Author: SaraAbbas

HR

Personally Credible

CIPD 3

Personally Credible as identified by the CIPD (2016) is the behavior of being a reliable person with adequate amount of credible sources & information that have high value in delivery with making use of past or current experience and expertise, which most importantly must be delivered with high integrity and objectivity.

 

I have built this behavior in CULC during my work with groups when firstly meeting deadlines, being highly committed to the given tasks, accept & handle all related responsibilities, support decisions, and most importantly offer meaningful and rational advice when asked for.

 

According to the CIPD, I must demonstrate this behavior in my future role as an HR practitioner as i will be likely to lead people that work with me. Therefore, i must be aware on the techniques of giving sensible feedback to my team to increase their development, and be able to coach them to increase their awareness of their role’s objectives and requirements.

I have attended a training workshop by September intake students about feedback, which i have learnt the Sandwich Technique in. Afterwards, i have learnt to make all my feedback to others using this technique where you must firstly say the good aspects, then mention the bad that need to be improved, and later again with the good to conclude with positive emotions.
In addition to that, I had past experience working in a family owned business in Bahrain, and i was in a position that all employees came to seek advice from me about how to improve in their jobs.  Admitting my slight experience in the food & bakery business, i have managed to attend 8 workshops in a year to be able to meet with the required level of understanding to be able to benefit the employees when they approach me for help.

 

Engaging in various group activities in CULC especially in Leadership module in term 2, i demonstrated this behavior while being a group leader that is responsible of creating the action plan for our group and making sure everyone can follow after personally reading the required material to be able to participate in class and engage with group discussions.  Moreover, in term 3 the chance of being a mentor to my mentee Awais from Term 2; i managed to share my expertise & experience with him to further develop his understanding to module requirements to be able to score high grades in his coming submissions; which he found very useful and helpful.

The most important trait I need to develop to become a better personally credible person, is the ability to admit all self skill or performance gaps and work on improving them, and built as many academic & practical experience as possible.  Only then I believe that I would be able to be a good search engine for who ever is in need for my advice.

REFERENCES

Role Model

CIPD 2

According to CIPD definition (2016) Role model is a person that motivates & inspires others to copy their behaviors and set an example to follow either now or in future. My responsibility as a role model began in my family, being the eldest between to other sisters. It is always important to be a good role model because the younger siblings look up to me all the time.

However, in CULC I thought it would be different hence I was the only student in my class that came from a different educational background ‘Accounting & Finance’ therefore, I insisted to be the role model in term 2 Finance module hence I came from a finance background and all my classmates where seeking for my advice and wanted to make use of my knowledge. I enjoyed the experience by participating and encourage them to engage in seminar group activities to emphasize the fun factors in analyzing numbers and financial statements’ since everyone found it the least interesting subject.

In term 3 Employee engagement module, i have learnt that leadership & integrity are two of the four employee engagement enablers. Therefore, i personally find a link between being a role model in taking leadership because all leaders are supposed to be role models to their followers. In addition to that, the second enabler ‘Integrity’ i can also link it to role model’s key traits, in which i believe that all role models must have integrity in their values and actions. For example, in future when i become an HR professional i would like to be a person that my employees look up for example if i ask them to be punctual i must attend on time myself first (Clake, 2010).

 

To further develop this behavior, i would like to set certain values to my self first, and understand my future organizations values, and be able to communicate them through my behavior not only my orders to my team in the workplace. For example, i can set clear goals and be very transparent with my team, identify my strengths and share them with the employees to motivate them on working to enhance theirs. In addition to that, i would want to take further coaching courses and complete my ILM certificate to be able to develop my staff through demonstrating good values.

 

As an HR person, my role is not to only communicate values, but also to lead by example, observe their re-action, measure my teams progress, and celebrate and praise their success. Then only being a role model will increase their involvement, happiness, and success (Achor, 2011).

 

 

REFERENCE

 

 

Courage to Challenge

‘How did I demonstrate the behavior as required by the CIPD? What can I do to further develop this behavior as an HR Professional?

