other times, dedicated teams are essential. It is important to recognize the required level of team functioning, as true teams are more capable in the long run, but they can require more work up front. A team has the potential to do more than a work group, but may well need more resources, more training, and more of your time to develop the members than a work group. Here are some questions to ask to help determine if a team is needed:

• • • • •

Is the work complex? Is there a need for different perspectives and skill sets? Is there a greater purpose than just of the goals for individuals? Are members of the group involved in interdependent tasks? If you answer affirmatively to these questions, then a team is probably needed.

What Is a Group? If a group is two or more people who may need to coordinate some of their activities, then it would appear that many organizations are made up of more loosely connected groups than formal teams. It should be acknowledged that informal groups also evolve within an organization and are not the result of

xhibit 6-1 Continuum of Group and Team Characteristics People Working Together • Minimal interaction on many different goals • Requires some coordination

Work Group • Coordinated effort and interactions to achieve common goals • Individual accountability

Traditional Team • Greater interdependence and shared responsibility for goals • Norms embedded

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Self-Managed Team • Complete responsibility for team’s outcomes • Shared leadership and accountability

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deliberate managerial design. Examples include the group of employees with whom one regularly eats lunch, plays softball, or enjoys spending time. Informal groups may give members satisfaction from activities, help define identity, or simply be a pleasurable diversion during the work day. The reason for mentioning informal groups is that they exist and can greatly aid (or hinder) organizational change and improvement efforts. Sometimes, employees will not accept promotions or transfers because of a desire to stay in informal groups. As discussed in Chapter 3, this may provide insight into your employee’s motivation, as he or she may value affiliation over achievement. A formal work group tends to be more structured, with clear management and reporting lines. Work groups tend to emphasize individual accountability. While the group may share a set of norms and standards of behavior that guide the group process, these are not as strong as that of a team. Because work groups do not have the same level of ownership and accountability, the commitment of individuals in the group tends to be lower and it generally takes more time to work out issues unless a manager intervenes. This is because members have less invested in a group, and may even be a member of multiple groups across the organization, thus pulling them in several directions at once. Whether you have a team or a work group, a solid understanding of what drives human behavior and interpersonal relations is essential.

Think About It . . . Are you part of a team? yes ___ no ___ Are you part of a work group? yes ___ no ___ What is your organization’s attitude toward teams?

Types of Teams There are four common types of teams in organizations (Robbins, 2005): problem-solving teams (meet for a few hours for operational problems – rarely given full authority); self-managed work teams (have more control and autonomy); cross-functional teams (boundary spanning, with workers from different areas to complete defined tasks and solve specific problems); and virtual teams (physically dispersed teams that utilize electronic mediums to communicate and coordinate work). Teams are more appropriate when the following conditions are met: there are critical problems that the leader cannot solve; the leader is willing to sponsor/support the team; and team members have the expertise, © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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the time, and desire to work on the problem (Bradford, 2002). We cannot expect to gather a group of people together and call them a team and expect them to be 100 percent successful from the start. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) observed that team performance actually decreases in “pseudo-teams”—that is, groups that have been called teams, because these groups do not actually focus on the collective needs of the team or the organization. The potential is there, but the pseudo-team wastes time and underperforms a working group. Let’s take a look at the characteristics of effective teams so that we help them develop quickly and avoid having any pseudoteams in our organization.

Think About It . . . Think of your existing teams and work groups and list problems that need to be resolved or team behaviors that need to be addressed.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMS What makes a team effective? First, we need to be clear about what it is meant by “effectiveness” for our team. Is it increased production or less conflict? Is it team processes or only outcomes? As a supervisor, you are probably well aware of what the organization wants from your team in terms of output. However, there are other aspects of team functioning that we should be concerned about when we discuss team effectiveness. An integrated model of team effectiveness is presented in Exhibit 6-2 and is a good roadmap for managers to evaluate team functioning. The team effectiveness assessment in Exercise 6-1 makes a great diagnostic for your team. You should also help your team understand their effectiveness as it relates back to the larger organizational system. As the manager, you have a big picture perspective. Help them see how their team is best aligned with the broader organizational system. Often it is these interdependencies with other parts of the organization that can cause conflict or frustration. Help them put things in perspective and reinforce how their efforts are critical to the success of the organization.

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xhibit 6-2 Integrated Model of Team Effectiveness Purpose – Do team members know why they are here? • The purpose gives a clear sense of direction. • All team members understand the group’s purpose. • Team members agree on why they are there, so it is truly a shared purpose. Strategy – Do team members know where the team is going? • The strategy helps the team to achieve its purpose. • Team members are clear on how to proceed on a day-to-day basis. • People know who is accountable for what and when. The “big picture” is analyzed into SMART goals. Team Roles – Do team members know their individual roles and have needed skills? • The team has the right people with the appropriate competencies. • There are clear agreements on roles and responsibilities. • Team members take on needed roles such as facilitator, contributor, critic, etc. Work Processes – Do team members understand the process for how work gets done? • Team members agree on how to get the work done to achieve the purpose. • Appropriate and efficient operating procedures align with the purpose. • There are effective processes to guide team functioning in regard to work allocation, decision making, and interdependence. Team Processes – Do team members agree on how to treat one another? • The team has an ability to independently work through issues and conflict. • Team members trust one another to do what is right and what is needed. • Team members have healthy interpersonal relationships (respectful, supportive, and able to communicate openly and honestly). Engagement – Are team members motivated to be on and committed to the team? • Team members believe that they have interesting and meaningful work to do. • Team members participate and share their knowledge to advance the team. • Team members are recognized and reinforced for ideas and contributions. Feedback and Metrics – Do team members know how they and the team are doing? • Feedback mechanisms and metrics for team performance are established. • Information about individual performance is available and used. • The team uses all feedback and metrics to honestly evaluate its processes and productivity, and to improve whenever possible. Stakeholders – Does the team interact effectively with key stakeholders? • Do team members know which groups or teams are important to team success? • Relationships with key stakeholders are constructive and effectively managed. • The team has support from key stakeholders in the organization. Source: Reis Consulting, 2007.

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Exercise 6-1 Team Effectiveness Assessment INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

Once you have completed this assessment, discuss it with the team members. Do they agree with your assessment? Have them complete the assessment as well. Statement

Score

Purpose – Team members know why they are here.

1 2 3 4 5

Strategy – Team members know where the team is going.

1 2 3 4 5

Team Roles – Team members know their individual roles and have needed skills.

1 2 3 4 5

Work Processes – Team members understand the process for how work gets done.

1 2 3 4 5

Team Processes – Team members agree on how to treat one another.

1 2 3 4 5

Engagement – Team members motivated to be on and committed to the team.

1 2 3 4 5

Feedback and Metrics – Team members know how they and the team are doing.

1 2 3 4 5

Stakeholders – The team interacts effectively with key stakeholders.

1 2 3 4 5

Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 33-40: You probably have a very effective team. Continue to give team members feedback and solicit their input to confirm your perceptions. 24-32: You probably have an effective team. Solicit their input to find areas and ways to improve using the strategies presented in this chapter. 23 or less: Your team could probably benefit from some teambuilding and skill-building for individual members. Coach individuals on needed behaviors and apply the strategies presented in this chapter to get the team functioning at a higher level.

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Understanding Group Norms and Team Process You have probably been on a team where as soon as it was formed, some people were ready to start doing work or solving the problem before everyone had even taken a seat. A team development model can help us understand why a team is not fully functional when it is first created. Groups go through a predictable set of stages or phases on their way to becoming a team. While not all teams go through the exact steps or take as long at each step, they all need to work out the same types of issues. Bruce Tuckman (1965) developed his well-known “Forming-StormingNorming-Performing” team development model in the mid-1960’s. Tuckman’s model was pioneering in explaining team functioning and behavior at various points in the process of development. The model explains that as a team matures, it develops capability, relationships become established, and the manager’s role needs to change as well. Exhibit 6-3 lists some of the milestones and challenges teams face as they develop. These broadly defined stages are linked to the team effectiveness model presented earlier in the chapter and are dependent upon team members assuming roles that will be covered later in the chapter. What is really important is that the manager allows the team to make some mistakes and take responsibility for its own functioning. In the beginning stages, a directing style may be most appropriate as team members struggle to learn their roles. As the team develops capacity, it is more appropriate for the manager to step back and provide coaching as needed. Later, the manager may participate in the group as a member or delegate to the team as needed. Now that you have a sense of how teams develop, let’s explore how to best set them up for initial success.

Establishing a Team’s Direction and Charter Just as an organization has the responsibility to define and communicate its vision to all employees, a team needs to do the same by establishing a charter. This will be on a much smaller scale, and should be aligned with the overall goals of the organization, but the power of forming a charter collectively cannot be understated. The challenge in a team is to blend each member’s unique goals and his or her motivations with those of the group. A clearly defined team charter encompasses mission, purpose, vision, strategic objectives, individual goals, and values. These need to be established during the early stages of team development with the manager’s assistance, as they will help the team move on to establish roles and individual goals. Exhibit 6-4 provides an overview of the elements of a team charter. If find you that you are just assigning most of these elements, you probably have a work group and not a team. Motivation and commitment in team members will develop more readily if the manager has a participatory style and encourages them to offer their opinions in a safe team environment.

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xhibit 6-3 Stages of Team Development

Stage Establish Team

Positive Team Actions • Look for direction

• Group lacks focus

• Define purpose

• Attends to wrong things

• Determine strategic objectives

Establish Task, Roles, and Work Processes

Trouble Spots

• Determine task requirements • Determine roles and processes

• Not completing tasks • Excessive conflict • No decisions being made

• Coaches and guides behavior • Looks to align roles with what team members find motivating

• Establish ground rules and group processes

• Poor or ineffective standards

• Facilitates and enables process

• Determine consequences

• Conflict within group or with manager

• Agenda setting

• Missed deadlines or incomplete work

• Ensures that work is engaging for team members

• Group makes decisions by consensus Established Team

• Provides direction for team charter

• Conflict over objectives

• Members accept compromise if necessary Establish Team Maintenance Processes and Feedback Mechanisms

Manager’s Role

• Shared responsibility and function autonomously with stakeholders • Monitors own performance

• Poor performance continues • Conflicts go unresolved • Team feels evaluations are unfair

• Internal communication • Positive behaviors not to provide feedback reinforced

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• Delegates, monitor output, and provides feedback as needed • Intervenes only if necessary

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xhibit 6-4 Elements of a Team Charter

Element

What it Tells People

Example

Mission

Why we are here – has a current focus

Provide exceptional customer service.

Purpose

What we do specifically to realize the mission

Give customers healthy and delicious food, in a friendly manner, and at low cost.

Vision

Where we are going – has a future focus

Become the #1 restaurant in three years and attract sufficient capital to expand in five years.

Strategic Objectives

How to get to a future state – the roadmap and major milestones

Develop new “healthier you” menu items this year, recruit two assistant chefs within 18 months, and increase sales by 20% within 24 months.

Individual Goals

Specific things to be done to achieve the strategic plan

Develop action items and plans for individuals and departments. Set SMART goals.

Values

How we treat one other

Respect individuals for who they are, trust one another, and demonstrate good citizenship.

Members Play Healthy Roles Managers need to encourage team members to play healthy roles. As they work to achieve goals and objectives, team members can and should play a variety of roles within the group process. The roles people play are dependent upon a combination of their personal needs, skills, and strengths and upon the group’s needs. For example, a member may be very skilled at organizing thoughts and capturing these thoughts in writing. He or she also may recognize that the group needs someone to take the role of scribe during the meeting. He or she may volunteer to do this and may think that this activity will give him or her visibility to senior management, thus meeting his or her personal need for recognition as well. Having these insights about your employees helps you guide them to fulfilling roles on the team. Each member enters a team having a certain set of expectations of how he or she should behave and of how others should behave. As the team devel© American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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ops, these expectations evolve and coalesce around common themes to form the group’s expectations for member behavior. From these group expectations emerge roles that members choose to play. In some groups, members tend to “get stuck” in certain roles which become limiting and uninspiring for the member. In more effective teams, members share roles, have less of a need for territory, can choose to switch easily from role to role depending on the group’s needs, know when role overload on each member is approaching, and define roles so they are not ambiguous or in conflict. Your job as a manager is to monitor team behaviors and encourage members to assume healthy roles.

Open Communication One of the most informative ways to determine the health and effectiveness of a group is to observe the communication patterns within the group. Who speaks with whom? How often? What about? For how long? Who interrupts whom? How often and when? What level of eye contact occurs between members and who looks at whom while a specific member is talking? What style of verbal communication is used, such as questions, statements, or paraphrasing? The answers to these questions will tell a story about member alliances, conformity, conflict, influence, leadership, morale, and commitment. You also can look at the body language of individual members, such as where people choose to sit in the group, who they are next to, and how they position their bodies. For instance, crossed arms may indicate disagreement, especially if facial expressions reflect a negative response. In order to analyze communication patterns in a group, both the content (what is being said) and the process (how it is being said) must be evaluated. To do this, we can draw a team interaction diagram (see Exhibit 6-5) to visualize how members of a group communicate and interact. Exhibit 6-5 is a seating chart of a meeting and how frequently people interact (or do not interact) with each other. Why is Joe sitting alone? Is he in a disagreement with the group? Does the location of male and female members make a statement? Do any other identity groups to which members belong (race, religion, disability, national origin, age, job title, etc.) affect where members have chosen to sit? Who entered the room first? In what order did the others choose seats? If we show the job titles of each member, will this tell you more? Asking these questions helps the observer to begin to evaluate the group’s dynamics. The lines in the exhibit represent the verbal interaction between the members. Who speaks to whom and in what order? Who do you think is the organizationally assigned leader? You might assume that it is Enrique or Karen since each spoke and was spoken to the most. However, if you were told that Joe began the meeting by asking the group a question (“What has been accomplished on the Delta Project this week?”), you might wonder if Joe was the assigned leader. Clearly, it is difficult to determine the group dynamics based on a diagram of a team you have never met. However, using this model you can analyze the dynamics of teams you lead or are a member of, which would then

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xhibit 6-5 Team Interaction Diagram This diagram represents the physical location of a hypothetical team’s members around a conference table and their frequency and direction of communication at a meeting.

Bob Karen

Joe

Steve

Miriam

Enrique

Rebecca

give you important guidance on how to help the team become more effective. Awareness of communication patterns, both verbal and nonverbal, is essential to diagnosing any group dynamics that are impeding success. Because the flow of information is essential to problem solving and decision making, anything that obstructs that flow will diminish the group’s effectiveness.

Exercise 6-2 Your Team Interaction Diagram Draw a diagram of your team’s next meeting, indicating where people sit, and map the interactions you observe. What conclusions can you draw from these observations? Note these here and use this as information you can use to coach individuals on the team.

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TEAM DYNAMICS Team dynamics are the forces operating within a group as it seeks to achieve its mission and goals. We are most interested in what creates team dynamics and how to influence them. Although it may appear that teams all go through a defined development sequence with a beginning and end, most teams never stop evolving. The dynamics of one group are never exactly the same as the dynamics of another group because of the uniqueness of each team member, and the purpose and the context of the team. Just as individuals define and approach problems differently, so do teams. However, a number of patterns and similarities do arise across teams and these are discussed in the following sections on leadership and functional roles.

The Role of Leadership on Teams Leadership of a team can be assigned by the manager or it can emerge as members interact. Successful teams often share the function of leadership based on members’ skills, strengths, and styles. A manager’s responsibility is to ensure that there is some form of internal leadership and to help the team develop, complete tasks, solve problems, and work productively together. The manager must also ensure that communication patterns, and the influences and participation of members are healthy and appropriate. As members’ interaction increases and develops, they develop an internal commitment to the decision-making process and to implementing the team’s solutions. This is when you know that your employees are engaged and motivated. As organizations increasingly become “flatter” and move towards structures that are more dependent on self-managing teams, teams may operate more autonomously and not need the support of a manager as much. First, this is a compliment to you as an effective manager and second, if the team has a legitimate organizational issue or a compelling reason for why something in the organization should be changed, this may actually be an opportunity for you to sponsor the team to present their case to senior management. This can be tremendously motivating for team members in terms of recognition and exposure to senior managers. If the team does get its desired outcome, you get credit for sponsoring them. If they do not get their desired outcome, you have credibility when you say that it is not what the organization wants at this point. Assuming we want our teams to become somewhat more selfsufficient, let’s look at how team leaders emerge.

Team Leadership Functions Team leadership is absolutely critical to ensuring that team issues are resolved in a positive and efficacious manner. Yukl (2006) identifies two primary team leadership functions as:

1. Organizing and structuring the group to accomplish its task efficiently, and

2. Maintaining harmonious, cooperative relationships among members who must work together in order to accomplish the task.

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These leadership functions can be summarized as task and relationship functions. Both are important and must be attended to at various times in the lifespan of the team. Who actually has these responsibilities may vary from team to team and situation to situation. If we look at team behaviors, there is usually more than one leader in a group because leadership is not a formal position. All effective teams need to have some degree of self-management. Do you really want every member of a team coming to you for every decision? We will explore team leadership and decision-making in coming sections of this chapter. For now, it is important to realize that ad hoc leaders will arise and take charge of the group. If you and the team have done the necessary work up front to ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of the mission, purpose, and roles, then shared leadership should benefit you and the team in the long run.

Roles Team Members Play Ideally, the roles played by members improve team dynamics and lead to task accomplishment. Individual personalities may trigger members (or may have prepared them) to perform certain team roles. The most effective team has members who can perform a variety of positive roles, depending on the specific group dynamics and needs. Team roles can be categorized broadly as task, maintenance, and self-oriented, and these roles are central to many aspects of team-building (Osland, Kolb, & Rubin, 2001). The definitions of these team roles are as follows: Task roles. Roles related to getting the job done. Task roles facilitate and coordinate group activities in relation to problem definition, selection, resolution, and solution implementation. Maintenance roles. Roles that keep the team healthy and moving toward effective member interactions. These strengthen team relationships and keep it together over time. Self-oriented roles. Sometimes members fulfill inner needs that are irrelevant to team tasks or functioning. These roles may enhance or decrease the team’s ability to fulfill its purpose. Self-oriented roles usually interfere with the team’s objectives and are often indicative of hidden agendas. Selforiented behaviors tend to decrease and team task and maintenance behaviors tend to increase as a group matures and becomes more cohesive. The most effective teams have members who can exchange roles effortlessly based on group needs. Ideally, every member has the capability and experience to perform all required roles, but this may not always be the case. Members may lack group process and communication skills. If this occurs, certain members with better skills may experience role overload, while others with less ability may feel alienated and revert to self-oriented roles. Roles may be performed by a number of members at once, and one member may even play a variety of roles at one meeting. Let’s look at these various roles in more depth.

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Team Task Roles Teams exist to accomplish a purpose and members take on a number of roles that facilitate accomplishment of required tasks. Here are some of the more common task roles:

Contributor. Proposes new ideas or modified ways of solving problems. The suggestions may be in the form of content such as a new definition of the problem or process such as brainstorming or implementing a new procedure. Information seeker. Asks questions. Requests that comments be clarified for factual accuracy and seeks information that is pertinent to the problem being addressed. Requests that opinions or values be clarified. Information giver. Offers facts or generalizations that relate to one’s experience or knowledge. States beliefs with the goal of convincing the group to change positions. Clarifier. Clarifies the relationships between suggestions and ideas. Expands on ideas and poses open-ended questions to help focus the group. Pulls concepts together and coordinates related activities and roles members need to play. Summarizes what has occurred and decisions that have been made. Explores the consequences of adopting ideas. Critic. Analyzes and questions group processes and accomplishments based on group standards with the intent of building consensus. May evaluate the practicality, logic, facts, or procedure of an idea. Scribe. Takes minutes or writes comments on a flip chart for all members to see. Performs the role of being the “group memory.” All of these task roles are of a positive nature and are essential to a team’s ability to function effectively. These roles help establish the team, persuade members to do the right thing, and facilitate the involvement of each member.

Think About It . . . As you review the task roles, consider a work group or team to which you belong. Try to determine the members who fulfill these roles on a frequent basis. Which roles do you have a tendency to play?

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Team Maintenance Roles The objective of team maintenance roles is to “grow” and perpetuate the team by safeguarding and developing member resources. These roles help develop a positive climate within the group, encourage positive member relations, and are essential to the survival of the group. Here are some of the more common role characteristics:

Facilitator. Facilitates interaction and keeps communication channels open between members. Encourages everyone in the group to participate and encourages those members who are dominating the discussion to reduce their “air time.” Deals with multiple conversations and ensures that ideas do not get lost. Encourager. Brings warmth and security to the group by praising and accepting member contributions. Actively listens to other members and indicates understanding of different perspectives. Harmonizer. Acts as the group mediator. Assists members to reconcile differences and to relieve tension during conflict. Often does this by joking, complimenting, and smoothing over issues. Yields to maintain group harmony. Conflict can be a necessary part of the group process and the harmonizer may become dysfunctional within the group if conflict is needed to reach a solution. Enforcer. Spells out and seeks to establish standards that will help the group to reach its goals. Evaluates progress and dynamics in relation to team standards. Alerts members when they behave outside of standards. May be perceived as rigid or perfectionistic if taken to extreme. Follower. Accepts ideas and guidance from members. Is an active listener. Goes along with the group process and activities in a somewhat passive manner. Followers can become dysfunctional if all they ever do is follow. It is the facilitator’s role to convince the follower to participate in other healthy roles.

