Organizational Behavior – Mid Term

ASSIGNMENT campaign COVER Module name Class 790 organizational Behavior Assignment title Midterm scrutiny Assignment deadline November 12th 2012 in force(p) number of haggling used 1471 T open of Contents Question 1 reason Human Behavior is critical to organizations address the benefits of self evaluation/self assessment as it relates to leadership directly . 3 Question 2 Prejudice push aside be hurtful and annihilating discuss how you end personally reduce impairment in your work level please provide an vertical example . . 5 References and Bibliography 6 Question 1 Understanding Human Behavior is critical to organizations discuss the benefits of self evaluation/self assessment as it relates to leaders todayIn todays ever changing environs, organizations regard to continuously adapt and transform, not only in order to succeed but even unless to survive. While it takes a capable manager to expeditiously run a business in steady-state, it takes a leader to successfully drive an organization by means of change (Kotter in Robbins and Judge, 2009 385). Dealing with technology, economic and regulation changes isnt juvenile for organizations. The speed of change has even substantially increased in the last hardly a(prenominal) decades as has the disruptive nature of these changes.Leaders today ar faced with challenges such as globalization and flashgun communication that were not present until lately. The words and actions of leaders ar broadcasted across the globe within seconds and be heard and seen by individuals who will perceive and furnish them through the filter of their induce values, assumptions, beliefs and expectations. In this intensify purlieu, in effect(p) leaders need to be able to swiftly read trends and anticipate change, adapt to raw situations, fine-tune their actions and continuously inspire former(a)s towards the pursuit of a compelling vision.In order to do so, they need to be perceptive of t he environment around them and detect when discrepancies amidst their assumptions and reality arise (Clawson, 2001 14). An example of business loser due to the mismatch between leaders assumptions and environmental reality is Polaroid. When in 1977 Polaroid launched its instant-video product Polavision (an mod instant movie camera that used an linear process to generate color), it experienced the first of several(prenominal) product failures that eventually forced the company into bankruptcy.The fault that Polaroids Leader Edwin H. Land made was to conduct that the commercialise-follows-technology approach that had been successful for the previous 40 years was unchangeably valid (Lefler, 2010), despite the skepticism express by many within the company. Simpler and cheaper videocassette based alternatives were released at the same time by Kodak and other competitors. These non-instant products responded to markets trends break away than Polaroids ground breaking instant-vid eo solution, condemning Polavision to irrelevancy and Polaroid to massive losses (Giambarba, 1977).I think Polavision is the story of a self sentience lacking leader, failing to aim his blind spots and driving the organization to failure. In my opinion Mr. Land failed to question his assumption in a changing marketplace and to openly pick up to others, consequently ignoring precious feedback. Had Mr. Land listened to the concerns expressed by others around him, including Polaroids president Bill McCune, things could kick in possibly gone differently. self-importance evaluation is what allows individuals to give away those blind spots and weaknesses and to put measures in place to compensate them (Musselwhite, C. 2007). Through self evaluation, self conscious(predicate)ness is achieved. The benefits of self evaluation and self aw beness for a leader in todays organizations atomic number 18 signifi fagt. By understanding your strengths, causal agencys commode be centre on t hem, hence developing a great potential difference for success (Roberts at all, 2005 1). By recognizing your weaknesses you are in a better position to brook them and deal with them effectively. In the case of Polavision, Mr Lands product and technology strengths were overshadowed by his marketing weakness. For his leadership to be effective, Mr.Land should have commissioned a market research to validate his assumption that the public was stool and willing to consume the product he was developing. Self awareness is the basis of self management and affectionate awareness (Goleman, 2000 80). The ability to read and manage your emotions, reactions and feelings, helps beholding yourself and the world under a different light. This in turns enables you to shift your point of view and identify opportunities and solutions that were other impossible to imagine (Covey, 1989 86). In the case of Polaroid a more socially aware Mr.Land would have set the input of the Polavision skeptics and maybe redirected his creativity towards developing a product more in line with flow market trends. Moreover, acknowledging your limits and not hiding them induces verify. You are perceive as valet de chambre and people relate to you better. When trusted, you let a more effective leader as people feel safe when they follow your direction. Your air remains consistent in different situations and the capture of the environment on your actions is weakened. You develop charisma. You become trusty (George, B. et all, 2007 7).Self evaluation implies asking for feedback and actively listening to what you hear. As you learn from asking questions, people around you as well feel more comfortable doing so. This ignites a utter(a) learning circle that drives personal emersion. The biggest asset of organizations is their human capital. An engaged, prompt and virtuous human capital is the locomotive behind organizations success. In particular, by developing an environment where it is OK to ask questions, to challenge status-quo, to try new things and to make mistakes, aim forces are unleashed (Musselwhite, C. , 2007).Conclusion Self military rating develops self awareness. Self awareness promotes personal growth and enables behaviors that are associated with magnetised leadership. Charisma is what inspires others to follow the leader. They trust her, share her vision and feel empowered and motivated to work towards a common goal. Charisma is a crucial element of effective leadership, but