Organizational Behavior: Leadership, Culture, and Change

Posted on Aug 14, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

Leadership

Leadership: The ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members. Leaders use their influence to motivate and enable others to contribute toward the organization’s goals.

Shared leadership: Occurs when an organization allows the freedom to take risks.

Leadership Styles

Transformational leadership: A perspective that explains how leaders change teams or organizations by creating, communicating, and modeling a vision for the organization or work unit and inspiring employees to strive for that vision.

Managerial leadership: Includes the daily activities that support and guide the performance and well-being of individual employees and the work unit toward current objectives and practices.

Task-oriented behaviors include assigning employees specific tasks, clarifying their work duties, ensuring they follow company rules, and pushing them to reach their performance capacity.

People-oriented behaviors include showing mutual trust and respect for subordinates, demonstrating a genuine concern for their needs, and having a desire to look out for their welfare.

Servant leadership defines leadership as serving others toward their need fulfillment and personal development and growth.

Leadership Perspectives and Theories

Implicit leadership perspective: Suggests that people have leadership prototypes, which they use to evaluate the leader’s effectiveness. People often romanticize leadership, believing that leaders make a significant difference.

Path–goal theory of leadership takes the view that effective managerial leadership involves diagnosing the situation and using the most appropriate style for the situation.

The core model identifies four leadership styles:

• Directive
• Supportive
• Participative
• Achievement-oriented

Authentic Leadership

When there is alignment of values, self-belief, and personality, leaders are acting in a way that is reflective of who they are, which others appreciate.

Followership

Followership: The ability to take direction well, to get in line behind a program, to be part of a team, and to deliver on what is expected of you.

Types of Followers

Four types of people based on a model:

• Sheep: Need the leader to think and guide them.
• Yes people: Supportive of the leader.
• Alienated: Against the leader but don’t have an alternative.
• Pragmatic: Want to be clear about the direction before joining.
• Stars: Think for themselves, offer alternatives if they oppose something.

Followership Styles

• Implementer: High support and low challenge. They are like”Yes People” They just do as they are told.
• Partner: High support and high challenge. They are like stars. They ask,”How can I support the leader”
• Resource: Low challenge and low support. They provide what’s needed with no questions asked—for example, a supplier.
• Individualist: Low support and high challenge. They are protagonists and will oppose the leader.

Power and Influence

Power: The capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others. Potential power is what people have and don’t use, or sometimes are unaware of.

The greater B’s dependency over A, the greater power A has over B.

Types of Power

• Legitimate power is an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviors of others.
• Reward power is derived from the ability to control the allocation of rewards valued by others and to remove negative sanctions.
• Coercive power is the ability to apply punishment.
• Expert power is the capacity to influence others by possessing knowledge or skills that they value.
• Referent power exists when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them (charm).

Contingencies of Power

• Non-sustainability: Power increases when the individual or work unit has a unique skillset and is irreplaceable.
• Centrality: Power can be centralized or dispersed.
• Discretion: Power increases with freedom.
• Visibility: The more visible, the more power.

Networking

Networking: The social structure of individuals or units that are connected to each other. It’s not what you know, but who you know.

Increasing Influence at Work

• Do your background work.
• Build connections.
• Develop expertise.
• Map a strategy.

Influence Tactics

Influence: Any behavior that attempts to alter someone’s attitudes or behavior. It is the process through which people achieve organizational objectives and operates down and across the hierarchy.

Results of Influence Tactics

• Resistance occurs when individuals or work units oppose the behavior desired by the influencer. At the extreme, they refuse to engage in the behavior.
• Compliance occurs when people are extrinsically motivated to implement the influencer’s request. They perform the requested task for purely instrumental reasons.
• Commitment occurs when people identify with the influencer’s request and are highly motivated to implement it even when extrinsic sources of motivation are not present.

“Soft” influence tactics such as friendly persuasion and subtle ingratiation are more acceptable than “hard” tactics such as upward appeal and assertiveness.

Organizational Politics

Organizational politics refer to the use of influence tactics for personal gain at the perceived expense of others and the organization.

Individuals with a high need for personal power and strong Machiavellian values have a higher propensity to use political tactics.

Organizational politics can be minimized by providing clear rules for resource allocation, establishing a free flow of information, using education and involvement during organizational change, supporting team norms and a corporate culture that discourage dysfunctional politics.

Conflict

Conflict: A process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.

• Task Conflict: Conflict is aimed at the issue, not the party, and it stays on topic.
• Relationship Conflict: Aimed at the person, not the task.

Reducing Conflict

• Emotional Intelligence: Emotional understanding in handling the process.
• Cohesive Teams: Ensures people know each other.
• Supportive team norms: Rules outline proper behavior.