Think About It . . . What team maintenance roles do you and others play in the work group or team to which you belong? What can you do more or less of in the future?

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Self-Oriented Roles When members attempt to satisfy internal needs that are irrelevant to team task or maintenance roles, they create problems for the group process. Team members are driven to self-oriented roles for a variety of reasons. Some include lack of a shared purpose, a low level of group morale, and inappropriate or poorly defined tasks. As the manager, your role is to keep self-oriented roles to a minimum by confronting the team member directly or by encouraging the team to address the underlying issues. It is essential that you not ignore self-oriented behavior because it almost always negatively affects the team. Self-oriented behaviors tend to be most prevalent in the group’s early stages of development or when group conflict develops. We can categorize these behaviors into the following specific roles:

Dominator. Seeks power. May do this by deflating others’ status, disapproving of any activity or comment, interrupting frequently, dominating the conversation, verbally attacking a member, aggressively joking, or taking credit for someone else’s work. Attempts to assert superiority by manipulating the group or members. Jumps topics, twists ideas, acts superior, orders members around, and interrupts frequently. Can be a devil’s advocate in a destructive way. Blocker. Resists any movement toward the group’s goal. Is negative, pessimistic, and stubbornly resistant. Disagrees beyond what is considered reasonable. Attempts to return to issues that already have been addressed. Attention seeker. Calls attention to himself or herself. Makes “me” statements and personalizes comments. Brings up his or her own point of view when it has nothing to do with the issue. May boast, seek attention, or avoid making decisions. Clown. Enjoys not being involved in the group process and lets members know of his or her feelings. Exhibits indifference, cynicism, joking, and silly behavior. Occasional humor is certainly appropriate on teams, but clowns cannot seem to take anything seriously.

Think About It . . . What self-oriented roles do you and others play in the work group or team to which you belong? What can you do to minimize the negative impact of these roles?

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Hidden Agendas Self-oriented roles may have their roots in members’ hidden agendas. For example, we have probably been in a meeting where someone was trying to “steal the spotlight” or look good in front of the boss in order to get a promotion or desirable assignment. Hidden agendas may also come from the group itself. Hidden agendas can fall into two categories: those of the individual and those of the group.

Hidden Agendas of Individuals • Being closed to any solution except your own. When you are so focused on your own solution as the solution, you tend to ignore all team discussion. • Needing to protect yourself from a perceived threat caused by another member’s comments or from options being raised. • Not wanting to own the decision so you do not have to take responsibility for team actions or tasks. Hidden Agendas of Teams • Putting perpetuation of the team ahead of successful completion of assigned tasks. • Wanting to change assigned tasks if they seem too complex or might harm the team. • Wanting to punish a member for stepping out of the team’s norms. This can be done by blaming or ignoring a member. As a manager, you can assist members to confront these destructive behaviors effectively by doing the following: • Recognize that a specific hidden agenda exists. Awareness is the first step here (as outlined in the process for personal change in Chapter 2). • Diagnose why the hidden agenda exists. What purpose does it serve and to whom? • Bring the hidden agenda to the surface by saying “There seems to be some strong concern about . . . Is there something we are not discussing?” or “I am sensing that there is more here than we are touching upon.” • Do not reprimand or push members to address a hidden agenda. Forcing people to deal with hidden agendas can lead to withdrawal, anxiety, and hostility. Once a few hidden agendas have surfaced and have been satisfactorily resolved, more will follow. • Discuss hidden agendas as an intellectual topic as part of a general team discussion. This allows members to understand what a hidden agenda is; it lets them know that hidden agendas are normal; and it gives them permission to later address hidden agendas. • Set aside time at the end of each meeting to evaluate the team process. Hidden agendas may surface at this time. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Evaluating Team Roles We have reviewed three types of functional roles in this section. Team task roles focus on the intellectual dimensions of a team’s work, which involve defining the problem; evaluating alternative solutions, consequences, and barriers; and selecting and implementing the best solution. Team maintenance roles focus on the team’s emotional health and on its ability to mature. Selforiented roles are usually counterproductive and members should strive to reduce or eliminate them. One method to use in evaluating team dynamics is to be (or assign) a group observer. Exercise 6-3 can be used to analyze the roles members play and then used for team-building discussions. Sometimes, it is helpful to have an individual who is trained in observing groups, such as an organizational development specialist, to assist you in obtaining objective observations that can be presented in a non-threatening manner. As the manager, it is your responsibility to manage the performance and behavior of team members, and this means giving constructive feedback and coaching when employees are behaving as less than optimal team members.

Exercise 6-3 Team Roles – Observer Form Place a check next to the roles that each team member plays. Take notes on the specific statements made by each member to fulfill or react to these roles. Use this to coach employees who need development in the team roles. Members and Impact of Their Behaviors Roles

Member 1

Member 2

Member 3

Member 4

Team Task Contributor Information seeker Information giver Clarifier Critic Scribe

Exercise 6-3 continues on next page.

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Exercise 6-3 continued from previous page.  Roles

Member 1

Member 2

Member 3

Member 4

Team Maintenance Facilitator Encourager Harmonizer Enforcer Follower Self-Oriented Roles Dominator Blocker Attention seeker Clown

TEAM DECISION MAKING Team decision making involves solving problems to fulfill the group’s purpose. When teams make decisions, certain dynamics can occur. There can be a clash of ideas that promotes creativity and innovation, or this clash can create resentment, anger, and hostility. Because team members approach problems from their own perspectives, it is important to encourage members to agree on the problem before proceeding. For example, a sales manager, an accountant, and a manufacturing manager may view the problem around the purchasing of raw material differently. Solutions cannot be developed until the problem is identified and mutually agreed upon. Because initial agreement on the problem is essential, group decision-making can take longer than when one individual makes the decision. However, most experts agree that decisions made in a group are of a better quality than decisions made by one individual (Cialdini, 2007).

The Levels of Decision Making Decision making is not a black or white proposition; sometimes, how you make the decision is as important as the decision that is actually made. It is often a trade-off between involvement (or buy-in) and efficiency of the process, but it © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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xhibit 6-6 Decision Making and Inclusion

Method No Inclusion

Advantages

Disadvantages

• Can be fast

• Lack of input

• Clear accountability

• Low buy-in

When to Use • When you are the expert and time is short

• No synergy Consult

Consensus

• People feel they have some input

• Participative, collaborative, and systematic • Encourages commitment

Delegation

• Important decisions may not have buy-in from everyone

• When you do not have all the information

• Takes time

• When complete buy-in really matters – this is the best approach

• Requires more communication and team member skill

• Gives group control

• Takes time

• Same as consensus but without your input

• Requires more data and member skill

• Need to retain control

• When group is fully vested or decision is not critical

should never be about the quality of the decision. Managers have to determine whether to decide themselves, delegate the entire problem to the team, or do something in between. Vroom and Jago (2007) summarize the manager’s role “. . . as a process of motivating others to work together collaboratively to accomplish great things.” An important consideration is that greater involvement in important decisions usually leads to a higher level of motivation and commitment to carry out that decision by team members. The grid in Exhibit 6-6 is a useful tool for managers who are trying to decide when to involve employees in decisions. Most managers know that it is not effective—nor is it desirable—to have all decisions made by the team. However, careful consideration should be given about when team members can be included in the decision-making process.

The Phases of Team Decision Making Assuming that decision making is going to be shared to some extent to maximize motivation and commitment of team members, it is helpful to have a general process to follow. The decision-making process can be divided into phases:

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1. Identify and define the problem. Be specific. Discuss and prioritize multiple issues that reflect information that exists on the problem.

2. Develop a clear and shared set of objectives that will create the change 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

needed to resolve the problem. Have the team agree on what success looks like. Discuss possible solutions to the problem that will meet the objectives. This is the idea generation phase, and judgment should be held until all possible solutions are proposed. Evaluate the solutions for practicality, appropriateness, and ability to meet the objectives. Choose the best solution. Allocate individual and sub-group responsibilities to implement the solution. Implement the solution. Monitor implementation. Provide progress reports to all team members.

Managers in a team environment are usually best served by facilitating this decision-making process before adding their own opinion. The results are more likely to be of high quality and be accepted by members if they see it as being their own. This works well unless the manager plans to do it his or her own way all along. If this is the case, there will only be pseudo-participation and the team members will perceive this as disingenuous and participate in a limited fashion at future sessions. The dynamics that can be created during team decision making are as varied as the members who comprise groups. Generally, the more often a group uses consensus, especially on complex problems, the more effective the results will be. The next time a decision is being made in a group of which you are a member, evaluate which methods are being used, how effective they are, and how the process affects the motivation of team members. The decision-making process that you choose depends on a variety of issues such as the type of problem being addressed, the amount of information available to make the decision and who has the information, and the level of commitment of members to implement the decision. When a group makes decisions by consensus and joint participation, the results are often most effective because consensus ensures member commitment and willingness to implement the decision.

Inspire Team Leaders to Emerge Teams need many small acts of leadership to be effective. There is rarely one person who can meet all the needs of a team—including you as the manager. The traditional picture of a manager as the only leader of a team is changing in many companies to that of one that many members can share aspects of team leadership and decision-making responsibility. Teams are more effective when managers function more as facilitators and coaches because team members, with the skills necessary to reach the team’s goals, are enabled to perform small acts of leadership on a regular basis.

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Joe Raelin, in his book Creating Leaderful Organizations, describes how “[Teams] don’t lose their leadership when they work in sync like a well-oiled machine. Leadership and decision making at this point becomes distributed across all members . . . It is not leaderless; it is leaderful.” (Raelin, 2003). In the most effective teams, leadership is shared based on the group’s needs and the members’ strengths and areas of desired personal growth. This can be quite motivating for team members because it not only allows the person who is best qualified to provide direction, but it also provides a great opportunity for individual development.

INTERVENTIONS FOR TEAMS Managers are obligated to intervene when the groups they are leading are ineffective or destructive. A number of interventions (strategies with the specific goal of team improvement) are available that managers can initiate to improve group effectiveness and that organizations can embrace to improve overall productivity.

Team Building Team building is a general term to describe a variety of techniques and activities used improve the functioning and effectiveness of teams. Many teambuilding programs have been developed over the years that are effective in building cohesive and effective teams. The most important thing about team building is that it is active and engages the team in learning that will transfer to the workplace. Key outcomes include increased levels of trust and key objectives include establish better communication, build group cohesiveness, pinpoint and resolve conflict, and improve problem-solving skills. Team building can be as simple as getting together to establish a mission, vision, and goals or as complex as multi-day retreats with many different types of activities. Experiential programs include fictional “survival” games in the desert, jungle, Arctic, etc.; ropes courses, simulations for experiencing cultural differences, projects focused on creating a new product, and action learning where the goal is to start working on real organizational problems with mentoring and guidance from others in the organization. A team-building session can be put together by the group itself, or an outside facilitator can be hired to supervise the exercises. Oftentimes, the Human Resources or Training and Development Department in your organization can provide help. Most teamoriented programs have a similar philosophy: team members participate actively in the group’s process and management, including the role of leadership. A common objective in most team building is to strengthen the team members’ skills in the various roles required by effective teams. As a manager, you can even facilitate team building by encouraging healthy team behavior whenever your group meets.

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Think About It . . . Are there any improvement areas for team building on your teams? Is there any conflict that has yet to be resolved? Go back and review what you noted in Think About It on page 122 and Exercise 6-3 on page 124 to see if there are opportunities that can be addressed in the next section.

Conflict Conflict is not bad; only unresolved conflict is potentially harmful to a group. Conflict serves to create tension and, if managed effectively, focuses energy around the problem and its solution. Conflict in groups usually follows a predictable pattern. First, members may sense or anticipate that conflict is about to occur. Then, once the conflict emerges, members take a “wait-and-see” approach to assess what is happening and how serious the conflict is. Then, the conflict grows—either slowly or quickly depending upon the situation— somewhat behind the scene. Next, the conflict comes out into the open and prompts some members to retreat, others to attack, and still others to remain neutral. It is at this time that you, as the manager, can attempt to resolve the issue. The resolution phase may take a number of attempts before it is successful. Much depends on the approach that individuals take and the behaviors they exhibit. After resolution is found, the tension disappears and energy can be redirected to other activities. Finally, members reflect, either individually or in discussions, on what has occurred and how it was resolved. In effective groups and teams, after the conflict is resolved, questions are asked about what the real cause of the conflict was and how appropriately members behaved. Conflict can be constructive if it:

• • • • •

Increases team involvement in resolving an issue. Increases team communication and feedback. Allows team members to feel that they have been listened to and taken seriously. Helps members and teams establish effective strategies for dealing with conflict. Results in the solution of a problem.

Individual Approaches to Conflict To understand how conflict can be resolved, you need to understand how individuals may approach conflict. There are five basic approaches individuals take to conflict resolution as shown in Exhibit 6-7. They have been studied ex© American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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xhibit 6-7 Conflict Approaches and When to Use Them

Approach Avoidance “Leave well enough alone”

What is It?

When to Use It?

Removing oneself physically (by leaving) or mentally (checking out) to avoid the conflict situation. Not cooperating or asserting one self.

• If more important issues need to be addressed. • The cost of dealing with the issue outweighs the benefits. • There is no chance of winning.

Accommodation Yielding or giving in to the other “It isn’t worth the party. Being overly cooperative fight; they can and not asserting yourself. have it”

• If you find out that you are wrong. • If other issues are more important. • If team harmony is most important.

Compromise “Let’s just split the difference”

A give-and-take approach where each side gives up something so that no one wins or loses.

• If full resolution will sidetrack the group from achieving objectives. • If time is of the essence. • As fallback if collaborative approaches fail.

Collaboration “Negotiating for a true win-win solution”

Working together to create a unique solution to meet all stakeholders' needs. Being both assertive and cooperative.

• When buy-in and true commitment are needed. • If the problem are complex and multiple stakeholders are required to participate and support the solution.

Competition “Hard bargaining to get what you deserve or need”

Being very assertive and pursuing your interests or the organization’s interests exclusively. Not cooperating with others in reaching a solution.

• If your interests need to be achieved regardless of the impact on others. • If the other party is taking unfair advantage to the detriment of the team. • On critical issues when you know you are right.

Source: Adapted from Thomas, K. W. (1976).

tensively and relate to the degree of cooperativeness and assertiveness exhibited by the individual and include: avoidance, accommodation, collaboration, competition, and compromise (Thomas, 1976). You will note the similarity to the assertiveness and responsiveness dimensions of assertive communication AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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styles presented in Chapter 4; there is much in common between communication styles and an individual’s approach to conflict. Exhibit 6-7 illustrates when team members may use these approaches in the team situations. Sometimes, teams need help in resolving conflict. Use Exercise 6-4 as a diagnostic to see if team members are constructively approaching conflict. As the manager, you may need to encourage constructive conflict in your groups and coach members with their behaviors and reactions in conflict situations. For example, you can help members identify causes and assist them to resolve member conflicts. Interventions you can use include: establishing ground rules, mediating conflict, and establishing guidelines for reaching consensus.

Exercise 6-4 Diagnostic for Team Member Participation in Resolving Conflict INSTRUCTIONS: Use this checklist to determine if your team members are participating in the resolution of conflict and what feedback you can provide them. Behavior

Member

Are Team Members: speaking up if they disagree? willing to engage to resolve difficult issues? actively listening to the opinions of others? encouraging others to express their positions? asking questions and not making assumptions? approaching team issues collaboratively? sharing responsibility for team processes and outcomes? addressing issues constructively ( “Here is my concern”)? willing to let the little things go and focusing on important issues? being respectful and making an effort to see others’ points of view?

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ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development: What effective team characteristics is your team lacking? Is there a conflict or hidden agenda that needs to be addressed? Develop an initial plan for addressing these areas. List your specific next steps.

What roles need to be performed to make the team more effective or minimized to facilitate the team’s growth? How can you coach team members to be more effective? List specific steps you can take in the next week or two.

There are many different types of teams. The fundamental characteristics are that team members are interdependent and share goals. Sometimes, work groups will suffice and teams are not necessary. Managers who can form and manage teams Recap that consistently achieve organizational goals will undoubtedly be more successful than others who cannot. Effective teams provide the means for organizations to accomplish goals and objectives. The old adage of “two heads are better than one” has been shown to be quite accurate. When a team first comes together, it goes through a predictable development process where not everyone will be comfortable. Once established, members assume functional roles that relate to the task or group building and maintenance. These roles serve to create the dynamics within the group that propel members to achieve the group’s goals. In addition, individuals are sometimes driven by self-oriented roles which can hinder goal achievement. Managers can assess team effectiveness using an integrated model that looks at the purpose, processes, roles, interpersonal processes, and overall functioning of the team. As teams make decisions, their members strive to solve problems. Effective managers utilize a decision-making process that enables the team to make sound decisions while still maintaining ownership. When teams operate, they may be affected by barriers created by members playing self-oriented roles or by group conflict. Team members should seek to adopt a collaborative apAMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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proach whenever possible and identify when members are not participating fully in the decision-making process. The manager’s responsibility is to intervene when these barriers affect the group’s performance. Interventions include holding team-building programs, conflict resolution, and coaching sessions. The most important part of the intervention is that teams eventually take ownership for their own performance and team maintenance.

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Review Questions

1. A team is defined as:

1. (d)

(a) two or more employees, working for the same manager, who view themselves as part of a larger organizational system. (b) two or more employees, working for the same organization, who are part of a system designed to achieve desired outcomes. (c) two or more employees, working on the same project, who are part of a larger system designed to achieve desired organizational outcomes. (d) two or more interdependent people, with shared responsibility for outcomes, who view themselves as an intact unit in a larger system.

2. Effective teams have a clearly defined team charter encompassing

2. (b)

which elements? (a) The organization’s mission, the team’s culture, and the manager’s expectations (b) A mission, purpose, vision, strategic objectives, individual goals, and values (c) The team’s strategic objectives, task roles, and the manager’s expectations (d) A clear mission, vision, and project plan with major milestones

3. Healthy team dynamics are supported when team members play the

3. (b)

roles of contributor, clarifier, and critic, and these reflect: (a) team-oriented roles. (b) task-oriented roles. (c) maintenance-oriented roles. (d) self-oriented roles.

4. What is the best method of team decision making when buy-in

4. (d)

is required? (a) Collaboration (b) Majority rules (c) Participatory (d) Consensus

5. Conflict resolution, as a team intervention, can be very beneficial if the conflict: (a) is not something that will easily get team members upset. (b) is not going away and the intervention distracts people from the problem. (c) focuses energy around the problem and its solution. (d) is not based on anything related to the team tasks.

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5. (c)

7 Change That Works: The Process of Guiding Change Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Identify the reasons organizations change. • Explain how understanding individual change •

styles can help managers engage employees in the organizational change process. List the three stages of the change process and the manager’s role at each stage.

INTRODUCTION Change simply means that things are going to be different in the future. Change can be internal or external in nature. For example, a new vice president may take over your division and decide to change the way things are done to improve performance. These might be small changes that most employees welcome enthusiastically. On the other hand, change can also mean that your company is merging with another organization. This could represent major changes to staffing, structure, and roles in your company. Some people may actively resist this type of change. It is up to you, as a manager, to help manage human behavior during such organizational changes. The role of individual managers is to help interpret and translate these changes so that they make sense to employees. Be forewarned—changes that are best for the overall system may not be best for any one employee. For example, IBM decided to leave the personal computer market to focus on business computing and consulting. While this change was not perceived as positive by employees in the areas responsible for making computers who were re-assigned or laid off, it was probably a good strategic change of direction for the organization.

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Organizational change needs to be approached from a systems perspective because it essentially alters the organization’s DNA. A systems model for change should include inputs (reason or reasons for change, such as a mission statement); strategic plans (how the organization is going to get there); “target elements of change” organizational arrangements (policies, procedures, roles, structure); people (competencies, behaviors); methods (work flow, job design, technology); social factors (culture, group processes, interpersonal, communication, leadership); and outputs (organization, department and individual level) (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). From the systems perspective, change may make a tremendous amount of sense. However, from an individual perspective within the organization, it may not make much sense at all. Your job as a manager is to help people make sense of change and ensure that your employees’ behavior supports the organization’s efforts. We will begin with looking at why organizations change and how individuals process and react to change. Next, we will shift our focus to the larger organizational system and look at models for change. An understanding of both is required if we are to manage individual behavior and reinforce that employees are essential partners in the larger organizational system.

