Critical Organisational Analysis and Sustainability - Coursework Example

COAS: Critical Organisational Analysis and Sustainability Table of Contents 0 Introduction 3 2.0 Critical Assessments of the Major Events 3 2 Group Management and Relationship with Others 3 2.2 Group Leadership 4 2.3 Role Conflict 4 2.4 Quality of Contributions 5 2.5 Presentation and Communication Skills 5 2.6 Skills at Collating Presentation Slides and Final Performance 6 3.0 Individual Perspective in Drawing Published Academic Work 6 3.1 Feedback Sheet 7 4.0 Contribution for the Development in Future 8 5.0 Critical Assessment of the Metaphors Associated with the Group Presentation 8 5.1 Machine 8 5.2 Organism 9 5.3 Brain 10 5.4 Culture 11 5.5 Psychic Prison 13 6.0 Conclusion 14 References 15 1.0 Introduction The assignment is based on my reflective experience about a group presentation concerning organisational culture. The group consisted of six members namely Dana, Zainab, Ali, Rawan, Salwa and Hussnayn. In all conscience, we were not much acquainted with each other, but eventually we have been able to overcome the personal perceptions and have worked together effectively towards the accomplishment of common objectives. Initially, we had faced certain issues while discussing the topic, developing the slides and collating the works of team members, but in the end the presentation was completed successfully. Several meetings have been conducted in order to develop the slides and allocate different tasks. The reflection discusses about my personal experiences during the group presentation tasks. The reflection has been drawn based on proper metaphorical descriptions in order to support the analysis of group presentation. 2.0 Critical Assessments of the Major Events 2.1 Group Management and Relationship with Others The presentation activity had started with a group meeting which ended up quite efficiently. In the first group meeting, we had discussed regarding the presentation subject in order to understand the required activities. However, the first meeting provided unsatisfactory outcome and the key issue identified for such outcome was a lack of management and relationship. A well-managed group can develop a quality learning environment and similarly, a poor managed group can result in the waste of valuable time and effort. In general, in order to make members involve in presentation and apply knowledge, there is a need to clasp team experience. Furthermore, relationship was also found to be a vital issue in our presentation. Good team relationship results in enjoyable work procedure and thus leads to higher efficiency. However, in the first group meeting, I found that everyone was talking simultaneously without giving proper concern to each other’s thoughts, resulting in loss of time and effort. Afterwards, we had come to a decision regarding the key outline of the presentation (University of Oregon, n.d.). 2.2 Group Leadership The second and important issue with respect to the team presentation was group leadership. Any effective small group necessitates a dynamic leader. A leader can encourage other members by way of interaction and motivation. In a small team, a person can appear as the leader or the team can choose a designated leader. My idea of group leadership has broadened when we concentrated on organising different activities for the presentation. Without a leader, it was impossible for our team to achieve its objectives. Hence, we had selected Zainab as the group leader since she possessed the loudest voice. Besides, she also possessed self-confidence while speaking which can be termed as a dimension that made her a competent leader. This in turn facilitated to augment team motivation. During the presentation, the three key fields of leadership comprise handling tasks, leading conversation and simplifying teamwork. Nonetheless, every member of the group was entitled to fulfil these three activities (Cengage Learning, 2005). 2.3 Role Conflict A critical issue faced by the team during preparation of presentation was role conflict. Essentially, role conflict starts due to different human aspirations and due to the stress put on by imposing and inequitable demands. This role conflict can have a negative impact on relationship and therefore on group presentation. In the presentation process, the group leader divided the entire team into six parts having individual tasks. However, two of my team members did not like their role decided by the leader. This difference in opinion generated misunderstanding among the members and the leader (Han, 2011). Hence, in order to deal with the conflict, the leader decided to switch their job role to which they both agreed upon. This role conflict was a key problem we faced in the second group meeting. 2.4 Quality of Contributions In the third meeting, we faced the issue of quality of contributions from the members. The contribution of different thoughts and information is vital for any successful and high performing team. A presentation can only work well when every team member makes quality contribution towards the task. From my perspective, although every team member completed their allocated tasks, but everyone’s tasks were not exactly perfect. There was a requirement for balancing the information on slides of every team member and ensuring that the work was appropriate. It takes around four hours for organising the tasks of every individual (Monash University, n.d.). 