Leadership & Management Theory & Practice PDF

Chapter 4 The informal organisation KEY CONCEPTS Are you able to diagnose Do you know how to your organisation’s culture, recognise and interpret the subcultures and norms, webs of human and explain why they are relationships...

Chapter 4 The informal organisation KEY CONCEPTS Are you able to diagnose Do you know how to your organisation’s culture, recognise and interpret the subcultures and norms, webs of human and explain why they are relationships in an critical to your success, organisation, and how they and the success of your influence each other? organisation and your team? Can you interpret and influence the effectiveness of the relationships inside your organisation and work team? UNCOVERING THE RELATIONSHIPS Human networks include: the career advice network – for career guidance the expert network – for advice and expertise the innovation network – to talk through ideas the learning network – to improve existing processes the social network – for out-of-work time together the work network – day-to-day assignment contacts.  Systematic chaos Systems theory – organisations are systems with: output shared proces s and inputs feedba ses outco ck mes  Systematic chaos Chaos theory, an extension of systems theory, concentrates on unpredictable, complex systems and offers helpful information about organisational systems. Organisations cannot be controlled by rules and procedures. Systems are always changing. Small, insignificant actions can have large, unpredictable consequences. Too much control kills creativity, innovation and productivity. You cannot predict the behaviour of a system from the behaviour of its parts, because the whole is more than the sum of its parts.  DIAGNOSING ORGANISATION CULTURE Organisation culture Values influences an organisation’s ability to recruit, retain, engage and motivate employees. Beliefs Understandings Organisation Watch the video: 3-6-1 al culture Google's organisational culture https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=f_R3XG7 s2hw Attitudes Behaviours The constituents of culture  Four organisation cultures Organisation cultures may be described in many ways such as: competitive creative innovative and nimble friendly and hierarchical informal task- and goal-oriented. But there are four underpinning components of culture.  Four organisation cultures Person cultures These are rare types of cultures that occur when non-management employees are highly valued for their particular professional skills, such as in law or architectural firms; formal reporting lines take second place to informal power. Power cultures Small, entrepreneurial companies typically have power cultures, although other types of organisations have power cultures, too. One individual or a small group dominates, controlling the organisation through power. This can be fine in start-up companies, but when an enterprise doesn’t move on to another culture when the time comes, the organisation is likely to stagnate.  Four organisation cultures Role cultures Often found in functional organisations and the public sector, role cultures can be efficient in mature organisations, their main drawback being the ‘silo mentality’ that usually arises, where each function is a fiefdom in itself, leading to slow and inefficient work flows, a proliferation of rules and other elements of traditional bureaucracies, where customer needs trail in the wake of ‘turf wars’. "Silo mentality" refers to a situation in an organization where different departments, teams, or units operate in isolation from each other. Task cultures Often found in matrix organisations where the completion of a project or process takes precedence, we see sharing ideas, internal flexibility and mobility of employees in task cultures.  Subcultures Which are What Which are the least and functions do their least most they and most knowledgeab perform? influential? le? Get to know the subgroups that exist in your organisation. By and large, the CEO and senior managers, through their behaviours and actions, set an organisation’s overall culture.  Norms A "norm" refers to an accepted standard of behavior or a set of unwritten rules that guide how members of the organization are expected to act and interact with each other. A team’s accepted behaviour patterns become established habits, or ‘norms’.  Build a strong team culture and ‘norms’ Generate pride Make it clear Be positive. in the what you organisation. stand for. Make your team’s Pay attention Walk your talk. purpose and to details. goals clear to everyone.  Ethics Ethics refers to the set of moral principles and standards that guide the behavior and decision-making of individuals within the organization. When an organisation’s culture accepts shady practices, employees see their own behaviour through the organisation’s cultural lens and their shady behaviour looks okay, even when it isn’t. When an organisation’s culture sets and upholds clear and ethical guidelines, employees know unmistakably what’s expected of them and see their own behaviour through that cultural lens.  WORKING WITH GROUP DYNAMICS A team’s dynamics shape how its members go about doing the team’s work, both together and individually. A team’s dynamics is another key determinant of an organisation’s success.  Cohesion Cohesion is the degree of unity, togetherness, and collaborative spirit within a group or organization. It helps team members to develop a sense of team identity and pride, along with a high-performance culture and norms. But beware of developing teams that are too homogeneous (non- diverse) rather than heterogeneous (diverse), as this can lead to groupthink.  