The Manager of CS has also put forward requests to have new staff be trained before they report to work. Prior to her presence, persons were hired and were given ‘On the Job Training’ which lacked structure, standard and formality in procedures. Recently, the Manager was successful in outlining proper training procedures and system training before the new employee reports to work in CS. Needless to say, this was a positive change for the department and Tatil on the whole.
2. Cultural Aspects of Change
2.0 The Organisational Iceberg
French and Bell (1990 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.128) listed organisational culture and norms of behaviour as part of the ‘Informal Organisation’ in their concept of the formal and informal organisation and the metaphor of the ‘organisational iceberg’ (see Table 1). The formal organisation is the visible part of the iceberg, which comprises of the formal aspects of an organisation: issues that are based on approved, measureable outputs/outcomes relating to how well organisational objectives and goals are to be met. The informal organisation or bottom half of the iceberg (not visible) comprises of the more clandestine aspects of an organisation: values, attitudes, beliefs and attitudes held by management and other employees, informal groupings, the norms of behaviour which are rarely discussed but influence how things are done and the politics of organisational life that drive decision actions. On the basis of recognising that the informal organisation exists and it plays an influential part in organisational activity is justification to look at how it impacts upon the level which organisations are capable of dealing with change.
Table 1 – The Organisational Iceberg
Source: Author (2011) Adapted from French and Bell (1990 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.128)
2.1 Organisational Culture
Culture, politics and power represent much of what is included in the informal organisation; they play an important role in aiding or hindering the process of change as Morgan (1989 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.129) holds:
“The culture and politics of many organizations constrain the degree of change and transformation in which they can successfully engage, even though such change may be highly desirable for meeting the challenges and demands of the wider environment.”
Hofstede (1981 as citied in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.129) defined culture as “the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values.” Culture is something that is ingrained into a group of people and as such there is likely to be resistance to change. Culture can be managed or it may be manipulated, but culture cannot be consciously changed (Ogbonna and Harris, 1998 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.130).
This is the case at Tatil’s Client Services department. The mindset of the staff has already been programmed into accepting the ways of the senior staff and past Managers, including staff from other departments in the company, in terms of practices, behaviour/opinion toward management, team activities etc. With the advent of a new Manager and Assistant Manager and revised strategies, staff are now required to change what they’re grown accustomed to: start reporting to their respective AM, being a team player, meet deadlines/perform duties more efficiently with the new procedures, and respect the Manager’s decision to reform the department because it is all in part with meeting the organisational objectives of Tatil. With staff cooperation and the shared vision of the Manager and her Assistant Managers will ultimately aid meeting the company’s, as well as, the customers’ needs.
The following is a list of elements of organisational culture that can support and/or defend against change, which is reflective of the culture of the staff in the CS department and their ability to change:
- Attitudes to criticism
- Attitudes to sharing information
- Attitudes to experimentation in processes and products
- Degree of willingness to give people autonomy and support them in their actions
- Degree to which the organisation’s structure facilitates change
- Degree of willingness to discuss sensitive issues openly
- Attitudes to conflict
- Degree of management’s openness to new ideas – especially from below
(Adapted from Senior and Swailes 2010, p.161)
The structural characteristics, attitudes, beliefs and values are the main barriers resisting change in CS. This is where the Manager has attempted to focus her attention by getting to know staff on a one-on-one basis to humanise her attempts to bring about change in the department. To date, she has struggled with the senior staff to break their barriers, but the younger staff members have been more willing to open up, perhaps because they have not had the same amount of time to develop the mindset/culture of senior staff.
3. Politics of Change
3.0 Organisational Politics
In the context of resistance to change, the concepts of politics, power and conflict frequently appear in the role of the more undesirable aspects of organisational life. This is explained by Kanter (1979 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.178):
“Power has been described as the last dirty word… People who have it deny it, people who want it try not to appear to be seeking it, and those who are good at getting it are secretive about how they got it.”
Huczynski and Buchanan (2007 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.178) suggest that:
“Power concerns the capacity of individuals to exert their will over others, while political behaviour is the practical domain of power in action, worked out through the use of techniques of influence and other (more or les extreme) tactics.”
Political behaviour, according to Huczynski and Buchanan (2007 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.178) is ‘the observable, but often covert, actions by which executives (and others) enhance their power to influence decisions’. Power is the ability to make things happen, overcoming resistance in order to achieve desired objectives or results.
3.1 Conflict
It was observed by the author, that even though there is a Manager in CS, the power seems to lie with the senior staff that has been resisting change. The Manager makes her decisions and in some cases had to review those decisions to accommodate the opposition from the senior staff. This shows her inexperience as a Manager, denying herself her authority and positional power, and allowing subordinates to influence her managerial duties. As a result of this imbalance, there is notable conflict amongst staff in CS and whilst the Manager tries to find ways to deal with the conflict, the department still suffers from the adverse effect of resistance to change. The author observed that in the early stages, the Manager had exhibited an inclination toward the unitary frame of reference by attempting to suppress conflict. However, this did not last long as staff proved to be ‘fearless’ of the attempt.