2.5 Presentation and Communication Skills After organisation of the slides developed by each group member, it was finally the time for presentation and communication. Every good presentation necessitates representing information clearly. In addition, communication skills are also required in every area of presentation. Thus, in order to make the presentation effective we spent some time on developing communication skills. We started practicing after organising the works of every team members. Although group practice was essential, I also understood the importance of individual practice. Hence, certain amount of time had also been allocated to practice the individual parts of the presentation alone. Apart from communication skill, delivering a stimulating and attractive presentation necessitates considerable preparation and work. The presentation had been prepared by keeping in mind the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members. The parts which are most suited for a particular team member had been allocated accordingly so that they can put their best foot forward (University of Birmingham, 2004). 2.6 Skills at Collating Presentation Slides and Final Performance Collating the presentation slide was the final key issue with respect to the team performance. After developing the slides, there is a need to organise them in a proper manner for competing effectively. Therefore, in the last meeting, every member suggested the way of organising the slides and accordingly agreed for developing a lovely presentation. Among all the meetings, the last meeting was the most successful one with high coalition and high productive outcome. 3.0 Individual Perspective in Drawing Published Academic Work According to my personal opinion, these events occur due to inherent characteristics of group formation. It is unexpected for any new group to perform well in the initial phase. Group formation is a lengthy process and takes time for delivering better performance. Every new group goes through recognisable phases as the members change from being unfamiliar persons to a united team, having common objectives. According to the model of Bruce Tuckman, a team goes through four phases namely forming, storming, norming and performing and each phase brings in certain challenge. Similarly, in my case as well, the team had gone through these phases (Ivanko, 2013). In the first phase, there was a lack of understanding between team members. As a result, group management and relationship issues were raised in the first place. Afterwards, when the team moved to the storming phase, conflicts started within team members, because each member possessed different perspectives on conducting various activities. Hence, it can be observed that role disagreement appeared during the meeting for presentation. However, strong leadership role performed by Zainab facilitated to effectively deal with the role conflict problem during the presentation preparation. Progressively, when the team moved to norming phase, the members began to resolve the differences between them and work together for attaining common objectives. On the other hand, there is a need to consider the strengths and weaknesses of team members, in order to obtain fruitful outcome. Failure to do so in this phase resulted in poor quality of contributions for some team members. Finally, our team reached the performing phase where the members worked towards the accomplishment of common goals. In this phase, we prepared ourselves for presentation and functioned towards enriching the communication skills. The presentation slides prepared by group members had also been organised for final performance (The Higher Education Academy, 2014). 3.1 Feedback Sheet The feedback of reviewers also provided valuable knowledge regarding our performance and areas that we require improvement. It has been observed that the presentation provided by us was quite informative, but lengthier. The descriptions provided by us on various aspects were also quite clear. However, to a certain extent, we ignored theoretical aspects in order to explain the subject. On the other hand, we could also improve the administration of the entire presentation in a more proper way. Our presentation also had poor briefing and no real life examples were given in order to describe the topic. Still, overall, the presentation was quite moderate and subsequently a team effort is required to improve for obtaining productive outcome in the future. 4.0 Contribution for the Development in Future In future, I could contribute more to the development of such presentations by focusing on better management time and by encouraging relationship building. These two aspects I found was most critical for my presentation as well as improving in these areas would provide positive outcome. Furthermore, by delivering effective rehearsal and focusing of prudent communication strategy would also be helpful for future development (University of Birmingham, 2004). 5.0 Critical Assessment of the Metaphors Associated with the Group Presentation Metaphors are regarded as ‘perceptual windows’ which assist to recognise the significance of the surrounded environment. They also help to evaluate our own behaviour along with the organisational behaviour in the particular environment. Hence, metaphorical approach assists in observing an organisation and the members in a basic and comprehensible way (Morgan, 2006). There are several metaphors that I would employ in order to define my experiences in the group presentation exercise. 