Adaptability
Corporations, organizations, and employees are rapidly changing to adapt to a shorter period while playing an important role integrating the change into responsibilities. Management, organizational, and corporation need to assist in the facilitating the employee’s capacity to adapt to change and business focus, in today’s fast-paced world. (Bareil, 2005) Driven by the business focus the need to adapt should work in conjunction with each other. Bareil article “Facilitating the Individual Capacity to Change” outlines a three-step approach to manage employee’s reactions to high turbulence and intense episodes of adoption. The three stages create multiple windows of opportunities at different strategic times during implementation, and leaders can leverage their employee’s capacity to change. Based off the model of seven Phases of Preoccupations (PoP) during change, see figure 2 for the phases, to see additional details to PoP see Bareil article outlined within the references. The three stages are Ask, Diagnose, and Act. Fostering and adapting to change, and acting upon the change of business focus will strive to continual provide innovative thought and new discoveries into the workforce environment. One thing that has showed us the inability to adapt or change causes companies to be stagnant and lose market value and share. Examples include Kodak, General Radio, and Planet Rock Tee’s; the list can continue further, there are only primary examples to the inability to change and their loss of innovative and business opportunities.
Organizational Cohesion
Defined by Wiktionary Cohesion is the state of cohering or of sticking together or more specific to cohere is the said of the substance, mass, or body whose parts so stick together (Wiktionary.org, 2006). With that said, organizational cohesion is where the diverse organizations structure work together with the common business focus, sticking together. Effective communication from the executive leadership and management needs to foster this cohesion between the organizations via communication driving a common business focus. Without cohesion, the organization will cause a division between the organizations or employees, which distract the attention from the business focus. Other than communication it is also best to foster cohesion between management and the employees by not utilizing pretentious job titles, separate dining rooms and/or restrooms for executives, larger and more luxurious offices, or privileged parking just to name a few. (Burgelman, 2004) This cohesion provides innovative, communication between the organizations will foster innovative thought and new discovery.
Entrepreneurial Culture
To create a highly effective and bottom-line-focused organization, many established companies look to create an entrepreneurial culture within their existing framework. This presents a serious challenge for companies who have long established core customers and core practices. Neuborne (2003) compared creating an entrepreneurial culture to starting an exercise program (Neuborne, 2003). “Everyone agrees it's a great idea but few are able to follow through and make it happen. A study last year by management and technology consulting firm Accenture noted that 70 percent of executives surveyed listed entrepreneurship as "very important" to their organizations' overall success.” So why do not more organizations do this effectively? It does not happen because too many companies are mired in the status quo. The CEO must foster the environment that allows for creative and innovative thoughts and actions that may “run the stop signs” and create new opportunities for the company. If there is too much resistance to change then the company will fail miserably. One serious thought to consider, if you do not foster an entrepreneurial spirit, your competition is sure to do so. This can be fatal for any company that has blinders on. Baumol defines entrepreneurs as the creators or promoters of change (Baumol, 2004). The Institute for Enterprise Education defined the six constituents of an entrepreneurial culture:
- The most effective way to change an existing organizational culture is by creating individual entrepreneurial units on the edge of organizational structures.
- In order to transform existing cultures, we must first begin with the mindset of its people. By identifying their individual meanings, beliefs, and values and combining these with their interests, strengths and talents, we can begin to align the person’s individual purpose with the leader’s compelling vision.
- The entrepreneurial vision must be powerful enough to not only sustain this transformation, but must also inspire confidence and trust by allowing each of these units enough freedom and flexibility in order to develop, grow and compete in today’s complex, chaotic and rapidly changing global environment.
- As individual profit centers, each unit provides opportunities for more effective resource allocation and a stronger customer focus.
- Employees think and act as entrepreneurs, leading to a greater degree of involvement and freedom to create individualized networks.
- As the number of these entrepreneurial units’ increases, more leaders are needed to drive these enterprises. A strong entrepreneurial culture creates leaders from within.
(Six Constituents of an Entrepreneurial Culture, 2006)
An entrepreneurial culture is developed and can be learned, but for a company to be dynamic and innovative, the company must have the right ingredients. Lewis Platt former CEO of Hewlett Packard and current non-executive Chairman of The Boeing Company, in a 2004 address to attendees of a global conference on entrepreneurship in Dubai, gave his thoughts on the matter. To summarize his points, you need the right people with the right level of intelligence capable of being entrepreneurial and innovative, you need to fund their ideas and be willing to take a loss or not show appreciable results for some time, be accepting of failure and ready to celebrate success, and most importantly you have to have support from the top. If an existing large company can follow these instructions with commitment and conviction then they will be more likely to succeed in this globally competitive environment. (Platt, 2004)
Sense of integrity
In today’s business environment, it serves companies well to determine if integrity is a fundamental core management value, and if so, how to reinforce that through its workforce (Helps, 2005). Because integrity is a steadfast adherence to an ethical code within an organization, it becomes a shared responsibility for companies to operate under a code of ethics, whether formal or informal. Managers, however, serve as the string by modeling, communicating and reinforcing ethical behavior to employees within the organization. It is also the responsibility of managers to set positive examples, otherwise, if employees perceive that a manager lacks integrity, it may lead to confusion, ambivalence, mistrust, or cynicism. Thus, this might cause them to flinch their own responsibilities, misleads customers, or even worse, steal from the organization.
