Assignment
Organization Circle: Designing organizations and culture (Schein) relationship between culture/ strategy and ; Change and Implementing the strategy
Andrew Rockfish's Opening Comments
"The best of strategic plans and leaders can die in the organization." Do you remember this comment from week four? The Organization circle tells the way a business works, makes decisions, its values, norms and expected behavior of employees. It represents the who, what, where and how jobs are done. Often referred to as organizational structure, the way a leader designs the company will make or break the implementation of the strategy story. Failing to align the right person(s) with the right job or decision-making authority can stall or kill a plan from being executed. In addition to designing an organizational structure the leader designs the culture or environment in which the organization operates. To get the results the story tells, the leader must design an organization that facilitates the implementation of the "strategic story." One of the hardest parts of a leader's job is designing an organizational culture that promotes a vision that requires the utmost of people skills and leading change. The leader-follower relationship plays an ever-increasing role in this element of effective leadership.
This discussion will focus on designing an organization that facilitates change by emphasizing a sound organizational culture.
THEME ONE: The design of an effective organization should align strategy, structure, and culture.
Read and View:
• What is Organizational Culture and Why is it Important?
• Relationship Between Organization Culture and Structure
• Aligning Organization Culture and Structure
• HBO's CEO Says Culture Trumps Strategy Every Day
• Jay Wilkinson on Company Culture
• Ed Shein on the Fundamentals of Culture
THEME TWO: Designing a culture that facilitates change is critical for the future of a business.
Leaders are change agents. A leader through their strategic thinking and trend setting will make decisions regarding the competitive edge of the company. There is no business decision or process too large or small that cannot not be improved upon or customized. The change that results from such actions must be addressed and implemented or the decision's effectiveness will be rendered null and void. Deciding is easy; getting others to implement the decision is difficult.
Read and View: Learning Activity 1 Theme One: The design of an effective organization should align strategy, structure, and culture. Designing a culture that facilitates change is critical for the future of a business.
After reviewing the material for the week what features to the GDD culture would you add or seek to improve to facilitate the change needed to succeed in serving the client's 24/7 needs. Hint: look at the GDD Company Profile under the current business philosophy/ innovation for a start.
Learning Activity 2 Theme Two:: The importance of change in the 21st century business can never be underestimated by the leader.
In the future of business, the impact of technology and globalization is creating a pattern of disruption that forces a leader to direct massive long term change. There is no strategy that a leader creates or a decision implemented that must not account for change.
As a leader, effective change begins with an attitude that embraces the idea that change is possible and is dynamic. In short, a leader needs to be open to change before leading others.
Take the following change quiz and report your results: Change Quiz
Based on the results of your quiz select a quote from one of those listed in this article 38 Quotes to Help You Become a Change Agent.
• If the results show resistance to change select a quote that will inspire you to embrace change,
• If you accept change select a quote that can act as a daily reminder that change is vital to your success as a leader.
• Explain why you have selected the quote and support your reasons for selecting the quote with the class material.
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• How to Create a Culture and Structure for Innovation
• Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency
• Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
• Every Leader Must Be A Change Agent Or Face Extinction
• Organizational Change: What Effective Leaders Do
• Managing Employee Engagement During Times of Change
• John Kotter in Succeeding in a Changing World-Training
• Communicating Change- John Kotter
• The Impacts of Change
THEME THREE: The importance of change in the 21st century business can never be underestimated by the leader.
Andrew Rockfish's Opening Comments
The 21st Century was earlier referred to as the era of digital disruption. Technology has created a 24/7 global culture that has us all up in the middle of the night communicating with people around the globe. For business, this means new and unique ways to sell product, improve services or persuade (as in the case of Scotland's referendum to separate from Great Britain). The world has been catapulted into a unity of the 24/7 workplace and a pattern of constant change.
Read and View:
• Leading in the 21st century: An interview with Michael Useem
• The Challenge of Leading in the 21st Century
Project Three: 21st Century Challenges
Purpose:
The saga of Global Delivery Direct (GDD) continues in assignment 3. Students evaluate 21st century leadership challenges and relate them to the issues GDD has been experiencing.
Outcome Met by Completing This Assignment
• use leadership theories, assessment tools, and an understanding of the role of ethics, values, and attitudes to evaluate and enhance personal leadership skills
• develop and implement methods for establishing a constructive organizational structure and culture that fosters positive employee and employer relationships
• evaluate the culture and policies of an organization to recommend and implement improvements that support its vision, success, and sustainability
• assess the interactions between the external environment and the organization to foster responsible and effective leadership and organizational practices
Instructions
Step 1: Preparation for Writing the Assignment
Before you begin writing the paper, you will read the following requirements that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements. Not reading this information will lead to a lower grade:
Review "How to Analyze a Case Study" under Week 7 Content. You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario focusing on using this information to determine opportunities and to solve problems.
