The People Who Make Organizations Go or...
Transcript of The People Who Make Organizations Go or...
The People Who Make Organizations Go or Stop
- Research suggest if senior managers focus attention on handful of key roleplayers in the group, can transform ineffective informal networks into productive ones
• Central Connectors • Boundary spanners: • Information brokers: • Peripheral Specialists:
- These players are often invisible to senior managers because executives rely on formal report structure or gossip about managers and employees
- Manage informal network can be done using social network analysis , graphical tool map out organization relationship
Central Connector
- The person on the network map that everyone in group talks to the most
- link most people in an informal network within one another
- Not usually formal leader in unit, know who can provide information or expertise that network needs to get work done
Central connectors efforts are often not recognize. Losing heart and were more inclined to focus on work that the top management was inclined to reward . Therefore, this is why companies need to set up tangible ways to reward central connectors
Ex: Few central connectors at engineering company, so senior executives create a “above and beyond” rewards. Each time someone introduce colleague in trouble to those who solve issue, connectors nominate for cash reward
Ex: Investment bank change the criteria for its annual bonuses – end of review period each manager in bank evaluated by the work they worked with. Most successful connectors get bigger bonuses. Previous way was to reward managers who create most profits
Disadvantages:
- Central connectors can create bottlenecks and hold back informal networks. Bottleneck happens because the central connector has grown too big for the person , struggle to keep up
- Solution: Intervene by reallocate duties and reassign some of her work to others.
If people are central only because they monitor info that many people need, make the data more widely accessible in other ways (Ex: corporate intranet)
- However, on the other hand, some use political or financial gain, when connector hoard info and playing colleagues off each other, solution usually change incentive system used by different units , redesign job, rotate people among different positions
- If poor communication occurs and people can’t get info quickly enough, this gives the organization a sense as to the amount of workload carried central connector
Boundary Spanner
- "roving ambassadors, people who serves as the group's eyes and ears in the wider world
- Boundary spanner nurture connections with people outside informal network
i.e. communicate with people in other departments within company and other organizations
- Plays a key role in situations where people need to shared different kinds of expertise/information
i.e. Andy is the main conduit of information between Boston, Chicago and New York groups.
- Boundary spanners are rare. Reason: Most people don’t have deep intellectual expertise, wealth of social contact and personality traits needed to be accepted by different groups
- Corporate life may not be friendly to the boundary spanner. Spends a lot of time developing external network, may take up projects and task that cut across formal boundaries. Spend less time in immediate network.
- Boundary spanner important to organizations
I.e. global consulting firm, different groups in different offices around the work. Few knew coworker in other countries, coordination was poor. Firm saw improvement when recognize few people informally in touch with coworker, give incentives to do more of this. Given projects that needed them to travel to offices in other countries (large salary increases and quicker promotions)
Information Broker
- People who connect different sub networks in a company, plays the same role as boundary spanners, but they only operate within the social network
- Info Brokers important to informal network effectiveness because
have power of central connector without having the number of direct link that connectors have
this is because they have numerous indirect contacts, play critical role; thus, organizations often try to manage large informal networks through them
- Danger: developing the habit of rely too much on info broker ; if the information broker left the group, this would tear the informal network apart
- Solution: Should encourage central connectors to develop more connections with subgroups not adequately linked with. If need arises, connector could take over info broker role’s in the network
The Peripheral Specialist
- The "outsiders", but also the experts, have specific technical knowledge in a specialized area
they pass on to other members of the group whenever it is needed
- The assumption is that it's bad idea for anyone to be peripheral specialist and everyone shouldn't make effort to socialize these people
- But they are intentionally on the edge of the network, loners who do not like to work closely with rest of the group or people who have to invest a lot of time outside network to stay on the cutting edge
- Integrate peripheral specialists may distract them from staying on top of their fields
