Kristina Cates

OGL 481

Discussion Topic #3 Prompts

Prompt #1: What did you learn about organizations, and/or the behavior of
individuals within an organization? How do the ideas presented in Part Three
(the Human Resource Frame) of the B&D textbook enrich your understanding of
the ways in which organizations and the people working in them function?

This chapter reinforced what I already believed about the importance of people
within organizations. I very much disagree with the view of the worker as a commodity,
interchangeable and inanimate. Parts can’t be motivated to greatness, but people can
be. Leadership is about coaxing the best out of people, not machinery, and that seems
to be what the Human Resources frame is about. It is built on the “core assumption” that
organizations exist to serve human needs rather than the other way around, that people
and organizations need each other, that when the fit between the individual and the
system is poor they both suffer, and, conversely, when they’re good, they both benefit
(Bolman, 2014, pg. 117).

I was interested to learn new models of motivation at work that I was unfamiliar
with, though most of them honestly seem like slight variation on Maslow’s original idea:
feed me, make me feel safe, then we can talk about fulfillment. I did like Daniel Pink’s
assertion that people are motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose (Bolman, 2014,
pg. 121). I believe that, after you have those foundational needs addressed this is the
most accurate assessment of what drives us. We want to be able to believe in our ability
to effect change in our own lives, we want to be free to master the thing that interests
us, and at the end of the day, we want it to matter.

Also, as a person of Welsh decent I was pleased to learn about progressive hero
Robert Owen in Chapter 7. Advancement requires people like Mr. Owen, “wild radicals”
who see a different way to solve an old problem and are brave enough to implement it
(Bolman, 2014, pg. 138).

Prompt #2: How can you apply the concepts that you have learned about in the
readings to your personal or organizational life? Be specific.

As a leader, I can engage in the strategies recommended in the text, such as

building and implementing a clear HR strategy, then hiring the right people and retaining
them through consistent investment in their education and growth (Bolman, 2014, pg.
140). First, the organization must “build systems and practices” that implement a
“shared philosophy” for managing people (Bolman, 2014, pg. 140). This philosophy
must then be translated into consistent practices, for example FedEx’s creation of a
leadership index rate that allows employees to measure how well their supervisors help
them and listen to their ideas. Managers with low scores are not promoted (Bolman,
2014, pg. 141).

The next part of the approach from the text recommends a focus on hiring
practices. This is absolutely sound advice. Knowing “what you want” is critical – roles
must be detailed and, most importantly, honest (Bolman, 2014, pg. 140). That can be
tough for some organizations, as it requires real accuracy in self-image and an
understanding of how your customer/client base sees you. For instance, the example
given in the book is Southwest Airlines. They know that what is expected of them is not
only the fare structure, but the demeanor – the cheerful irreverence is a significant
chunk of their charm. Would it make sense for them to hire someone who could provide,
for instance, a faster (and thus cheaper) experience but who didn’t have a temperament
that fit with Southwest’s focus on outstanding “interpersonal skills” (Bolman, 2014, pg.
141)? Short term profitability is much less important than the long-term reputation of the
company.

Past hiring, the retention of and investment in my teams is imperative. Turnover

is expensive – “for some jobs and industries can run well over 100 percent a year”
(Bolman, 2014, pg. 142). Also, training is time consuming. So, once I have hired the
right people, I will attempt to keep them through retention efforts, including investing in
their continued education and growth. By ensuring that employees have opportunities to
remain challenged and expand their skills, organizational leaders show that they care
about the long-term well-being of the team member, who in turn cares more about the
long-term well-being of the organization. It also must be said, though I feel as if this is
pretty instinctive, that a company that cares about the well-being of their employees
also must reward well and protect the jobs of those employees as much as is physically
possible. I will compensate fairly and do my best to be a responsible steward of their
livelihoods.

Prompt #3: List the reasons cited in the text (Chapter 7) as why managers persist
in pursuing less effective strategies than those obtained through high
involvement, high performance or high commitment management practices. How
have you experienced these organizational pressures in your own work life
(please elaborate)?