CIPD

According to CIPD (2016) as HR practitioners; we are required to have courage to challenge included in our behavior, which indicates high self-esteem, credibility, communication skills, and ability to overcome any expected or non expected difficulties.

 

During my study in CULC, I have developed this behavior in many cases while working with others in our group course works. For instance, in developing people in preparation of our time management training workshop I found it important to meet with my group mates to explain and motivate them to accept the challenge of winning the client by meeting all his requirements.  In addition to that, I had to clarify the importance of winning the challenge by giving them motives to score better grades, win clients expectations, and the most importantly it has to be ethical towards our competitor groups, meet our personal values and group values in means that we must find the right things to do.  I have sat with them and decided on the most appropriate approaches that will make us reach to our objectives and help the trained CULC students to meet our training learning outcomes and benefit from it.

 

I also emphasized on the importance of demonstrating competencies such as confidence in performing, and have analytical strengths, decisiveness, and try to overcome any risks that we might face during the workshop.  Moreover, I was motivated to enhance these capabilities because they will also be useful in my future role as an HR practitioner (CIPD, 2016).

 

The most valuable skill I insisted to emphasize on in our workshop was the importance of being able to negotiate the requirements which  I personally find it a very crucial trait that is necessary to be in any courageous person, and specially when having to negotiate with a superior person in any future job.

 

Moreover, I personally like to use ‘Emotional Intelligence’ as my model of courage; and according to Golemen (1995) that categorized the competencies into personal & social to divide the elements needed on how to manage ourselves and how to handle relationships.  This model showed me that is it important to firstly be self awarded, self regulated, and motivated.  Secondly, to have empathy and built social skills such as influential skills, communication skills, leadership, and most importantly conflict management.  I find these skills highly related to courage to challenge because I firstly need to be able to manage myself better, then make relationships and challenge others.

 

The main traits I have developed during my study in CULC is self efficacy, in which I am highly aware of my capabilities and know exactly when to put them in use especially while working with others in groups (Bandura, 1997).  Moreover, starting my course in January 2016 with new people and new major developed my openness to experience and self evaluation after the end of each term.

 

To further develop this behavior as an HR professional, I need to work on my emotional intelligence, and always keep myself motivated to do & give my best.  In addition to that, after graduating I need to make sure to be open to any challenge that will come and apply to all industries without limiting myself, hence I believe when you limit one limits himself he then limits his skills.

 

REFERENCE

Decisive Thinker

 

This blog will express my ability to grasp information quickly and transfer it to useful knowledge that allows set an informed opinion, and recommendations (CIPD, 2016).

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Having an analytical mind is a gift, it’s a skill needs to evolve, and my Bachelors of Science in accounting & finance has given me a great advantage over my peers to be able to understand & think fast.  As I have been analyzing & interpreting data through –out my course of study.

In my HR profession I also realized that is it necessary to be a decisive thinker to be able to reach to fast solutions at any sudden situation.  Furthermore, my intensive MBA program is training me on developing this skill even further.  Hence, the course duration is very short and the pace of course is fast I must grasp as many information as possible in order to learn the most.

As part of my role as a leader in leadership course, it was essential to practice my decisive thinking to understand the instructions given by our seminar tutor, communicate it clearly to team members, allocate tasks to members based on skills, and start executing in less than 20 minutes time (Graham & Baize, 2011).

Time rationing is a great challenge, and it forces us to practice this skill to excel our performance. In addition to that, in ECS industry challenge assignment was another scenario when our seminar tutor explained that we must video record our interviewees to get better marks.  Therefore, immediately while others found it challenging to find interviewees in short notice, I have managed to make calls by end of session to 3 potential interviewees.  As a result of my fast action my team won the challenge and it was praise for our exceptional work.

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In addition to that, I have been through an online interview learning session prior to Denmark trip; with students from Kolding.  It was another challenge to find the right questions to ask with the pressure of bad communication due to technical issues.

I have demonstrated this skill the most during my studies in presentations, when tutors & audience surprise us with unexpected questions.  After our Industry Challenge presentation was over, one of the audience asked about an Airline incidence that happened two hours prior our presentation.  Thankfully, I have been reading the news before coming to present and I was aware of that incident which I immediately answered without hesitance.