it is lots not sufficient to drive organizations, particularly outsize ones, to sustainable success (Nadler and Tushman, 1990 85). Self awareness positive through self evaluation, allows a leader to similarly understand and address this.By recognizing her limits, a self aware leader will develop an organizational grammatical construction that complements her strengths and, through alignment, effectively works towards the set vision. The virtually(prenominal) promine nt benefits of self assessment for leaders today in my opinion are therefore the enablement of charismatic and institutional leadership, both of which are necessary to effectively guide an organization. Question 2 Prejudice can be hurtful and destructive discuss how you can personally reduce prejudice in your oeuvre please provide an examplePrejudice (prior judgment1) implies forming an opinion about the genius traits, expected behavior, skills and capability of a person, without that opinion organism backed by empirical evidence. These pre-formed opinions are very much very strong, deriving from values and beliefs that are profoundly embedded in our psyche. As such they are hard to remove. We may even unconsciously abjure evidence negating the pre-judgment in a self affirming effort to confirm our assumptions. The end result is a belittled ability to appreciate the full range of qualities and the potential of the impacted individual.Prejudice and the corresponding discrimin atory behavior, including institutional prejudice, are major issues for organizations today. Increasing cultural diversity in the workforce and the global reach of markets require organizations to actively strive for integration rather than assimilation or differentiation (Thomas & Ely, 1996 1). In my opinion, the onus of promoting an effort in that direction lies mostly on managers. As a manager I have a deterrent example and professional duty to address prejudice in my organization and I have taken special(prenominal) steps in that sense.I started with doing introspection to identify my own prejudices. I focused on my upbringing who were the most influential figures in my childhood? What messaging did I receive from them and from the environment around me? What stereotypes derived from this? Being of white, Catholic and Italian origin, I could immediately identify how anything orthogonal of that archetype, was subject to some degree of prejudice, even if involuntarily. The good news is that Prejudice is externally sourced and since it s learned, it can be unlearned (Clawson, J.G. & Smith, B. , 1990 5-6). I then realise that most likely everyone in my work environment have similar preconceptions. For example, some people reprimand to me with the typical Italian-American mafia accent from The triplexs2 probably view it is hilarious. It doesnt bother me, but I can definitely see how it could be bothersome to other Italians. I made treasure of these realizations and determined that these are ignorance-based preconceptions that can be resolved by increase inter-cultural knowledge.I therefore resolved to take steps to supercharge people from different backgrounds and cultures to interact with each other. For example, recently I included two international squad members (Bryan the reporting manager who is Chinese and Manish the systems analyst who is Indian) in a 4 person project police squad based in the US Midwest, dealing with the integration of system s and processes from our Companys latest acquisition. I personally facilitated the first few meetings and encouraged open interest by listening to and publicly valuing everyones contribution.I then assigned tasks in a way that required interaction and cooperation. The effort paid off and the aggroup succeeded. The system and process integration was completed in record time, with wide consensus and to the smallest details. References and Bibliography Books Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior. 13th Edition. clean Jersey Pearson Prentice Hall. Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. USA Free Press. Internet Resources Lefler, P. (2010). Polavision Polaroids disruptive innovation failure. Webpage operable from http//www. spruancegroup. com/blog/bid/32860/Polavision-Polaroid-s-disruptive-innovation-failure Accessed on Wednesday, November seventh 2012. Giambarba, P. (1977). Webpage Available from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Polavision Accessed on Wednesday, November 7th 2012. Musselwhite, C. (2007). Self Awareness and the Effective Leader. Webpage Available from http//www. inc. com/resources/leadership/articles/20071001/musselwhite. html Accessed on Wednesday, November 7th 2012. The Online Etymology lexicon, word search prejudice. WebpageAvailable from http//www. etymonline. com/index. php? term=prejudice Accessed on Thursday, November 8th 2012. Wikipedia, word search the sopranos. Webpage Available from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Sopranos Accessed on Friday, November 9th 2012. Journal Articles and Written Course Material Roberts, L. M. , Spreitzer, G. , Dutton, J. , Quinn, R. , Heaphy, E. , and Barker, B. (2005), How to looseness to Your Strenghts, Harvard Business Review, January 2005. Goleman, D, (2000), Leadership that gets results, Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000. Clawson, J. G. 2001) UVA-OB-0652 Leadership and Intelligence, Charlottesville University of Virginia Darden civilize Foundatio n. George, B. , Sims, P. , McLean, A. N. , and Mayer, D. (2007), Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, Harvard Business Review, February 2007. Nadler, D. A. , Tushman, M. L. , (1990) CMR-024 Beyond the attractive Leader Leadership and Organizational Change, California instruction Review, Harvard Business give instruction Publishing. Clawson, J. G. & Smith, B. (1990) UVA-OB-0381 Prejudice in Organizations, Charlottesville University of Virginia Darden School Foundation. Thomas, D. A. Ely, R. J. (1996), Making Differences Matter, Harvard Business Review, September-October 1996. 1 See the Online Etymology Dictionary (http//www. etymonline. com/index. php? term=prejudice) 2 From Wikipedia (http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Sopranos) The Sopranos is an American television drama created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the contrary requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads.