Respond to two (2) Colleagues W4D2 Granth

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Week 4 Discussion 2:

The Progressive Case Study

This week we conclude the first half of our course. The week ahead addresses cultural norms within the organization. A culture can change by individual, team, group, department, industry, and organization. A single individual can alter the culture and attitude of an organization. The shift in CEO or leadership can alter the course of the company. The naysayer in the office or the perky person that will invest in and care about everyone impacts the workplace environment. The individual that keeps to themselves and the individual that believes something different from the majority also impact the workplace environment. All these situations can alter your organizational culture.

Please review Learning Resources to assist with responses: 

Bunshaft, J. A. (2018). The quest for employee voice and the role of Appreciative Inquiry. AI Practitioner, 20(3), 46–51 .  See attachment

Laarakker, H., & van Kesteren, B. (2019). Appreciative Inquiry and the value of conflict. AI Practitioner, 21(4), 43–48. See attachment

Peter Senge - The Fifth Discipline http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFo8fRDeH7E&feature=related   (3:11)

Assignment:

Respond to at least (2) two of your peers' postings in one or more of the following ways:

· Share an insight about what you learned from having read your peers’ postings and discuss how and why your peer’s posting resonated with you professionally and personally.

· Offer an example from your experience or observation that validates what your peer discussed.

· Offer specific suggestions that will help your peer build upon his or her own virtual communication.

· Offer further assessment or insight that could impact your peer’s future communications.

· 3 – 4 paragraph responses per each colleague

· No plagiarism

· APA citing

· 24 hours

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1st Colleague – Susan Christine  

Susan Christmas 

Week 4 Discussion 2

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In our scenario this week, we are to act as a contractor for The Green Organization. We need to prepare a presentation to the executive leadership about the importance of regional cultures as well as workplace culture in training and in the workplace.

Adapting, Accommodating, and Assimilating in a New Organizational Culture

C. Barzantny wrote a paper summarizing the book Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace, written by Michalle E. Mor Barak. Barak wrote the book as a way to help the reader get through challenges of managing diversity. Barzantny lists four levels of an inclusive workplace model that refers to an ideal work organization. The levels are: “(1) that is accepting and utilizing the diversity of its own workforce, and (2) is also active in the community, (3) alleviates the needs of disadvantaged groups in its wider environment, and (4) collaborates across cultural and national boundaries with a focus on global mutual interests" (Barzantny, 2007, p. 285).

How to Expedite Synthesis

Sunil Singh also wrote a summary of Barak’s book. One of the interesting sections that stood out to me was Singh mentioned the fact that elaborate systems have been put in place all around the world to ensure equality. These systems are meant to ensure equality in the workplace and in society, but they still tend to fail because there is often a lack of sensitivity within the members of the organization (Singh, 2006). I believe the key to expediting the synthesis and raising overall performance and effectiveness is to teach sensitivity and the importance of diversity. Along with the teachings, employees should be allowed to speak up and speak out and let their voices be heard without any fear of retaliation.

Best Tools to Prepare New Leader

I think the best tool to prepare new leaders is open communication about the expectations given to the organizational leader that is being transferred to an unfamiliar region. The leader should be given ample cultural materials about his new region and should also be given time to understand the new environment he will be leading.

How to Communicate the Importance of Training

The organizational leader would most likely already understand the importance of the cultural training, but it is never a bad idea to reiterate why it is vital to the success of the organization. At the end of the day, employees want to feel appreciated, regardless of their culture or region.

References

Barzantny, C. (2007) Managing Diversity. Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 6(2), 285-286.  https://doi.org/10.5465/AMLE.2007.25223469

Singh, S. K. (2006). Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace. IIMB Management Review (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore), 18(2), 211-212.

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2nd Colleague – Stephen Jarman

Stephen Jarman 

Week 4 Discussion 2 - The Progressive Case Study

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The organization of focus for this is Molnlycke Healthcare in Maine, USA (referred to as MHC-NA). The industry that MHC NA serves in is called med-tech. There are two MHC NA operational sites in Maine that operate three business units. Two business units are vertically integrated with one producing foam substrate (WCC) that is converted and packaged into wound care products (AWC). A third business unit manufacturers specialty materials and packages them as patient positioner products (SWC). The Molnlycke organization is highly matrixed with alignment challenges across functional boundaries at the C-level for common objectives.

The operations organization hierarchy at MHC-NA can be considered lean, given that the chain-of-command has only four levels from individual front-line employees to NA manufacturing directors. Operations support teams within MHC-NA as matrixed hierarchies include Quality Assurance, Human Resources, Procurement, Finance, Research and Development, Environmental/Health/Safety, and Manufacturing Excellence. Outside of these, MHC-NA functional groups exist teams for commercial sales, distribution, and Information Technology.