- Ex: Hightech company where researchers were threatening to resign, although the team was successful at develop new technologies
But social network analysis show that organization destroyed the group because did not recognize that most scientists were peripheral scientists . Researchers came up with tech advances and because of their increasing success, scientists asked to attend meetings, present findings to customer. For this reason, they are unable stay on top of their work
- In other cases, people become peripheral specialist because of personal reasons (i.e. primary caregivers of a family). Therefore, this is why organizations need to be sensitive to the demands they put on people who take on the role of peripheral specialists
Personal Network Management
- Way to promote connectivity in organization is give employees customized views of personal network
- Through social network analysis, people can identify where need to build more or better relationship and senior executives can coach them appropriately
- Four dimensions can help managers improve connections
1. the extent to which managers seek people in or outside functional areas
2. Degree to which hierarchy, tenure and location matter to manager social relationships
3. Length of time manager known their connections
4. the Extent to which managers personal networks result of interaction that are built into their schedules (planned meetings rather than ad hoc encounters in hallways)
Reading: The Organization As A Political System
Organizations as Political System
- Organizations are political systems
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- Patterns of competing interests, conflicts and power
- Position and strength= interests and power
Interests
- Individual interests and collective interests
- Interests – refer to way people want , what is at stake for them in the decision or course of action
- Collective interests – shared by others who belong to same group or category, center on welfare and maintenance of the group
- When looking at interests it is important to analyze: the stakeholder mapping tool
Power
- Power :
Power is the capacity to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do
Power is grounded in control of or access to resources (including information and knowledge as well as tangible resources)
Political action is mobilizing interests and power to take effective action
- Three variants of power – influence, authority and coercion
- Authority – power defined as legitimate by those subjected to it, formal positions in hierarchy
• Common political strategies for deal with conflict in organization is called "push it up" – ask someone higher in organization with formal authority over parties to resolve issue
- Influence– has informality, often used in interactions where someone does not have formal authority but develop ability to persuade others to act in way would not in absence of that influence
- Coercion – control of behaviour of one person by another who can restrict benefit or inflict punishment, not seen as legitimate
Force people to behave in ways that otherwise would not, breed resentment and desire to get even
Sources of Power
Individual Power Organizational Power
Personal Characteristics:
• Energy & physical stamina
• Focus (the ability to set priorities and concentrate on the most important things)
• Sensitivity to others & an ability to understand how they see their interests)
• Flexibility (based on concentrating on ultimate objectives ( adjusting to what’s possible in a particular context)
• Ability to tolerate conflict
• Submerging one’s ego and getting along
Personal power of the unit/subunit head
Control of Scarce and valued expertise Control of Scare and values expertise crucial to strategic performance of the organization
Track Record
• past performance "high fliers" people who are likely to rise higher in an organization , others
Track Record > contribution to the organizational performance
• Past performance (according to metrics valued
are more eager to interact with them
• Sociologists dub concept that success is source of power that breed further success as the “Matthew effect” based on verse in Gospel
by the organization e.g. growth, profitability, customer satisfaction)
Formal Position in organizational hierarchy
formal position/legitimate power based on:
• Resource allocation
• Information flows
• Employee performance evaluations
• Task assignment
• Conflict Resolution
Formal Position in organizational hierarchy
• Formal Position (proximity to top & powerful positions/units)
Informal network position
• size of network and the number of power people in you network (centrality)
• oldest strategy to gain power is to do favors for others and build a network (the expectation if that the individual will reciprocate in the future)
• emphasis on efficiency: want an efficient network as oppose to a redundant network (the people you know also knows each other
Efficient/Non Redundant
Highly Redundant
• Informal network position is a source of power for 2 reasons: information advantage and its source of influence for building coalitions
Building coalitions: bridging structural holes, holes in organizations networks where they is no direct link between individuals or subunits that can benefit from
Informal network position