WHY DO ORGANIZATIONS CHANGE? Organizations change for many reasons and it is important for you to understand the basic factors so you can put change into a meaningful context for your employees. There are six broad forces that bring about change: workforce changes, such as diversity; technology changes, such as mobile computing; economic changes, such as stock market fluctuations; competitive factors, such as mergers and acquisitions; social trends, such as baby boomers getting older; and world political factors, such as China opening up for trade (Robbins, 2005). While we cannot review all of these forces in detail, it is wise to have “an eye on the horizon” to see what is coming and how it might impact your organization and employees. As a manager, you will likely be asked to guide change in the organization driven by one of these forces. Therefore, it will be helpful to have a framework to describe and contextualize what is happening when your employees inevitably ask you, “Why is this happening?” during the change process. Causes of organizational change can be categorized in terms of magnitude, with first-order change being more evolutionary and incremental and second-order change being more disruptive and transformational (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2006). First-order changes include ongoing organizational improvement efforts such as total quality management, process improvement, and Six-Sigma initiatives. Second-order changes have really changed the organizational landscape in the last 100 years or so. Concepts such as de-layering (“flattening” the organization), decentralization, autonomous work groups, just-in-time manufacturing, reduced development cycles, out-sourcing, and globalization have all exacerbated the pressure on organizations to change in numerous ways to stay competitive. As organizations engage in more frequent second-order changes, the level of uncertainty and complexity increases, and AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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this translates into a larger potential stress on the employees. This tends to amplify employees’ resistance to change, as things never have a chance to really settle down. Let’s take a look at what managers need to know about change to make the process less disruptive for their employees.

Think About It . . . What are some changes that you can anticipate taking place in your organization or industry in the next three to five years that are likely to impact your employees?

Truly visionary organizations have realized that it is only through the involvement and commitment of employees as partners in change will they be able to create meaningful and sustainable change. The business world is too complex and uncertain for the old top-down “command and control” type structure to work in most industries now. Your task as a manager is to understand how to engage and mobilize employees in change efforts. This is why it is so important to be able to effectively influence and manage your employees. Individuals may react quite differently to change. The good news is that managers can anticipate many of the typical reactions, prepare for them, and even harness the energy that would have been expended resisting change into creating long-lasting commitment. The ability to change is a very desirable competency for employees at all levels to possess. Enacted across an entire organization, this makes a dynamic learning organization possible. Managers are responsible for ensuring that the employees in their areas have a competence for change, a positive attitude, and the desire to contribute to the organization’s success by aligning their efforts with the organization’s new objectives. There are always many changes occurring in organizations, and many of them are merely procedural or reporting changes. However, when large-scale change efforts occur, especially if they involve restructuring, it is possible that employees will have a stronger reaction than expected. This can temporarily reduce productivity for the organization, cause morale problems, and possibly result in the loss of valuable employees who seek opportunities elsewhere. As a manager, you are probably the primary connection for your employees to the organization, and your actions can help employees process and understand these changes in a proactive manner.

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THE MANAGER’S ROLE IN THE CHANGE PROCESS Managers play a critical role in interpreting and communicating change so that employees understand what the impact will be and what the benefits are for them. Managers connect the employees to the broader organizational system by helping them understand the context for change (the “big picture”) and their individual roles in the immediate change process and beyond. Managers are also essential for keeping employee morale high by highlighting the positive aspects of change. Make sure that you take every opportunity to engage your employees and talk to them about the change and how they are affected. One way to get a head start on engaging your employees is to make sure you understand both their change styles and yours. How does change affect you? Take the assessment in Exercise 7-1 to find out if you are the type of person who typically embraces change or is more likely to resist it. Have your employees take the assessment as well and discuss the results. People sometimes view themselves as more open to change than their behaviors would indicate. Employees do not always recognize when they are playing resisting roles that serve to hinder change. Knowledge of change style preference provides a good foundation for the next section, where we will explore how people are affected by change.

Exercise 7-1 What is Your Change Style? INSTRUCTIONS: Circle one answer for each statement. Do you . . .

Agree Neutral Disagree

like to be organized at all times?

1

2

3

prefer minimal change that maintains the current structure?

1

2

3

like to challenge accepted assumptions?

3

2

1

accept risk and uncertainty as normal?

3

2

1

think tradition and established practices are important?

1

2

3

like to be creative and spontaneous?

3

2

1

find comfort in routine and predictability?

1

2

3

like to look at the “big picture”?

3

2

1

tend to focus on details?

1

2

3

think policies and procedures should be changed as needed?

3

2

1

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Exercise 7-1 continued from previous page.  Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 24-30: You most likely embrace change and view it as a natural part of organizational life. You may even enjoy driving change in the organization. 17-23: You usually accept change as something that is inevitable. The path of least resistance is usually preferred unless the change is perceived as having negative impacts on a personal level. 10-16: You probably resist change until you are convinced that it is absolutely necessary and even then may not feel as though you have to like it.

How People Are Affected by Change Everyone reacts differently to change. Some people do not think twice about it while others may lie awake worrying about what might happen the next day at work. The reaction to change for most of us is somewhere in between. It helps to have an understanding of what your change style is and what sort of orientation your employees have towards change in general. To start, it helps if we can conceptualize change as more than just a point in time or a single event. Bridges’ Transitions Model William Bridges has devoted a career to studying change and helping individuals and organizations alike manage the change process. Bridges (1991) makes a very important distinction between change and transition. Organizational change is situational; it could be the new office, the new boss, the new team roles, the new policy, or the new uniforms. It is important to recognize that organizational change is external to the individual; it happens to them. Transition is the psychological process individuals go through to come to terms with the new situation. Transitions could include getting used to the commute to new office, letting go of the way the old boss used to run the department, or accepting that the new policy does not allow the carry-over of vacation days. As you probably guessed, transition is internal to the person. This is deceptively simple in principle, but it is always challenging in practice. Unless a transition takes place within employees, organizational change will not work well at all. Our job as managers is to facilitate these transitions at the individual level for our employees.

Think About It . . . Think of a change event that has recently occurred or may happen in the future at your organization. Identify employees who may struggle with or resist the change. What is the internal transition that must occur for the change event to be successful? Just be descriptive at this point, as we will come back to this example later. “Think About It” continues on next page. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Think About It continued from previous page. 

Responses to Change What will any given employee’s response to change be? It is hard to say without knowing a lot about the individual and the situation. Responses to change can be influenced by factors such as:

• • • • • •

Is the type of change incremental or revolutionary? What does it means to the individual? What are job and work process changes? What will it mean to the individual interpersonal networks? What types of changes has the individual gone through previously? What is the individual’s personality?

To better appreciate the full impact of change on people, it helps to understand their responses on a deeper psychological level. While we cannot expect behavior to change overnight, recognizing the different levels of responses to change can assist us in managing human behavior during a change process. The three major levels are often called the ABCs: Affective – How someone feels and their emotions. Do they like the change? Do they feel relieved or a sense of loss? Behavioral – What someone does in response to change. This may be detrimental or helpful to the change efforts. Cognitive – The person’s internal thought process. How do they connect their job to the broader organization’s change effort? Individual responses to change are varied and sometimes, unpredictable because people are complex. In order to help employees deal with change constructively, managers need to have an understanding and appreciation of these responses. Employees’ responses to change (whether they are cognitive, affective, or behavioral) are impacted by factors within the individual such as personality and openness to change; factors within the manager such as emotional intelligence and trustworthiness; and the organization’s culture and environment (Smollan, 2006). While we may only be responsible for employee behavior, it is well documented that affective and cognitive factors strongly influence employee behavior. Your ability to positively influence employee behavior may well depend on whether they trust you and feel that you have their best interests at heart.

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Shaul Oreg (2006) has found that trust in the manager may be one of most important things in reducing affective, behavioral, and cognitive resistance in employees. Oreg concludes: “Of all antecedents, trust in management was the only variable that presented significant effects on all three resistance components, and a particularly strong effect on employees’ cognitive evaluation of the change. In other words, lack of faith in the organization’s leadership was strongly related to increased reports of anger, frustration, and anxiety with respect to the change, to increased actions against it, and in particular to negative evaluations of the need for, and value of, the organizational change.” (Oreg, 2006). Thus, preparing for successful change requires building a positive relationship with employees long before the change needs to take place. Preparing for change as a manager has everything to do with the integrating leadership into the management role as discussed in Chapter 1. Engaging and activating the head, heart, hands, and spirit of employees is absolutely critical to get them to accept and internalize change. A manager can and should create a vivid picture of a better future, one in which employees see themselves as an integral part. This will also lift their spirits. However, this process often requires a “leap of faith” by your employees, and that is where trust becomes a critical factor in the equation. Effective managers already have many of the credentials required to be strong change agents, so having followers who trust you will pay many dividends when it comes time for significant organizational change. We will discuss the role of trust in greater detail in Chapter 8. For now, the important things are that a manager should talk honestly with employees, let them know what is happening, reassure them as needed, and keep morale high.

How to Handle Resistance We have seen that people have different responses to change and this will impact their level of support for change efforts. Exhibit 7-1 presents a commitment scale depicting a range of potential behaviors in reaction to change—from employees embracing it to those actively resisting it—and what you can do in response to try and increase commitment. Essentially these strategies involve communicating with your employees, helping them understand organizational realities, and acknowledging their positions. People are only human, after all, so we should expect them to have varying reactions to change. The good news is that we can anticipate and be prepared for most of these reactions to change.

Think About It . . . Think back to the employees you identified in the Think About It on pages 139-140. Where would you put them on the commitment scale? What have you done so far to increase their level of commitment? What else can you do? “Think About It” continues on next page. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Think About It continued from previous page. 

Reason for Resistance and Managerial Responses Some of the reasons people resist change are normal and transitory (asking “Why now?”), while others are clearly dysfunctional (refusing to participate). Some of the more common reasons and what you can do as a manager are presented in Exhibit 7-2. While having employees who do not accept change can be frustrating, it is essential that their resistance to change be taken seriously. Sometimes, it is a matter of how the individual reacts, but it is also an indication that the organization may be able to do more to help people through the change

xhibit 7-1 Commitment to Change Scale

Commitment Behavior

Strategy to Increase to Next Level

Promotes the new way and looks for ways to enhance change

No change is needed – thank them!

Cooperates fully – actively engages in change process

Talk about what they can do to help others see value in change.

Accepts change and does what is needed without prompting

Try to get them to understand the “big picture” and the importance of their role in the change process.

Complies, but takes no initiative to do more than the minimum

Find out what is lacking for them to fully accept change. Make sure they understand why change is occurring and what their specific role entails.

Passive – does not participate in change

Find out why they are disengaged and what the real issues are. It may involve more than this specific change issue.

Blocks or sabotages change efforts

It’s time for a tough conversation to determine underlying issues. May require disciplinary action if the above strategies fail.

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process. This means more communication, involvement, and participation. Only as a final option should managers resort to more coercive measures such as threatening disciplinary action. In the long run, you will have built a team that can handle change more easily and adapt with less disruption if you teach them how to deal with change. If you strong-arm people into doing things, at best you will get compliance behavior in the short run.

xhibit 7-2 Reasons for Resistance and Managerial Strategies Reasons Employees Resist

Behaviors/Statements

Managerial Strategies

Sense of Loss • Feel they will suffer from the change • May lose job, power, or status • Threatens job security and implied contracts • Breakup of team or work group

• Fear • Anger • Sadness • “This is not fair.” • “I did not sign up for this.”

• Allow employees to express their emotions • Solicit input and encourage a healthy dialogue • Acknowledge the loss for what it is • Use team building techniques for new groups

Poor Communication • Expectations not clear • Perceive more work for themselves • Perceive fewer promotion or development opportunities

• Confusion • Overly critical • “No one tells me anything.” • “Why am I always the last to know?”

• Communicate purpose of change and a clear vision for future • Do not send mixed signals or make promises that cannot be delivered • Explain and clarify the changes to their role • Provide the “big picture” in different ways

Interpersonal • Lack of trust • Personality conflicts

• Arguing • Withdrawal • Not getting along with others • “They can’t be trusted.” • “This is their job.”

• Address issues one-on-one • Emphasize positive aspects of their role • Be supportive • Re-build trust

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Exhibit 7-2 continued from previous page.  Reasons Employees Resist

Behaviors/Statements

Managerial Strategies

Individual • Do not like surprises or uncertainty • Fear of failure • Lack of skills • Past experience with change • Personality

• Defensiveness • Disengagement • “I can’t do this.” • “Whose idea was this anyway?” • “These things never work —just wait and see.”

• Identify and acknowledge employee concerns • Provide training and support • Confront employees who block or sabotage change • Communicate how employees and organization will benefit from the change

Organizational • Lack of sufficient resources • Lack of adequate reinforcement • Poor timing • How change is presented or implemented

• Frustration • Stalling • “Why now?” • “We don’t need this.” • “How are we supposed to do all this work and still do a good job?”

• Provide employees with strategy, a timeline, and expected outcomes • Address unresolved implementation issues • Be willing to advocate for employees for legitimate issues • Reassess original change plan if warranted

Think About It . . . Return to the employees you identified in the Think About It exercises on pages 139-140 and 141142. What are some potential reasons for their resistance? How you can overcome these barriers?

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Commitment to Change Resistance to change can be better understood and overcome by examining the factors related to commitment (Coetsee, 1999). Commitment to change is a result of the individual’s knowledge, information shared, empowerment provided, rewards and recognition available, and the vision for the change. Employees will make an initial calculation about whether the change is of benefit to them (whether the benefits outweigh the costs); this determines their motivation to change. Employees will have to be convinced to recalculate if their original impression was not favorable. By knowing the elements that foster commitment to change, managers can front-load the process so that employees will have a greater level of motivation to change than if they were not prepared. At the very least, your upfront efforts will lead to greater levels of readiness for change. Do not merely settle for acceptance of change as inevitable—you should always strive for employees being fully committed to change. As you read the following case, look to see what the impact this initial calculation of whether the change will be beneficial has on the employees’ openness to change. Case Study - A Tale of Two Employees Javier and Linda both work in the Product Development Department at Toycorp Toys. Toycorp produces music-themed toys for children of all ages. The founder’s dream 34 years ago was to create a love of music in children and provide an easy way for them to discover the joys of being a musician. Their success comes from a knack of creating easy-to-use, age-appropriate toys that make even the most musically timid child able to produce pleasant sounds. Javier has been with the company for a little over three years now. Linda has been with the company for almost eight years. Previously, their department worked very independently and enjoyed lots of creative freedom. The company has slowly been losing market share to foreign competitors for years. They have several established toys that have been their “bread-and-butter” for a long time. These mechanical toys, while simple and elegant, are losing popularity to the wide array of inexpensive electronic music toys. Toycorp has decided to respond by reorganizing and having Product Development report to the Marketing Department. Marketing has many good insights into what children want because of their research. The problem is that Product Development has a lot of people who are music purists and they do not want Marketing telling them what sort of toys to make. And they certainly do not want to make electronic toys! The Product Development employees feel understandably threatened. In addition, the company is going to be moving the department so that they can be closer to the Marketing Department. This means less space and some shared offices for a group known for making a lot of noise at work! Linda, a former grade school music teacher, has said from the beginning that this is a bad idea and that the company was going to potentially lose their customer base. One of the long-time employees, a good friend of Linda’s, has decided to take early retirement rather than go through the “humiliation” of being subordinated to the Marketing Department. Linda has taken this personal loss hard and is clearly upset. She complains that they were never asked © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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what they thought should be done to regain the market share. Javier, a former youth counselor, has seen firsthand the power that getting involved in music can have for children with troubled backgrounds. He is also a weekend jazz musician, so he appreciates and favors the pure musical instruments. Javier does not get along with one member of the Marketing Department, and so he tends to avoid contact with this department as much as possible. Javier has made it clear that he does not trust the Marketing Department to do what is best for the children in the long run. Their boss, Katarina, has made it clear that this change is going to happen. Katarina has only been with the company for two years and was hired to turn things around in the Product Development Department. She usually takes the company position on issues and feels relieved when the change becomes effective May 1st. However, two of her employees (Linda and Javier) do not share her feelings. Linda finds every opportunity to criticize the change. She does not participate actively in team meetings, although she has a wealth of knowledge about music and how children develop musical ability and interest. Linda has been involved in the development of several very successful products and often says “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” in reference to the change that has been “forced” on them. Javier insists on working independently of the Marketing Department and says that he does not need their input. Katarina now has to “rally the troops” for a major new product launch this year. A development cycle is six months long, so the group has to decide on the new toy line in a matter of weeks if they are going to launch before the holidays.

Think About It . . . How would you handle Linda and Javier based on the strategies presented in Exhibits 7-1 and 7-2? What would your next steps be to overcome their resistance and get them to be more committed?

People have to be ready for change in order to actually make the necessary changes in cognition and behavior. This means that they need to know why the change is important and what part they will play. The manager’s role is to help employees through the transition process. Reflecting on the employees you have identified in the Think About It exercises in this chapter, you should better prepared to help them through the change process as a result of your work so far. A manager can coach the employee through the process as demonstrated in Exhibit 7-3, using the personal change process model we first saw AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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in Chapter 2. As employees do not always agree with changes, it is preferable that more lead-time be given. Someone who embraces change and feels that this particular change is a good idea could be “ready” in five minutes. Someone who resists change may take weeks or longer. It helps to know sooner rather than later who is going to struggle with change so we can take appropriate actions.

xhibit 7-3 Coaching for Change Case Study Here is an example of what the manager can do to coach and support an employee (Rhonda) through the five steps of personal change in response to the implementation of a new automated inventory system. Stage

Manager Action and Employee Reaction

Awareness

Meets with Rhonda to inform her of the new system and that she will need training. Rhonda protests that the old system worked just fine. Rhonda has not kept up-to-date with computer skills and often enters many things manually rather than importing updated reports as is the norm for this type of work.

Understanding

Manager explains to Rhonda that the new system is required for the company to maintain its preferred supplier status. Rhonda understands that she needs to be fully trained on the new system by September 15th, but expresses doubt that she will have time to get trained by then. In the weeks before the deadline, the auditors’ review, the upcoming warehouse move, and the office computer upgrade are all scheduled.

Acceptance

Rhonda sees that the new system is going to help in the long run after being given the opportunity to talk with peers who have already made the transition. The manager arranged for this meeting with people she knew had also struggled with a similar transition, but were now proponents of the system. Rhonda also acknowledges that she may not have learned all the computer skills she could have over the years and is therefore a little afraid of the new system.

Commitment

Rhonda agrees to put in overtime so that everything can be up and running by the deadline. She schedules the training to occur in the middle of the day and gives up her lunch break so as to minimize the disruptions to the operations. The manager thanks her for her flexibility and offers to provide any needed support.

Action

Rhonda successfully completes the training. The manager arranges for lunch to be brought in from a favorite local restaurant for the training week to keep spirits high and to recognize that people are giving up their lunch breaks. Source: Reis Consulting (2007).

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THE CHANGE PROCESS Until now we have focused on the manager’s role in the individual change process. Now that you have a sense of how people react to change individually, let’s broaden the discussion to how organizations, as groups of people, manage and react to change. Managers need to serve as change agents in the broader organizational context, as they are altering the organizational DNA, while continuing to support their individual employees. Kurt Lewin is widely known for his three-step model of change with its “unfreezing”, changing, and “refreezing” steps. Lewin’s (1951) model, developed in the 1940’s, was groundbreaking at the time in that he considered team dynamics and organizational systems when he identified steps the organization could take to increase the success of the change process. Central to this model is the manager’s task of getting employees ready to change in the “unfreezing” step, which is enabled by his or her knowledge of human behavior. Exhibit 7-4 describes the manager’s role at each stage in this organizational

xhibit 7-4 The Manager’s Role in the Organizational Change Process

Stage and Objective Prepare Create the motivation and commitment to change.

Change Learn new concepts, systems, and ways of doing things.

Integrate Internalize new concepts and meanings.

Manager’s Role • Encourage adoption of new behaviors and attitudes to take the place of the old. • Identify and reduce internal barriers to change. • Create psychological safety to try new ways (tell people it is alright to not get it right the first time —and mean it!). • Provide new information, processes, and mental models to aid in individual transition. • Help employees learn the new ways of doing things and create new shared purpose. • Enable change by providing coaches, experts, and training to develop skills and answer questions. • Help employees internalize the mental models and ways of doing things. • Reinforce and reward the desired behaviors and new ways of doing things. • Continue coaching employees and providing support for the teams.

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change process. The manager plays a crucial role in facilitating and reinforcing the interconnectedness and interdependence of the human systems of the organization in his or her department and beyond. Edgar Schein is one of the most well known researchers on change, and over the years has adapted and fine-tuned Lewin’s model. Schein (2002) explains that the manager is a critical component of the organizational system as an “unfreezer,” and how: “the manager as change agent has to develop a way to surface disconfirming information, a process that is sometimes difficult and time consuming. And then the information has to be developed in a way that is not too threatening. The role of the change agent in unfreezing systems is, therefore, one of the most important and also one of the most difficult.” The success of organizational change, because it is fundamentally about getting people to do things differently, is primarily influenced by our ability to manage human behavior and not just about the project plan for technical or functional changes. This means “unfreezing” the organization from the old way of doing things by identifying resistance at the individual level and getting people to adopt new behaviors. The management techniques for helping individuals change in this text should serve you well in your role as manager and change agent. Just as individuals need to be developed, organizational development is an ongoing process to improve organization effectiveness and functioning through planned change efforts. The “planned” aspect is what differentiates between smooth change that involves all parts of the system and disruptive change that employees resist because it is unpredictable and disconcerting. Managers who can anticipate how change will impact the organization and their employees can better prepare them for their roles in the revised organizational system.

