Case Study on the White House (Trump Administration) (for Hifsa Shaukat)
Case Study on the White House (Trump Administration)
The White House plays a crucial role in the political culture of the United States because it is the official residence and the working place for the sitting president of our nation. However, the term White House is often used with an expanded meaning which refers to the president and his advisors. They work with him at the White House, crafting new polices to help his administration govern the country. President Donald J. Trump is the current president of the United States, whose administration is in charge with responsibilities of improving the lives of American citizens based on campaign pledges he gives to the American people. However, to better understand the roles and influences of the White House in American political culture, it is important to analyze the organization of the White House under President Trump. This analysis looks at the White House from the perspective of leadership, human resource, culture, and the organizational learning environment. This will help us understand the organization’s structure of the White House and the impact of culture which helps implement the president’s agenda.
The Trump’s Administration comprises of more than 300 employees who plays different roles. This includes advisors to the president, key staffers, domestic workers, the cabinet and other influential political leaders who works with the president on a day to day basis (Carter, Ulrich, & Goldsmith, 2004). The White House officials help the president develop domestic and foreign policies that focus on making the nation better. Senior White House officials under President Donald Trump includes cabinet rank officials and other presidential advisors on different matters. Among some of the most notable positions in the White House includes the Chief of Staff, Press Secretary and president’s advisor, US Trade Representative, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Director of National Intelligence. With more than 300 hundred employees, the White House is one of the largest public organizations in the country. It is a diverse environment comprising of people from different cultural backgrounds, races, and ethnicities working together to achieve a common objective for the president’s goals and ambitions. Therefore, it is important to understand the human relations approach used at the White House and how leadership creates an environment to promotes the general of wellbeing for each employee.
How Was Culture Developed Through the Process of “Shared Learning,” Struggle and Growth?
Organizational culture contributes positive social changes in society. First and foremost, good organizational culture can impart positive values in the organization and employees (Burnes, 2009). These values can guide the employees towards initiating positive influences in society that will lead to improved social standards (Medley, & Akan, 2008). With a great organizational culture, there is greater environmental awareness where both the community and the organization will join hands in saving the environment. With rapid changes occurring in the business environment, organizations are becoming under pressure to increase productivity in order to remain competitive in their industries (Burnes, 2009).
Organizational culture undergoes changes and transformations as people gets in and out of entity. This situation can create various challenges and problems for an organization including challenges related to managing diversity and inclusion in organization, improving employee productivity, enhancing employee relations, addressing instances of discrimination, improving the quality of customer relations, and dealing with violence in the workplace among others (Carter, Ulrich, & Goldsmith, 2004). Therefore, if these challenges are not addressed appropriately, the potential of the organization to achieve success may be inhibited (Cheema, Akram, & Javed, 2015).
A systems approach to management focuses on understanding the organization from a holistic perspective. An organization must be viewed as an organization that has different constituent parts working together to achieve a common objective. Therefore, from a system’s perspective, change management must address impact changes on the organization as a whole. A change in a specific unit or department has an impact on the entire organization because the organization works as a whole (Cheema, Akram, & Javed, 2015). Every department or business in the organization works towards helping broader organization achieve its goals and objectives. Therefore, systems thinking ensures a holistic approach to identify or clarify a problem by evaluating how the change is likely to affect the organization.
What Are the Schein Artifacts, Espoused Beliefs and Hidden Assumption in Your Selected Organization?
The organizational culture of any organization has three basic components: observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions. Observable artifacts are the visible elements of the organizational culture (Burnes, 2009). These include the various physical items that the company uses to manifest culture. On the other hand, espoused values refer to normal standards through which a company conducts its day-to-day business. These are specific desirable values stipulating desired behaviors in the workplace (Medley, & Akan, 2008). Basic assumptions are the unobservable aspects of organizational behavior that, nevertheless, represent the company’s culture.
What Do The “Old Timers” Say?
According to the old timers, the White House needs to pay more attention on issues such as employee’s development with a focus on promoting innovation and creativity. One strategy that enforce innovation in organizations for the purposes of improving change management is reducing bureaucracies in the workplace. Bureaucratic systems can discourage innovation because they make it difficult for innovative employees to get their ideas approved and funded by responsible managers (Medley, & Akan, 2008). The organization can adopt the strategy of recognition, rewarding inventive and innovative employees in the workplace (Carter, Ulrich, & Goldsmith, 2004). This goes a long way encouraging and motivating employees to come upon with ideas because they realize they will be rewarded for their efforts. The organization must place policies that tolerates the risk of failure (Cheema, Akram, & Javed, 2015). For example, it is important to have in place proper contingency plans to take care of risks associated with taking up new ideas. This will encourage employees to be innovative.