Outcomes of Conflict

Positive outcomes:

• Better decisions
• Responsive organization
• Team cohesion

Negative outcomes:

• Stress
• Politics
• Low turnover

Sources of Conflict

• Incompatible goals: Differences between the goals/aims of parties involved.
• Differentiation: Differences in values and beliefs; there could be a cross-cultural and generational clash.
• Task interdependence: Conflict increases with interdependence, as there is a higher risk that people will interfere with each other.
• Scarce resources: Motivates competition for resources.
• Ambiguous roles: Creates uncertainty, threatens goals, and leads people to rely on politics.
• Communication barriers: Increases stereotyping, reduces motivation to communicate, and escalates due to arrogance.

Conflict Handling Styles

• Forcing: Being very assertive to get your way.
• Avoiding: You avoid the conflict by not being present.
• Yielding: You give something up because it may not be as important, or you might need something in the future.
• Compromising: Where both parties give something up.
• Problem-solving: Where both parties walk away with their full benefits and don’t give something up.

Negotiation

Negotiation: A decision-making process among independent parties who do not share identical preferences. It is a social process through which parties decide what to give or take.

Negotiation Strategies

• Distributive: Functions to resolve pure conflict of interest.
• Traditional process: Establish a bargaining range through posturing, trade concessions, establish commitment, and conclude.

Factors Influencing Negotiations

• Location
• Physical setting
• Time
• Audience characteristics

Negotiation tactics involve preparation and goal setting, gathering information, communicating effectively, and making concessions.

Negotiation Process

A negotiation process involves three steps:

• Arbitration: Parties have high control over the final decisions but not the process—can be binding.
• Inquisition: Control the discussion about conflict and resolution and also the process.
• Mediation: High control over intervention, but they work with parties to help resolve conflict.

Communication

Communication: The process by which information is transmitted and understood between two people.

It is important for:

• Coordinating work activities
• Serving as a vehicle for organizational learning
• Acting as a critical ingredient for decision-making
• Influencing others—changing their behavior
• Employee well-being

Effective communication means transmitting intended information, not just symbols. It can be ensured by:

• Both parties being motivated and able to communicate through the channel.
• Both parties having similar codebooks.
• Both parties sharing similar mental models of the communication context.
• The sender being experienced at communicating the message topic.

Social Media

Social media: Digital communication channels that enable people to collaborate in the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media enables reciprocally interactive content, such that senders and receivers become “users” in a community of shared content. Each type of social media serves a unique combination of functions.

Email

Advantages of email:

• Preferred medium for coordinating work.
• Tends to increase communication volume.
• Significantly alters communication flow.

Disadvantages of email:

• Communicates emotions poorly.
• Reduces politeness and respect (flaming).
• Inefficient for ambiguous, complex, novel situations.
• Increases information overload.

Channel Richness

The channel’s data-carrying capacity needs to be aligned with the communication activity. High richness when the channel:

• Conveys multiple cues.
• Allows timely feedback.
• Allows customized messages.
• Permits complex information.

Use rich communication media when the situation is non-routine and ambiguous.

Persuasion

Persuasion: Changing another person’s beliefs or attitudes using communication in the workplace or social life.

Corporately:

• Memos
• Intranet
• Newsletters
• Promises

Socially:

• Commercials
• Articles
• Social media

Giving Feedback

• Balance the content.
• Be specific.
• Be realistic.
• Own the feedback.
• Be timely.
• Offer continuing support.
• Allow the receiver time to process.

Receiving Feedback

• Listen to the feedback being given.
• Be aware of your responses.
• Be open.
• Understand the message.
• Reflect and decide what to do.
• Follow up.

Communication Barriers

• Perceptions (pre-made ideas)
• Filtering (only taking what you understand)
• Jargon (acronyms, slang)
• Information overload (too much at the same time)

Good Communicator

• Empathizes
• Repeats the message
• Uses timing effectively
• Focuses on the problem, not the person

Active Listening

Active listening includes:

• Sensing: Postpone evaluation, avoid interruption, maintain interest.
• Evaluating: Empathize, organize information.
• Responding: Show interest, clarify the message.

Grapevine

Grapevine: An unstructured and informal network founded in social relationships rather than organizations.

Benefits of the grapevine:

• Fills in missing information from formal sources.
• Strengthens corporate culture.
• Relieves anxiety.
• Associated with the drive to bond.

Limitations of the grapevine:

• Distortions might escalate anxiety.
• Perceived lack of concern for employees when company information is slower than the grapevine.

Organizational Change

Lewin’s Force Field Analysis

Lewin’s force field analysis model states that all systems have driving and restraining forces. Stability occurs when the driving and restraining forces are roughly in equilibrium.

• Driving forces push organizations toward a new state of affairs. These might include new competitors or technologies, evolving client expectations, or a host of other environmental changes.
• Restraining forces are commonly called “resistance to change” because they appear to block the change process.

• Unfreezing: The first part of the organizational change process, in which the change agent produces disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces.
• Refreezing: The latter part of the change process, in which systems and structures are introduced that reinforce and maintain the desired behaviors.