Systems Change In systems change, it is not only knowing what to change, but how to change and evaluate the target elements of change that leads to success (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). The areas of intended change are usually the elements of the organizational DNA (staff, systems, structure, and culture) we discussed earlier. If we simply make a technical change, such as an upgrade to the order processing system, and do not consider the impact on the people entering the orders (the staff who need to have the knowledge to use the new order system), and the structure (if the other departments will understand the new codes or have the ability to import the orders into their systems), then we are creating system problems. For example, changing from using part numbers to barcodes can have serious effects on other areas in the organization. Will other departments also be able to scan in the products? How about the shippers or end customers? When we initiate change, we need to take all the parts of the organizational system into consideration and make sure impacted employees have the necessary information and opportunity to provide feedback.

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Without managers ensuring that employees are committed through the application of the principles of managing human behavior, the organizational systems they support would never be fully optimized. Change is not a onetime event. In fact, you have probably noticed that change is happening more frequently than it used to in your organization. This is all the more reason to develop a competence for change and learning at the individual and organizational levels. As such, developing a learning organization—where new information, ideas, and ways of doing things are actively pursued—should be the goal. Managers are the crucial links who ensure that knowledge is transferred and behaviors are changed as needed. Peter Senge, whose ideas we introduced previously in terms of system theory, and his colleagues (Senge et al., 1999) make the following recommendations about change from a learning organization perspective:

• • • • • •

Start small – consider running a pilot program first. Keep goals realistic – especially for timelines and resources. Do not plan the whole thing – at least not every detail. Management needs to stay involved after the implementation. Recognize and reward activities that are going well during the change process. Be open to potentially changing the purpose and mission if needed.

Management is crucial to an organization’s ability to learn and change. If managers constantly focus on short-term results and never create the time, space, and resources to learn, then the organization will have a difficult time adapting and flourishing in the future. The learning organization is not an end-state that you suddenly attain one day; it is more of a way of organizational life that has tremendous benefits if pursued vigorously and consistently.

Change Process Model The final section of this chapter summarizes the important elements of an organizational change process. By combining these best practices, we come up with the integrated change model presented in Exhibit 7-5 that can guide your management efforts. Note that the managers’ roles have been included in this model and serve as important milestones in the process even if your organization is directing the overall change effort. This macro-view of organizational change is presented here so that you can provide this perspective to your employees and better manage their behavior to ensure success. The biggest variable for most organizations has to do with the amount of upfront planning they decide to conduct. Reactive changes tend to be more hurried, while anticipatory changes intended to systematically enhance the organization’s DNA lend themselves to more planning and control. Either type of change requires involvement and buy-in, so utilize as many of the techniques outlined in this chapter as possible to prepare your employees and align their behaviors with what the organization needs. It is better to do it right the first time than to have a number of short-sighted initiatives that confuse and frustrate employees. Remember, as a manager you may not control the entire change process, but you do control how you work with your employees and motivate them in the change process, so make the most of it! AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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xhibit 7-5 Integrated Change Process Model and the Manager’s Role Stages and Steps

What Needs to be Done

Prepare

Create the motivation and commitment to change.

Anticipate change—as soon as you find out things will be different.

• Identify key stakeholders and decide who to involve early on. • Conduct scenario-planning sessions and involve employees to share their concerns (get it all out as early as possible to deal with potential resistance later). • Identify major change process steps even if details are not known.

Establish the need for change —as soon as reasons for change are known.

• Communicate the “problem” early on (sales are down, or the market has changed). • Create a sense of urgency with a compelling vision to start forming a new, shared purpose. • Let employees see the problem firsthand. This helps with the “unfreezing” and promotes buy-in that they are part of the solution. • Give information to everyone, not just those who are implementing the change.

Form a change team—as soon as the impacted areas are known.

• Identify areas impacted directly and make sure there are representatives from all areas and levels. • Give support and resources to the team (information, training, laptops, meeting space, etc.). • Make sure employees who may be only indirectly impacted are in the loop early on. • Set expectations with team members: - Be clear about their role—is it to advise or to make decisions? - What is open to discussion?

Create a change plan—as soon as the overall scope of the change initiative is known.

• Determine what will have to happen in the organization’s DNA to make the change plan work for staff, systems, structure, process, and culture. • Create a shared purpose for all members in the plan. • Do not just focus on process and system changes— identify who stands to lose something under the new system to mitigate resistance later. • Identify major milestones and metrics for success. • At the department and group level: - Talk to the individuals on your team to find out what problems they see with the plan. - Hold regular team meetings to keep them up-to-date. - Talk about change and what impact it has on people. Exhibit 7-5 continues on next page.

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Exhibit 7-5 continued from previous page.  Stages and Steps Prepare

What Needs to be Done Create the motivation and commitment to change.

Announce the plan—as soon • Communicate the change plan with a compelling vision to as possible. provide context and promote buy-in. • Make sure all stakeholders are informed at the same time. Change

Learn new concepts, systems, and ways of doing things.

Implement the plan—as soon after announcing the plan as possible.

• Delegate responsibility as much as possible to engage employees. • Involve everyone in the organization to the degree possible to increase commitment and ownership. • Recognize and support the individual transitions people are going through during the change phase. Look for the ABC’s of responses.

Integrate

Internalize new concepts and meanings.

Recognize achievements— as they occur and at formal milestones.

• Recognition and rewards for learning and major achievements—create small wins. • Reinforce desired new behaviors so that they become habits.

Revisit the plan—as often as needed.

• Do not view change as a one-time event—make process improvement part of the plan. • Recognize that changes to the plan will inevitably need to occur. • Focus on the system level and look for opportunities to enhance the capacity of your learning organization.

Source: Reprinted with permission from Judith Geller, A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior, Fourth Edition (New York: AMACOM Books, 1994).

ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development: What are the next steps you are going to take to prepare your employees for changes you foresee in your industry or organization? Make a note of them here and schedule some time to discuss these ideas with your boss before implementing with your department.

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Go back to Exhibit 7-5 on pages 151 and 152. Revisit what needs to be done with your employees to build their capacity for change. Choose one employee who needs to make a personal change now and identify your role in helping an employee work through the personal change model.

Organizations change for many reasons. The simple fact is that not everybody wants or likes change. Your job as a manager is to help people get ready for change and then help manage the individual transitions when the change event occurs. Keep in recap mind that change is an external event and transition is the internal psychological process people go through during change. By understanding that people have affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to change, managers can better address individual needs and provide support in appropriate ways. Resistance to change occurs in predictable ways and can be addressed by involving employees early on, providing information throughout the process, and providing the context and vision for the change. It is this shared purpose in the organization’s greater goals that can be the most powerful. Some change efforts may not benefit all employees, but a manager can still play a critical role in easing the impact and helping employees identify constructive responses. Trust is the most important factor in change for employees in terms of commitment to the change and the organization going forward. Commitment to change is related to the individual’s knowledge, information shared, empowerment given, rewards and recognition available, and the vision for the change. Be honest with employees and treat them both as adults and as professionals. You will be rewarded with greater levels of commitment if you able to engage the head, heart, hands, and spirit of employees in the change process. Managers need to present a compelling picture of the future that employees want to be part of, thus potentially winning their spirit as well. Lewins’ three-step model of freezing-changing-refreezing the organization helps us see how managers need to help employees prepare for change, abandon old behaviors, and learn new ones in the change process. Organizational change is only made possible when employees in the systems do things differently. This is where managers play a crucial role in creating the conditions that support learning organizations where change comes more naturally. To that end, managers create and foster a shared purpose in their employees who then view change as a continual and necessary process, rather than a single event to be completed and then forgotten. The manager’s role in large and small changes alike is to connect the employee to the broader organizational systems and to help them to find a meaningful role going forward. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Review Questions

1. Organizational change can be categorized into what levels of magnitude? 1. (c) (a) Trivial (ongoing improvements), substantial (planned change), and discontinuous (industry changing) (b) One through five, with five being the most important and having the most impact (c) First-order change (more evolutionary and incremental) and secondorder change (more disruptive and transformational) (d) Primary (largest and most direct change), secondary, and tertiary (smallest and most indirect change)

2. Bridge’s Transitions model of change specifies that organizational change 2. (b) is external to the individual and that transition is: (a) the process of transferring an employee’s responsibilities to another in the organization. (b) the psychological process people go through internally to come to terms with the new situation. (c) how employees get to a point where they feel they can take on a new role in the organization. (d) the process of letting employees go who have been laid-off.

3. Employee responses to change include the following major levels:

3. (d)

(a) immediate (what they do now) and delayed (what they do after the change sinks in). (b) conscious (planned work behavior) and unconscious (unplanned work behavior). (c) effective (getting the new job done) and counterproductive (working against the change). (d) affective (how they feel), behavioral (what they do), and cognitive (what they think).

4. What should a manager do, according to the change commitment scale,

4. (a) with an employee who refuses to participate in change? (a) Find out why the employee is disengaged and what the real issues are. It may involve more than this specific change issue. (b) Listen to the employee’s complaint and advise him or her that disciplinary action may occur if he or she does not get onboard with the change. (c) Find out what the problem is and make whatever accommodations are necessary to get the employee motivated. (d) Remind the employee of the importance of the change and that you are counting on the employee to do his or her part.

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5. What is the first stage in organizational change process for which the manager has responsibility? (a) Initiate – Develop a coherent strategy for the change process. (b) Integrate – Help employees internalize new concepts and meanings. (c) Prepare – Create the motivation and commitment to change. (d) Change – Create new concepts, systems, and ways of doing things.

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8 Leadership: Translating Vision into Reality Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define leadership and what it does for em• •

ployees. Discuss the limitations of transactional leadership in the Tasks-Relationships-Transformations Model and explain the role of transformational leadership in this model. Discuss how managers can become better leaders.

INTRODUCTION Leadership has been discussed, argued, and studied from a philosophical perspective since ancient times. Leadership is certainly one of the most studied and least understood topics in the business world (Bennis & Nanus, 1985). Is any single theory wrong or right? The short answer is “no” and for good reason, as the exceptional breadth of information is a testament to the very high level of interest in leadership and the variety of approaches available. Embedded in the many works written on this topic is a core set of principles and characteristics of leadership, and good managers need to be able to understand and apply these principles to be effective. In Chapter 1, we stated that leadership does not reside in a role or title, but that leadership—as an ability— exists in people. We will review and apply a few of the most relevant leadership theories to your role in managing human behavior.

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WHAT IS LEADERSHIP? Leadership has had many definitions proposed over the years, and indeed the very nature of leadership has been hotly contested. We will use a broad definition from Gary Yukl, one of the foremost scholars in the field, where leadership “. . . involves a process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization” (Yukl, 2006). Leadership, because it deals with influence, is also dependent on how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. We will not get into the theoretical debates about leadership, but rather focus on the practical behaviors that have been shown to improve effectiveness of individuals and organizations. To accomplish that end, let’s approach the topic of leadership from the employees’ perspective. Employees want to have their why, what, where, and how questions answered about their jobs. By answering these questions, we will see that that the manager’s leadership role involves activating and engaging the head, heart, hands, and spirit of employees as introduced in Chapter 1. Exhibit 8-1 provides an overview of what answering these fundamental questions does for employees and what areas to focus on as a manager. You should note several things about this model. First, the ABCs of change are embedded, and second, the central elements of the team charter we saw in Chapter 6 are reflected directly because departments and teams

xhibit 8-1 What Leadership Does for Employees

Question

It tells the employee:

Activates or Engages

Manager’s Focus

Why are we doing these things?

How his or her role relates to other parts in the organization to achieve the mission.

Head— Cognitive

What needs to be done?

What skills and abilities he or she needs to do the job and fulfill the purpose.

Hands— Behavioral

How are people treated?

How he or she is treated and valued by the manager and what the organization’s values are.

Heart— Affective

Relationships —the people

Where are we going?

If he or she wants to be a part of the organization’s future and share the vision.

Spirit— Inspiration

Transformations —the future

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Tasks —the work

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are very similar in their need for leadership. Leadership is about many little changes that are based on what we have discussed as “managing human behavior” throughout this course and the managing change concepts discussed in Chapter 7. It is also about inspiration, something we have not yet fully discussed. These elements are represented in the “Manager’s Focus” column of Exhibit 8-1 and outlined in the Tasks-Relationships-Transformations Model of Leadership which we will explore in this chapter. Now that we have established the connection and relevance for employees, it is necessary to explore more deeply the behaviors which a manager needs to be an effective leader. The Tasks-Relationships-Transformations Model of Leadership spans the full range of behaviors needed to be an effective manager. The model concisely summarizes the different behaviors that have been shown to make managers effective. Exercise 8-1 highlights some of the common behaviors typical of each area of focus. Obviously, not all these behaviors are needed at any one time or for any particular situation. However, having the flexibility to move between the different behaviors will serve managers well by connecting with employees on multiple levels.

Exercise 8-1 Behaviors of the Tasks-Relationships-Transformations Model of Leadership INSTRUCTIONS: Indicate whether you regularly engage in these behaviors with your employees. Refer back to this exercise when formulating your development plan later in the chapter. Manager’s Focus Tasks— the work

Do You Do It Regularly?

Behaviors Planning the work

Yes

No

Coordinating efforts

Yes

No

Setting SMART goals

Yes

No

Sharing information

Yes

No

Providing specific task direction

Yes

No

Providing job-related training

Yes

No

Coaching for performance

Yes

No

Reviewing and providing task feedback

Yes

No

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Exercise 8-1 continued from previous page.  Manager’s Focus

Behaviors

Relationships— Creating or assigning meaningful work the people Building trust

Do You Do It Regularly? Yes

No

Yes

No

Recognizing performance

Yes

No

Rewarding achievements

Yes

No

Enabling networking

Yes

No

Supporting employees

Yes

No

Demonstrating empathy

Yes

No

Providing career development

Yes

No

Involving and empowering employees

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Fostering change

Yes

No

Sponsoring and mentoring others

Yes

No

Allowing employees to take appropriate risks

Yes

No

Inspiring creativity and innovation

Yes

No

Transformations Painting a compelling picture of the future —the future Setting a good example

Source: Reis Consulting (2007).

Engaging Employees Engaging in all these behaviors appropriately can lead to employees who are connected to the organization by more than just a paycheck. Clawson (2006) recommends that leaders “create a working environment in which people can bring their bodies, minds, and hearts to work and in which they can work wholeheartedly for a bigger purpose.” But how does one accomplish this? A good starting place is to see first how you are doing in Tasks-RelationshipsTransformations areas of leadership. Next, identify areas of leadership on which you personally need to work. Get feedback from people you trust who have insight into how you are doing. As you read through this chapter on the various approaches, consider how each can help you develop in desired areas and engage different facets of your employees. Fully engaging employees requires that all these areas be activated to some degree for each individual.

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Think About It . . . How well do you activate or engage the head, heart, hands, and spirit of your employees? Think in general terms right now and jot down some areas where you think you might like to improve.

No matter how good a leader you are, you will not always be able to engage all facets of all employees at all times, but you will be rewarded if you are genuine in your attempts. Employees will only follow if they believe you are going in the right direction. Managers who have leadership ability will have employees who get something out of their work beyond just a paycheck. Central to leadership ability is the component of trust. We have all probably worked for someone at one point in our careers with whom we were not sure we could trust. Did they really inspire confidence or extra effort on our part? It is helpful to think of trust as the glue that holds the manager’s leadership ability together. Without trust, you simply do not have the capacity for meaningful and sustained leadership!

The Role of Trust Leadership, as a social influence process, only really works when people voluntarily allow themselves to be led to achieve an organizational goal (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). The voluntary component of the process implies that people are going to have to have faith that the manager is directing them towards a worthwhile goal. This can be summed up in the concept of trust. Robbins (2005) identifies the five core dimensions of trust in the leadership process: integrity (being honest and ethical); competence (appropriate skills); consistency (reliable and predictable); loyalty (willing to protect followers); and openness (will tell you the truth). Not surprisingly, trust in the manager is positively related to both work quality and employee satisfaction (Jung & Avolio, 2000; Lester & Brower, 2003). Trust is one of the things that can make or break a manager’s ability to get things done in an organization. A manager may have great technical skills, but without the trust of his or her employees, few will follow for very long. Yukl (2006) summarizes the criticality of trust in this way: “Unless one is perceived to be trustworthy, it is difficult to retain the loyalty of followers or to obtain cooperation and support from peers and superiors. Moreover, a major determinant of expert and referent power is the perception by others that a person is trustworthy.” As we review leadership practices, keep in mind that leadership is an influence process, and that trust is a crucial ingredient that © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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helps separate leadership from just telling people what to do. Take the selfassessment in Exercise 8-2 to get a sense of how much trust you may cultivate with your employees.

Exercise 8-2 Trust Assessment INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

To what extent are you perceived by your employees as:

Score

telling the truth?

1 2 3 4 5

protecting your employees?

1 2 3 4 5

caring about their well-being?

1 2 3 4 5

having the appropriate skills for your role?

1 2 3 4 5

having your actions match your words?

1 2 3 4 5

acknowledging your mistakes?

1 2 3 4 5

putting the organization’s interests ahead of your own?

1 2 3 4 5

keeping your promises?

1 2 3 4 5

behaving in an ethical manner?

1 2 3 4 5

sharing important information?

1 2 3 4 5

Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 41-50: You are probably trusted considerably by your employees. Continue doing what you are doing and seek feedback to validate your self-assessment. 31-40: You are probably trusted by your employees in most situations. Seek out feedback to confirm your perceptions and identify situations where you can enhance trust. Less than 30: You may not be trusted by your employees in some important areas. Seek out a coach or trusted peer who can give you feedback on your behaviors to validate your self-assessment. Look to implement the strategies presented in this chapter to enhance trust.

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FOUNDATION OF THE TASKSRELATIONSHIPS-TRANSFORMATIONS MODEL There are many theories of leadership, but there is clearly no one best way to lead in all situations. The strategies and behaviors presented here can help you determine what needs to be integrated into your individual approach to leadership. Different types of leadership are effective in different types of situations. For example, being supportive of a new employee who has not learned a task by saying “Try harder” or “Don’t give up” would be less effective than showing him or her how to do and then practice the task. Your goal should be to determine which aspects of the Tasks-Relationships-Transformations Model you need to develop and when to use these behaviors to manage human behavior most effectively. What we can do as managers is help people around us have a powerful and meaningful response to the organization. That is, to help create meaning and purpose in everything your employees work on by connecting them to the organizational systems whenever possible. This requires thinking beyond just your goals and the goals of your team. This is exactly what the very best managers do on a regular basis; they look beyond their own needs to the needs of the organization. Sometimes that means focusing on the tasks, sometimes it means focusing on the relationships, and sometimes it means focusing on the numerous transformations that need to occur in your employees. We will now look at two leadership theories that encompass the task—relationship and transformation behaviors that should be in your managerial repertoire.

Transactional Leadership Transactional managers attempt to appeal to employees’ self interests by creating an exchange relationship. That is, they make it very clear what desired rewards will result from performing desired tasks in the organization. According to Burns (1978), transactional leadership involves using a mix of the following behaviors:

1. Contingent Reward – the manager uses money and perks to reward employees for meeting work objectives. 2. Passive Management by Exception – the manager uses punishment and/or negative reinforcement to correct unacceptable performance or deviation from the accepted standards. 3. Active Management by Exception – the manager closely monitors employees as they perform their jobs and corrects them to ensure work is completed according to standard. 4. Laissez-Faire Leadership – The manager takes a hands-off approach and ignores the needs of others, does not respond to problems, and does not manage employee performance. Transactional leaders attempt to influence others by exchanging wages for completing important tasks at work, but this does not necessarily increase morale or inspire worker creativity. Leaders who use transactional leadership as a primary practice foster an environment of power and politics © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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where managers and employees are engaged in a calculated exchange relationship ( a “this for that” mentality). Transactional leadership, if used exclusively, creates short-lived relationships because each exchange needs to have certain terms and a predetermined cost benefit. The result of purely transactional relationships is the promotion of individual interests and people going their separate ways. Some elements of transactional leadership can be counter-productive. Laissez-faire leadership, or the hands-off approach, has been widely shown to result in low productivity, resistance to change, and generally poor work quality (Barbuto, 2005). Management by exception, while appealing because it minimizes the amount of time a manager has to spend “managing,” has also been shown to be relatively ineffective because it limits contact between employee and manager to mainly those times when the manager has a negative feedback for the employee (Barbuto, 2005). These are lost relationship building opportunities! Keep in mind that transactional leadership is not necessarily a bad thing. Transactional leadership, or a specifically contingent reward, does have a positive relationship with performance (Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003). Transactions still need to occur even in organizations with the most inspirational managers. The point to remember is that transactional leadership should not be the only basis for manager-employee relationships. Transactions are absolutely necessary (how many people will work without getting paid?), but they are not sufficient for effective relationships. The critical point here is that transactional leadership, because focused primarily on tasks, is not sufficient to engage the heart and spirit of employees.