5.1 Machine Machine metaphor leads the modern organisational environment. It is omnipresent in every organisation where individuals are estimated to function like machine by performing through certain procedures. Furthermore, according to this metaphor, people operate on the basis of regulations and repeat different activities in a mechanical way. Machine metaphor is modelled on leadership form, having positions, consistent guidelines, task specialisations, methodical training along with instructions (Suchman, 2008). In this context, it can be stated that we had employed machine metaphor by assigning a leader who classified the tasks between team members. When viewed as machine metaphor, an organisation also has distinct parts of accurately defined works. Finally, the works conducted by distinct parts come together in order to accomplish the common objectives. Similarly, in our group, the tasks of every team members were organised together in order to develop the presentation (Suchman, 2008). However, one of the key weaknesses of machine metaphor is that this particular metaphor can perform effectively in group environment as well as in the organisation if the tasks are simple to execute, the working environment is stable, the works are repetitive and precise as well as the members act like machines. This metaphor is ineffective in case of changes in the environment. Besides, it also encourages bureaucracy within an organisation as well as in a team. The other weakness of machine metaphor is that it discourages inventiveness and creativeness, thus leads to deskilling of members. This metaphor ignores the human aspect and thus at times results in imperfect outcomes. In reality, every individual has certain sentiments which must be considered in order to prompt best productivity. Nevertheless, machine metaphor has one key advantage, because it helps to place different tasks in order and make the work much simpler and quicker (Suchman, 2008). 5.2 Organism In contrast to machine metaphor, organism observes an organisation as a living entity. According to this metaphor, organisations cannot be considered as a machine and the members should not be regarded as tools to alter with the requirements, rather, an organisation is an organism which grows and changes over time. Similar to organism, organisational members have complex requirements which must be satisfied in order to perform effectively. This metaphor mainly concentrates on social portion of an organisation in order to make different activities meaningful and make people contribute towards their assigned job role (McKenna, 2000). We had also used organism metaphor in our group presentation, by considering the feelings and opinions of every team members. From time to time, we had organised meetings to understand the ideas of team members and to develop a relationship with each other. Such relationship was essential for the accomplishment of the presentation and it assisted the team members to react actively during the presentation tasks (Smircich, 2013). The strength of organism metaphor is that it considers that organisations are open to the outside environment and the organisational members must be structured to adjust to their job environment. This type of organisation is able to cope up with any changes. Similarly, the success of our presentation was also dependent on the adjustment with their tasks (Systems Thinking Canada, n.d.). One major weakness of organism metaphor is that this metaphor can perform effectively in group environment as well as within organisations in uneven circumstances. Likewise, this metaphor is provisional in nature. A key strength of this metaphor is that it is useful in uncertain occurrences within the team environment. Additionally, the other strength of this metaphor is the development of a positive relationship between team remembers which is vital for any presentation (Systems Thinking Canada, n.d.). 5.3 Brain According to brain metaphor, organisations perform alike human brain. There are three dimensions of brain metaphor namely information system, communication and decision making. Brain metaphor was also applied in our team, because it imbibed certain functionalities similar to human brain’s peeresses. The presentation related tasks cannot be completed without information processing. Furthermore, there was considerable communication between team members through meetings. Correspondingly, similar to brain metaphor, the decisions regarding different activities performed by the team members were guided by rationality and information (Garud & Kotha, 1994). The strength of this metaphor is that it contributes towards establishing a learning atmosphere. However, it also entails two key weaknesses, one is conflict amid learning, self-management and authority and the other one is resistance among different beliefs and expectations of the team members (Shurrab, 2013). 5.4 Culture Culture metaphor provides a new way of understanding the relationship between the organisation and the members. Culture can be delineated to incorporate shared principles, opinions, meanings, understandings as well as sense. These cultural aspects can also be used for making sense regarding the experience in the group environment. There are essentially three dimensions of organisational culture namely artefacts, espoused values and beliefs. Artefacts are structures and procedures of an organisation, comprising language, knowledge, dress code, customs and ceremonies among others. The artefacts are easily observable and expressive in relation to the principles and expectations of the organisation. The cultural metaphor also existed in our group task. The espoused values are defined by artefacts which justified the activities of different group members. When the team faced problems regarding any decisions in terms of presentation, the culture metaphor helped to provide solution according to the assumptions of team members. Finally, when the team observed that the assumptions were correct, they emotionally changed into shared beliefs