Ingredients for Success at Maples - Research Paper Example

?Organizational Behavior Ingredients for Success at Maples Albert Reese Submitted to Dr. Tranquilo Ingredients for Success at Maples In the study of organizational behavior, goal setting, motivation, coping with stress, and recognizing nonverbal and cultural barriers to effective communication are some of the important considerations. In this paper, I will be exploring a hypothetical work situation in a company I have researched. I will consider how goal-setting can motivate my performance, and will speculate on workplace stress and my likely reactions to it. I will consider nonverbal and cultural barriers to communication, and will reflect on how I might address this issue. The company I have chosen to research for this assignment is Maples and Calder. Specifically, I am focused on the position of Assistant Manager of Operations at their Cayman Islands site. I have chosen this particular company because it exemplifies the qualities I value in a company. They are a professional international law firm that helps financial, institutional and business clients around the world to safeguard and build their financial and global security by advising them on the laws of the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and British Virgin Islands. I respect a service orientation in business. They recruit and pay attention to retaining top legal and professional talent, requiring that their people demonstrate initiative, responsibility, and help Maples to grow. Along with these business basics, they emphasize being likeable, well-rounded, and respectful of colleagues, clients and themselves. They value quality work but also place great value on their approach to each other. I am impressed by this balance in their recruitment and retention thinking. I think one can learn a lot about a company’s values by careful inspection of their website. My sense of aesthetics was pleased by their clean, minimalist presentation of well-stated information on each page, the lovely tropical colors and creative abstract patterns effectively used, their choice of graphics (the building and smiling, professional people). Their website is very well-organized, obviously by a person or people capable of clear, logical thinking. These two latter points indicate to me that the company attends to balance in all things. Instead of bragging about how rich, ambitious and accomplished they are, they turned the focus onto some intriguing employee profiles. I found this a mature and effective way to give clients insight into company resources and competence, and to hold out a clear recruitment standard, at the same time. They particularly stressed their legal team, of course, but they also included some support staff, showing that they recognize and value both. This, along with a statement of their commitment to the client, and not merely the transaction, indicates Maple’s appreciation of the micro-environment and not only of the macro-environment. The company provides opportunities for continuing education, and they have innovative training programs in place. One of the profiles revealed that Maples had generously sponsored a clerk all the way through law school, and then promoted her to the legal team. They also emphasize the collegiate atmosphere of their company, and how they value innovation. I was left with an impression that they value dynamic inquiry and personal growth, things I also value. Of course, the Cayman Islands provide a tropical paradise backdrop and ocean resort lifestyle for this career opportunity. The Cayman Islands is an international financial and business center, so again I like the balance I see in this living equation. I am under no illusions about how hard I would need to work to retain a position that is obviously a dream job, but I also think that this location would provide both beach time and powerful contacts. Should I ever want to sample a larger world than the Cayman Islands provides, Maples has branches in Dubai, Hong Kong, Dublin, London, and British Virgin Islands. A job description for my targeted position, as Assistant Manager of Operations, might read as follows: The Assistant Manager of Operations is in an Operations leadership role, overseeing facilities management, and reporting directly to the Manager of Operations. The Operations Department includes reception, catering, security, messenger services, maintenance, file registry, stationery and health and safety. The focus of this position is to maintain efficient services that support the smooth functioning and high standards of the company. The Assistant Operations Manager will be responsible for researching and recommending feasibility of solutions to identified or forecasted problems. This position is also responsible for inter-service department communication. The position generally requires over-time and a calm demeanor. Goal-setting could be used to motivate my performance. Because operations management is an area of diverse challenge and requires integration among various services, it would be easy to become overwhelmed and lose sight of effective job performance. Goal-setting is imperative. Research supports a self-regulation model of goal orientation with motivated action (DeShon & Gillespie, Nov 2005). Goals are more effective when they are tied to rewards. Rewards are more effective, as motivators, when they are specific to the worker’s needs. As an Assistant Operations Manager, I will likely have my basic physiological and safety needs met and, given the friendly, collegiate atmosphere, I can assume that my social belonging needs will easily find fulfillment. My esteem needs (still considering Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) will be met by gaining such an attractive position with a top company in a tropical paradise. I am reasoning, therefore, that my rewards should target self-realization, and be tied to off-time. I will locate one or more special spots on the beach (cove or pier for quiet reflection and exquisite sunsets, and a small seafood restaurant for celebrating accomplishments) and one or more special island activities (kite-surfing, fishing, shell-hunting, handicraft shopping for inner stimulation, nature connection, and expanded cultural appreciation) and will use these as rewards for specific goals to be accomplished. To use goal-setting effectively, I will be