QI: Personality Clash
Business and social environments outline the complexity of relationships which are built between individuals, groups and event organizations, and governments. The reality shows that globalization and technological development place numerous pressures on these environments and affect the ways interpersonal relationships are built. Indeed, when it comes to the analysis of the globalization and its influence on the society, it is a common knowledge that internationalization of businesses and personal mobility became common among the majority of the nations. That said, academic and business literature has been giving a lot of attention to such issues as diversity, internationalization, technology impact on the population and relationships and other aspects that shape contemporary understanding of the social and business scenes (Hogan, 2012). It is not a secret that for many organizations, which operate in the global environment and change management and competitiveness on the market depend on their ability to manage highly diverse and constantly changing business environment and respond to the growing interrelationships and dependencies between a public and private sector and social setting. With that in mind, the question of internal training, emotional intelligence development, and diversity management in organizations becomes critical for such forward-thinking companies. Burr (2003) discussed the question of social constructionism and looks at the relationships from the perspective of comfort zones and individual connections. He argues against the fact that conventional knowledge drives the objectives and unbiased observation and highlights the importance of differentiation and practice learning. The author touches upon the gender differences and calls for understanding the differences in normative prescriptions between men and women. Burr's work is the foundation of diversity management and science. Some more specific studies, conducted by Hofstede (2000), as an example, further explore the concept of diversity on national and organizational levels, outlining the dimensions, on which diversity is grounded. Among others, the author talks about individualism as opposed to collectivism, masculinity as opposed to femininity culture, long versus short-term orientation and other elements.
The above helps to discuss the position with regards to the term “personality clash”. The point that should be made here is that the contemporary business environment is built upon diversity and internationalization and management of individual characters, attitudes and vision lay a foundation for successful organizational culture and behavior. The productivity of modern companies depends on the ability of the management to benefit from professional and personal diversity and manage the personalities to build productive and efficient environment. That said, the concept of personality clash is outdated and should not be seen positive in the business environment. The reality is social process constitutes any type of business relationships and organizations and Human Resource Management (HRM) should look for ways to avoid in capability between individual personalities. This should be done through training, raising emotional intelligence and awareness about the cultural diversity, which affects companies as well as society as a whole. Conflicts are common in many situations and the workplace is not an exception. Many organizations use personality typology, such as Mayers-Briggs, DISC Assessment, and others to reduce the number of conflicts and increase an efficiency of working groups. These techniques are often criticized by business and academic professionals as there is the lack of evidence to prove their effectiveness and validity. Murphy Paul, in her work The Cult of Personality Testing, suggest that such tests only can identify the limited range of behavioral variations and thus, can only explain the tendency and not predict the reaction. With that in mind, personality clash will continue being present in the organizations and to be able to ensure higher productivity of the organizations as mechanisms, they should rather focus on individual emotional intelligence development and diversity awareness to increase the capacity of groups and the organizations as a whole to accept and deal with personality differences (Murphy Paul, 2005).
QII: Breaching Experiment
The breaching experiment is the common term to describe the experiment held sociological and socio-psychological studies to identify and explore individual reaction to the violation fo the commonly accepted social norms and rules. The breaching experiment is simply, but at the same time, effective technique to underlines the personal attitude and perception of norms and social conformity. The technique allows demonstrating the strengths of these unwritten norms and their influence on behaviors and reactions of individuals to particular events. The founder of the technique, Harold Garfinkel argues that, in spite of the fact that breaching experiments contradict and literally break social norms , they do not leave a traumatic experience on those, who witnessed it. While lighter breaching experience can result in confusion, laughter and curiosity, stronger breach of the social norm can even cause anger, anxiety and outrage. With that in mind, Garfinkel's technique signalizes the depth of the norm in the society and the influence of this norm of specific individuals and personality types. The author conducts a simple experiment with his students, asking them to behave like lodgers in their own houses. The reactions reported by the students, outline the parents response to the experiments was very varied, from distraught, bewilderedness to true anger (Garfinkel, 1967). The point of Garfinkel's study is that the norms are equally easy to break as well as repairable. This maintainability and consistency are what the author is trying to highlight in his work (Barbalet, 2001).
The use of breaching experiment goes beyond the simple understanding of the reactions to specific social norms but also offers an opportunity to further explore such questions as acceptability and appropriateness of the social norm or rule, criminal investigations, and consumer psychology. Taking into consideration the wide application of the technique, this approach to social and psychological experiment has become popular as a tool for Human Resource Management (HRM) in organizations. Organizations are dynamic structures and change and diversity management is becoming more difficult for the management, with the organizational growth and increasing consumer awareness. Breaching experiments are simple ways, which allow testing behaviors and identifying the reactions of individuals internally as well as externally and build specific organizational strategies. One of the good and most commonly seen examples of modern companies is the use of breach experiments in hiring and selection process of individuals for positions, where HRM sets a goal to hire a specific profile of employees to identify themselves with organizational culture. Another situation, in which such technique can be used is the facilitation of the innovation and brainstorming, where through the breach of social and organizational norms, focus groups can develop new solutions and think outside-the-box. Finally, breaching experiments are a common technique used by the marketing department to evaluate and predict consumers’ behavior and study consumer psychology.