and shared expectations (Hämmal & Vadi, 2003). Belief is another cultural metaphor which is used as a guide to deal with vital circumstances while introducing new members in an organisation. It also determines how to act in a certain manner. Such belief facilitated to determine the activities of my team members along with aiding to shape their activities (Renz, 2009). Finally, assumptions can be determined as the insensible opinions, insights, views and feelings that serve as a vital source of values and activities. These assumptions helped to provide solutions for any conflicts that appeared in the team. Culture metaphor is therefore regarded as the creation of complex group learning that binds together a form of conducts and provides operational constancy to the team members at a deeper level by mutual assumptions. The objective of culture metaphor in my team was to ensure stability through group communication and maintain expected behaviour from team members (Renz, 2009). Similar to other metaphors, culture metaphor also has certain strengths and weaknesses. One of the key strengths of culture metaphor is that it focuses on representational implication of life and determines the manner in which individuals relate with each other. Furthermore, the other strength of culture metaphor is that it concentrates on human side of things and observes an organisation and a team as a shared system. In my team, culture metaphor assisted in understanding the relationship and thereby encouraging the performance of team members. Nevertheless, one key limitation of culture metaphor is that it promotes philosophical manipulation and authoritarian approach in order to influence the team members. This manipulation can weaken the team objectives. Still, applying culture metaphor had provided critical perceptions regarding administrative problems that appeared in the team (Renz, 2009). 5.5 Psychic Prison Psychic prison metaphor states that individuals are imprisoned in certain mentality which does not permit them to consider other possibilities of reality. A mere characteristic of psychic prison is based on the notion that individuals tend to create their own reality, preserved by cognisance or unconscious procedures. According to this metaphor, people are surrounded by their inadequate and imperfect understanding and unless they are able to free themselves from such understanding, they will stay in the dark. In my team, psychic prison metaphor assisted in fostering awareness about possible flaws in allocating different activities. This is owing to the fact that during the presentation, it has been observed that two of my team members debated regarding their tasks and demonstrated unwillingness based upon their individual insights. As a result, it assisted in getting out of the orthodox understandings which usually trap individuals to conduct unsatisfactory work. The key strength of this metaphor is that it stimulated us to become sensible while conducting different tasks, rather than to conduct irrational activities where team members are not comfortable. However, one key weakness of this metaphor is that it focuses only on rational behaviour and overlooks the reality of authority (Scott, n.d.). 6.0 Conclusion In conclusion, it can be stated that the presentation provided me valuable experiences about how to perform in team environment. We faced various issues at different phases of presentation and also effectively managed them. Several key metaphors have been employed while performing the presentation related tasks. These metaphors assisted to observe the team in simple way and also supported to acknowledge a better understanding among team members. Throughout the assignment, I have learnt that the metaphors determine our thoughts, expectations and insights in the group environment and also explain any kind of conflict situations. Thus, they can be implemented appropriately in order to enhance the performance of team members. References Cengage Learning, 2005. Group Presentations. Academic. [Online] Available at: http://cengagesites.com/academic/assets/sites/Group_Speaking_049573604X_watermark.pdf [Accessed February 16, 2014]. Garud, R. & Kotha, S., 1994. Using the Brain as a Metaphor to Model Flexible Production Systems. The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 671-698. Hämmal, G. & Vadi, M., 2003. Organizational Culture through the Connections between Metaphors and Orientations. 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Metaphor: Imagery Devices Used by Morgan to Describe Organizations as Culture and Psychic Prisons. Emerging Leadership Journeys, Vol. 2, Iss. 1, pp. 54-65. Scott, S., No Date. Organizations as Psychic Prisons the Impact of Implementing the Five Facets of Trust. Uploads. [Online] Available at: http://www.svscott.com/uploads/6/7/5/2/6752058/organizations_as_psychic_prisons.pdf [Accessed February 16, 2014]. Suchman, A. L., 2008. Organizations as Machines, Organizations as Conversations: Two Core Metaphors and their Consequences. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. [Online] Available at: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.plexusinstitute.org/resource/collection/6528ED29-9907-4BC7-8D00-8DC907679FED/Suchman-OrgsasMachinesOrgsasConversations2010.pdf [Accessed February 16, 2014]. Smircich, L., 2013. Concepts of Culture and Organizational Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 339-358. Shurrab, H., 2013. 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Schools and Departments. [Online] Available at: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/metallurgy-materials/cases/tips-advice/presentation.aspx [Accessed February 16, 2014]. Read More