Simulating Organizational Change at Globaltech - Essay Example

?Globaltech Introduction Organizations are susceptible to their external environmental factors that are dynamic and in most cases dictate organizational change for sustainability and competitiveness. This means that organizations must understand their surroundings to identify needs for change, necessary changes and strategies for achieving desirable changes. Simulating a change process and engaging in the simulation is one approach to understanding the dynamic business environment towards leadership and managerial competence for successful initiation and implementation of organizational change. I, in this paper and based on a group work on simulating organizational change, report on my gained knowledge in change simulation in relation to leading and managing organizational change, and my possible changes to the project and rationale for the changes if I were to do the project again. Gained knowledge in the change simulation in relation to leading or managing organizational change My greatest learning in the simulation is the concept of diversity and its management towards a successful change implementation. The simulation model developed my insight on the fact that organizational set ups have diversified people, in personality and orientation, a factor that is critical to a change process and can undermine successful implementation of a proposed change. The concept of diversity emanates from the model’s different factors such as working with groups, interacting with people in a discursive forum, appointment of a core team to the desired change, stakeholder mapping and rewarding of the organization’s members for achievements in a change process. These factors’, however, require a psychological consideration that in turn recognizes the concept of diversity and its management for a successful change process. Diversity in an organization is majorly attributed to cultural orientations that form the core basis of differences between people. Such differences then manifest in a group’s strengths, weaknesses, and conflicts (Aswathappa 231-233). The simulation helped me to understand possible barrier to communication in a change process because diversified personnel in a change process are likely to have different approaches to communication. A good example is cross-cultural communication difference between people from western culture and people from other cultures. While people with western cultural orientation prefer a direct approach to communication that is shallow and precise, other cultures apply indirect communication that is explorative and ensures detailed explanation of points in communication. This difference is significant to change management because of possible conflict among members of different cultures. Members of the western culture may perceive time wastage in other cultures’ explorative approach to communication while people from the other cultures may fail to understand concepts from the western culture’s precise approach to communication. Another essential to the concept of diversity in communication is people’s accent that is greatly affected by culture and people’s environments. Differences in accent have direct impacts on meaning of words and phrases across cultures and may lead to misunderstanding of motives, objectives, and visions in a change process. Two reasons accounts for this. A recipient in a communication process may confuse words and end up with a different meaning or the recipient may completely fail to understand conveyed meaning for necessary action or reaction. Elements of the change simulation therefore helped me to understand the role of communication in a change process and possible consequences of communication barriers (Brett, Behfar and Kern 85- 88). My developed knowledge in diversity and its management also include conflict and conflict management among people who are involved in change processes. Conflicts emerge at different level, from different perspective and are a common element of a diversified population such as members of an organization that may be from different cultures and with different personalities. Misunderstandings from communication because of difference in approach to communication and accent as well as personal reactions to other people’s orientations are likely to cause conflicts during change processes. Blames on effects of communication barriers are also likely to generate conflict among involved personnel in a change process. These factors and the need for cohesion towards realizing the simulation model’s elements of organizational change further enlightened me on the need for effective conflict management during change processes. I also noted significance of initiatives towards awareness and appreciation of diversity to ensuring that every stakeholder in a change process appreciate and understand other involved parties in order to avoid possible conflicts and misunderstandings. The simulation model also helped me to identify importance of effective leadership and management potentials that can ensure identification of problems towards change, develop visions for realizing desired changes, empower, influence people towards change objectives, and control a change process (Aswathappa 231-233). Things that I would do differently Given another opportunity to do the project, I would change the group’s leadership approach, develop strategies for resolving conflict that may arise within the group and promote social awareness and intelligence among members of the project group. I would change the group’s leadership approach to a rotational leadership in which all members are given an opportunity to lead the group at some time. My new approach to conflict resolution and management would involve a small group of individuals who would be tasked to identify possible tensions within the group and mediate between involved parties to conflicts. The conflict and resolution team would also be responsible for developing activities that can bond members of the group. I would however promote awareness and intelligence over differences among group members through introducing discursive forums where members can learn about one another, their strengths, weaknesses, and social values. Rationale for my different approach I would initiate these changes because of their potential to ensure unity in a group towards a desired objective and to empower members in their future scope of work that involves leadership and management. Rotational leadership, for instance, has the ability to explore diversified leadership approaches besides offering an orientation basis to the group members into their future leadership roles. It also has the ability to minimize biased leadership in the group’s project. Developing a conflict management and resolution team within the group will reduce possible conflicts due to diversity and minimize impacts of emerging conflicts on the group’s project. I would promote social awareness and intelligence because of its ability help members of a group with diverse characteristics to understand and overcome their differences towards a common objective. Conclusion The project has therefore been significant and developed my knowledge on diversified aspects of change management such as diversity in an organization, its potential effects on organizational change, and its management. Given another opportunity to do the group project, I would ensure a united group by improving on leadership, diversity awareness and intelligence, and conflict management. Works cited Aswathappa, K. International business. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2010. Print. Brett, Jeanne, Behfar, Kristin, and Kern, Mary. “Managing multicultural teams.” Harvard Business Review (2006): 84- 91. Print. Read More