• Building coalitions: bridging structural holes, holes in organizations networks where they is no direct link between individuals or subunits that can benefit from being linked
being linked
Example of Power: Suits and Lord of the Rings
How to identify where power is in organization:
Reputation – ask people in organization who has power, subunits people most want to work for
Representational indicators – identify units relatively overrepresented in important roles (Ex: committees, promotion to top executive positions)
Observation of consequences – observe which units or people benefit most from decision making and resource allocation, ask which units can keep certain issues from get attention
Power Symbols – Ex: spacious and attractive offices close to power centre
Using the Political Lens to Take More Effective Action in Organizations
1. Mapping interests and power
- Understand who is affected by what you do, what their interest are, how much power they have to support or block what you propose to do
i) Supporters:
ii) Blockers:
iii) Potential Stakeholder: who affected by what you doing? (in terms of work, power, rewards)
iv) Existing coalitions: potential interest, allies
Commitment Chart (addresses supporters and blockers and maps out their current position vs desired future position)
Key Players Keep it from Happening
Let it Happen Help it Happen Make it Happen
A
B
C
Stakeholder Mapping Tool (shows the interest of ppl will be affected and their priority interest so that you can tailor your initiatives to suit their interest)
Stakeholder Highest Priority 2nd Highest Priority
3rd highest Priority
Latent Interest
A
B
C
2. Getting “Buy In”
- getting people to commit themselves to support or participate in course of action started by someone else
- Persuade others that supporting your initiative will serve their interests with techniques:
• Escalation of commitment
• Perceptions of influence , Leveraging peer influence
- Escalation of commitment – people are more likely to persist in supporting or carry out a course of action once they commit resources (time and attention) to it
- Perception of influence center on giving key stakeholder change to give feedback and input on development of an initiative (give them a feeling that they have had influence in the process)
3. Finding allies and Building a coalition
- Coalition – set of allies who act together to support certain policies and activities , more longlasting coalition can form around common interests
- Have general coalitions of allies who provide reciprocal support for each other interests
- Most common example of general coalition is dominant coalition in organization, made up of upper level executive
Each member can expect support of other members for their initiatives on understanding that they will support those of others
- General coalitions based on longstanding patterns of reciprocity
Exchanges over time maintain roughly equal balance
Exchange of info and resources
Mutual willingness to do favors for allies
Agree not to take actions that damage allies interests
4. Building a network
- Effective network extends in three directions:
Upward: Up to those are in higher position of formal authority
Horizontal: Horizontal those in similar units in similar formal position
Downward: Down to those working for you or engaged in task that have important consequence for your own work
- The exchange perspective on power and social networks usually emphasize importance of reciprocity and trust
- Process of exchange:
Exchange: A does X for B, B does Y for A.
Process: not a spot transaction, but one that is repeated over time.
- Multiple interests:
A cares about Y (not X), B cares about X (not Y).
influences comes down to the different interests of those around them and can figuring out how to engage and meet those interests
- Multiple currencies used in organizations:
• Rewardsrelated (Ex: salary, promotion)
• Taskrelated (Ex: resources, information, assistance, )
• Relationshiprelated (Ex: acceptance, inclusion, support and understanding)
• Personrelated (Ex: challenge, learning, ownership and selfconcept)
• Statusrelated (Ex: perks that confer prestige)
5. Building your Negotiation Skills
- Need to understand the interests and appeal to the subunit in which the individuals with whom you are negotiating (can’t appeal to their personal interest, need to appeal to whole unit)
- People with best political skills are praised with having good people skills, able to work with a system, capacity to overcome obstacles
Organizational Culture
Definition of Organizational Culture
• Changes across time, but usually slow and small changes
- Culture – Shared assumptions a given group has developed to deal with the problems of external adaptation and internal integration. For culture to be formed, the group has to have stability and common history (passed across cohorts and generations)
i.e. some organizations have no overreaching culture because they have no common history or frequent turnover of members
- Such learning is a behavioural, cognitive and emotional process
“The way we should do things around here” (has moral force)
“The way we do things around here” (cognitive dimension taken for granted)
- Within organization can be many subcultures