Read the grading rubric for the assignment. Use the grading rubric while writing the paper to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.
In writing this assignment, you will read and following these tasks:
Task 1: Third person writing is required. Third person means that there are no words such as "I, me, my, we, or us" (first person writing), nor is there use of "you or your" (second person writing). If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.
Task 2: Contractions are not used in business writing, so you are expected NOT to use contraction in writing this assignment.
Task 3: You are expected to paraphrase, which can be learned by reviewing this link: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html.
Task 4: You are responsible for APA only for in-text citations and a reference list.
Task 5: You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario paired with the weekly courses readings to develop the analysis and support the reasoning. No more than three (3) external resources can be used in completing the assignment. The expectation is that you provide a robust use of the course readings. If any material is used from a source document, it must be cited and referenced. A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa. View the sample APA paper and the How to Cite and Reference file located under Course Resources/Writing Resources content.
Step 2: How to Set Up the Paper
Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is single-spaced, single-spaced between paragraphs, 12-point font. The final product will be between 3-5 pages in length excluding the title page and reference page. You may not exceed five (5) pages so it is important to write clearly and concisely.
Follow a memo format.
• To:
• From:
• Subject:
• Body
Students will also create a title page with title, your name, the course, the instructor's name; date.
Note: Students are not writing an essay paper so the assignment should reflect a memo format that is appropriate for the workplace.
Step 3: Read and use the Global Delivery Direct (GDD) Company Profile.
Step 4: Read critically and analyze the following scenario:
An emergency meeting was called in London by John Smythe Heathering, the Executive Director of Corporate Services, when the 2015 numbers came out for the business. Sales dropped 7% overall in a quarterly downward spiral with the largest portion of decline having been in the American division at 3.8%. The move to "Business First" in America prevented the loss from being as great as 6.5%. This change helped but not enough to overcome the full 6.5%. The competition continues to make inroads into the business not just in America but Asia as well.
The purpose of the emergency meeting is to discuss the decline in sales and make whatever decisions necessary to reverse the trend with immediate implementation. The question before the group is how do we reverse the downward trend? A competitive edge is necessary. As 21st century leaders, the Executive Directors realize that five challenges have to be examined if they are to find ways keep the company running at a profit. Further, they know that as company leaders they will have to lead the change required to make the recommendations work.
In the emergency meeting, the Directors decided that they needed professional help. They turn to you, a leadership consultant to help them discover ways in which they can improve sales of the company and set the company up for long-term financial health.
Step 5: Explain each leadership challenge facing the 21st century leader: adaptability, sustainability, innovation, knowledge management, and globalization and the relationship each has to developing a competitive edge in business today.
Task 1: Read the course readings on leadership challenges in the 21st century.
Task 2: Read the course readings on competitive advantage
Task 3: For each of the identified challenges, discuss the relationship each has to the 21st century businesses competitive edge.
Step 6: Evaluate GDD's status regarding each of these challenges.
Task 1: Analyze GDD's current business status in terms of each of the leadership challenges. Note that an analysis goes beyond making statements or regurgitating facts.
Task 2: Discuss GDD's current business status in terms of each of the leadership challenges. Be specific in evaluating the status against each challenge. Do not expect that any one response is correct, as what is presented has to be reasonable and fit with GDD's vision, mission and goals. Support the reasoning with rigorous, focused thinking that demonstrates the analytical skills GDD is looking from you.
Step 7: Make at least two practical recommendations for each leadership challenge that will put GDD on the path to financial success and sustainability and explain the reasoning for doing so.
Task 1: Provide a minimum of two practical recommendations for each leadership challenge. Recommendations should integrate the facts from the scenario and from the company profile and be specific to the GDD business. Do not take information from outside sources and present as though it fits the scenario.
Task 2: Make sure to use the grading rubric to complete this step.
Step 8: Select one of the challenges for which you made recommendations and explain how the Executive Directors, as change agents, will go about implementing the recommendations.
Task 1: Select one of the challenges discussed in Step 7. Explain how the Executive Directors will implement the recommendation. Make sure the explanation is well thought out and does not present what the Executive Directors should do but how they will do it. In doing so, be specific and support the reasoning with examples and be sure to use the Company information and the course readings.
Step 9: Review the Paper
Read the paper to ensure all required elements are present. Use the grading rubric to ensure that you gain the most points possible for this assignment.
Proofread the paper for spelling and grammatical issues, and third person writing.
• Read the paper aloud as a first measure;
• Use the spell and grammar check in Word as a second measure;
• Have someone who has excellent English skills to proof the paper;
• Consider submitting the paper to the Effective Writing Center (EWC). The EWC will provide 4-6 areas that may need improvement.
Attachment:- Global_Delivery_Direct_Company_Profile.pdf