Training and support are essential in implementing organizational change. Training creates more room for stakeholders to understand the change and be guided through the process of change implementation. This helps build consensus and ensure every stakeholder affected by the change is on the same page throughout the implementation process. Therefore, training must be viewed as an indispensable component of ensuring a smooth transition whenever implementing change (Medley, & Akan, 2008). Consequently, several strategies are adopted for training employees and stakeholders ensuring successful implementation of organizational change. Some strategies for training and support, are recommended for organizations such as the White House, addressing employee’s attitudes, general organizational behavior, the focus on organizational goals and objectives, and promoting employees’ engagement.
One strategy that can be used for training and support is changing organizational behavior and employees’ attitudes in the workplace. New changes in the organization often demands employees alter their way of thinking, attitude, and their general approach to work. It calls for a new way of doing things (Medley, & Akan, 2008). Therefore, whenever implementing change, it is important to train employees on how they should react to new systems and processes being introduced in the workplace. They should be advised on how to interact with new systems or processes (Cheema, Akram, & Javed, 2015). This will improve their attitudes towards change and facilitate a change in behavior and relation to changes being introduced.
Similarly, training process needs to address the relationship between change, organizational goals and objectives. Employees should understand how new changes affect the organization in terms of helping achieve set objectives (Cheema, Akram, & Javed, 2015). In cases where change calls for introduction of new goals and objectives, stakeholders must be aware of new goals (Medley, & Akan, 2008). This is important because it helps employees and stakeholders understand their roles and how they can utilize the change to improve their work and performance.
Training and support address the issue of employee engagement. Employees as well as other affected stakeholders must be taught, supported and trained on how they can contribute to the change process. Each person must have a role to play. These roles must be clearly defined to ensure that the change is delivered on schedule. Employee engagement basically calls for active participation and contribution of the employees in the cage management process (Cheema, Akram, & Javed, 2015). This also includes providing relevant feedback during the implementation process. Therefore, training on this aspect ensures the employees understand their roles and how they contribute to success of change.
How Does Leadership Embrace Learning and Change Dynamic?
In order to create an appropriate culture at the White House, leadership can adopt and develop certain trends that incorporate innovation and creativity. Some traits need to be taught and shared amongst the White House in both public and private environment. This includes trait, quality, risk tolerance, openness, emotional stability, confidence, and action oriented. Innovation entails a great deal of risk. Therefore, as a leader, one must have risk tolerant in order to foster an environment or culture of innovation and creativity in the White House. Secondly, leadership must be open to new ideas (Mulang, 2015). They must create a culture of open communication where every staff member is encouraged to come up with new ideas, even radical ideas that can take the White House forward. Furthermore, leadership in the White House must be emotionally stable in order to handle the pressure associated with uncertainties and risks of trying out new ideas (Mobley, 2010). The Trump Administration must demonstrate self-confidence as well as confidence and beliefs in the team by empowering to come up with solutions and challenges facing in the White House. Finally, the White House leadership must be action oriented in order to implement new plans of completion (Mulang, 2015). This will encourage staff members to brainstorm and come up with creative and innovative ideas because they know that these ideas are tested and implemented.
Most of these leadership’s traits are exhibited by the project management team of the White House (Mobley, 2010). The Trump Administration has a culture revolving around creativity and innovation as evidenced by staff leadership’s ability to create an environment that promotes open communication, feedback gathering, trust, empowerment, and collaboration (Mumford, 2012). These three traits are instrumental in creating a positive environment for innovations and creativities in the staff members because they feel respected, valued, and empowered to make contributions that helps achieve the general vision.
I assessed the ability to be creative and innovative based on the ability of leadership to empower staff members in the White House to make significant contributions to the change process. This is because innovation thrives in an environment where employees and staff members can be heard, respected, and feel valued (Mulang, 2015).
The White House traits are similar to those stipulated in classical leadership theories because they focus on ensuring highly effective staff members where each member can contribute effectively to the team’s purpose. Classical leadership theories such as autocratic leadership, laissez-faire, and transformational leadership provide different qualities that enhance the ability of leaders to be successful (Mumford, 2012). For instance, these classical theories tend to put more emphasis on qualities such as communication, commitment, and collaboration. In the same way, contemporary leadership styles such as situational leadership, trait theory, and servant leadership have emphasized a lot on traits. These traits are communication, commitment, and collaboration, which have been for high performing teams that have been exemplified by the Trump Administration.