The MHC-NA operational line and support organization leadership teams have suffered a high level of manager turnover in the past two years that includes three manufacturing directors, three factory managers, two Quality Assurance directors, one Information Technology manager (to not be replaced), two Procurement managers, two Finance managers, and three Manufacturing Excellence managers (the author is the third). Additionally, Human Resources has rationalized its organization and has removed two site support specialists.

My role as Operational Excellence Manager provides a unique perspective to diagnose, design, and deploy a Human Dynamic intervention. Flexibility and adaption are very important to the success of the training and the organization as a whole, building towards high-performance behaviors, as well as local culture in training and in the workplace. Senior leadership has requested practical examples of how to best adapt and assimilate new organizational leaders who are transferred or onboarded at MHC Maine in consideration of the following:

· A training plan for assimilating to our high-performance behaviors and local culture.

· How can this plan be best enacted to expedite synthesis and raise overall performance and effectiveness in the organization as well as in the region?

· What tools might best prepare the new leader?

· How can the importance of this training be best communicated to the learner?

The framework of New Leadership Assimilation

            The following are practical examples to consider as a baseline for selection, onboarding, and assimilating new organization leaders at MHC-NA. These may be embellished, added to, or altogether eliminated.

1. Direct Report Screening: Prior to a final hiring decision being made, the new leader candidate would be interviewed by their direct reports, followed by HR taking inputs from these individuals to check for alignment as a good fit within the team, to better test the candidate’s knowledge base, and anything such as behaviors that would flag the candidate as a concern (Johnson, 2017).

2. Setting the stage for what is to come: An internal, well-seasoned coach is assigned to bring the newly hired leader through the onboarding process for the first six months. The coach would begin by interviewing the new hires' direct reports and other stakeholders (both internal and external) for their thoughts about the upcoming key challenges involved in the role, goals and performance expectations as they understand it, any relevant history or dynamics that they are expected to be encountered. Prior to meeting with the newly hired leader, the coach will summarize these as a report to be given and discussed during their initial one-to-one conversation. The coach and newly hired leader will schedule weekly touch-point sessions to review progress and to update the new leader’s onboarding journal. NOTE: An onboarding journal is to be provided by the HR partner on the first day to include basic contact and policy and procedure reference information, spaces for updates, references to other company information such as high-performance behaviors, etc. To ensure the newly hired leader’s distractions are kept to a minimum, the coach is to enquire into how is settling into the area progressing for living and transportation arrangements, other issues such as school, language, healthcare, fitting into the community. NOTE: the HR partner is to be contacted if there are any areas lacking with the relocation contractor’s work for the new hire leader (Johnson).

3. One-to-Ones with Peers and Coach: Within the first two weeks inside the organization, the newly hired leader will schedule with the assistance of the HR partner focus sessions with each of the other organizational leaders. The HR partner will pre-empt these one-to-ones by sending the leaders the new hire’s bio and a short summary of goals and objectives for the new leader and their team. In these one-to-one meetings, each person is to write down bullet points relating to an overall and specific strategy for the organization and each other’s team, and anything noted relating to business or cultural norms that should be considered. A summarization session is to be scheduled by the HR partner for each of the leaders to bring out their notes and share them across the whole team, including the director of operations (Johnson).

4. Peer Review: After being onboarded for six months, the HR partner will coordinate and document a 360-degree peer review with the intent to highlight any areas that are in need of course correction for meeting goals, expectations, and generally being a good cultural fit. Following up on this session over the next six months, the new hire will use the inputs from the peer review to ensure success. The working topics are to be disclosed and updated with their assigned coach and assigned manager on a semi-monthly basis at a minimum (Johnson).

5. Intentional Knowledge Transfer Plan: The learning coordinator will assign and ensure that the new hire leader, in spite of ongoing demands and distractions that will compete for their attention, stays on task for their mandatory and department-specific training schedule. The Environmental/Health/Safety manager will assign the newly hired leader to be paired with department-assigned individuals to become familiar with all aspects of our programs and to become familiar with hazards, as well as mitigation and reporting procedures. The IT manager will ensure that time is set aside with a resource able to onboard the newly hired leader for all of their connectivity and system access needs (Johnson).

In closing, the five practical examples provide senior leadership at MHC-NA a how-to roadmap on best-practices for how to adapt and to onboard new organizational leaders through a training plan for assimilating them to our high-performance behaviors and local culture, to expedite the new leader’s synthesis, effectiveness, and performance in the organization, and a number of tools that facilitate communicating the importance of this new hire onboarding, assimilating, and training plan.

References

Johnson, L. (2017). Rapid onboarding at capital one. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2008/02/rapid-onboarding-at-capital-on.html.

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