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Skeptical leaders may be wonderingis it really worth it? Why to bother during these
turbulent times? Would it not be far easier to just call it a day, or start all over, or blow
up the structure, or simply give up trying to use the organizational structure as a strategic
asset at all? Against the backdrop of such challenges one must recall how great leaders
like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln have changed the course of history
with tremendous vision and courage without placing an emphasis on organizational
structure to support their efforts. However, when it comes to business, it is cautioned
to replicate the same logic because organizations are dealing metaphorically with an animal
of a far different shape, complexity, and the dynamic forces at work in the industry require
unity of purpose. Organizations, thus enable people working in groups to accomplish
goals that none of them could do on their own. In this way, they are able to harness
complex and simple technologies and ingenious solutions to achieve greatness in a far
more profound and sustainable fashion (Mitroff, 2004).
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that requires people to change the way they do things, leaders need to work beyond the
operational plan and plan to change culture as well (McGuire and Rhodes, 2009).
First, to address the cultural dynamics of the organization, leaders need information
instead of allowing their unsubstantiated beliefs, emotions, assertions, past experiences
and successes of yesterday and old and untested ways of doing things to guide them.
One of the worst things that a leader can do is to make assumptions, unfounded
predictions about what is driving behaviors without doing an assessment of the
organization. Using the Organizational Cultural Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is one
of many research tools available to help in this process. It allows the leaders and
followers to work together to determine both the now and preferred culture to help
the organization to achieve its desired goals.
For instance, the Clan Culture is commonly associated with a friendly place to work
where people share a lot of themselves and leaders are considered to be mentors. The
organization places a premium on teamwork, participation, and consensus. On the other
hand, the Adhocracy Culture is dynamic, entrepreneurial and a creative place to work.
The emphasis is on the leading edge and the organization encourages individual
initiative and freedom. As a polar opposite, the Hierarchy Culture promotes a very
formalized and structured place to work. The management of employees is concerned
with secure employment and predictability. Lastly, the Market Culture is best
characterized as a result-oriented organization. The leaders are hard drivers, producers,
and competitors and so is the organizational style (Cameron and Quinn, 2006).
The OCAI works well in subunit cultural assessments and for the overall
organization. However, a word of caution is applicable here: please do not start changing
things too quickly without seeing a clear picture of what is the current and preferred
culture. This theory works in a similar fashion as the one used in other circles. If leaders
are interested in assessing the leadership styles and teams dynamics within the
organization they might deploy a Myers Briggs Survey or a DISC Profile of the team
(Briggs and Myers, 1998). These parallel applications are offered here for comparison
and illustrative purpose because leaders stand the risk of making a huge mistake by
rushing to conclusions and solutions without the right information to guide their
decisions. Do so at the peril of the organization!
With the realization that no enlightened leader wishes the organization to perish on
his or her watch, organizations playing on the global business stage must affect positive
changes in the culture in the wake of unparalleled change in the global marketplace
by doing the following things:
Consciously developing a global organizational culture;
Reframing diversity from a global perspective;
Preparing employees for short to midterm global rotations;
Facilitating learning about culture and their values, beliefs, expectations, and
behaviors in order to be successful worldwide;
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61
of the organization. Four key pieces of this jigsaw are: (1) core skills; (2) core
competencies; (3) distinctive capabilities; and (4) strategic assets (Ferguson and
Ferguson, 2000). Using a metaphor from the game of hockey, the key to success is not
to skate towards the puck, but, instead, anticipating where the puck is going and get
there ahead of it. The same thing could be said of great leadersthey anticipate where
the change is going and make sure their organization get there first (Sanders, 1998).
Given the fierce winds of change in the external environment, the organization has
to do the necessary work of strategic thinking to face a certain future fraught with
disaster. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. It stems from a universal acceptance of
the fact that an organization which does not confront change, or sees no need to innovate,
will stagnate, decay and eventually die. Trees begin to die from the top downwards,
and so this process in business usually stems from the chief executive and those around
him or her (Adair, 1990). To mitigate the inherent inertia to change brought on by new
strategies, it is very important for the leader to encourage participation in the process,
communicate the strategy across the organization with special emphasis on what and
why of the strategy and to remain flexible as this is not a static, but fluid process. If
you want the strategy to be embraced, accepted, internalized and adopted by the
employees rather than some edict from the top, there is no substitute for improving
communication as the strategy unfolds the organization (Morgan, 1997).
The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. IV, Nos. 1 & 2, 2010
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Transnational
Global
Centralized approach
Similar products and services worldwide
Low on optimal sourcing and local responsiveness
International
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The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. IV, Nos. 1 & 2, 2010
Old Thinking
New Thinking
(1) Vertical
Hierarchy
Ideas
(2) Horizontal
Cross Functional
(3) External
Efficiency, Results
(4) Geographic
Isolation
Conclusion
This paper has demonstrated that there is not a silver bullet out there for every
organization to use as the ultimate design to advance the cultural and strategical
objectives. We are well-aware that this makes the leaders task of finding and
implementing a design even more challenging; however, this discovery when done
well, has the potential of distinguishing the great organizations from the rest. There
is no substitute for the role of effective leadership and followership in this
discovery for the right design. Reason being, the leader has to leave the organization
in a better posture than when he or she arrived and a good design helps in this
quest (Peterno, 2009).
References
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The Impact of Leadership on Identifying Right Organizational Designs for Turbulent Times
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The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. IV, Nos. 1 & 2, 2010
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