QIII: Lewin’s Force Field Analysis and The Weick and Quinn’s model
Academic and Business literature provide a variety of tools to enhance structure and improve the decision-making process for individuals and organizations. One of the interesting models is the Lewin’s Force Field Analysis. The philosophy behind the framework is to assist the decision maker to assess and measure the pros and cons of the change in question and take a weighted decision, based on the evaluated alternatives. Created in 1940, and in spite of some professional critique that the model due to its focus on refreezing stage, the tool still proves to be effective for organizations and individual managers, especially as a part of the complex decision-making process. Lewin argues that people are not in the position to access the situation and take adequate action unless they try to change it. With that in mind, the author develops a three-step model, which suggests unfreezing, movement ad refreezing (Jabri, 2012). The below model outlines a simplified Force-field Analysis for Starbucks Coffee Company to enter Cold Tea market in the UK. This example is an indicative of the potential more detailed and extensive tool with higher number of criteria:* Rank from 0 to 4, where 4 is the strongest impact and 0 is the neutral impact.
Based on the above analysis the score “for change” is 11, while “against the change” is 10, which indicates that the change should be implemented based on the criteria evaluated.
Another interesting tool looking at decision-making process is the Weick and Quinn’s model. As many other models, Weick and Quinn ground their research on the Lewin’s framework, but extend this analysis of the episodic and continuous change element, suggesting that “refreezing stage” no longer applies to the contemporary business environment due to dynamic structure of the market and constantly changing external environment. The authors suggest that episodic change occurs is often a dramatic change, which outlines the changes in equilibrium conditions. Continuous change, on the other hand, is the set of cumulative and evolving changes, which demand an ongoing adjustment and, based on the assumption that organizations should be evolving in a process of adaptation. An example of episodic change could be the change in the Standard Operating Procedure for demand forecast communication to a supplier. Continuous change, however, will include a set of changes and adjustments to the process of relationship building with upstream suppliers on the basis of Six Sigma. This example outlines the difference in scale and scope of the change process, suggested by the Weick and Quinn’s model.
In an organizational context, change management is a complex and dynamic mechanism, which should involve and consider both, episodic and continuous change. Contemporary business environment demonstrates that organizational scale and technological complexity continue changing the ways companies interact and position themselves in the market. That said, some of the basic models, such as Lewin's Force-field approach can offer a good base for the initial analysis, but will require additional tools to incorporate the concept of adaptability and flexibility in an organizational decision-making process. Weick and Quinn attempted to include this flexibility and continuity in their model, enhancing and improving the decision-making process.
QV: Storytelling Experience and Exercise
The purpose of this exercise it to look at the variety of perspectives and the impact of presentation and the position of the message in the way the information is processed and received by other individuals. The story dwells upon an employee of the storage facility, who was given a lower performance appraisal score, affecting his bonus and resulting in satisfaction.
Victim's perspective:
I joined the team of the safety stock facility on the first of January, two weeks after the roll-out of the new system. At the time, my team went through the training and pilot stages of the system implementation and, consequently, was more prepared to use the new interface. My manager was traveling and I was left alone in the position, having to ask my colleagues for occasional and episodic help. I held the fort and managed to ensure 78% availability of the items for replacement in the nearest retail outlets. When the manager came back, however, I was called for informal assessment and was strongly criticized for low performance on stock replenishment, which must be held at a level of 85% on average through the season. I tried to explain the situation and even highlighted the fact that I was not formally made a performance planning or training be able to evaluate my performance. But as a result of the conversation, my performance was preliminary ranked as "demands improvement" on all the technical measures and I was refused a standard departmental bonus one month later, based on the comments from this review. It was neither professional nor motivating to start my experience in the department without proper training, goal setting and with a harsh and unfair review. I became very demotivated but slowly found an internal drive to continue working and prove myself in this role. Soon enough, a new employee joined us and found himself in a similar situation. My experience allowed me taking supervision over this person and help him avoid the mistakes, which have been collectively committed by the company with my reassignment.
Positive View on the Story
He employee, who joined the storage facility was assigned an unexpected and complex task in the period of change, where the uncertainty was part of everyone's mindset. Learning on demand is a key in the situation and, while individuals should demonstrate productivity and proactiveness in dealing with challenges and adapting to change (new system), it is the responsibility of direct management and the company to ensure that employees are provided with proper training and support to be able to maintain the standards and perform in their position. The employee entered "the fire" and managed to adopt fast to be able to maintain the stock and safety stock at a level of 78%, which does not negatively affect the retail units. Additionally, he demonstrated the high level of proactive behavior, seeking help and explanations from his colleagues and making himself available to learn on demand. Intrinsic motivation made him extremely efficient given the lack of guidance and experience in the position. This should have been positively and humbly received by the manager to ensure that the organization offers proper training to improve the performance, outline the goals and targets and re-assure the employee in his new role. The learning point of the employee is the continuity of learning and work in a team was evident through his proactive behavior and supervision of a new integrant into the storage facility team.