To sum up, i believe to further enhance this skill a person should be knowledgeable about different topics to be able to make a fair judgment without having to waste so much time in research.  I believe when one is comfortable with his capabilities, performance therefore could be exceptional at all times (Gardener et al,  2009).

 

 

References:

CIPD. (2013) Decisive Thinker [online] available from <http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/Decisive%20Thinker.pdf> [25 June 2016]

CIPD. (2014) Make the right career choice [online] available from <http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2010/10/14/make-the-right-career-choice-2010-10.aspx> [25 June 2016]

Gardner, J., Jewler, J.A. and Barefoot (2009) Your College Experience: Strategies for Success. 1stedn. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning

Graham, M. and Baize, K. (2011) Executive Thinking: From Brightness to Brilliance. 1stedn. Bloomington: iUniverse

Skilled Influencer

 

This blog will demonstrate my ability help others show commitment and understand team’s value (CIPD, 2013). In addition to that, it will highlight the skills needed to become an influential figure which I have obtained during my studies at Coventry University “CULC”.

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Leading in a changing world course has helped me develop my leadership skills, as it is one of the key roles for a democratic leader  to be able to influence and negotiate thoughts with followers (Simon, 2000).

During my course I have worked in teams that consist of diverse multi-national members from different backgrounds, & level of knowledge. It was quite challenging to work together hence each member has his/her own style of learning and completing the tasks.

Therefore, to overcome some of the challenges I have used Hofstede’s cultural dimension study that I learnt in EPS course last term to be able to understand a few of our differences; to come up with the optimum solution.

I have learnt that when I am working with Chinese I do not have to worry about their willingness to win. Because according to Hofstede they are high in masculinity. Therefore, when I it was my turn to become a leader in Leadership course on 4 Chinese fashion students; I knew I didn’t have to motivate them to work because they were self driven.

For example, according to the chart, I have worked with a British student that avoids uncertainty, therefore my authority as a team member gave me the right to negotiate my idea and try convincing her with evidence that supports; that my plan could be in our benefit. After this scenario, we won the challenge against other teams, and by influencing my team to do something different changed their mind-set about challenging themselves & others.

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To add to that, using Belbin’s team role theory that was introduced in EPS 1st term; helped us divide the tasks and arrange the teams based on the role each was categorized in. Thereafter, I assured collecting feedback from my team to further develop my skills.  Nevertheless, feedback was satisfactory; as I ensured my team’s enthusiasm and confidence level was high. I praised members after the task was over, and recognized their hard work.

 However, I still need to improve my confidence and communication skills as followers get influenced by the leader’s attitude. To add to that, even though I have received an exceptional mark in Marketing’s debate Term 1; I still believe that I need to increase my skills of debating my opinion by giving valid arguments and negotiating my ideas to others with confidence and clarity (Branden, 1987). Finally, I must work on ensuring that my thoughts are possible to be turned to actions that make a difference, and learn all best practices to reach excellence in performance.

 

References:

CIPD. (2013) Skilled Influencer [online] available from <http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/Skilled%20Influencer.pdf> [25 June 2016]

Branden, N. (1987) How to Raise Your Self-Esteem: The Proven Action-Oriented Approach to Greater Self-respect And Self-confidence. 1stedn. Toronto: Bantam Books

Hofstede, G. (2016) Cultural dimensions: Country comparison [online] available from <https://geert-hofstede.com/united-kingdom.html> [25 June 2016]

Simon, H (2000)‘Public Administration in Today’s World of Organizations and Markets’. Political Science & Politics, 33 (4), 749-756

 

Driven To Deliver

 

This blog will illustrate how my journey as an International Human Resource MBA student at Coventry University London Campus has helped me establish one of CIPD’s behaviors “Driven to deliver” for my future role as an HR practitioner.

DD1

According to CIPD (2016) Driven to Deliver behavior has the characteristics of being determined and have purpose to reach the best optimum result.  Therefore, this attitude is crucial for all organizations; when an employee shows willingness to give what is necessary to achieve the objective “Virtue in 4V Leadership Model”. Moreover, not only having determination but also commitment and the ability to continuously provide best result.