Resistance to Change

Six most common reasons employees resist change:

1. Negative valence of change: The feeling that the new work environment will have more negative than positive outcomes.
2. Fear of the unknown: Not comfortable with uncertainty.
3. Not-invented-here syndrome: Feeling that change is coming from another area and not applied to them.
4. Breaking routines: People are used to what is familiar, so when disrupted, they don’t work well in change situations.
5. Incongruent team dynamics: Team norms may be opposed to the change proposed.
6. Incongruent organizational systems and structures: If changes in organizational systems do not line up, people are less comfortable with change because they might not be aware of what is expected.

Steps to Induce Change

1. Urgency: A need to remind employees about competitors.
2. Customer-driven change: By engaging customers, employees realize the need for change.
3. Creating an urgency without external forces: Foreseeing issues and problems before they happen.
4. Communication: Opens the channels to understand why change is needed and demonstrates the possibilities of change.
5. Learning: Important as people need to learn new processes.
6. Employee involvement: The employees need to have a sense of being a part of the change.
7. Stress management: There might be anxiety, so how are you managing this?
8. Negotiations: There might be a need to win people over to change.
9. Coercion: Punishment is a last resort but not recommended.

Ways to Manage Organizational Change

• Action approach: An approach in which the action researcher and a client collaborate in the diagnosis of the problem and in the development of a solution based on the diagnosis.
• Start with a small group: Instead of a large kickoff that tells the direction, start with a small group—they are ambassadors to change. Empower this small group, and they will be influential.
• Identify a keystone change: Identify what needs to be changed—a grievance or problem for employees or customers that needs to be addressed—then tackle that. Start with one area first.
• Network the movement: Gain support of key stakeholders to the change. Woo them, don’t coerce them.
• Surviving the victory: Don’t just settle on immediate goal accomplishment.

Appreciative Inquiry Principle

The appreciative inquiry principle embraces the positive organizational behavior philosophy by focusing participants on the positive and possible.

Five principles:

1. Positive principle: Look at things through a possibility eye.
2. Constructionist principle: How we perceive and understand the change process—the language we use.
3. Simultaneity principle: Inquiry and change are simultaneous and not sequential.
4. Poetic principle: How do you describe the organization and your understanding/comprehension of it?
5. Anticipatory principle: People are motivated and guided by the vision they can see and believe in.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture consists of the shared values and assumptions within an organization. Shared assumptions are non-conscious, taken-for-granted perceptions or beliefs that have worked so well in the past that they are considered the correct way to think and act toward problems and opportunities.

Values are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations.

Elements of Organizational Culture

• Espoused values: What corporate leaders hope will become corporate culture—a positive corporate image—sense.
• Enacted values: When values guide and influence decisions and behaviors—the values are put into practice—actions.

Visible elements:

• Artifacts are the observable symbols and signs of an organization’s culture. Four broad categories of artifacts include organizational stories and legends, rituals and ceremonies, language, and physical structures and symbols.

Invisible elements:

• Shared values/assumptions include conscious beliefs, good or bad.

Why Culture Matters

• The assumptions and beliefs of employees drive behavior.
• The collective behavior of employees determines results.
• The results measure performance and indicate if strategic business objectives have been achieved.

Organizational culture has three main functions:

1. It is a form of social control.
2. It is the “social glue” that bonds people together.
3. It is a way to help employees make sense of the workplace.

Companies with strong cultures generally perform better than those with weak cultures, but only when the cultural content is compatible with the organization’s environment. Also, the culture should not be so strong that it drives out dissenting values, which may form emerging values for the future.

Issues with Culture

• Fitting in Too Well—Corporate “Cults.”
• Not Fitting In—The Coercive Side of Culture.

Types of Cultures

• Strong Cultures: Create pressures for conformity. Exist where there is a longstanding culture and widely and deeply held cultural values.
• Subcultures: Create pressures and opportunities for change. May enhance or oppose dominant cultural values.
• Adaptive Cultures: Focus on the external environment, organizational processes, continuous improvement, employee responsibility, proactive and speedy actions.

Changing and Strengthening Culture

1. An organization’s culture begins with its founders and leaders because they use personal values to transform the organization.
2. The founder’s activities are later retold as organizational stories.
3. Companies also introduce artifacts as mechanisms to maintain or change the culture. A related strategy is to introduce rewards and recognition practices that are consistent with the desired cultural values.
4. A fourth method to change and strengthen an organization’s culture is to support workforce stability and communication. Stability is necessary because culture exists in employees. Communication activities improve the sharing of the culture.
5. Finally, companies strengthen and change their culture by attracting and selecting applicants with personal values that fit the company’s culture, by encouraging those with misaligned values to leave the company.

Kotter’s 8 Steps of Change

1. Increase urgency.
2. Build guiding teams.
3. Get the vision right.
4. Communicate for buy-in.
5. Enable action.
6. Create short-term wins.
7. Don’t let up.
8. Make it stick.

Cultural Clashes During Mergers

How to solve cultural clashes during mergers? This problem can be minimized by performing a bicultural audit to diagnose the compatibility of the organizational cultures.

The four main strategies for merging different corporate cultures are assimilation (willingly accept), deculturation (remove), integration (combine), and separation (distinct).