Managers pursue less effective strategies because they fear losing control,
because they don’t want to put the “time and persistence” into improvements, or they
see the idea of human resources as less important than “hard financial numbers”
(Bolman, 2014, pg. 139). Thinking back to bad management experiences I have had, I
relate most of their failing to implement high-involvement practices to, as the text puts it,
“managerial ambivalence” (Bolman, 2014, pg. 157). Basically, the view that these types
of priorities – paying well, offering job security, training the workforce – are not worth the
time, energy or cost (Bolman, 2014, pg. 159). They fail to see the link between a fulfilled
workforce and high profit.
 Specifically, I worked for a Board of Directors (I essentially had 12 bosses) that
put very little into the organization but expected miracles to come out. I had taken over
for three people and an assistant when I took the position, though they promised me it
was temporary, and they were working to find replacements. I worked hard to build as
strong a program as I could, and under my leadership we served more women than at
any other time in the organization’s history. But the board saw my success as reason to
avoid hiring additional staff – if I was doing so much with so little, why increase their
operating costs by hiring more people? The bottom line in the present was deemed
more important than avoiding my inevitable burnout, and though I warned them that I
was not going to be able to work 60-hour weeks indefinitely, they never took action.
Ultimately, I left after 2 ½ years, and now they serve a fraction of the number of clients
we used to see every year. It’s terribly unfortunate, but if they wouldn’t or couldn’t hear
my concerns, I had to move on.

Prompt #4: As outlined by Bolman and Deal (Chapter 7), although every
organization with productive people management has its own unique approach,
most of their strategies can be captured in six general strategies. What are these
six basic human resource strategies? How have you experienced these general
strategies in your own work life (please elaborate)?

The basic Human Resources strategies that organizations with effective people
management employ are (Bolman, 2014, pg. 140):

 Building and implementing and HR strategy

 Hiring the right people

 Keeping them once they’re on board

 Investing in them

 Empowering them

 Actively promoting diversity

While I don’t have any experience building HR strategy from the floor up, I do have
experience implementing strategy as the leader of a team, and then later as the director
of an organization. I have witnessed the importance of hiring the right people, as when
the goal of the team member doesn’t firmly match the goal of the team, outcomes suffer.
Additionally, as a 1996 study of midsize German firms showed in terms of turnover, it’s
critical that a “new hire” fit not only the culture, but the pace (Bolman, 2014, pg. 142). As
a potential employer and representative of my organization’s mission, it’s my
responsibility to accurately and honestly communicate the role and the expectations –
for the sake of all involved. Together we can decide if the relationship should proceed.
 Retention, or “keeping them once they’re on board,” involves (in my opinion) the
remainder of the above strategies. It means investing in team members, continuously
empowering them, and explicitly and consistently enforcing “the organization’s diversity
philosophy”, which also means (and this is important) “holding managers accountable”
(Bolman, 2014, pg. 140). Here is where I have the most experience. Retention, as
anyone in the nonprofit field will tell you, is the name of the game. Training is expensive
for private business, but also for volunteer driven organizations. On the volunteer end,
you have a staff that has to be motivated to return again and again without appealing to
their bottom line. They have to feel engaged, fully utilized, and utterly appreciated.
Ideally, in the case of long term volunteers, they like to feel that their skill set and
responsibilities (power) are increasing over time. Short term volunteers, the kind for day
long projects (street clean ups, planting projects, mentoring) like a physical recognition
item – a shirt, cup, keychain, tote bag - to remind them of their warm fuzzy feeling after
the day is done (and to show off to the neighbors).

For staff, it takes a slightly different approach (folks can’t pay their rent with
keychains), but the strategy is the same at it’s core: invest in the skills and growth of
team members. Compensate well, fairly, and with transparency. Respect their time.
Make sure that as a leader you are fostering an environment that embraces learning,
remembering that “learning in an organization takes place when three elements are in
place: good mentors who teach others, a management system that lets people try new
things as much as possible, and a very good exchange with the environment” (Aubrey
and Tilliette, 1990, pp. 144–145). I was very fortunate to have that during my years in
AmeriCorps, as the program manager for my corps helped my growth by developing my
skills, giving me a chance to lead projects just outside my experience, and by being a
supportive (though honest) sounding board throughout. I still consider her a mentor.

Prompt #5: Throughout your progression in the Organizational Leadership

program, you have had a number of courses that include content complementary
to the human resource frame – perhaps more connections here than with any
other frame (in your various leadership courses – and courses like OGL 220
Behavioral Dynamics in Organizations, or BIS 343 Social Processes). Please
highlight what you would consider to be two of the most important things (ideas,
concepts, theories, models, processes, skills, etc.) that you have learned in
previous coursework that you can relate to the Human Resource frame. Briefly
discuss each key learning, the course where you learned it, and its connection
with the Human Resource frame.

The most obvious connection is with OGL 220, I believe, because of its study of
Maslow’s hierarchy, mental models, and its overall focus on the importance of building
effective relationships. The structures of our organizations, whether they are a
traditional top-down hierarchy or a more autonomous, progressive model, are inhabited
by people. In OGL 220, we explored how those relationships can thrive. For instance,
learning about Gibb’s categories of defense arousing communication shows how we
can share information or feelings clearly, without the framing language that can seem to
impart judgement, causing a defensive spiral that is hard to stop (Hamilton, 2007, pg.
336). Effective communication makes team work possible, in the way that lubricant
keeps a machine humming. This reminded me of Argyris’s emphasis on the need for
“interpersonal competence” in managers, as incompetence hampers effectiveness
(Bolman, 2014, pg. 164).