This behavior has been demonstrated throughout my course of study at CULC.  However, it is still necessary need to further enhance strengths and work on my weaknesses that I have stated in my personal development plan. As I believe the first step to change is recognizing weakness (Mullins, 2012).

Gratefully, by the end of term one my results were exceptional and one of the best in class; as I was keen to improve from the first coursework to challenge myself and compete with my peers.  I have managed to continue on the same pace in my first course works in 2nd term which demonstrates how I am driven to deliver.  I again helped my group to score the highest marks in Finance & ECS industry challenge, and it was mainly due to my passion for aviation industry, and my background of finance.

By the end of the 2nd term, I realized that I have managed to enhance the skills I lacked in 1st term; which I mentioned in my EPS personal development plan.  However, I still find it rather challenging to meet false deadlines that I put to myself to help manage my time better (Gallo, 2011).

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I have made a list of skills I need to develop in term one APS subject, and worked upon my timeline to achieve them from the end of term 1 to now.  I have enjoyed the most Leadership course in this term as I learnt new techniques and styles of leadership that I could refresh my memory from ILM course I did two years ago.  I had the chance to become a leader twice during the course where I could practice my leadership skills in guiding my group mates, delegating tasks, motivating them to work and read the study cases (Northup, 2007)..  Moreover, what I enjoyed the most was the diversity of my team members and I could really relate to Hofstede’s cultural dimension where he positioned china of extremely high masculinity which I found it evident when working with them.

I can witness the behavior of driven to deliver in many of my recent scenarios.  My objectives and aims are clear, as I want to learn the most I can from my journey in CULC, and I want to see outstanding results not only during my MBA program but also in my further career (Passmore, 2015).

I will make this success everlasting!

 

 

References

 

Blog 3 – Leadership Styles

L1

 

“Which personal style should managers adopt to ensure success? What is the most effective approach to managing the work of subordinates? These questions have been extensively researched and debated over the last century, and while the general consensus has moved away from ‘command and control’ to management and leadership towards more consultative and participative approaches, there is no single ideal, as the best approach may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics” (CMI 2013).

Similarities & differences between “Leadership & Management” concepts

Both concepts are closely related and similar as they both have designated person of authority, both are innovative, highly knowledgeable, organized, clear communicators, open to change, and excellent in delegating tasks and identifying talents (Locander, et. al, 2007).

However, leadership focuses on change rather than stability, leading people rather than managing work, seeking vision rather than objective, setting direction rather than planning details, facilitating decisions rather than making them (Kotter, 1990).

As per Manferd’s argument (2003) management focuses on the present while leadership looks toward the long-term future, and management is about control while leadership is about delegating the right task to the right people (Weathersby, 1999).

Moreover, management is about using the rationale and asking “What” & “How” with following procedures, in the contrary leadership is about trusting intuition, asking “Why” & “What”, and engages in a vision.

In addition to that, management plans & budgets, organize staff, control problems, and do things right. However, leadership establishes direction, aligns staff, motivation, guide, and do the right things (Schruijer and Vansina, 1999).

LEADERSHIP STYLES

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There are many different leadership styles, one of these are Lewin’s leadership styles. He explored three styles of leadership: autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. Autocratic leadership style means when a leader doesn’t support any contribution of others in making decisions, the followers are only expected to follow the instructions. While democratic leadership style is the way opposite, the democratic leaders always encourage the teams members or subordinates to participate in decision making as well as setting objectives, after considering their opinions and ideas then the leaders take a decision. The third style, laissez-faire is completely decentralized way of leading, as the workers are given high level of freedom and flexibility to make decisions and implement the tasks the way they want (Dessler& Philips, 2008).

 

On the other hand, Daniel Goleman developed a framework consists of six emotional leadership styles.

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The illustration above shows those six leadership styles. The four styles of these considering visionary, democratic, Affiliative and coaching encourage consonance and positive consequences. For example: visionary style is mostly used when a new vision needed, the leader can tell the followers where they need to go or in which direction but giving the freedom of choice of how they want to reach to that direction. Whereas commanding and pacesetting styles cause stress and must be applied in particular situations (Goleman, Boyatzis and MacKee, 2003). For example, commanding or coercive style is needed during crisis.