Communication patterns Channels of Tone of Body communicat voice language ion Communication patterns influence a team’s efficiency, productivity and morale. Watch the video: Group dynamic The Office https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCRgdbReW7Q  Decision-making How are decisions within a group made – by consensus, one person or a small number of dominant few? The more you need your team to participate in and support decisions that affect them and the team’s operations, the more important it is to ensure that everyone in the team understands and follows effective decision-making procedures.  Roles Everyone wants to have a role in a group. People take on roles that meet their own needs. Some roles can be either functional or dysfunctional, depending on how they are handled. Strengthen the way your team operates by developing an awareness of the roles people play and the effects their roles have on the team’s task and process. Informal leaders are important in establishing and maintaining group norms and team dynamics, so it is important to ensure that they are working with you and not against you.  Participation Knowing who are the high and the low participators in your team’s activities and work gives you clues to the team’s priorities and what it values.  Power and influence Position power comes from your official place in the organisation structure and the resources you officially control. Three of the six sources of power are based on position power, or formal authority: legitimate power – a person’s right to issue orders and instructions coercive power – based on fear reward power – a person’s ability to distribute something of value, such as overtime, interesting work assignments, pay increases, positive performance appraisals or promotion.  Power and influence The other three sources of power are based on personal power, and this you must earn: expert power – specialist skills and knowledge proximity power – access to people and resources referent power – charismatic power, rapport and trust. Attributes such as honesty, integrity, self-respect and respect for others, strength of personal vision and values and trustworthiness are particularly important in building personal power – the more important and reliable power base of today’s leader-managers.  Power and influence Four ways to build your influence: 1. Encourage people to make public commitments, because public commitments are more durable than private commitments. 2. Establish your expertise, because people defer to experts. 3. Find common interests with colleagues and team members, learn what people are good at and praise liberally, because people who feel liked and understood are more open to persuasion and influence. 4. Grant favours or give small gifts to establish an emotional debt.  Work climate Groups working in a supportive, relaxed atmosphere generally find it easy and enjoyable to complete their tasks and achieve their goals. Signs of a positive work climate include team members: expressing themselves and sharing their feelings supporting each other contributing to the group’s goals exhibiting a sense of enjoyment at work.  Influences on group dynamics Group dynamics are influenced by five groups of factors: 1. What’s happening in the surrounding environment 2. What’s happening within the group itself 3. By each group member’s skills and personalities 4. By the team’s job or task 5. By the leader-manager.  Influences on group dynamics The group as a whole Team size is important. A group of five to 15 people works better together and enjoys the experience more than people in larger teams. The extent to which team members have similar backgrounds, education, experiences and training is called the team’s homogeneity and affects the team’s dynamics. A homogenous team often has difficulty adapting to change and being creative. Strong teams are heterogeneous, or diverse, in their approaches and ways of thinking. In the right circumstances culture diversity leads to insight, continuous improvements, creativity and strength.  Influences on group dynamics Individual group members What individual team members are able and willing to contribute is determined by all the traits that make people unique, including their: abilities attitudes emotional intelligence (EI) experience personality role perceptions skills values.  Influences on group dynamics The job Three groups of factors concerning the job affect a team’s dynamics by encouraging or limiting its members’ freedom to make decisions and the amount of interaction that is possible between them: 1. job design and technology 2. the physical layout of the department and individual workstations 3. the type of work involved.  Influences on group dynamics The leader-manager Employees take their cue from their leader-manager. The leader manager establishes the working climate for the team. A leader needs to ‘paint the picture’ and show the way to their team, otherwise a team will look to its informal leader for its cues and then its success is more up to chance.  REVIEWING THE KEY CONCEPTS Are you able to diagnose Do you know how to your organisation’s culture, recognise and interpret the subcultures and norms, webs of human and explain why they are relationships in an critical to your success, organisation, and how they and the success of your influence each other? organisation and your team? Can you interpret and influence the effectiveness of the relationships inside your organisation and work team?