It is imperative that everyone understands the importance of integrity within the workplace. Integrity is a foundation for positive relationships in the workplace, and thus, is a foundation for success in the business environment.
Managers can build integrity and trust in the organization by:
- communicating honestly (even when it is difficult);
- keeping even the smallest of promise;
- making sure that words mirror actions;
- being consistent with priorities; and
- being sincere in their approach.
Integrity is reinforced in the organization when people are held accountable through a system of reward and consequences developed by management. Developing such, a system will help eliminate barriers to responsible behavior, such as coercion, fear of retaliation and discrimination within the workplace.
Adopting a code of conduct for the organization is generally the starting point for developing a sense of integrity for the organization. Codes of conduct are becoming increasingly prevalent globally. A document articulates the company’s business values, principles, and standards.
Increasing management awareness of irregularities within the organization and increasing management sensitivity regarding the extent to which the organizational structure and culture stimulates unethical conduct, are two of the major requirements that help improve the sense of integrity of a company. It is therefore crucial that management creates an organizational culture of openness and transparency in which unethical conduct will become visible and in which employees and managers can call each other to account.
Hands-on top management
Of the six sections that we are discussing here, half of them (business focus, organizational cohesion, and a sense of integrity) are geared toward stability and management. The other half, (adaptability, entrepreneurial culture, and hands-on management), are synonymous with rapid and sometimes precipitous change.
In most corporations, you find many layers of management. CEOs seldom have the time or opportunity to get involved in the details of technology management. However, this is not always the case. In many successful high-technology companies, top management will often make the effort to have hands-on involvement in the innovation process.
This does not mean that these managers need to be technologists. It is more important that be open-minded and to be able to ask many questions. Top management needs to be patient and to be able to understand in depth certain core questions, such as:
- How the technology works
- Its limits, as well as its potential (together with the limits and potential of competitors’ technologies)
- What technical and economic resources these various technologies require
- The direction and speed of change
- The available technological options, their cost, probability of failure, and potential benefits if they prove successful
No systematic information exists on changing types of management and leadership, which might enhance managerial accountability (Walker, 2001). However, it seams clear that having upper management deeply involved in the innovation process is beneficial to the company.
Conclusion
To conclude these six themes will provide a proposed corporate model that a company should adhere to succeed. Each of these six themes need to work together to provide innovation, remove stagnation, and provide success for the corporation.
References
Bareil, C., & Gagnon, J. (2005). Facilitating the Individual Capacity to Change. (French). Gestion 2000, 5, 177-194. Retrieved Sunday, March 12, 2006 from the Business Source Complete database.
Baumol, W. J. (2004) Entrepreneurial Cultures and Countercultures. Academy of Management Learning & Education 3(3), pp. 316-326.
Beamish−Morrison−Inkpen−Rosenzweig. International Management: Text & Cases, 5/e, 2003, McGraw Hill.
Burgelman et al. Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 4/e, 2004, McGraw Hill
Dickson, M., Smith, D., Grojean, M., & Ehrhart, M. (2001). An organizational climate regarding ethics: the outcome of leader values and the practices that reflect them. Leadership Quarterly, 12(2), 197. Retrieved Sunday, March 12, 2006 from the Business Source Complete database.
eResource (2005). rEsource (resource.asp). Retrieved July 13, 2005 from
Fonseca, B., & Musich, P. (2005, November 14). A World of Change. Retrieved March 13, 2006, from Business Source Complete Web Site:
Neuborne, E. (2003) Bright Ideas. Sales & Marketing Management 155(8) pp. 26. Retrieved 12 March 2006 from
Platt, L. (2004) Accepting Risk -- Daring Greatness. Vital Speeches of the Day 70.14 pp. 445-448. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier. 12 March 2006. .
Six Constituents of an Entrepreneurial Culture (2006) retrieved from The Institute for Enterprise Education.
Wiktionary.org, 2006. Cohesion – Wiktionary. Retrieved March 13, 2006 from
Walker, R. (2001). How to Abolish Public Housing: Implications and Lessons from Public Management Reform. Housing Studies, 16(5), 675-696. Retrieved Tuesday, March 14, 2006 from the Academic Search Premier database.
Appendix
Figure 1 – The continuous 3-step approach to PoP: Diagnostic and Action
Figure 2 – The PoP Model: Phases of Preoccupations during change.