Think About It . . . Think about the employees you supervise. Who does not seem to be motivated by transactional leadership approaches alone? Are you overusing one form of transactional leadership? Where are the potential opportunities for greater levels of engagement and motivation? We will come back to these employees in the next section.

Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership, when used effectively, enables followers to achieve a higher level of performance than they thought possible. Transformational leadership theory posits that leadership does not reside solely within

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one individual, but in the relationship between individuals. Leaders transform and motivate followers by making them aware of the importance of tasks, sacrificing self-interest for the greater good, and activating their higher-order needs (Bass, 1985). That is, transformational leadership orients and aligns employees to a greater organizational purpose rather than just focusing on shortterm goals. The four dimensions of transformational leadership as conceptualized by Bass (1985) are:

1. Idealized influence – Managerial behavior that others can identify with on an emotional level (employees want to be like the manager). Conger (1999) found that this idealized influence occurs when managers demonstrate behaviors that engender respect and trust. Managers who display idealized influence demonstrate interest in the well-being of others, stay calm in crises, make decisions that benefit the group as a whole, demonstrate competence, and earn followers’ respect (Bass & Avolio, 1994). 2. Inspirational motivation – Creates and communicates a vision that inspires employees (employees want to enact the manager’s vision). Managers who display inspirational motivation engage and inspire others by providing meaningful and challenging work (Bass, 1990). 3. Intellectual stimulation – Involves and challenges followers to be more creative in solving problems (manager engages the employees cognitively). Intellectual stimulation includes promoting risk taking and creativity by encouraging employees to question assumptions, redefine problems, and consider alternative approaches. 4. Individualized consideration – Attends to individual needs and concerns by providing support and acting as a coach (manager develops employees). Individual consideration includes developing individualized relationships with employees to empower and support them. Emotional intelligence is an important component to this ability (Palmer, Walls, Burgess, & Stough, 2001). Transformational leaders, at their highest level, focus on improving the conditions of the organization for their employees and the people they serve. These managers empower employees at all levels to assume personal leadership roles in the organization. Transformational leaders inspire employees to exceed the expected by embracing a vision and striving to achieve that vision (Bass, 1990). To achieve all this, managers need to focus on what they can do to increase employees’ commitment to support the manager’s vision, encourage them to create innovative approaches, allow them to assume greater responsibility, and ultimately enable them to perform more effectively (Bass, 1985). Leadership is all about what a manager does and the type of role model he or she provides to engage the heart and spirit of his or her employees. Transformational Leadership Behaviors Knowledge of transformational leadership theory alone is not sufficient for becoming an effective manager. Transformational leadership must be enacted through meaningful on-the-job behavior with your employees. Exercise 8-3

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presents a number of transformational behaviors that leaders can integrate into their ongoing repertoire. Take the assessment and see how often you are using these actions with your employees. Just remember, this is not a formula, but a general model that managers can use if they genuinely believe that their leadership styles can help manage human behavior.

Exercise 8-3 Do You Exhibit Transformational Leadership Behaviors? INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

Once you have completed this assessment, ask for feedback from your employees. Do they agree with your self-assessment? Behaviors

Score Idealized motivation

Employees identify with my leadership style and view me as a role model.

1 2 3 4 5

I hold myself and my employees to high ethical and performance standards.

1 2 3 4 5

I effectively build respect and trust with employees.

1 2 3 4 5

I make decisions that clearly benefit the group as a whole.

1 2 3 4 5

My employees are loyal and tend to stay with me for long time.

1 2 3 4 5

Inspirational motivation I communicate an inspiring vision for my department or area.

1 2 3 4 5

I use language, symbols, and slogans to promote feelings of involvement and motivation.

1 2 3 4 5

My values and ideals are clearly communicated and employees identify with them.

1 2 3 4 5

I provide meaningful and challenging work about which employees are enthusiastic.

1 2 3 4 5

I build confidence in my employees to try different approaches and learn new skills.

1 2 3 4 5

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Exercise 8-3 continued from previous page.  Behaviors

Score Intellectual stimulation

I involve employees in establishing goals and objectives.

1 2 3 4 5

I create an environment where it is safe to take appropriate risks.

1 2 3 4 5

I keep employees in the loop and provide them with the “big picture” perspective.

1 2 3 4 5

I sponsor and advocate for employees if they have better ways of doing things.

1 2 3 4 5

I challenge employees to be creative and innovative in approaching problems.

1 2 3 4 5

Individualized consideration I seek out and value my employees’ opinions.

1 2 3 4 5

I develop my employees for the long-term even if it means losing them.

1 2 3 4 5

I provide regular coaching and development for my employees.

1 2 3 4 5

I am genuinely interested in and supportive of my individual employees.

1 2 3 4 5

I empower and support my employees.

1 2 3 4 5

Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 81-100: You use transformational leadership behaviors very frequently. Continue doing what you are doing and seek feedback to confirm your self-perceptions. 61-80: You probably use transformational leadership behaviors regularly and should look for opportunities to do more of the behaviors listed in the assessment and this chapter. 60 or less: You could probably benefit from using more transformational leadership behaviors and should actively work on doing more of the behaviors listed in the assessment and this chapter.

Benefits of Transformational Leadership Successful transformational leaders can use their leadership ability to create “self-renewing” organizations (Tichy & Devanna, 1990). Organizations in every industry must adapt to and anticipate changes in the environment, so the ability to self-renew can be critical to long-term success. This capacity must be embedded into the organizational DNA by the managers. However, this self-renewing capability can present a paradox in the sense that organizations must pay attention to many details without micro-managing; managers © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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need to stimulate employees to come up with new ideas and still maintain some outdated practices; and participative decision making can create information overload. When done well, balancing these seemingly contradictory forces results in a continuous process of recognizing the need for change or renewal, creating new visions, and institutionalizing change, which are all hallmarks of a learning organization. Transformational leadership has received a lot of attention in the research to test its real-world utility, and these studies provide clues as to how the capacity for organizational self-renewal is supported by the acts of employees. Harland, Harrison, Jones, and Reiter-Palmon (2005) found that manager behaviors help build resilience in their employees. This is not only true for the employees who are naturally optimistic; transformation leadership can benefit any employee who the manager helps in dealing with a difficult or challenging situation. This is important because it means that employees of transformational managers are better able to deal with the little setbacks that are inevitable in organizational life. Related to this increased resilience is a whole array of positive behaviors and perceptions that leaders can potentially activate in employees. Transformational leadership has been shown to increase followers’ adaptability, innovativeness, and willingness to go above what the job requires. Clearly, transformational leadership has the potential to elicit many qualities that are attractive to organizations today and can help them self-renew for years to come.

Think About It . . . Identify a leader who you believe displays transformational leadership. What is it specifically about him or her that you admire? What behaviors seem particularly inspirational?

Integrating Transactional and Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership draws from many important areas of leadership theory and research, but it is not sufficient to explain all necessary leadership behaviors. In theory, transactional and transformational leadership may seem like two very different concepts, but it can be difficult to separate the two forms in practice. Research has found that the two concepts are highly related and that both are needed for effective leadership (Judge & Piccolo, 2004). Transformational leadership is effective for motivating employees and increasing satisfaction. However, transactional behaviors have a stronger conAMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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nection to leader job performance. Judge and Piccolo suggest that transformational leadership may add to the base established by transactional leadership. That is, transactional leadership is necessary, but not sufficient by itself to produce the positive results that transformational leadership has demonstrated. This makes sense because it seems unlikely transformational leadership can occur without transactions ensuring that basic worker needs such as housing, food, and other economic necessities are taken care of first. Whatever the full story may be, it is clear that transformational leadership is needed to inspire and motivate employees to higher levels of performance. Transactional leadership may helpful in getting new change processes integrated, ensuring compliance with mission critical objectives, and helping employees see a direct connection between desired behaviors and more concrete rewards. This is especially true for tasks that may not be as intrinsically satisfying. Remember, your primary job as a manager is to activate and engage the head, heart, hands, and spirit of each individual employee as sincerely and effectively as possible. Everything else will follow if you can do this successfully.

Think About It . . . Refer back to the employees you identified in the Think About It exercise on page 164. What can you do to provide them with more transformational leadership? List specific actions which you can begin implementing with each in the next few weeks.

BECOMING A BETTER LEADER Research has found that a common skill leaders possess is that they know themselves and what they need to improve (Bennis & Nanus, 1985). “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It’s precisely that simple and it’s also that difficult” (Bennis, 1989). But how do leaders come to “know themselves”? There is no end to the search for self-awareness. It is a lifelong journey that requires being truly honest with yourself—no matter how it makes you feel—without getting discouraged by your truthful assessments. It requires knowing your strengths and weaknesses and being able to separate out how the world views you or wants you to be from how you view yourself and your personal vision. It requires being able to unlearn conventional wisdom, to be self-directed in learning, and to learn from others. It means know© American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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ing how to develop yourself, how to develop others, and how to connect your employees to the systems to enable and sustain a learning organization.

Knowing Yourself Knowing yourself involves teaching yourself, seeking out others for feedback, and accepting responsibility for your actions. You must reflect upon your past, your values, your thoughts, and your behaviors; then you can interpret the meaning for your future actions. Without awareness, learning, understanding, and reflection, you cannot really know yourself. We covered many aspects of this in Chapter 2 because self-awareness is so essential to becoming an effective manager and it is equally important for leadership development. Complete Exercise 8-4 to identify what specific areas of behavior you should focus on for your leadership development.

Exercise 8-4 Your Roadmap to Developing Leadership Behaviors Based on the behaviors presented in this chapter, what do you feel you need to do more of, less of, or stop doing all together to be a more effective manager? You can then incorporate these into your action plan. Do More

Do Less

Stop Doing

Head— Cognitive Hands— Behavioral Heart— Affective Spirit— Inspiration

Leadership Development Leadership development activities include surveys and assessments, training programs, developmental assignments, and coaching and mentoring. The best approaches will incorporate all of these activities. Working with your manager and Human Resources Department, identify appropriate and available activities to include in your development plan.

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Surveys and Assessments There are a number of leadership surveys and assessments available commercially or through consultants. Some are more prescriptive than others, and applicability to your areas of leadership development may depend on what underlying model is used. Most of the assessments are 360-degree feedback surveys. Self-assessments are usually of limited value because leadership is concerned with the influence you have on others, and that influence is largely determined by the perceptions others have of you. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) measures the complete array of transactional and transformational leadership behaviors covered in this chapter. Other leadership assessments are available from a range of providers and your Human Resources Department should be able to provide guidance on selecting one appropriate for your organization. Training Programs A whole range of leadership workshops and training programs exist. The emphasis and quality of these programs can be quite varied, so be sure to do some research before signing up. There may be programs available through your workplace, at local adult education centers, through consulting firms, or through colleges or universities. Most leadership programs tend to focus on more general leadership skills. In-house programs have the advantage of focusing on values and strategic objectives of the organization. Many of these programs are appropriate for entry and mid-level management if the instructor is qualified. Developmental Assignments Developmental assignments include activities as simple as working on a task team or as complex as turning around a struggling operation. Where you are in your career and what level you are at in terms of leadership development will determine what type of assignments will be most appropriate. Research by the Center for Creative Leadership has found that developmental or “stretch” assignments are a primary source of leadership learning. Five important types of developmental assignments are: job transitions (taking on a new role), creating change, higher levels of responsibility, managing boundaries (cross-functional teams), and dealing with diversity (Ohlott, 2004). Seek out and volunteer for these developmental assignments. You will be surprised at how much you learn when you are doing something you have never attempted before. Coaching and Mentoring We defined coaching in Chapter 5 as the process of equipping people with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop and become more effective in their roles. Coaching and mentoring are equally important in helping managers develop. This is especially important if you undertake a developmental assignment. Leadership does not occur in a vacuum; you need to get real-time advice and perspectives from people who have faced similar situations. Ideally, these people can come from your organization so as to better understand the context of your leadership challenges. Hopefully, your boss will be able to provide valuable coaching in areas relevant to your leadership © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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development. Do not be afraid to go outside your area and seek out informal mentors as well. Some organizations and professional organizations also have formal mentoring programs. Look for mentors and coaches outside your chain of command if possible.

Think About It . . . What developmental activities do you think would be most beneficial for your professional development? Make a note of them here and discuss these activities with your manager in the next month.

Linking Leadership to Learning Organizations Peter Senge (1990) argues that the traditional view of managers is outmoded and does not meet the needs of the learning organization. Managers who can enable and facilitate organizational learning and continuous change while simultaneously looking after the short-term goals and needs of the stakeholders will be most successful. Managers need to take responsibility for “building organizations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models—that is, they are responsible for learning” (Senge, 1990). Senge describes how managers need to focus on being designers, stewards, and teachers in the organization. The designer role is one where the manager develops the system and organizational DNA so that the organization can function effectively without him or her. It is the manager who can develop learning processes so that the organization can deal with issues and problems. By learning to learn, the organization can become more self-sufficient. Like the old proverb, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime” implies, it is our job to teach people to handle things independently if possible. This frees up the manager to address more strategic issues or to create more capacity elsewhere. The steward is someone who takes care of the vision or purpose of the organization; this is the story of where the organization is going. The vision helps advance the story and it should be very clear how employees are part of and shaping the vision for the future. In sum, this means translating the vision into a personal reality! The important aspect of transformational leadership here is getting the story to also become the employees’ vision and not that of the manager’s alone. This may seem like a devious way to get people AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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to buy into the vision, but truly effective organizations are built on people with a shared vision. Managers are also teachers who help employees understand the “big picture” and how to learn as an organization. It is not about traditional teaching, where the teacher instructs and the student absorbs, but rather about the manager guiding the learning process so that the employees can think on their own. This independent, critical thinking capacity distributed throughout the organization is what enables and sustains a learning organization. People learn to ask why and not blindly follow directions that may lead to unintended problems not seen by the manager. They have a shared purpose that guides their actions. The key is that the employees own the purpose, and it was not forced on them by someone else. You should see a number of parallels between the learning organization concept and the material presented in the performance management, motivation, team building and change sections of this course. This is because leadership and learning organizations share a core premise about the importance of leading a series of changes in the organizational system so that the organization can arrive at new destination. Make no mistake—good management is absolutely needed in today’s organizations to keep the day-to-day operations running smoothly. These same managers also need leadership ability to guide the organization into the future.

ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development: Based on Exercise 8-3, what are your next steps for personal leadership development when it comes to transformational leadership? Who can you ask for feedback from on your assessment? Can your manager or another person serve as mentor? Contact them in the next few weeks to discuss your plan.

What behaviors or actions can you take to provide more leadership related to the areas identified in Exercise 8-4? What needs to be done specifically for different employees? List them here and discuss with your strategy with your manager or mentor before implementing them in the next month.

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Leadership has been defined in many ways. Common definitional elements include the following: leadership is a process; it involves inspiring others to focus behaviors toward tasks and goals; how the leader intentionally influences others; and it recap stems from perceptions that the leader has of himself or herself and that employees have of the leader. Leadership involves activating and engaging the head, heart, hands, and spirit of employees for a purpose that is greater than the individual manager or any one employee. This means developing behaviors that favorably impact tasks, build relationships, and bring about transformations. In sum, leadership is about creating greater capacity in the system through strengthening the organizational DNA. Transactional leadership focuses on the exchanges between managers and employees. Managers’ goals are to create and maintain high-quality interactions with employees so that organizational (and personal) goals are met. Managers do this by using rewards, power, and delegation. It has been well established that transactional approaches are not sufficient to engage and motivate most employees over the long run. Transformational leadership focuses more on motivating employees by orienting and aligning them to a greater organizational purpose beyond any one individual employee’s short-term goals. This involves creating a compelling vision, enabling employees to translate the vision into a personal reality, and empowering employees to sustain the transformation. Transformational leadership lends itself to the systems perspective and can promote the growth of a learning organization. Effective management requires an integrated approach and a focus on behaviors that address task, relationship, and transformational aspects almost simultaneously. Managers will always need to ensure that employees receive rewards and recognitions in a transactional sense. However, leadership also requires the ability to get employees to see beyond their current situation and focus on greater purpose. Having a shared vision that unites individuals in the larger organizational system is the ideal. Managers who can couple this shared vision with a capacity for change will help enable a true learning organization. While we are not always able to achieve all of these things in every organization, a sincere focus on engaging and enabling the spirit, head, heart, and hands of employees will go a long way toward becoming a better manager of human behavior.

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Review Questions 1. The definition of leadership involves a process whereby intentional

2.

3.

4.

5.

1. (d) influence is: (a) used by managers to direct and control employee effort to meet organizational objectives. (b) exerted by managers to create an organization that relies on participatory decision making to foster collaboration. (c) used to focus the efforts of employees in areas that will yield the greatest ROI for the organization. (d) exerted by one person over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization. The following are activated or engaged by the Tasks-Relationships2. (c) Transformations Model of Leadership: (a) Motivation, Inspiration, Interrelationships, and Innovation. (b) Perceptions (Cognitions), Behaviors (Skills), Feelings (Emotions), and Character (Personality). (c) Head (Cognitive), Hands (Behavioral), Heart (Affective), and Spirit (Inspiration). (d) Perceptions, Behaviors, Feelings, and Courage. The elements of transactional leadership include: 3. (a) (a) Contingent Reward, Passive Management by Exception, Active Management by Exception, and Laissez-Faire Leadership. (b) Continuous Reward, Management Selection, Active Management Involvement, and Hands-Off Approach. (c) Value Proposition, Exchange Equity, Transaction Execution, and Limited-Risk. (d) Positive Value Propositions, Exchange Equity, Transaction Execution, and Limited-Risk. Transformational leadership theory posits that leadership: 4. (b) (a) is something managers either have or must learn in order to transform within themselves. (b) does not reside solely in an individual, but in the relationship between individuals. (c) is based in the manager’s ability to get others to do what is needed. (d) is not the responsibility of the manager unless the organization supports change. Research on becoming a better leader has found that a common skill 5. (c) leaders possess is that: (a) they understand the important theories in the leadership literature. (b) they ask followers what they want first. (c) they know themselves. (d) they do not show any sign of fear or hesitation in making critical decisions. Do you have questions? Comments? Need clarification? Call Educational Services at 1-800-225-3215 or e-mail at [email protected]. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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9 Putting It All Together: Organizational Effectiveness Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain how a manager’s perspective of the • • •

organizational system can help empower and align employees. Describe what organizational culture is and its characteristics. Define organizational development and its related interventions. Discuss how measures of organizational effectiveness inform employee goals.

INTRODUCTION The essential ingredients of organizations, as introduced in Chapter 1, are the environment; strategy and goals (products, markets clients pursued); work and technology (transformation of inputs into valued outputs); formal organization (Human Resources practices, job design, structure); informal organization (culture, social networks); and the people (Scott & Davis, 2007). These are not static elements, but ever-changing variables in a dynamic system that is open to environmental influences. The role of the manager is to optimize these elements of the organizational DNA for the current conditions and watch the horizon for future changes. In order to have an effective organization, you need to be able to see the “big picture” and manage all the little events concurrently through the actions of your employees. As this is the last chapter in the text, we will focus on gaining perspective, managing culture, and organizational development as tools for enhancing organizational effectiveness.