Goleman and his co-authors suggest that it is always a leader can use a mixture of different leadership styles according to situation. Therefore, the model is very effective because it allows the leader to consider suitable style in different circumstances. However, the model is somehow complicated and very specified, which let the leaders keep changing styles according to the situations, and also it doesn’t necessarily all styles align with leader’s personal characteristics.

Most effective approach to managing the work of subordinates

Nowadays management and leadership are connected and not separated; employees tend to argue if they are assigned a task, and need to be explained the purpose. Traditionally, managers possess subordinates whereas leaders have followers that they mentor and guide. While in modern days employees aspire authorized person to identify their talents and motivate them to achieve best bottom-line as explained by the management guru Peter Drucker (1990) where he clarified that the task is to lead people; and the goal is to enhance productivity by identifying the strength and weaknesses of every individual. The approach to manage the work of subordinates is varied according to how the person of power perceives himself, the circumstances, and need (CMI, 2013). Goleman’s model is a good example of leading people by considering the situations. Furthermore, French and Raven also described different types of powers where leaders can use to influence others.

▪        Legitimate power: Members agree to comply with the rules and directions from leaders

▪        Reward power: Stems from formal authority to allocate resources and rewards

▪        Coercive power: Is based on authority over punishments

▪        Referent power: Derived from the desire of others to please an agent towards whom they have strong feelings

▪        Expert power: This is a source of power if others are dependent on the agent for advise

(Adapted from Yukl 2013:191-195).

Overall, it is difficult to identify which style is more appropriate, as Goleman described it depends on the situations as there should alignment between the style and the eventuality. Or referring to the power of a leader has, and when certain type of power should be used.

CMI 2013, Do I agree or disagree? Why?

Referring to the point of view of CMI (2013), I believe that roles of management and leadership should be separated. Hence every organization need a firm person to respect their judgment and a looser person to go back to seek for help.

It is more appropriate to change leadership style according to the situation. As in certain departments such as the call-center in airline industry it is acceptable to be flexible in scheduling slots, because the main objective is to have adequate staff to serve 24/7 as the case of most airline operations. However, departments such as crew relations; it is highly recommended to have an autocratic leader that can control the efficiency and punctuality of flight crew members due to the fixed flight schedules.

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How would I like to be led?

Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, she is the one who guided wisely her country during many hard times, such as the recession and many other political challenges. It is often said that Merkel is the most powerful woman in the world, and the good thing is that she uses her power towards humanity all over the world not only in her country. I am inspired the most with her modest leadership style which can aligned with Goleman’s leadership styles, leading people and taking into consideration the circumstances, being autocratic when needed and democratic at the right time. Her good leadership styles led Germany to the success, development and growth.

Meanwhile, the impact of bad leadership styles can lead to negative outcomes. For example Jeff Smisek whose well-known of being one of the worst CEOs in the airline industry in general and United Airlines in particular. He led the company to huge losses and high turnover because of many bankruptcy issues and considering self-interest above the company and employees interests.

Management and leadership are better to be combined considering different situations and conditions instead of distinguishing between the two types of managing people to maintain organizational success and growth.

References:

Dessler, G. and Philips, J. (2008) Managing now. 1stedn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A. (2003) The New Leaders:Transforming the Art of Leadership Into the Science of Results. Harvard Business School Press

Yukl, G. (2013) Leadership in Organisations.7thedn. Harlow: Pearson Education

Blog 5 – My Vision of Leadership

vision 1

This blog expresses my vision of leadership with reference to the feedback I received from my classmates in my leadership course and my inspirational leader.

The concept of leadership and management was not clear to me but throughout my course of study I understood that leadership is a skill that can be developed and it is necessary for managers to act as leaders at some cases as mentioned in my second blog. My perception changed as I understood the characteristics of leaders, and learnt to develop my leadership skills accordingly.