sure they are specific, measurable, and attainable within a specified time period. I will write them down, as action plans, and will write affirmations about how I am happily working toward and accomplishing these goals. I will post my affirmations in visible places (bathroom mirror, closet door, work desk, computer desktop). When I see them, I will repeat them, mentally or aloud (as appropriate) in order to imprint them into my sub-conscious mind. Before I fall asleep at night, I will close my eyes and mentally rehearse accomplishing my goals. Operations management is a stressful field, especially because it focuses on forecasting and identifying problems that may arise, planning and implementing solutions, and communicating instructions to people of diverse backgrounds who are working in diverse services, sometimes with diverse underlying assumptions. Furthermore, it is a stressful field because of the over-time and week-ends lost to crisis and responsibility. I hope that my supervisor will be a wonderful mentor, with whom I feel naturally in synch, but I cannot count on this, and working with a supervisor with issues or one with a totally different worldview and working style can be stressful also. One of the ways I react to stress is becoming more dramatic in my body language and facial expressions. As Assistant Operations Manager, remaining calm is of primary importance. My dramatic body language can be contagious to all the service area teams with whom I interact, as well as to external department colleagues and even to my supervisor. This could have highly adverse effects on the entire company. Also, in reacting to stress, I have noticed that my breathing moves into a small area in my upper chest, something which results in less oxygen and therefore contaminated thinking. This could potentially have adverse effects on my ability to negotiate crisis resolution optimally. To address the latter reaction, I intend to regularly make use of my yoga instruction DVD and my book on t’ai chi basic yang style. I feel these are two resources I have now, easy to pack in a suitcase, which can be put to good use in helping me to make proper breathing more habitual, and in increasing my tolerance to stress. I also intend to begin right now to practice deeper, slower breathing in response to minor stress, in hopes that this practice will extend itself into more stressful circumstances in which I may lack conscious awareness of my response. Hopefully I will be able to establish a healthier breathing habit. I suspect that practicing yoga and t’ai chi will also help me to calm my dramatic body language, encouraging smoother gestures of more grace. I also can use a creative visualization exercise of imagining myself in water, when I am under stress, so that my movements are slowed down and more restrained. Furthermore, as my dramatic body language can be a non-verbal barrier to effective communication, using these methods to internalize a habit of more modest body language will make me a more effective communicator. The most significant clue that communication barriers might need to be addressed, in this position, is the international nature of the company and its staff, which suggests a possibility of cultural barriers to communication. I must assume that the services my position oversees will employ a number of local people. There may also be staff members who transferred from other offices in Ireland, London, British Virgin Islands, India, and Hong Kong. Fluency in English may vary, as well as rules for courtesy. What is courteous communication in one culture might be offensive in another. Even how much space is kept between two interacting individuals is quite different from one culture to another. Words and phrases may be interpreted quite differently than they were intended. Body language can also be easily misinterpreted. A negative head motion in one culture is affirmative in another. Research has shown that there are differing social psychological and group process outcomes with computer-mediated real-time communication, electronic mail communication, and face-to-face communication, specifically affecting participation, coordination, and decision-making. Findings indicate a depersonalizing effect where there are fewer social influence cues and less non-verbal involvement (Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, Oct 1984). If I notice these outcomes, I will try to improve communication, and assess whether the situation improves. Other research has shown that cultural diversity has a positive influence on decision-making and a negative influence on communication. E-mail, however, was found to be an effective communication technology (Shachaf, March 2008). Findings indicate that e-mail improves language accuracy, mitigates intercultural miscommunication resulting from verbal differences among team members, and eliminates nonverbal differences (Shachaf P. , 2005). I need to be sure I use two-way communication when face-to-face, and that I back up face-to-face communication with e-mail. Applying available research on inter-cultural communication will be a critical aspect of effective performance. Another, I anticipate, is how well I can balance appreciative knowledge of the local culture and idioms while not trying to fit in too much too fast. The Cayman Islands may be highly developed and sophisticated, but it has a culture all its own, and needs to be respected, while being selectively sampled. If I stay for a number of years, I will, no doubt, learn to fit in more fully. Cultural integration is a process and impresses no one when it is artificial. Communication sensitivity, the use of goal setting as motivation, and attending to stress are ingredients in a recipe for success, as Assistant Operations Manager at Maples and Calder. References DeShon, R. P., & Gillespie, J. Z. (Nov 2005). A motivation action theory account of goal orientation. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 90(6) , 1096-1127. Kiesler, S., Siegel, J., & McGuire, T. W. (Oct 1984). Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication. American Psychologist, Vol 39(10) , 1123-1134. Shachaf, P. (2005). Bridging cultural diversity through e-mail. Journal of Global Information Technology Management , 46-60. Shachaf, P. (March 2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study. Information & Management , 131-142. Read More