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GAINING PERSPECTIVE Senge (1990) argues that effective managers must be able to see both the forest and the trees simultaneously. Senge puts simply what is very hard to do in practice: be able to see through the complexity and pick out the underlying structure that is relevant in an organizational system. This does not mean ignoring the complexity, but rather using it as a framework in which to identify the most important data. As managers, we need to see the “big picture” and the relevant details at the same time. The ability to quickly discern aspects that impact the organizational system as whole, and analyze their inter-relatedness and generate potential solutions is the hallmark of an effective systems thinker. We must be careful not to get caught up in the details or become obsessed with information, and the same goes for the employees we supervise. The devil may be in the details, but you need to be able to quickly sort out the details before going over all of them. A good grounding in systems thinking will serve managers well in this respect, as it helps align employee effort with the most important tasks in the organization. Organizations can be usefully viewed as a collection of interdependent people, groups, and processes with complex and variable parts that are forever in flux. Different parts of the organization may be dependent on one another in an assembly-line fashion, or they may only be loosely connected. Understanding how your organizational system can best function is rooted in your knowledge about its processes and the interconnectedness of employees. Some of these employees report directly to you, so it is vital that you provide them direction that addresses relevant issues. When you are confronted with an organizational problem or inefficiency, you should be asking the following questions: Is it a priority? How will it impact other parts of the organization? Is it something your department should handle or should it be transferred, escalated, or shared with another group? The answers to these questions will determine the best way to pursue improvements that will enhance your organization’s effectiveness. Improving organizational effectiveness rests in the collective efforts of managers like you and your ability to get the right things done through your employees’ combined efforts. This often involves reframing the issues so that they make sense to employees and so that they can see the big picture clearly. The organizational DNA concept is useful for discussing organizational systems and effectiveness your with employees. Your job as a manager is to introduce concepts such as the Organizational DNA Model or the Integrated Change Process Model from Chapter 7 to give employees a context in which they can understand and discuss issues that affect them. This also allows employees to gain and share insights into the opportunities for improvement in your organization. The involvement of employees gives them a greater perspective and is immeasurably useful in managing human behavior because it helps them understand (activates the head) and builds commitment (engages the heart and spirit). It can also help your employees turn the organization’s vision into their personal quest. It can be difficult to get employees to simultaneously pay attention to all the critical system processes as well as their respective areas of responsibility. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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This requires people at all levels to understand the “big picture” and be thinking about the impact of their actions on the system (hence, the importance of organizational learning). Thus, it is imperative that managers understand the organizational system in much greater detail so they can empower and align their employees to think and act as part of the system and not just feel like cogs in the machine. Employees can serve as a valuable set of “extra eyes and ears” for the manager if they are attuned to the important organizational issues impacting your department’s effectiveness.

Case Study: A Trip to the Bank We are going to take a trip to your new bank (assuming that you still use a traditional bricks and mortar bank!). You have a check to deposit and a small problem with your checking account has come up after the merger of your bank with a larger institution. After parking your car in the clean parking lot and noticing how pretty the flowers and landscaping are, you enter the branch beneath the shiny new Bank of Everywhere sign. You stand in line, becoming increasingly impatient as you wait behind twelve people—only to find that when you reach the teller he cannot help you with the small checking account problem, but that the customer service representative can. As you sit in the comfortable upholstered chair waiting for the customer service representative, you observe a number of things:

1. The bank furnishings are crisp and luxurious, walnut, brass, and pastelcolored—almost extravagant.

2. There is classical music softly playing in the background. 3. Customers are either waiting impatiently, being rude to employees, or walking by you quickly. 4. None of the customers is smiling. 5. None of the employees is smiling. After 10 minutes the customer service representative invites you to her desk and you explain your “small” checking account problem. She corrects your language by inserting Bank of Everywhere jargon as you describe your problem. It seems that your problem is not as small as you thought. The customer service representative spends five minutes on the telephone with the IT Department only to discover that it is the Operations Department that has the answer. After speaking with them, she then determines that you must talk with the branch manager who needs to authorize the review of your account before anything can be addressed, because she does not have the authority to access your type of account. The customer service representative mutters out loud to herself, “If only they had asked for our input and trained us in these new accounts, none of this would be happening.” Once she finds the branch manager, who frowns and sighs as he logs onto the computer terminal authorizing access, the customer service representative discovers that the computer conversion of the newly transferred accounts has garbled your account information. Just as she is correcting the mistakes, the computer crashes. And you thought you only had a small checking account problem!

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Think About It . . . How would you begin to address these issues of effectiveness at the bank if you were the manager? What do you identify as the major opportunities for managing human behavior?

Most of us have experienced something like this fiasco as a customer at a retail store, financial institution, government office, hospital, or restaurant. The experience we had may have been so horrible that we vowed never to return. What went wrong in the bank example demonstrates that the organization is showing symptoms of dysfunction. What are these symptoms?

• One department does not know what the other department is doing. • The necessary training of employees is lacking. • Communication between employees and communication between employ• • • •

ees and customers is poor. Top and middle management have not delegated activities that clearly should be delegated. Employees do not seem happy. Customers seem bothered and unhappy. There is an inconsistent message between the physical environment of peace and tranquility and the turmoil and frustration that employees communicate.

This organization is not functioning as effectively as it could, and a manager with a “big-picture” perspective and a firm grasp of relevant issues could help the organization improve its processes. The manager’s ultimate goal is not to put out fires, but rather to facilitate and guide change within the organization through his or her employees based on the principles of human behavior we have covered in this course. The smart manager understands how the organization’s design, culture, and management all combine to determine aspects of organizational effectiveness. However, organizations can become ineffective or dysfunctional when managers do not attend to the tenets of managing behavior. Let’s turn now to the manager’s role in shaping the work environment.

Your Role in Shaping the Work Environment An organization is a system of people who strive to reach shared goals by consciously coordinating efforts and activities. This coordination of effort inAMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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cludes guiding human behavior through various policies and regulations, work procedures, and management of tasks through a structure of authority. Someone before you most likely set up the work environment in a way that made sense at the time, but things change. For example, an office designed for typewriters may not be conducive to networked computers, or assembly lines for people may need to be retooled for computerized machines. There are hard and soft elements of the work environment and our focus here is primarily on the “soft” elements of human behavior. However, we should not overlook the importance of the physical work environment to employees or to organizational performance. You may be constrained by the structure and design of your organization or you may be given great latitude to change it. Whichever is the case, it is important to recognize what impact the organization’s environment has on employees. That is, how employees perceive the structure as helping or hindering their work, and whether this is engaging or disengaging them from the organization. You may be able to directly modify or add to the existing design to create a better work environment. Some solutions may be local, such as maintenance workers who tape small containers to their tool belt straps in order to have a supply of small parts handy for the ones that typically go missing on the job. Or administrative employees who have set up elaborate databases to track the paper documents in the office files that cannot be converted electronically and need to be cross-referenced by client, product, or region at a moment’s notice. Local solutions are great, but just be sure that they are not having unintended effects elsewhere in the system. Also, make sure to talk with peers and higher-ups in the organization, as these problems may be experienced elsewhere or your employees’ solutions may help others. Either way, your questions and solutions could represent real organizational opportunities. The learning organization is probably best positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise because strategic flexibility is one of the core differentiators of organizations of the future (Hitt, Keats & DeMarie, 1998). Organizations that can rapidly change their technology, structure, or operations in response to changing conditions will be the most successful. It is one thing to develop new strategies on paper, but quite another to actually spread them throughout the organization in terms of effective new behaviors aligned with the vision. To do this successfully means inspiring employees and enabling behaviors that can sustain a learning organization. The failure of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is an example of an organization not being willing or able to learn new ways of doing things that were becoming standard in the industry and were obvious to many employees at the time (Afuah, 2001). This was due in part to the management of the organization. As a result, DEC missed a critical shift in the industry and was never able to recoup lost market share. This led, in part, to DEC’s eventual demise. Organizations need to engage employees and listen to their frontline experiences and real-world perspectives. That is, organizations need to be open and have flexibility when it comes to operations and strategy. This sounds like simple advice, but it is difficult to accomplish without everyone in the organization onboard as some organizations are very resistant to change. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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An organization’s culture may not be visible, but it can clearly exert a very strong influence when it comes to resisting or embracing potential changes.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Simply declaring that human behavior is complex is an understatement, to say the least! Understanding human behavior requires an in-depth analysis of the person—his or her motivations, personality, self-esteem, relations with others, values, assumptions, and resilience level for change. Understanding human behavior also requires a thorough review of the groups to which a person belongs including the roles he or she and others play within these groups. Finally, understanding human behavior requires a look at the overall organization—its structure and design; its managerial and leadership styles; its vision, purpose, and mission; and its more abstract and unconscious dimensions of assumptions and values, also known as its organizational culture. Organizational culture provides meaning and direction for its members and is the foundation of the way things get done. Organizational culture can be compared to an individual’s personality. Just as an individual behaves according to certain beliefs, values, and assumptions, so does an organization. The major difference is that the organization is composed of many unique individual personalities who participate in developing and perpetuating the organizational culture, thus creating greater complexities. Organizational culture, in sum, determines the way things are done in the workplace. As a manager, you need to help your employees comprehend the characteristics of your organization’s culture and how they can work within it effectively. You should keep in mind that culture has the following characteristics:

• Helps define the identity of the organization and its members. • Is unseen and is often an unobservable force behind organizational activi• • • • •

ties. Provides the social energy that moves organizational members to act. Creates commitment and engagement by providing the meaning, direction, and mobilization for organizational members. Informally controls (encourages or deters) certain behaviors. Helps members make sense of events and symbols. Is passed on to new members through socialization processes.

Why Bother with Organizational Culture? Learning the basics of organizational culture can help you more effectively understand human behavior in the context of your organization. Organizational culture guides the behavior of your employees and understanding these influences can help you be a more effective manager. Employees who do not think and behave the “right” way are usually not tolerated and may leave or be forced out of the organization because of a poor fit. For those who stay, organizational culture profoundly influences their head, heart, and spirit. Culture helps define what people value and how they feel. It builds a commitment to the organization’s values and code of ethics. On a practical level, organizaAMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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tional culture may influence your choice of who to hire for a position. If you have an applicant who does not seem to value the same things as your organization, then you probably will not hire that candidate. If he or she is hired, the end result may likely be a mismatch of values, priorities, and goals. Organizational culture also defines and maintains boundaries. It communicates who is a member of the organization and who is an outsider. Insiders are viewed as part of the family, as belonging, and as safe. This is why layoffs can be so painful for both those who are let go and for those who remain behind. Finally, organizational culture affects organizational performance in that, if it affects behavior, productivity is not far behind. If you understand organizational culture as it relates to performance, you will be better able to positively influence your employees’ behaviors. Culture can be a good thing in that it tends to stabilize an organization so that it can continue to do things efficiently. This can also be a problem, because many organizations strive to develop strong cultures to achieve a high level of performance, but still want the flexibility to change and adapt to take advantage of new opportunities (Schein, 2004). The problem is that strong cultures can be hard to change because they become so entrenched. How can a culture be both strong and stable and also flexible and ready for change at the same time? Managers can better prepare for the inevitable changes the future will bring by creating a culture that is more nimble and change-ready. This is the learning organization concept in action: a true “change culture” that can rapidly unfreeze and refreeze the organization as needed. Having a real change culture within an organization is much different than just thinking you can change the culture whenever necessary. The culture will be much easier to change if the organization is committed to developing employees who are skilled and willing to change. Change is often contrary to what the culture of many organizations has been designed to do, which is to be predictable and constant. However, leading change—and thus changing the culture—is often a manager’s responsibility and requires a special skill set focused on managing human behavior. Positive change can unlock human potential and allows individuals to experience appreciation, collaboration, and meaningfulness, which are all necessary for employees to feel engaged and connected to the system (Whetten & Cameron, 2007). Let’s take a closer look at the definitions and elements of organizational culture.

Definitions and Elements of Organizational Culture All organizations have cultures of their own, whether or not they have been discussed or even acknowledged. As managers, it is important to understand how different leadership styles and ways of managing create and sustain distinct cultures. An organizational culture can be defined as a “pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members” (Schein, 1997). As such, Schein (2004) describes how organizational culture can be fully divided into three levels.

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Level 1: Artifacts and Behaviors – observable Level 2: Stated Beliefs and Values – usually conscious Level 3: Underlying Assumptions – unobservable and unconscious Let’s look at these different aspects of culture in Exhibit 9-1 through the lens of our previous trip to the dysfunctional bank portrayed earlier in the chapter. Human behavior can be better understood by analyzing the organizational culture in which it occurs. While there are obviously many complexities to culture, some basic themes and patterns emerge if you look carefully. These serve to strongly influence behavior, as our bank example has highlighted, and can inform the manager as to which strategies may be most effective on a go-forward basis. Let’s deconstruct some of the complexities by taking a closer look at the following elements associated with each level of organizational culture. Level 1 – Observable Behavior Artifacts. Artifacts are the observable elements of culture. Examples of artifacts include: behaviors, language, stories, myths, ceremonies, and jokes. Material

xhibit 9-1 Aspects of Culture at the Bank

What is it?

Example

Observable Behavior—These are usually visible and concrete, but it may be difficult to interpret their underlying meaning.

Consider the physical surroundings of the bank branch or the overt behavior of the customer service representative at the bank.

Stated Beliefs and Values—These are not always enacted or carried out. Employees can usually identify stated values if prompted to “think about them” for a moment.

“Our employees are our greatest asset” may be a stated value at the bank, but it is not always practiced. At the very least, there is not agreement on what this value means.

Underlying Assumptions—These are not observable and are not necessarily in the conscious realm, even though they are driving and shaping the forces behind behaviors. They may be difficult to identify because they have dropped out of awareness.

Senior bank executives did not consciously consider whether first-line branch employees should be involved in the change efforts related to the merger. They may have unconsciously assumed that low-level employees are not smart enough or did not have the proper education for such complex strategic decisions.

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examples include vision statements, physical layouts of offices, furnishings, patterns of dress, and landscaping of facilities. Many high-tech companies have purposefully adopted a more informal campus approach to their workplaces (open spaces, lounges with games, reconfigurable collaboration areas, and incubator spaces for sharing and growing ideas). They hope these amenities will allow for more casual interaction that will lead to more innovative and creative interactions than a formal corporate setting would. Symbols. Symbols are the objects or signs that represent an abstract concept. These usually have greater meaning than an outsider might attribute to them. An example of a symbol might be an award named after an important person in the organization’s history (such as the founder). The use of the founder’s name indicates respect for him or her in addition to continued support of his or her original values and vision. This name can also be invoked to quickly remind employees of why they are there and the greater purpose of the organization. Level 2 – Stated Beliefs and Values Belief. A belief is the acceptance that something is true or real. There is confidence that the alleged fact (or body of facts) is true or right without tangible knowledge or proof. A belief is consciously held and is a cognitive justification for behaviors. For example, a manager may believe that older workers are not very good with technology and may therefore assign only younger employees to work on computer system projects.

Myths. Myths are idealized stories about what has happened in the past concerning an event or a person. These stories may be inaccurate, but they serve to link the past to the present. Myths increase a sense of identity among organizational members, reinforce rules and norms, and may also perpetuate ineffective behaviors and processes. For example: the story of the salesperson who closed five major deals on the last day of the fiscal year and single-handedly kept the company profitable that year because he worked 12-hour days for a month. Norms. Norms are standard patterns or rules of behavior that are considered normal by the organization. Norms establish what is appropriate and correct behavior. Norms provide stability by guiding behavior in a consistent pattern to allow predictability in the organizational system. For example, one organization may have a norm of dressing very casually unless you are visiting a client that day. Another organization may have a norm that every presentation made to senior management must be made with PowerPoint slides. Rituals and traditions. Traditions are established and prescribed patterns of behavior with symbolic meaning are used to communicate and perpetuate the organization’s culture. These are often very useful in the socialization process and help form the unique identity of the organization and its members. There may be a ritual of putting new employees “on the spot” at their first staff meeting with unreasonable questions and requests until they get very uncomfortable, and then they are told it is just a joke and part of the group’s “warm welcome” for new employees. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Values. Values are principles or standards on which a person consciously bases behaviors. Values serve as a philosophy by which one lives life and guides choices in the organization, and can provide emotional justification for why people behave the way they do. There may be a difference between stated and enacted values. A stated value may be having a work/family life balance; however, the enacted value may be that no one leaves the office until the work is done. Level 3 – Underlying Assumptions Assumptions. Assumptions are ideas or concepts that are taken for granted without proof and serve as the core of culture. An assumption may or may not be based in truth, but it is often unconsciously taught and held so it never gets questioned. An underlying assumption may be that every hour of an attorney’s or consultant’s time must be billable to a client or that meetings always start on time, no matter who is late. Another example may be that your organization always waits for the most senior person to speak first in a meeting while other cultures assume they speak last so as to encourage everyone to participate. Basic underlying assumptions create beliefs and values which then influence behavioral patterns.

Exercise 9-1 Your Organization’s Unique Cultural Elements INSTRUCTIONS: Identify the cultural elements in your overall organization that seem antiquated, do not make sense, or seem to be at cross-purposes with what the organization is trying to achieve. Indicate what behaviors need to change.

Category

Cultural Element

Behaviors

Values

Assumptions

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Behaviors to Change

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Influencing Culture Being able to analyze the culture in your organization as a manager helps demystify why behaviors persist and helps you to predict human behavior. Once you can recognize and understand the cultural drivers of behavior, you can devise management actions or interventions that will help to alter or build upon those behaviors. Exercise 9-1 had you identify unique cultural elements in your organization that you may want to change or influence. Observe the reaction that a new organizational member has to these elements when they first come to your organization. Is it positive or negative? You can use these insights to clarify expectations and objectives with your manager; you can also use this understanding to bring about improvements in the organization. How do you improve organizational culture? The same way you improve the organization’s capacity: through planned and targeted change efforts. All organizations can enhance their cultures if managers within the system are committed to change. Solutions include a combination of the motivation, team building, and change management strategies we have already covered in this text—paired with the organizational development interventions listed in the next section. Some common methods used to positively influence and build cultures at the macro-level in organizations include:

• • • • • • • • •

Creation of on-board processes for new or promoted employees. Socialization process – within and beyond the employee’s formal role. Training for current and future needs. Formalized team building programs – develop interpersonal skills and team effectiveness. Mentoring programs – for technical skills or career development. Role modeling by senior managers – make them visible. Communication – use multiple methods such as email, Intranet sites, blogs, and town meetings to spread the important messages. Involvement and participation in setting the organization’s direction and making it better on a day-to-day basis. Social events – get to know employees as people and strengthen social ties.

Identifying Sub-cultures It should be noted that sub-cultures can develop within the organization and create their own world which may be distinctly different from the overall organizational culture. Sub-cultures can develop in departments, operating units, specialization areas, and social groups. It might be a Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, IT, or Maintenance Department with their own ways of doing things. Sometimes these sub-cultures can be very beneficial, and can add diversity and creativity. Other times they can be destructive, divisive, and create inter-group conflict. To create and sustain a guiding vision in the organization, a balance of needs, values, and beliefs must be found between different departments and the entire organization—in addition to continuing to value each individual’s uniqueness. This is no easy feat! You may have worked very hard at creating your own culture in the larger organization. Only you and your organization can evaluate how effective it is in your context. Take the assessment in Exercise 9-2 to see what extent your department has a strong culture of its own. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Exercise 9-2 Is Your Department a Strong Sub-culture? INSTRUCTIONS: Score your responses on a scale of 1 to 5 as indicated below: 1 Very Little

2

3 Sometimes

4 5 To a Great Extent

Does your department . . .

Score

have specific stories or tales that are routinely told?

1 2 3 4 5

use any slogans, language, or jargon that is specific to only your area?

1 2 3 4 5

have any rituals or events for welcoming new employees?

1 2 3 4 5

have special awards or recognition only for department members?

1 2 3 4 5

have separate department-specific mission, vision, and purpose statements?

1 2 3 4 5

refer to other parts or members of the organization as “them” as opposed to the implied “us” of the department?

1 2 3 4 5

encourage or deter behaviors that are not addressed by any of the organization’s broader policies or practices?

1 2 3 4 5

have stated or practiced values that are different from the overall organization?

1 2 3 4 5

require prospective new employees to meet with multiple people in the department besides the hiring manager?

1 2 3 4 5

sometimes handle problems with department members on your own instead of going to higher levels of management or Human Resources when that was the protocol?

1 2 3 4 5

Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 41-50: Your department most likely has a strong sub-culture. While this may be very positive for your employees, be aware that this may also keep others at a distance and discourage organizational communication and learning. Talk to trusted peers from other areas to test your assessment. Look for opportunities to increase positive interactions across departments. 31-40: Your department probably has a moderate sub-culture. Talk to trusted peers from other areas to test your assessment. Look for opportunities to increase positive interactions across departments. 30 or less: Your department may not have a distinct sub-culture, but talk to trusted peers from other areas to test your assessment.

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Just because there is a strong sub-culture in your department (or another department) does not necessarily indicate that it is ineffective or dysfunctional. Dysfunctional cultures are often characterized by an inward focus, a short-term performance emphasis, morale problems, inconsistency, and emotional outbursts. Outbursts of anger and frustration, which are common in dysfunctional cultures, frighten organizational members; these outbursts stem from people who feel they have no direction, are getting mixed signals, or do not want to follow the direction given. This can result in losing your best employees. This is why recognizing and addressing dysfunctional cultural traits early on is so important. On a positive note, strong cultural traits resemble many of the factors that have been identified as beneficial to learning organizations, effective teams, change management, and employee engagement. Use your expertise in managing human behavior to positively influence your department’s culture. Influencing Culture at the Local Level What can you do, as a manager, to change the overall organizational culture? You probably cannot change your organization’s entire culture by yourself (unless it is a very small organization), but you can bring about meaningful differences in your area of responsibility. What managers do, pay attention to, measure, and reinforce can lead to changes. What is emphasized or rewarded over time can have an effect on an organization’s culture. For example, an organization with a Total Quality Management program will probably be viewed as a positive for the culture if it entails high standards. However, there may be assumptions and beliefs underlying a drive for high standards where only “perfect” is acceptable and employees fear punishment for making any mistakes. Exhibit 9-2 lists a number of strategies and actions you can engage in to influence culture for different situations. Organizational cultures are relative and influenced by the broader environment in which they reside. Understanding how organizational culture forms and evolves over time will greatly enhance your efforts to positively influence the organizational culture in your area or be able to interpret it for your employees. The diversity of your employees; the organization’s vision and purpose; individuals’ personalities, values, and assumptions; and styles of leaders, managers, and employees all interact and become interwoven to form a unique culture. As a manager, it is tremendously important that you understand how someone who comes from a different organization or national culture may not initially fit in with your group. How can you plan for their cultural success? Be sure to coach new members to set expectations and then help establish culturally appropriate behaviors.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Organizational development (OD) is a set of techniques and tools that are used as part of planned change efforts to improve the effectiveness of an organization as a system. OD efforts may be very broad (encompassing the entire organization) or they may be very narrow in scope (just targeting one department or division). © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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xhibit 9-2 Managerial Strategies for Influencing Culture at the Department Level Situation or Area

Actions

Manager’s reactions to problems—how you react says a lot about the values and norms.

A crisis provides an opportunity for a manager to influence the culture in a positive fashion by the way he or she reacts. Stay calm, do not yell, and approach the problem in a systematic and logical manner.

Selection and promotion—the type of people you hire and promote in the organization says a lot about the values and can help change them if they are not what you want.

You can change the culture by selectively recruiting and advancing people who have desired values and cultural perspectives. The larger organization may have strong filters or biases against hiring people who did not go to a certain school, do not know people in the organization, or for some other arbitrary reason, do not fit the mold (probably driven by an underlying assumption).

Systems and processes—bring about change to formal aspects of the organization to encourage new behaviors and norms.

Oftentimes, you may hear that something is part of the culture because people say, “that is just the way things are done.” Look at the systems and processes supporting the old behavior and look for ways to change them based on employee input for a better way.

Role modeling—practice what you preach and demonstrate desired behaviors.

Make public displays of desired new behaviors such as recognizing good performance or taking a constructive approach to problems. Reinforce by coaching your employees to help them internalize desired values.

Design of physical space—walk around the facility to see if it is conducive to communication and teamwork.

Who sits where? Do you have separate or community break rooms? Look to design spots for people of different departments and levels to come together. Do only managers get preferred parking or other perks? Make positive changes in a public display when possible.

Rewards and status—how are valued things distributed? What is rewarded gets repeated.

If the perception is that raising legitimate issues during a project implementation will just get you in trouble, then employees will keep quiet. Be sure to reinforce desired behaviors consistently with valued rewards.

Inspirational stories—use these from current or past organizations to demonstrate how desired actions can lead to positive outcomes.

Use stories about desired behaviors and values to help shape the culture. What your stories emphasize and the positive values they portray will go a long way toward encouraging similar actions by your employees. Perhaps your employees will even be the basis of your future inspirational narratives.

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Think About It . . . What are some aspects of your department’s culture you would you like to change? Are there specific individuals who could benefit from coaching? Identify resources in your organization to discuss your ideas with (your boss, someone from Human Resources, or in senior management who specializes in culture or organizational change). We will incorporate these areas for improvement in your Action Plan.

Whatever the scope, OD is a planned set of activities aimed at improving the organizational members’ ability to work together and achieve the mission and vision. To accomplish this objective, OD practitioners seek to change norms, values, and underlying assumptions by using interventions designed to change some combination of affect, behavior, and/or cognition in employees. Keep in mind that if you use outside consultants, they may bring their own values or biases to the OD effort, and these should fit with the organization’s intentions (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). Your role as a manager is to ensure that any OD effort supports and enables your organization’s vision and positively impacts your area. Effective OD efforts need to impact individuals and groups to change the system for long-term improvements. A basic assumption is that groups and teams are the fundamental units of organizations. Therefore, OD efforts must also activate and engage the head, heart, hands, and spirit of your employees. This is where you come in to fine-tune and tailor the OD efforts to meet your department’s needs. OD, just as with organizational growth and change, can be viewed as evolutionary or revolutionary, depending on the goals. The types of interventions you may use include: team building; process improvement; job redesign and enrichment; training and management development; sensitivity training; career development; conflict resolution; and group decision-making techniques. The approach most used is a set of process-oriented phases of planned change much like those we discussed in Chapter 7. The phases generally involve: Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. Sometimes, an outside consultant or a team from an internal performance improvement department will lead the OD effort. Either way, the manager’s role is usually that of the client and you should be involved in all the phases to ensure congruence with your department’s objectives and an effective implementation. Many times the follow-up to these OD efforts is left up to the manager, so be sure to be fully involved from the beginning.

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An example of a major organizational development effort can be seen in an organization that decides to develop how people view, interact with, and leverage diversity. Managing diversity is a deliberate management process whereby managers develop and value an individual’s unique abilities and perspectives, while simultaneously developing cohesive group norms and values (which reflect each employee’s different viewpoints). The goals are to meet both the employee’s personal and professional needs, while also reaching the organization’s vision. Clearly the managers of the individual departments need to be fully involved in these OD efforts to ensure that employees are fully engaged and committed.

METRICS FOR EFFECTIVENESS Organizational effectiveness can be defined in a number of different ways. At the broadest level, organizations can be assessed in terms of outcomes, processes, and structures (Scott, 2003). Managers need to be able to establish meaningful metrics for any change or improvement effort and communicate these to employees. Just as employees need goals, so do organizations, and these two levels should be directly connected and aligned. There are a number of specific organizational measures that include balanced scorecards, productivity, profits, growth, turnover, market share, stability and cohesion, to name a few. These metrics can and should be translated into goals for your employees to promote alignment with the overall organizational system. These organizational effectiveness measures can be grouped into three areas: external resources approach (stock price, lower cost of raw materials); internal systems approach (increase rate of production, decrease time to market); and technical (increase quality, reduce delivery times) (Jones, 2004). All of these measures of effectiveness can provide important and worthwhile goals to pursue. However, it is difficult to pursue improvements in all of these areas simultaneously, so you need to assist in focusing the organization’s efforts by determining the areas here your department can have the biggest impact. Your organization may define many measures of organizational effectiveness for you. If that is the case, then your role is to formally align employees with these criteria through the performance management process discussed in Chapter 5. This does not mean that you cannot utilize additional metrics to enhance understanding of effective processes and desired outcomes. How can you measure organizational effectiveness? Exercise 9-3 presents a list of high-level questions to determine how effective your organization is in a number of typical areas. Established organizational metrics are very important in determining how well the company is doing. Just as individuals have SMART goals, so should your department and your organization. These are typically established during annual strategic planning sessions and updated as needed. The most important things about goals are that they are meaningful and the employees actually understand their roles in achieving these outcomes!

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Exercise 9–3 Assessment of Organizational Effectiveness Does your organization have a culture that supports effectiveness? Take this assessment from the perspective of the overall organization.

Purpose

Yes Sometimes No

Do people understand the mission or purpose of the organization?

1

0

-1

Do people have clear goals that support the mission?

1

0

-1

Is there a shared vision for the future?

1

0

-1

Do people believe that the senior management can help lead the organization to success?

1

0

-1

Are the organization’s stated core values meaningful to participants and actively supported by management?

1

0

-1

Do people trust the management?

1

0

-1

Is there commitment to the organization and its products or services?

1

0

-1

Do employees feel empowered and have a sense of ownership for outcomes?

1

0

-1

Are employees trained to do their job today and meet the needs of tomorrow?

1

0

-1

Is organizational learning a real competence for the organization?

1

0

-1

Does the organization have the ability to change when needed?

1

0

-1

Is there an external focus on the needs of the customer and future markets?

1

0

-1

Leadership

Engagement

Nimbleness

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Exercise 9-3 continued from previous page.  Processes

Yes Sometimes No

Do employees cooperate on a regular basis across the organization?

1

0

-1

Do different functional areas communicate smoothly to achieve common goals?

1

0

-1

Is decision making shared and delegated?

1

0

-1

Are external stakeholders such as customers, vendors, unions, or local community groups satisfied?

1

0

-1

Is the organization meeting financial goals?

1

0

-1

Are the organization’s products/services in demand?

1

0

-1

Outcomes

Interpreting your score: Add up your total points and compare to the recommendations below. Total Points 12-18: You probably have an effective organization. Look for ways to fine-tune and enhance systems. 5-11: Your organization is clearly effective in some areas, but would benefit from some organizational development in others. Look to see if the low scores clustered in any particular part of the assessment for clues on where to focus improvement efforts. >4: Your organization could benefit from some targeted development efforts. Consult with your manager or internal OD professional to discuss the issues facing your organization.

What can you do in your area to improve organizational effectiveness? Use the techniques in this course to evaluate your area in terms of performance management practices, teams, culture, and desired outcomes. Then, use the systems approach outlined in this chapter to develop a coherent plan. Your metrics should be clear and concise, so make them SMART department objectives with a direct link to individual employee goals. Get input from your employees and other stakeholders along the way. Once you have formulated your plan, get buy-in from your boss and other high-level management. Paint a compelling picture of the improvements your team wants to achieve and make sure to involve your employees as much as possible in the process. Your organization’s effectiveness will almost certainly improve and your employees will appreciate your engaging them in meaningful ways.

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ACTION PLAN Identify areas and activities for future development:

1. What areas of your organization’s culture do feel most impedes the effectiveness of the organization? Refer back to your answers in Exercise 9-2. List the most important elements you have observed with concrete examples. Take this list to someone in your organization you trust and test your analysis. Can any useful changes be implemented?

2. Based on your answers to the Think About It exercise on page 191 and Exercise 9-1, what areas of culture in your department do you see as needing improvement or change? List the recommendations below to enhance the culture and review these with your manager.

An organization is a system of people who strive to reach shared goals by consciously coordinating efforts and activities. This coordination of effort requires the manager to guide human behavior in light of the organization’s policies, recap processes, and formal structure. Organizations also have collectively held values, assumptions, and beliefs that are commonly referred to as its organizational culture. The only way to determine if the shared goals are being met successfully is to measure them. Organizational effectiveness has many different measures that typically cover valued aspects of outcomes, process, or structures. Knowledge of organizational culture and organizational development can be used to assess and improve effectiveness at the local level and throughout the organization. As a manager, you are a special part of a highly complex system—your organization. Each organization has a culture that is a blend of shared values, beliefs, assumptions, perceptions, norms, artifacts, and patterns of behavior. Organizational culture is often an unseen and unobservable force behind organizational activities. It provides the energy that moves organizational members to act and provides the meaning and direction for members. Paying

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attention to the organizational culture provides a framework within which human behavior can be managed. We can observe organizational culture by wandering around the facility and looking at where people sit, the language they use, or the behaviors they exhibit. Organizational development (OD) is a set of techniques, activities, and tools that are used as part of planned change efforts to improve the effectiveness of an organization as a system. OD is aimed at improving the organization members’ ability to work together and achieve the mission and vision. OD efforts must engage and activate the head, heart, hands, and spirit of employees because groups and teams are the fundamental mechanism through which organizations achieve strategic objectives. Your role as a manager is to ensure that these OD efforts are effectively implemented and that the change is reinforced and sustained over time with your employees We have come to the end of this course. Much has been left unsaid about many topics; the world of management and leadership is vast and this text has limited space. As we have seen, understanding human behavior in organizations is not usually simple and evident—the answers to questions often are “it depends.” What is constant, however, is the manager’s role in harnessing the collective energy of employees to achieve the organization’s shared vision. The objectives of this course have been to expand your perspectives toward your employees, your teams, your organization, and yourself. You should be able address these issues from a systems perspective now and see how the behavior of your employees impacts the larger systems. What action plans can you develop to improve your skills and knowledge? What can you do to develop your employees and move them closer to a higher level of functioning that characterizes a learning organization? It is time for a new beginning and continued improvement at your organization.

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Review Questions

1. Gaining perspective is important because it helps the manager “see both 1. (c) the forest and the trees” which means to: (a) understand the macro- and micro-level of detail in the organization’s strategic plan. (b) evaluate employees for their individual talents and the contributions they make to organization’s overall effectiveness. (c) be able to see through the complexity and pick out underlying structure that is relevant. (d) differentiate organizational effectiveness measures that are granular (for departments) from measures that are broader in scope (for the organization).

2. According to Schein, the three levels of organizational culture are:

2. (b) (a) Conscious (observable), Subconscious (hard to know), and Unconscious (hidden). (b) Artifacts and Behaviors, Stated Beliefs and Values, and Underlying Assumptions. (c) Conscious Behaviors (observable), Unconscious Attitudes (hidden), and Stated Assumptions. (d) Desirable Behaviors, Core Values, and Unspoken Assumptions.

3. Organizational development (OD) is a set of techniques and tools

3. (a)

that are used: (a) as part of planned change efforts to improve the effectiveness of an organization as a system. (b) to make the organization more profitable by developing market share based on employee input and suggestions. (c) during times of change when the leader needs to restructure or reengineer certain parts of the organization to reduce costs. (d) to manage the expectations of employees and other stakeholders during organizational change efforts.

4. Organizational effectiveness measures can be grouped into three areas according to Jones: (a) macro-level, department-level, and individual. (b) organizational, functional, and departmental. (c) external resources, internal systems, and technical. (d) externally-focused, internally-focused, and process.

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4. (c)

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5. An organizational culture can be defined as a pattern of what? (a) Shared experiences that the organization’s members value and want to tell others about (b) Assumptions about the way the politics of the world impact the achievement organizational objectives (c) Behavior across a critical mass of employees who represent the dominant coalition in the organization for the purposes of planning and implementation (d) Shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration

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5. (d)

Bibliography

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Glossary

Abilities what a person needs to be competent in on the job, often described as skills or competencies. Active listening a way of listening that ensures that you hear the words and understand the meaning the other person is trying to convey. Requires that a person understand hidden messages in nuances, intonations, facial expressions, and context. Assertive communication the ability to openly and honestly express ideas in a direct manner. We certainly need to be respectful of others, but we also have the right to assert our positions so that they are understood. Assertive communication skills allow you to take responsibility for your own situation and constructively confront others to address problems and conflict. Behaviors specific actions a person performs. Behaviors are critical because they are observable and can be seen and evaluated by others. Beneficial feedback specific, honest, constructive, ongoing, and timely information intended to assist the employee in making meaningful workplace improvements. Be sure to give feedback that can actually help the employee improve while there is still an opportunity to make improvements. Blind spot something about your behavior that you do not see and that impacts others in a negative manner or prevents you from reaching your goals. Coaching the process of equipping people with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop and become more effective in their roles. Communication an ongoing process of information exchange, by means of a channel (or medium), where both the sender and receiver of the message create their own perceptions of the message’s meaning. Culture a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members. Organizational culture, in sum, determines the way things are done in the workplace. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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Emotional intelligence the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions effectively in ourselves and in our relationships. Emotional intelligence can be considered as part of a broader “emotional competency” that describes a learned ability to use our emotional intelligence in such a way as to improve job performance. Engagement the extent to which employees commit to something in the organization and how much effort they expend to achieve organizational goals as a result of that commitment. Expectancy theory the effort exerted to reach a goal is a function of the perceived likelihood that the goal can be achieved and that a reward will be obtained. A person will be motivated toward accomplishing the goal if it has value for the person. Intrinsic rewards things that employees experience from doing the work such as pride, sense of accomplishment, and satisfaction in a job well done. Johari Window a model of human interaction that is very useful for framing self-awareness. The four fundamental areas of this model are the public, private, blind, and unknown. Leadership a process of intentional influence by one person over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization. Learning organization an organization which is able to change and adapt over time. All the components of the organizational DNA have to be able to adjust over time and this can only happen if employees are constantly learning and adapting. Maintenance factors crease motivation.

factors that prevent job dissatisfaction, but do not necessarily in-

Motivation processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal. Motivators

factors that motivate people or give job satisfaction.

Need for affiliation to seek to be liked and accepted by others. Decisions may be motivated more by social status rather than by achieving goals of the organization. Need for achievement to seek to perform at high levels. Decisions may be motivated by situations where success can be guaranteed rather than by social status. Need for power to seek personal power and prefer to direct people or to seek institutional power and wish to organize the efforts of others to achieve organizational objectives. Needs theory what internal needs motivate a person. Some of this may be personalityor trait-based, while some are based on deeply held values. The essence is that these are stable, internalized needs or desires. Organization a system of people that strives to reach shared goals by consciously coordinating efforts and activities. This coordination of effort includes guiding human behavior through various policies and rules, division of labor, and management of tasks through a structure of authority. Organizations also have collectively held values, assumptions, and beliefs that are commonly referred to as its organizational culture. AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

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Organizational development (OD) a set of techniques, activities, and tools that are used as part of planned change efforts to improve the effectiveness of an organization as a system. OD is aimed at improving the ability of the organizations’ members to work together and achieve the mission and vision. Organizational DNA internal elements of the organization (Staff, Structure, Systems, and Culture) that interact to determine system effectiveness. Perceptions how others see you; they are the most subjective area of feedback. Perceptions may be judgments about your actions, or attributions (such as intent) to your actions. Performance management process an ongoing cycle of defining, developing, reviewing, and reinforcing to guide behavior and keep employees aligned with organizational objectives. Personal change process stages that individuals go through in deciding and committing to change include: Awareness, Understanding, Acceptance, Commitment, and Action. Process theory answers the question of how motivation occurs cognitively and what aspects of the situation or goal motivate people. Emotions can be included here because they impact a person’s thought process. Self-awareness recognizing our abilities, personality type, and preferences and knowing our strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and hot buttons. A realistic sense of self is also necessary for effective communication and interpersonal relations with others in the workplace. Self-disclosure previously know.

the process of sharing information about yourself that others did not

SMART goal characteristics of a goal (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Results-Oriented, and Time-Bound) established in the defining/planning stage that ensure that the goal will be accomplished successfully. Social cognitive theory states that self-efficacy (the belief you can do something) is an important driver of work motivation and effort. Self-efficacy is a result of the cognitive processes within the individual and has been found to have powerful motivational effects on task performance. Systems thinking the ability to see how things are interrelated in the organization so that future needs can be anticipated. This is the classic “big picture” perspective and a core component of organizational learning. Tasks-Relationships-Transformations Model of Leadership an integrated model of leadership that spans the full range of behaviors needed to be an effective manager. The manager’s leadership role involves activating and engaging the head, heart, hands, and spirit of employees to manage human behavior. Team two or more interdependent people with shared responsibility for outcomes, who view themselves as an intact unit in a larger system.

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Transactional leadership an appeal to employees’ self interests by creating an exchange relationship using a mix of Contingent Reward, Passive Management by Exception, Active Management by Exception, and Laissez-Faire Leadership behaviors. Transformational leadership enables employees to achieve a higher level of performance than they thought possible by making them aware of the importance of tasks, sacrificing self-interest for the greater good, and activating their higher-order needs. Uses Idealized influence, Inspirational motivation, Intellectual stimulation, and Individualized consideration behaviors. Work group two or more people interacting to achieve a common goal. Organizations form and use work groups (as opposed to teams) all the time, and these are entirely appropriate for many tasks and projects.

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Post-Test A Manager’s Guide to Human Behavior Fifth Edition Course Code 97001 INSTRUCTIONS: Record your answers on one of the scannable forms enclosed. Please follow the directions on the form carefully. Be sure to keep a copy of the completed answer form for your records. No photocopies will be graded. When completed, mail your answer form to: Educational Services American Management Association P.O. Box 133 Florida, NY 10921

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1. To gain perspective on increasing organizational effectiveness, managers should view organizations from a systems perspective as: (a) a rigid arrangement of functions that need to be understood to achieve goals. (b) a loosely coupled group of people who may or may not share the same goals. (c) a collection of interdependent people, groups and processes, with complex and variable parts that are forever in flux. (d) a tightly connected assembly that can only run effectively if everyone has defined roles communicated through the hierarchy. Do you have questions? Comments? Need clarification? Call Educational Services at 1-800-225-3215 or e-mail at [email protected]. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. http://www.amanet.org/

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2. The manager’s role in the third step in the organizational change process is to do what? (a) Reward – Make sure employees are reinforced for desired behaviors. (b) Integrate – Help employees internalize new concepts and meanings. (c) Evaluate – Track the progress of the change initiative for reporting purposes. (d) Celebrate – Let employees know that their contributions are valued.

3. “Is the work complex?” and “Are members of the group involved in interdependent tasks?” are examples of questions a manager would ask to determine which of the following? (a) If a team is needed (b) If a new departmental structure should be requested for upper management (c) Whether an employee should receive a larger-than-annual increase at review time (d) Whether an employee should be promoted to team leader role

4. Planning and implementing, coaching, and monitoring behavior and outcomes are all part of this organizational function: (a) the organizational effectiveness system. (b) the conflict resolution process. (c) the succession planning system. (d) the performance management process.