According to Yukl (2010) I understood that leadership is the technique you possess to influence others, motivate them and make them agree willingly on what you think is right and should be done. With this definition, is it unarguable that leaders should be excellent communicators, have the ability to encourage, and push the followers of subordinates to the right direction. In my third blog, I identified the different types of leadership styles and understood that I agree with Richard Branson’s democratic leadership style.

“Put your subordinates first, your customers second and your investors third and, in the end, everyone will be happy” Richard Branson’s philosophy.

I find Richard’s philosophy & techniques very inspirational especially looking at the success and his results of the bottom line. I understood that in order to become a democratic leader it is necessary to be very transparent with the followers, encourage sharing and participation, and recognize the effort given by employees to achieve optimum results (Basham, 2012).

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I understood that one, who fails to plan; plans to fail. This statement encourages putting effort to become a great leader. Moreover, to become a true influencer one must have a combination of different qualities such as, ethics and honesty as explained in my first blog. In addition to that, “leading in a changing world” sessions helped me recognize the importance of identifying self qualities and weaknesses that need to be further developed (Buckingham, 2005).

Furthermore, the result of Belbin conducted in class categorized me as a coordinator which shows I have the tendency to contribute and interrelate with others, reliable, and committed that also my peers feedback confirms.

Moreover, the engaging exercise of assembling LEGO parts in class enhanced my communication skills as well as listening skills. Where I had to firstly listen to the tutor’s instructions carefully, then communicate them to the team members followed by assigning each one of them the most appropriate role that aligns with their strengths and weaknesses (Mullins, 2013).

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It was my first opportunity to act as a leader and incorporate what I have learnt in the past weeks sessions. The feedback was more satisfying than I expected especially that my peers have expressed their satisfaction of the results and my approach. However, there are some weaknesses that I should further enhance such as having enough confidence to lead, because as stated in the 4th blog subordinates resistance can be directly linked to the style of leader. As they can sense how determined you are and the level of confidence you have. In addition to that, the most important feedback was that they team liked my positive attitude even though we didn’t win the challenge (Broudy, 2010).

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To conclude, I desire to become a leader that can enjoy the responsibility, highly committed, and can inspire followers to not only succeed but to also enjoy the process with high satisfaction and learning outcomes. I believe that the feedback made me realize that my good qualities are superior over my bad ones however there is always room for further improvements.

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

  • America Advise America. (2016) ‘Howard Schultz Leadership Style’. Sales Training and Management Magazine [online] available from<www.adviseamerica.com/howard-schultz-leadership> [28 March 2016]
  • Aritzeta, A., Swailes, S and Senior, B (2007) Belbin’s Team Role Model: Development, Validity and Application for Team Building. Journal of Management Studies 44 (1), 96
  • Basham, L.M (2012) Transformational Leadership Characteristics necessary for today’s Leaders in Higher Education. Journal of International Education Research 8 (4), 343-346
  • Broudy, J. (2010) Be a Strong Role Model for your Employees. 5(3), 54
  • Buckingham, M. (2005) ‘What great managers do’ Harvard Business Review 83 (3), 70-79
  • Marques, J.F. (2010) Awakened Leaders: Born or made? Leadership and Organisation Development Journal 31 (4), 307-323
  • Mullins, L.J. (2013) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 10th edn. Harlow: Pearson
  • Yukl, G. (2010) Leadership in Organizations. 7th edn. Harlow: Pearson

Blog 4 – Leading Change

 

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“Change is nothing new and a simple fact of life. Some people actively thrive on new challenges and constant change, while others prefer the comfort of the status quo and strongly resist any change. It is all down to the personality of the individual and there is little management can do about resistance to change” (Mullins 2010: 753).

This blog will evaluate Mullins’s (2013) statement that change is nothing new, and that some adapt to change and its challenges, whereas others resist it. This leaves managers in a position where they have to accept employee’s resistance and help them accept it.

Part 1: Arguments for and against the point of view proposed by Mullins.

Change is any amendments made to which the environment should act. And when it becomes necessary it requires an equilibrium point where organizational needs meet with employee adjustment. However, it can often be resisted by employees which will prevent the implementation of the change or delays it.