Members of a high performing team share a deep sense of purpose as well as believing in a common set of values that holds the group together. A shared purpose gives the team a sense of direction and the main focus of their energy (Mumford, 2012). Therefore, the main vision and purpose of the White House staff has to be properly articulated for every staff to understand. As a leader on the Trump Administration’s team, it is essential to ensure very team member buys into the shared purpose.
High performing teams are also based on levels of empowerment within the staff. This relates to the amount of resources that staff members have access to and the level of authority each member has when it comes to making crucial decisions. The Trump Administration’s staff are useful opportunities for members to learn from each other to advance their knowledge and skills (Mumford, 2012). Therefore, a highly diverse staff provides a good resource for learning and better chances of effectiveness. Staff members must be empowered in terms of participating in the decision-making process democratically.
Effective communication is the bloodline of high-performance teams. Team leaders must create an environment where members are free to share their thoughts and opinions without being victimized. However, this truly doesn’t happen in the Trump Administration. He is known to criticize people if they are not onboard with him. Conflicts and differences of opinions must be handled in a cordial, humane and dignified manner. There should also be enough room for collecting feedbacks on the team progress.
Flexibility is the hallmark of high performing teams. These business environments are constantly changing and evolving. Therefore, teams must be flexible enough to adapt to environmental changes as well as changes within the team itself. Everyone should be ready to take on leadership whenever called upon. We have seen this a lot lately in the Trump Administration as he fires a member on the staff and then hire someone to take their place. That individual is ready to assume his or her duties. High performing teams are also known based on their productivity. The Team must be result oriented and show their commitment to high standards of quality output. The Trump Administration demonstrates this on a day to day basis. Therefore, leadership must create avenues for evaluating progress, and celebrating milestones achieved.
What Is That and How Is That “Sold” To Oneself, The Leader, And Subordinates, Who May Be Captivated by Groupthink, Gas Lighting or Confirmation Bias Dynamics?
Leaders could adopt a broad range of strategies for applying in the theory change management processes as well as for ensuring effective leadership. Some of the strategies that I would recommend includes: building a highly cohesive team, creating a deeper sense of purpose, and empowering team members (Mumford, 2012). Building a cohesive team is an important step in establishing commitment and trust among team members. The members feel indebted to each other and to the main objectives of the team.
Secondly, creating a deeper sense of purposes helps create a common direction that members on the team have to focus their efforts on making a change. This entails creating a common vision and mission and ensuring every team member buy into the idea. The strategy of empowering team members focuses on building skills, enhancing knowledge, and creating meaningful experiences within the team. Team members must feel valued and respected by being allowed to participate in the decision-making process.
Usually, organizational change demands that stakeholders involved in the organization change, will adopt new ways of conducting their day- to-day business. This requires them to move away from their comfort zone. For the most part, employees are usually comfortable with the status quo; therefore, they may be upset when new changes are introduced. Furthermore, change processes are usually demanding because they require the employees to learn new ways of doing things. Therefore, employees are more likely to resist any change process that may require them to change their preferred way of working. Thus, the change managers must be aware of this fact and try to educate and engage employees throughout the process to ensure the process goes smoothly.
References
Burnes, B. (2009). Reflections: Ethics and Organizational Change - Time for a Return to Lewinian Values. Journal Of Change Management, 9(4), 359-381.
Carter, L., Ulrich, D., & Goldsmith, M. (2004). Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organization Change: How the Best Companies Ensure Meaningful Change and Sustainable Leadership. Hoboken: Wiley.
Cheema, S, Akram, A, & Javed, F. (2015). 'Employee Engagement and Visionary Leadership: Impact on Customer and Employee Satisfaction', Journal Of Business Studies Quarterly, 7(2), pp. 139-148.
Medley, B. C., & Akan, O. H. (2008). Creating positive change in community organizations: A case for rediscovering Lewin. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 18(4), 485-496.
Mobley, W. (2010). Advances in global leadership. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Mulang, A. (2015). The Importance of Training for Human Resource Development in Organization. Journal of Public Administration and Governance, 5(1), 190 - 197.
Mumford, M. D. (2012). Handbook of organizational creativity. London: Academic Press.