5. The two major theoretical areas of motivation focus on: (a) why we are motivated (internal) and when motivation is most likely to occur (situational). (b) motivation as a learned response and motivation as an innate characteristic. (c) what motivates us (our needs), others focus on how we are motivated (the process). (d) organizational (societal) stimuli and biological (natural) stimuli.

6. A consistent predictor of management performance in research across thousands of managers in a wide variety of organizations has found that high performers are: (a) more self-aware than average performers. (b) at least 15 percent more intelligent on standardized tests. (c) less self-conscious than managers who are poor performers. (d) more likely to have had some formal education in management practices.

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7. The role of individual managers in the organizational change process is to: (a) help the employees focus on what they have been doing well in the past to minimize stress and anxiety. (b) track performance of all employees so that the organization can best allocate valuable resources. (c) ensure that employees continue to be productive when senior management is preoccupied with the initiative. (d) help interpret and translate these changes so that they make sense to employees.

8. Leadership, as a social influence process, only really works when: (a) people voluntarily allow themselves to be led to achieve an organizational goal. (b) people are paid enough to do things they cannot be persuaded to do voluntarily. (c) employees view the manager as an expert in the technical areas being considered. (d) employees view the manager as having a legitimate base of power.

9. A major limitation of needs theories of motivation is that they: (a) are not suitable for younger generations entering the workforce. (b) cannot be used with people the manager does not know very well. (c) do not explain why specific actions are taken in different situations. (d) are not effective for most management decisions because needs change over time.

10. Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for: (a) managing others effectively across situations. (b) managing emotions effectively in ourselves and in our relationships. (c) relating to people as they want to be related to on a personal level. (d) acknowledging that employees are only human just like us.

11. What outcome will an effective vision statement hopefully achieve with employees? (a) Greater loyalty to the manager if the vision represents his or her personal philosophy (b) Lower absenteeism and reduced turnover (c) Knowing what needs to be done in the organization to achieve goals and strategic objectives (d) A crisp, vivid, compelling, and inspiring picture or mental image of the future that the organization wants to create

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12. Sharing information about yourself that others did not previously know to build trust and credibility is an example of: (a) calculated influence management. (b) managerial enhancement. (c) too much information. (d) self-disclosure.

13. Motivating language, which can be used by managers to more effectively transmit and foster organizational trust, consists of: (a) direction-giving, empathetic language, and meaning-making language. (b) support, clarification, and understanding. (c) mission, vision, and individual goals. (d) sharing, personal caring, and organizational guidance.

14. To improve organizational effectiveness, OD practitioners seek to change norms, values, and underlying assumptions by: (a) rewriting the organization’s mission, vision and strategic objectives. (b) interviewing all employees and managers during the course of the intervention. (c) working primarily with the senior managers of the organization so as not to waste employees’ time. (d) using interventions designed to change some combination of affect, behavior, and/or cognition in employees.

15. That “team members agree on how to treat one another” is an example of which aspect of the model for team effectiveness? (a) Feedback and metrics (b) Team roles (c) Team processes (d) Purpose

16. The “organizational hierarchy, who makes decisions, work and process flow” are examples of which aspect of organizational DNA? (a) Systems (b) Structure (c) Combinatorial practices (d) Elements of configuration

17. Asking if an employee sees the importance of their role or task in the “big picture” is an example of a manager helping an employee with which motivational aspect of the building blocks of self-management? (a) Relevance (b) Competence (c) Feedback (d) Sense-making

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18. Being able to unlearn conventional wisdom, to be self-directed in learning, and to learn from others are all aspects of what? (a) Indications that an employee is ready for advancement (b) Becoming a better leader (c) Effectiveness in the performance management process with an employee (d) A successful change agent

19. The individual approaches to conflict relate to the degree of cooperativeness and assertiveness exhibited by the team member and include: (a) engagement, collusion, denial, and competition. (b) aversion, diversion, subversion, and mediation. (c) attraction, repulsion, collectivism, and individualism. (d) avoidance, accommodation, collaboration, competition, and compromise.

20. Assertive communication is the ability to openly and honestly express ideas in a direct manner, and can be broken down into two important dimensions: (a) goal achievement and goal impact. (b) how forceful the person is and how well the person reads the other person. (c) how assertive and how responsive the person is. (d) how self-assured the person is and what his or her negotiation ability is.

21. De-layering (“flattening” the organization), decentralization, autonomous work groups, just-in-time manufacturing, reduced development cycles, out-sourcing, and globalization are examples of what? (a) How second-order changes have changed the organizational landscape in the last 100 years (b) How organizations stay profitable when the environment changes (c) Different strategies that managers have used successfully over the years to demonstrate their leadership ability (d) Theoretical approaches to managing that do not always result in improved organizational effectiveness

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22. Organizational culture, in sum, determines the way things are done in the workplace. As a manager, you need to be able to: (a) convince employees to do what is needed even if they do not like the culture. (b) help your employees comprehend the characteristics of your organization’s culture and how they can work with (and in) it effectively. (c) show employees that the path of least resistance means going along with whatever senior management asks for. (d) shield your employees from the culture as much as possible by creating a protective sub-culture.

23. Communication is critical for managing human behavior for two reasons: 1) getting organizational goals across, and 2): (a) ensuring that employees are happy in their jobs. (b) detecting any sign of conflict before it becomes a problem. (c) ensuring that goals are achieved. (d) understanding what motivates the other person.

24. That it “appears that teams all go through a defined development sequence with a beginning and end; in reality, most teams never stop evolving” is an example of what? (a) Team dynamics (b) Natural team conflict (c) Diversity of team member composition (d) An opportunity for the manager to help the team stay on track

25. Managers should use beneficial feedback in the performance management process to correct, sustain, and improve an employee’s work performance, and this beneficial feedback has the following characteristics: (a) relevant, concise, direct, and unambiguous. (b) situational, directional, and motivational. (c) specific, honest, constructive, ongoing, and timely. (d) clear, concise, complimentary, and continuous.

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Index

A BCs (response to change), 140, 158 abilities, feedback on, 31 acceptance, 38, 147 accommodation (as conflict approach), 130 achievement, need for, see need for achievement acknowledging, 69 action (as stage of coaching), 147 actionable goals, 89 active listening, 75–76 active management by exception, 163 affect, 55 affective response to change, 140 affiliation, need for, see need for affiliation agendas hidden, 123 for performance reviews, 96 aggressive communication, 68 AMA DISC survey, 34–36 appraisals, see performance appraisals artifacts, 184–185 assertive communication, 67–69 assertive style, 34 assessments, 171 assumptions and incomplete communication, 73 in organizational culture, 184, 186 attention seekers, 122 avoidance (as conflict approach), 130

avoidance behaviors, 101 awareness, 37, 147

Barrier(s) to communication differing/distorted perceptions as, 72–74 inability to give useful feedback as, 78–79 ineffective listening as, 75–76 language/cultural differences as, 71–72 noise as, 69 strong emotions as, 74–75 Bass, B. M., on transformational leadership, 165 behavioral response to change, 140 behaviors, feedback on, 31 beliefs, in organizational culture, 185 benchmarks, 33 beneficial feedback, 95 blind spot feedback for discovering, 30 in Johari Window, 28–29 in self-awareness, 22 blockers, 122 body language, 75, see also nonverbal communication The Body Shop, 13 boundaries, organizational culture and, 183 Bridges, William, 139 building trust, 92

Career goals, 101 career planning, 94

Carroll, Lewis, on not knowing where you’re going, 88 change commitment to, 38, 145 guiding process for, 135–153 handling resistance to, 142–147 how people are affected by, 139–140 levels of responses to, 140–142 manager’s role in, 138–147 process of, 148–152 reasons for, 136–137 transition vs., 139 see also personal change change process model, 150–152 channels, 61–62 charter, 113, 115 clarifiers, 120 Clawson, J. G., on employee engagement, 160 closed questions, 98 clowns, 122 CNN, 13 coaching for change, 147 and dual roles of manager, 100 and feedback, 32 as heart of performance management, 91–93 to help managers develop, 171–172 cognitive response to change, 140 collaboration (as conflict approach), 130 commitment

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gaining, 92 and handling resistance to change, 145 and personal change, 38 as stage of coaching, 147 communication, 59–76, 78–80 assertive, 67–69 and language/cultural differences, 71–72 managers and, 60–61 nonverbal, 63–64 of performance standards and expectations, 102 role in influencing others, 66–67 within teams, 116–117 understanding vs., 62 varieties of, 61–64, 69 see also barrier(s) to communication communication cycle, 62–63 compensation, 52 competence and motivation, 46 and self-management, 47, 48 competition (as conflict approach), 130 compliance, motivation vs., 9 compromise, 69, 130 confidentiality, 33 conflict, 129–131 confronting (type of coaching), 92 conscientious style, 36 conscious competence, 39 conscious incompetence, 39 consensus, 127 constructive feedback, 95 contemplative style, 36 contingent reward, 163 contributors, 120 corporate jargon, 72 counseling (type of coaching), 92 critics, 120 cross-functional teams, 109 cultural differences, 62, 64, 70–72 culture, organizational, see organizational culture

Data General, 13 DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), 13, 181 decision making, by teams, 125–128 defensiveness, 101

Define-Develop-ReviewReinforce model, 86–100 defining the issues, 92 developmental assignments, 171 differences in language/culture, 71–72 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), 13, 181 DISC assessments, 34–36 dissonance, 74 distortion of information, 73 diversity, 192 diversity training, 71 dominance/directing style, 34, 35 dominators, 122 dysfunctional cultures, 190

Effective teams, 113–117 effort, 53 emotional intelligence, 25–26 emotions as communication barrier, 70, 74–75 and social cognitive theory, 55 employee development, 90–94 employee engagement, 5–6, 160–161 employees, as stakeholders, 3–4 empowerment, 47, 48 encouragers, 121 enforcers, 121 engaged employees, see employee engagement engagement, in teams, 111 English as a Second Language (ESL), 71 expectancy theory, 53–54 expectations, communication of, 102 external resources, as metric for effectiveness, 192 extrinsic motivators, 46 Facilitators, 121 feedback for discovering blind spots, 30 and goal-setting, 90 inability to give useful/truthful, 70, 78–79 and performance appraisal, 84 and performance management, 95 positive, 100 and self-awareness development, 31–36 AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

and self-management, 47, 48 as step in coaching, 92 in teams, 111 The Fifth Discipline (Peter Senge), 4 first-order change, 136 followers, 121 formal work groups, 109 “Forming-Storming-NormingPerforming” team development model, 113, 114 frame of reference, 62

Gates, Bill, 7 General Electric (GE), 13 gestures, cultural differences in, 64 goals and beneficial feedback, 95 career, 101 in expectancy theory, 53 individual vs. team, 115 organizational, 59 setting, 86–90 SMART, 88–90, 192, 194 Goleman, Daniel, on IQ , 25 Grameen Bank, 13 group norms, 113 group observers, 124 Happiness, productivity and, 5 harmonizers, 121 Herzberg, F., 51–53 hidden agendas, 119, 123 high-channel richness, 61 high-potential employees, 90–91 honest feedback, 95 hypothetical questions, 98 IBM, 13, 135 idealized influence, 165 individual goals, team vs., 115 individualized consideration, 165 influencing others, role of communication in, 66–67 influencing style (DISC assessments), 35 informal work groups, 109 information gathering, 8–9 information givers, 120 information seekers, 120 Ingham, Harry, 28 initial discussions, 73 inspirational motivation, 165 intellectual stimulation, 165

INDEX

intelligence quotient (IQ), 25 internal systems approach, as metric for effectiveness, 192 interpersonal perception, 72–73 interventions, team, 128–131 intrinsic rewards, 46 “I” statements, 68

Jargon, 72 job satisfaction, 5–6 Johari Window, 28, 29 judging, 100 Jung, Carl, 34 Kelleher, Herbert D., 13 Kimberly Clark, 13 Kotter, John, on leadership, 12 Kroc, Ray, 13

Laissez-faire leadership, 163, 164 language differences, 70–72 “leaderful teams,” 128 leaders, 12–14 leadership, 157–174 characteristics of, 158–162 and employee engagement, 160–161 improving, 169–173 and learning organizations, 172–173 management vs., 11–14 primary functions of, 11 role of trust in, 161–162 and tasks-relationshipstransformation model, 163–169 in teams, 118–119, 127–128 transactional, 163–164 transformational, 164–168 leadership development, 170–172 learning organizations change in, 4–5, 150 linking leadership to, 172–173 shaping of work environment in, 181 Lewin, Kurt, 148 listening, active, 75–76 listening habits, 70 low-channel richness, 61–62 Luft, Joseph, 28

Maintenance factors, 52 maintenance roles, 119, 121 management

by exception, 163, 164 leadership vs., 11–14 of performance, see performance management managers and change process, 138–147 as communicators, 60–61 dual roles of, 100–102 emotional intelligence and, 25–26 and framing of “big picture,” 4–5 and handling employee resistance to change, 142–144 and leadership, 14 and motivation theory, 56 and organization’s mission, vision, and strategy, 7 primary functions of, 11 role of, 12 and self-awarenessperformance link, 22 shaping of work environment by, 180–182 and team decision-making, 127 and trust, 161–162 and understanding what motivates employees, 44–45 MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), 34 McClelland, David, on motivation and needs, 26–27 McClelland’s need theory, 50–51 McDonald’s, 13, 94 measurable goals, 89 mentoring, 32, 92, 171–172 metrics, team, 111 mission as element of team charter, 115 vision and strategy vs., 7 mixed messages, 64 MLQ (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire), 171 motivating language, 60 motivation, 43–57 and being heard/understood, 9–10 and communication, 59 compliance vs., 9 discovering, 92 and expectancy theory, 53–54 management implications of,

217

56 needs theories of, 48–53 in organizational system, 45 process theories of, 48, 49, 53–55 and real-world application of theories, 46–47 and self-awareness, 26–27 and social cognitive theory, 55 theories of, 45–55 and transformational leadership, 165 in work environment, 44–45 motivators, 52 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), 171 multi-source feedback, see 360degree feedback Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), 34 myths, in organizational culture, 185

Need for achievement and McClelland’s need theory, 50–51 as motivation for managers, 26–27 need for affiliation and McClelland’s need theory, 50 as motivation for managers, 26 need for power and dominators, 122 and McClelland’s need theory, 51 as motivation for managers, 27 needs theories, 48–53, 56 noise, 69, 70 nomination, as reinforcement, 100 non-assertive communication, 68 non-cash rewards, as reinforcement, 100 nonverbal communication, 63–64, 75, 76 norms group, 113 in organizational culture, 185

O bservable behavior, 184–185 OD (organizational development), 191–192 ongoing feedback, 95 open communication, in teams, 116–117

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A MANAGER’S GUIDE TO HUMAN BEHAVIOR

open questions, 98 Oreg, Shaul, on employees’ approach to change, 140–141 organization (term), 180 organizational culture, 182–190 components of, 183–186 definition of, 183 influencing, 187–190 observable behavior in, 184–185 in organizational system, 3 stated beliefs/values in, 185–186 sub-cultures in, 187–188 underlying assumptions in, 184, 186 value of learning about, 182–183 organizational development (OD), 191–192 organizational DNA and change, 136, 148–150 and learning, 4 in learning organizations, 172 manager’s role in optimizing elements of, 177 and organizational systems, 2, 178 and transformational leadership, 167 organizational effectiveness, 177–196 case study, 179, 180 metrics for, 192–194 and organizational culture, 182–190 and organizational development, 191–192 perspective and, 178–182 organizational expectations, 87–88 organizational goals, 59 organizational learning, see learning organizations organizational systems components of, 2–3 and manager’s role in change process, 138 motivation in, 45 organizations gaining perspective on, 178–182 as systems, 2–6 systems approach to, 1–14, 16–17

Passive management by exception, 163 pay, 52 perceptions and communication, 62 as communication barrier, 70, 72–74 and feedback, 31 interpersonal, 72–73 performance appraisals and formal performance review, 95–99 as management’s least favorite activity, 83–84 performance management vs., 84–86 performance feedback, 95 performance management, 83–104 and career planning, 94 and coaching, 91–93 defining goals/expectations for, 86–90 and employee development, 90–94 and feedback, 95 and formal performance review, 95–96 performance appraisal vs., 84–86 and performance standards/expectations, 102 problems with, 100–102 process of, 86–100 and reinforcing desired behavior, 99–100 review process for, 94–99 and SMART goals, 88–90 performance standards, 102–103 personal change achieving, 39–40 process of, 36–40 steps for achieving, 37–38 personality assessments, 33–36 personal styles, 34, 138 perspective, realistic, 9 plan of action, creating a, 92 positive feedback, 100 power, need for, see need for power private area (Johari Window), 28 probing questions, 98, 99 problem-solving teams, 109 process theory, 56 productivity, 5, 67 pseudo-teams, 110 AMACOM Self Study Program http://www.amaselfstudy.org/

public area (Johari Window), 28 purpose, team, 111, 115

Questions, for performance reviews, 98–99

Raelin, Joe, on team leadership, 128 recognition as reinforcement, 100 when giving feedback, 94 reflective questions, 98 reinforcing desired behavior, 99–100 relationship functions, 119 relevance, 47, 48 repetition, 68–69 reserved style, 34 resistance to change, 142–147 responsiveness, 67 results-oriented goals, 89 review process, 94–99 rewards, non-cash, 100 rituals, in organizational culture, 185 Robbins, S. P., on motivation, 45 Roddick, Anita, 13 Rogers, Carl, on manager’s objective, 59, 76 roles, team, 111

Salary, 52 Schein, Edgar on manager’s role in change process, 149 on organizational culture, 183–184 scribes, 120 second-order change, 136–137 self-assessments, 96, 171 self-awareness, 21–41 development of, 24–28 importance of, 22–24 and leadership, 169–170 and motivation, 26–27 personality assessments for, 33–36 realistic, 28–31 self-control, 46 self-direction, 46 self-disclosure, 29 self-efficacy, 55 self-managed work teams, 109, 118 self-management, 47 self-motivation, 46

INDEX

self-oriented roles, 119, 122, 123 self-perception, 28, 29 self-renewing organizations, 167–168 Senge, Peter on change from a learning organization perspective, 150 on managers in learning organizations, 172 on managers’ need for perspective, 178 on systems thinking, 4 sincerity in interactions, 9–10 skill, 45 SMART goals, 88–90, 192, 194 Smith, Darwin, 13 social cognitive theory, 55 “soft” elements of human behavior, 181 solid performers, 91 Southwest Airlines, 13 specific feedback, 95 specific goals, 89 speech for assertive communication, 67–68 spot rewards, 100 staff, 2 stakeholders employees as, 3–4 team members as, 111 stated beliefs and values, 184–186 steadiness/supportive style, 35 strategy mission and vision vs., 7 team, 111, 115 “stretch” assignments, 171 structure in organizational systems, 3 sub-cultures in organizational culture, 187–188, 190 succession planning programs, 94 symbols, 185 systems, 2–6, see also organizational systems systems approach, 1–14, 16–17 systems change, 149–150 systems thinking, 4

Talent management programs, 94 task functions, 119 task roles, 119, 120 Tasks-Relationships-

Transformation Model of Leadership, 159–160, 163–169 team(s), 107–133 characteristics of effective, 110–111, 113–117 conflict within, 129–131 decision making by, 125–128 definition of, 108–110 development stages of, 114 direction and charter for, 113, 115 dynamics of, 118–124 and group norms, 113 and healthy roles for members, 115–116 and hidden agendas, 123 and integrated model of effectiveness, 111 interventions for, 128–131 leadership in, 118–119, 127–128 maintenance roles in, 121 members’ roles in, 119–123 open communication in, 116–117 role evaluation for, 124 self-oriented roles in, 122 task roles in, 120 types of, 109–110 work groups vs., 108 team building, 128 team charter, 113, 115 team interaction diagram, 116, 117 team processes, 111, 113 technical approach, as metric for effectiveness, 192 technical jargon, 72 Thomas, K. W., on extrinsic motivators, 46 360-degree feedback, 32–33, 171 time-bound goals, 89 timely feedback, 95 time off, as reinforcement, 100 traditions, in organizational culture, 185 training programs for leaders, 171 transactional leadership, 163– 164, 168–169 transformational leadership, 164–169 transition, change vs., 139 trust building, 92

219

leadership and, 161–162 Tuckman, Bruce, 113 Turner, Ted, 13 tutoring (type of coaching), 91–92 two-factor model (Herzberg), 51–53

Unconscious competence, 39 unconscious incompetence, 39 underlying assumptions, in organizational culture, 184, 186 understanding, 37, 62, 147 “unfreezing,” 148–149 “unknown” area (Johari Window), 29

Values in organizational culture, 186 team, 115 virtual teams, 109 visible projects, 100 vision, 4, 5, 7, 111 Walt Disney Company, 7 Wang, 13 Welch, Jack, 13 Western Electric, 5 will, 45 work environment, managers’ role in shaping, 180–182 work groups, 107–109 work processes, in teams, 111

“You” statements, 68 Yukl, Gary on leadership, 158 on trustworthiness in managers, 161 Yunus, Muhammad, 13

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