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According to Kanter (2012) employee’s often resist change mainly due to the lack of confidence in self competencies, and insecurity. Therefore, Mullins (2013) made further studies to the threats associated and reasons behind employee resistance. He concluded that change is necessary for company’s development as the competition is considerably in constant increase. Therefore, company leaders should highly prioritize implementing change; by firstly influencing, guiding, and motivate the team member’s to accept it for the good for the good of the company.

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Change is continuous and can be forced by external factors such as uncertainty in country’s economy, politics, world’s advanced technology, environmental awareness, social science, and legal frameworks. Cunningham (2005) states that if people resist it’s because they feel they will lose, and accept it only when they see results. Therefore, we can argue that Mullin’s statement “there is little management can do about resistance to change” is not true (Mullins 2010: 753).

Resistance could benefit the organization as it forces them to re-study the proposal, enhance communication skills, as well as encourages exchanging ideas and understanding others emotions. Moreover, authors categories resistance to either being logical or emotional.

 

Part 2: It is all down to the personality of the individual and there is little management can do about resistance to change (Mullins 2010: 753).

According to Mullins (2013) leadership style plays a big role in the level of resistance to change by follower’s & subordinates. Therefore, a democratic leader is claimed to have less difficult to convince and work with his followers to implementing the required change mainly due to the sense of belonging to the organization and being part of all organizational related decisions.

Cumming (2014) supports that it is highly important for leaders to establish a healthy environment that encourages sharing, cooperation, and support; to get a well-committed team that will allow all forms of change when introduced.

Organizations have different rituals for managing change, and according to Buckingham (2009) leaders prefer having a solid approach to follow throughout to close the change gap. One of the most famous methods that can be adopted is Kurt Lewin’s 3 phase change model, where a leader can adapt employee’s behavior in adjusting to change.

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At the first stage of unfreezing, leaders at this phase should be transparent to employees about reasons for change by clear explanation of the benefits & disadvantages to organization & individual. After increasing employee awareness, the change can be executed in the second stage. Later, in the refreeze stage, leaders must ensure that the change becomes everlasting and employees are settled to the new standard (Morrison, 2014). However, critics argue that the model is wrong when it gives certainty of the change being permanent as it doesn’t match the changing world we are living in (Cumming et al, 2014).

In the case of UK’s Brexit, the airline industry leaders are furious about UK leaving the EU as they predict a huge crisis as a result of this decision. They expect a significant effect on financial regulations, trade tariffs, and movement rights (Telegraph, 2016). Therefore to maintain high performance, leaders must adapt change to the operations, the rules, the prices, and many others. Therefore, since they main driver for airlines is customer satisfaction to generate profits, employees must accept the change to keep the airline operating and jump fast in all Lewins three phases to maintain in place.

To sum up, the success and failure of implementing change is highly dependent on leaders techniques, and employees level of resistance. Therefore, it is important for leaders to prepare for resistance, and manage it successfully through going with the appropriate steps to minimize it (Ford 2009). Moreover, effective change is also reliant on how well leaders can identify caps and committing to the process of change.

 

REFERENCES

  • Buckingham, M and Seng, J (2009) Making Change Work: Closing the Change Gap. Human Resource Management International Digest 17 (3), 11-15
  • Cumming, S. Bridgman, T and Brown, K.G (2014) Unfreezing Change as Three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s Legacy for Change Management. Human Relations 69 (1), 33-60
  • Cunningham, I. (2005) Influencing People’s Attitude Towards Change. Professional Manager 14 (3) 37
  • Kanter, R. M. (2012) Ten Reasons People Resist Change. Harvard Business Review [online] available from<http://hbr.org/2012/09/ten-reasons-people-resist-change&gt; [25 March 2016]
  • Morrison, M. (2014) Kurt Lewin Change Theory three step Model: Unfreeze, Change, Freeze [online] available from<http://rapidbi.com/kurt-lewin-three-step-change-theory/&gt; [25 March 2016]
  • Mullins, L. J. (2013) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 10th edn. Harlow: Pearson
  • Nwagbara, U (2010) Managing Organisational Change: Leadership, Tesco and Leahy’s Resignation [online] available from<http://www.leadingtoday.org/weleadinlearning/Spring2011/Article%206%20-%20V9N1%20-%2&gt; [25 March 2016
  • Talmachu, I. (2014) Comparative Analysis of Different Models of Organisational Change. Valahian Journal of Economic Studies. 5 (4), 77-86