In PAF 311, Leadership and Change, the Human Resources frame shows up in
the focus on self-analysis and self-awareness, allowing for an exploration of our
individual leadership styles as we considered how that might impact decision-making
and the teams we lead. The Team Player Survey, for instance, made me aware of
certain deficits in my communication style that I didn’t notice before. I learned that I work
best in the role of “challenger” or “collaborator”, but also that I need to slow down,
process, and allow for additional listening. It was also my first introduction to Kouzes
and Posner’s “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership”, which explored such themes as
modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, and (most important to the Human
Resources frame), enabling others to act (Kouzes and Posner, 2014, pg. 9). Enabling
others to act means cooperative relationships and strong collaboration, with importance
placed on “creating an atmosphere where people understand they have a shared fate
and should treat others as they would like to be treated” (Kouzes and Posner, 2014, pg.
163). It also means investing in your team members as people, making them stronger
employees and even more committed to organizational goals – everyone wins.

Frame or Reframe an Organization from a Human Resource Perspective

Prompt #6: How do the Human Resource aspects discussed work in an

organization with which you are (or have been) affiliated? What sorts of
personnel policies and management strategies are espoused theories versus
those in use? (This is about the concept/frame not an HR department.)

I have worked for organizations with simple Human Resources policies based on
nothing more than a safe work environment, and elaborate policies that provide for
educational support and professional growth. Both policies fit the environment we were
in and seemed appropriate for the setting. The simple policies and procedures were at
jobs where the work was physical, straight forward, and very task focused (waitress,
warehouse, car detailing) whereas the more complicated policies could be found at
organizations with high levels of collaboration and interaction between staff. While I
learned a lot at both kinds of organizations, the formal investment and retention efforts
at the latter made me more invested in their future.

Sometimes the organization espoused policies that they either did not enforce or
failed to practice daily. For example, I worked for an organization that had a vision
statement declaring a commitment to lifting women out of poverty but didn’t pay a living
wage. It promoted professionalism above all else, yet the board of directors submitted
reports late and half completed. There was a disconnect between their actions and their
brand. At board meetings, where I came to represent the day-to-day work of the
organization, the would often brainstorm fundraising ideas, as we were constantly
struggling to raise enough to cover expenses. The issue seemed to be that they wanted
to do the same type of event schedule every year – it was “tradition”, was always the
reason, but they were very low yield events when we needed something high impact to
bring in new individual and corporate donors. When I introduced different concepts,
things that deviated from cocktail/tea parties were met with severe defensiveness. Or,
as the text shows in Exhibit 8.2, they exhibited high advocacy and low Inquiry (Bolman,
2014, pg. 167).

Prompt #7: How does morale or other human resource issues affect outcomes in
your place of employment (for customers, employees, stockholders, surrounding
community and/or any other stake-holders). Describe enough of a situation
concretely to provide context and use concepts from the readings in your
response. If you don’t think there are healthy or unhealthy aspects in your
organization relating to the human resource perspective going on, think again
more carefully and perhaps revisit the readings to broaden your definition and
understanding.

I am currently a contractor, so professionally my morale is really based on no one

but me. In my past professional experience, morale has been very important to being
able to accomplish the impossible, and not just at nonprofit organizations. When I was
in college (the first time), I worked at Fossil Watches at Universal Studios Orlando. In
the summer it was a sea of people, every night, until the store closed at midnight. It was
literally standing room only. This could have been a miserable experience, especially in
the Florida heat, but our manager worked hard to make us a team that worked together
well. We went to the park together, had sales competitions, pop quizzes on product
features that resulted in prizes. We liked each other, drove each other, and felt
genuinely proud to be a member of the team. We were allowed to be creative in our
approach with customers, tailoring our approach to achieve the sale.

Motivating people takes care, and focus, but it’s the only way to build sustainable
success. In the case of my experience at Fossil, we were achieving Pink’s three drives:
we had autonomy, we were always encouraged to do better, and we were proud to be
there (#2 store in the country after the Manhattan store, thank you very much) (Bolman,
2014, pg. 121). Where they could improve, however, would be to offer training for
employees, not just in watch repair and sales features, but in management. I was there
for three years but I never got a sense that they promoted from within very often, which
was a shame, because no one had more product knowledge than the sales team.
 Works Cited

Bolman, Lee G.. Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership (p. 121).
Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Hamilton, Vivian. Human Relations: The Art and Science of Building Effective
Relationships. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007.

Kouzes, James M, and Barry Z. Posner. The Leadership Challenge. Jossey-Bass, 2012.