The Manager has since shown that she is in favour of resolving conflict. Perhaps she was made aware of the Conflict Management Grid (Blake and Mouton 1970 cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.205) which suggests that the techniques of conflict management can be mapped on two dimensions, concern for production and concern for people. This is where an individual can score from low to high to determine their conflict-handling style. Each conflict-handling style has an outcome in terms of its ability to tackle the content of the conflict and the relationship with the other party. The five styles for this model are:
- Accommodating (high concern for people, low for production)
- Avoiding (low/low)
- Competing (high for production, low concern for people)
- Collaborating (problem solving) – a more constructive approach of information sharing, trying to meet both sides, represented by high scores on both dimensions
- Compromising (moderate scores on both dimensions)
(Adapted from Senior and Swailes 2010, p.205)
With effective conflict resolution, the Manager may find it easier to interact with the individuals who have opposed her attempts at change and will therefore be able to roll out her plans for the department more smoothly. This is yet to take place in CS as it is still a work in progress. The Manager is still building her managerial skills and is slowly making attempts to resolve her individual conflicts but at the same time ensuring that she maintains an authoritative role in the department.
4. Leadership of Change
4.0 Management & Leadership
One of the best known studies of managers was conducted by Watson (1994 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.226) who defined management as ‘…organizing, pulling things together and along in a general direction to bring about long-term organizational survival’. His book described what managers do, revealing the struggles they have making sense of what is happening around them. Henry Mintzberg studies chief executives in large and small organisations and grouped managerial roles into three sets: interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles. These are illustrated further in Table 2 below.
Table 2 – Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles
Source: Author (2011) Adapted from Mintzberg, H. (1979 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.227)
In a comparison between management and leadership, management can be said to be more about what goes on within the formal structure of the organisation while leadership focuses more on interpersonal behaviour in a broader context. In the early 1950’s, one of the best ways to lead was justified in the trait theory that leaders are born not made. However, Stodgill (1948) and Mann (1959, as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.229) concluded that there were few relationships between the traits possessed by leaders and their performance. Under scrutiny, the theory that some people were born to lead did not hold up. Despite this, research and studies continue to build on identifiable sets of personality and cognitive traits that are said to characterise successful leaders. Six traits of successful leaders were put forward by Lord, De Vader and Alliger (1986 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.229): intelligence, an extrovert personality, dominance, masculinity, conservatism and being better adjusted than non-leaders. A few years later, Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.229) surveyed the existing leadership studies and suggested six leadership traits:
- Drive (achievement, ambition, energy, tenacity, initiative)
- Leadership motivation (personalised or socialised)
- Honesty and integrity
- Self-confidence (including emotional stability)
- Cognitive ability (ability to marshal and interpret a wide variety of information)
- Knowledge of business
The Manager of CS seems to have a combination of interpersonal and decisional roles to play in her role as manager. According to the author, she has displayed one or more of the different elements during her tenure thus far, which, and depending on the situation, showed her ability to mediate, take action and resolve conflict leaving all parties satisfied. She does not have the direct leadership qualities that are displayed by executive management at Tatil, but the Manager of CS is adapting well to her environment as quickly and adequately as she can.
4.1 Leadership Styles and Behaviour
When the trait research struggled to explain successful leaders, the research shifted to the behaviour (styles) that leaders use. Wright (1996 as cited in Senior and Swailes 2010, p.231) grouped different leadership behaviours into four main leadership styles. They are outlined in Table 3 below.
Wright’s review of the studies which attempted to link leadership style with high performance and subordinate satisfaction found that there are no significant differences.
Table 3 – Leadership Styles and Behaviour
Source: Author (2011)
Further study into leadership behaviour by the University of Michigan and Ohio State resulted in two independent dimensions of leadership, which is actually a combination of all four types of behaviour: consideration and initiating structure. The degree to which a leader builds trust and mutual respect with subordinates, shows respect for their ideas and concern for their well being; this is consideration. The degree to which a leader defines and structures their role and interactions within the group towards the attainment of organisational goals is initiating structure.
At Tatil, the executive management display a directive leadership style. This is not a wise strategy by management, as the author has observed that staff are reluctant to cooperate when decisions are made; especially when it comes to change. In terms of Client Services, the Manager had come in initially with a combination of concern for task and directive leadership styles. However, as this had proven to be unsuccessful, the Manager has shifted toward a more participative leadership style with a concern for task and people. This has significantly improved the environment in the department but there is still the battle with senior staff that is proving to be most challenging.
5. Conclusion
It is not accurate to say the Manager of Client Services is unfit to be in that position; nor is it accurate to say that staff are completely resistant to change. In fact, the few significant changes in Client Services with the establishment of a second Assistant Manager and training of new staff and general concern for subordinate satisfaction, the staff seem to be adapting to change better than originally expected. It was said once by staff that things tend to get worse before it gets better, and in the four years of change, though the hurdles have been high and strong, the department functions smoothly and efficiently, proving that they can come together as a team despite differences; they are breaking barriers and are pushing through to meet the organisational objectives and maintain the customers’ satisfaction. The commitment by staff and management to continue to dialogue and strategise is a positive move that is developing bonds amongst colleagues and building trust in each relationship. This will ultimately assist the department to be more successful and valuable to the Tatil. The author noted that regardless of the differences amongst staff and management, there is still warmth, teamwork and a sense of family at Tatil, even in the midst of change; as their tag line states Tatil is the type of organisation “...where people are people”.
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References
Senior, B. and Swailes, S. (2010) Organizational Change, 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Trinidad & Tobago Insurance Limited (n.d.) Induction Booklet to Staff, Executive Management.
Bibliography
Armstrong, M. and Stephens, T. (2005) A Handbook of Management and Leadership, London: Kogan Page.
Brown, A. (1995) Organisational Culture, London: Pitman.
Burnes, B. (2004) Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organisational Dynamics, 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.