BLOG 2: MANAGING A DIVERSE TEAM

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“Research has shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders” (Ibarra and Hanson 2011:71)

This blog will explore the ability of leaders to create diverse teams in the airline industry, their ability to manage them and the challenges they face. The blog will also identify how the diverse teams can lead to better results than homogeneous teams.

 

Research, theories and team building models

 

It is somehow impossible to find homogeneous teams in airline industry; usually teams are formed by individuals with different nationalities, experience, and culture. This diversity makes each individual have different perception and might affect the interaction with others of different race, gender, age, personality, background and much more (Adamson, 2012).

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A diverse workforce encourages high values by enforcing respect amongst team members, create competitive edge, and increase work productivity. Therefore, leaders are obliged to create fair and safe environment where all individuals have equal opportunities and challenges (Content, 2015). Collaborative leadership also can help in identifying opportunities and allocate the best talents to reach them for optimum result (Karabell, 2016).

 

Team Development Model

Building the team is the first step can taken no matter if it is diverse or homogeneous team. Tuckman adapted a good team building model which consist of different phases that end up by creating the group as the illustration shows below.

 

 

Belbin’s team roles theory

 

After building the team, it’s always good to give the team members tasks by considering their strengths and weaknesses which help the team to come up with better results. Belbin’s team roles theory is a good example that could help leader shape his team to have more effective result. He suggests that each team should consist of Action oriented roles such as, shaper, implementer, and completer. These roles force the team to improve, put ideas to action, and ensure completion. Moreover, Belbin recommends adding people oriented roles such as. Coordinator, team worker, and resource investigator, to have someone that acts as a chairperson, a member to encourage cooperation, and a member that have an insight for exploring outside opportunities. Finally, he encourages having thought oriented roles such as, a plant, an evaluator, and a specialist. Those are important to present new ideas and approaches, analyze the options, and can provide specialized skills (Belbin, 2015).

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The ability to manage a diverse team the most important skill in airline industry

Diverse teams could be challenging for managers to handle especially in communicating ideas and opinions which might then have a negative impact on the team performance in case of failure (Majlergaard, 2012). However, leaders are encouraged to follow difference team building models to survive in a changing environment.

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions help the leaders to deduce the team members’ personalities referring to their cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the managers can use Hofstede’s research to identify differences and similarities and use when forming the teams.

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(Hofstede, 2016)

The figure clearly identifies the differences between United States and Saudi Arabia. Considering the power distance, United States scores low because the society believes that people are equal, and it is the way opposite in Saudi Arabia. However, Hofstede’s research is been criticized as it considered IBM employees which might not a good measurement in all situations.

To gain a well managed team, leaders must well train the members, help gain balanced communication skills, assure cultural value understanding to gain high innovation, high job satisfaction, and high quality outcomes (De bono, 1970).

Poorly managed team with poor communication and isolated group behavior will lead to high turnover, low productivity, poor solutions, bad job satisfaction, and weak results (Battat 2013).

 

Herb Kelleher (the Con-founder and former CEO of Southwest Airlines)is a good example from airline industry who’s well-known of his leadership style. Focusing on managing diverse teams, he always preferred to surround himself with a diverse as he mentioned in one of his interviews.

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The managers are always recommended to recruit diverse workforce considering all the categorizations of diversity, such as gender, ethnicity as well as people from various generations. Generation X (born 1965-1980) are those who are well positioned in their posts and considered very flexible workers. Generation Y (born 1980-2000) considered very creative and highly knowledgeable in technology. By considering diverse generations in recruiting the company can benefit, as each generation can be specialized in certain type of work, so a mixture of those people will lead the organization to remarkable success and creates very innovative and diverse work environment.

 

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