Learning Points
Then the importance of narrative in the organizational environment is difficult to underestimate. The reality is that companies have to learn how to pass the message to a number of receivers, with different personalities and individual agendas. This means that managers cannot commit mistakes by outlining the wrong and right and emphasize the unique appropriate reaction and behavior expected of individuals. By storytelling and narrative change management approach, managers are able to bring the message within the transformational leadership concept, where the outcome is more important than the mean. Storytelling can become an effective tool for managers to convey a new message or co-construct the new insight among a group of individuals, avoiding resistance to change (Dievernich, Takarski, and Gong, 2015).
Change process and adaptation demand commitment and motivation and it may individuals find it extremely difficult to take another perspective and change their own view, The stories, similar to above, outline the positive impact of negative experience, which can be used by the managers to drive intrinsic motivation and demonstrate how changing the approach and view on the situation can help individuals have more positive impact on their department and learn from the mistakes of others. Narrative approach develops listening, drives individual analysis of the situation without persuasion, helps to describe the organizational position and outline the challenges as well as motivates individuals to visualize the situation (Bolin, Bergquist, and Ljungberg, 2012).
QVII: Corporate Social Responsibility
Anita Roddick outlines her view on the contemporary model of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), highlighting the transformation of CSR from the model of the organizations, which would like to become "kinder" and contribute towards the society into an element of organizational strategies, which can bring profit and financial return, turning CSR into a money-making mechanism. One of the important arguments, discussed by the founder of The Body Shop is the fact that in today's world, CSR decisions are done by marketing departments and profit-oriented leaders. In the past, when companies just started to board the ship of CSR, the projects, strategies and initiatives were developed along with professionals and academics, aiming at improving environmental impact, bring forward labor rights and social justice.
At this stage, it is important to outline that the concept of CSR is extremely important for the corporations. Academic and business literature demonstrates how companies can improve the life quality and contribute to communities. Arnold and Valentin (2013) outline the impact of the BoP model on the social environment and the negative and positive impacts of organizational social projects on the poverty in the countries. The research equally focuses on the potential of the BoP businesses as well as the loss of actual CSR values. Based on this insight, I would like to argue that CSR-driven companies in many situations continue t place social, environmental and human right values in the core of their proposition. The financial attractiveness and potential reinforcement of the Brand Image and customer loyalty, however, have had its negative impact on the drivers of CSR activities. I second Anita Roddick in her opinion that the situation can only change once financial institutions take CSR seriously and incorporate human rights and social justice in their financial programs and relationships with the private sector.
One of the impressive organizations, which set an example in the industry and across business sectors in their approach to CSR is the IKEA Company. Andersen and Skjoett-Larsen (2003) illustrate the transformation of the company from CSR-aware to CSR-driven organization. With the increased attention of the external stakeholders, public and private sector to the labor rights and social justice, IKEA had to further rethink its approach to global sourcing and international supply chain. The company implemented an integrated Code of Conduct to ensure that it is compliant with the international standards not only within the internal supply chain but in its partnerships with upstream and downstream suppliers. Moreover, consumer market in the industry became more aware and demanding with regards to the organizational practices and "green products", placing pressure on the IKEA management in terms of innovation and process improvement. IKEA took this challenge further to go beyond the positive image, but to become a pioneer in the sector and build on truly "green image" of the company. IKEA. This program includes a multifaceted approach to offer final products produced from organic and sustainable practices, avoiding environmental damage, focus on human rights across the countries and suppliers, and basic governance and ethics standards, which make part of the internal operation as well as constitute the core condition for becoming an IKEA upstream partner. Additionally, IKEA promotes sustainable energy sourcing by sustainable transport solutions and buildings, which utilize solar and wind energy as well as other "energy independent projects".
References
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Hofstede G. 2001. Culture Consequences. Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. London: Sage Publications. Print.
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Murphy Paul A. 2005.The Cult of Personality Testing: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves. New York: Free Press.
Barbalet J.M. 2001. Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure: A Macrosociological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Jabri, M. 2012. Managing Organizational Change. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Dievernich F.E.P., Tokarski K.O. & Gong J. 2015. Change Management and the Human Factor: Advances, Challenges, and Contradictions in Organizational Development. Bern: Springer Publishing.
Bolin M., Bergquist M., & Ljungberg J. 2012. A Narrative Approach to Change Management. Working Paper. Gothenburg University [Online]. Available at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/oklc5/papers/b-3_bolin.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2016].
Arnold D.G. & Valentin A. 2013.Corporate social responsibility at the base of the pyramid. Journal of Business Research. 66(2013). 1904-1914.
Andersen M. & Skjoett-Larsen T. 2003. Corporate social responsibility in global supply chains. Copenhagen: Danish Commerce and Company Agency. Emerald Insight. 14(2). 75-86.
IKEA, 2014. IKEA Sustainability Report 2014. IKEA Corporate Website. Available at http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/sustainability_report/sustainability_report_2014.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2016].