- Within any given unit, tendency for integration and consistently assumed to be there but also possible for each unit to have culture independent and in conflict with each other
- Strength internal consistency of culture are function of
Stability of group
Length of time group existed
Intensity of common problems faced by the group
Differentiating/identity device (relative to other groups)
Strength and clarity of assumptions held by founders and group leaders
Changes across time, but usually slow and small changes
Culture Levels
- In analyzing group or organization, need to distinguish three levels at which culture reveals itself
(a) Observable artifacts
(b) Values
(c) Basic underlying assumptions
Examples of artifacts/symbols
− Stories
− Formal rules
− Guidelines (pieces of paper that are widely circulated)
− Wall information/art
− Use of space
− Dress
− Badges/ID
− Modes of interaction (arguments, elevator conversation – or lack of it)
− Public documents, website, published company history
− Awards
− Titles
Example: WalMart
Artifacts:
Front of the store:
o Posters of slogans (Smile and smiley faces, 10 foot rule)
o Greeter
o Kicker (cheer)
Back
Schein Model of Organizational Culture - Tree Metaphor
o Vest (Slogan, name tag, button)
o White Shirt and tie (worn by the manager)
o Norms: (15 min meetings; i.e. how may I help you? Solve the problem by sun down
o Physically , grey round storage
Values
customer service (thorough and friendliness)
management support
simplicity and low price
fast decisions
Accountability (i.e. rip his face off example)
Front end store culture vs back end store culture (culture and its subcultures)
Liar's Poker Example
“The materials were the least significant aspect of our training. The relevant bits, the ones I would recall two years later, were the war stories… A woman from the New York Times who interviewed us three months into our programme was so impressed with the uniformity in our attitudes towards the firm that she called her subsequent article, ‘The Boot Camp for MBAs’.”
Uniformity à come across in this quote
Money was important
Process of working your way up
A lot of status à most of them are related to money
General Attitude à pranks
Example of Epoused Value:
The generic mission statement:
“We are a fastmoving, flexible, innovative, customeroriented global company that delivers real value to our shareholders by our unrelenting focus on performance and the unswerving dedication of our worldclass, dedicated employees.”
Basic Assumptions (how do you get them?)
− Mismatch between what you observe and espoused values: e.g. “we value our employees” and yet the company downsizes in a time of record profits
− What happens in (or leading to) a crisis or disaster?
− Thoughtful informants
Schein and Van Maanen readings on culture: different but complementary foci
Schein ( higherlevel approach where the organized shared a common culture)
Van Maanen (more dynamic and mgmt had less influence over it)
− Holistic system
− Shared aspects of culture
Norm Formation Around Critical Incidents One can see in groups how norms and beliefs arise around way members respond to critical incidents. However, according to Schein, although the leader will try to embed their own assumptions to the group, because the group learns to create their own shared assumptions from their own experiences and believe that their assumptions work better for them, therefore, this makes the learning experience shared and the cultural assumption reflects the total group experience as oppose to just the leader's initial assumption. However, the leader will still try to embed his own views on how things should be and if they are powerful enough, they can have a dominant effect on cultures.
− Leader’s role in shaping org’l culture (people identify themselves with their leaders, internalize their values and assumptions)
− Culture as a resource
As culture evolve, process of differentiation (subcultures for diversity) and integration can occur(culture becomes congruent for the need for consistency)
− Mode of research: process consulting with top mgt. team
− Content of culture (artifacts, epoused value and basic assumptions)
− Artifacts can be interpreted into the “real” values and assumptions by trained observer
− Subcultures
Groups of people who share common identities based on characteristics that often override the organizationally prescribed roles and relationships.
i.e.mgmt and lobour > workers and managers, wage vs salary, suit & tie vs uniforms and hardhats)
− Frontline worker cultures
− Culture as unmanageable
− Shared modes of deviance and Processes of culture
Suggests that rather than trying to find a single organizational culture t explain individual/group culture, the best approach is to look for the kind of issues that call up different meaning systems/cultures for the person (i.e. can't define a single identity group sale pp, financial analyst as a repository for the different cultural perspectives)
− Mode of research: ethnography, participant observation
− Symbols have many meanings, interpreted differently by different groups i.e. Big Mac(to some, quintessential American meal that popular and desirable, to others, it's a piece of food that lacks nourishment and is detrimental to ppl health)