Organizational Transformations

To change for the betterment of the company and for everyone in the company is a good thing to do. But sad to say not all of the changes and transformation of the company is for the benefit of everyone. It is always true that for a company to survive it needs to think first the current situation of the company. If the company wants to survive in this every changing economy it needs to changes its current operation. Slashing and removing transactions that seem not important to the current business flows resulting to firing and removing employees handling that dissolved transactions. I cannot blame companies doing this as the Managers struggle to maintain a competitive business with other industry unless a transformation is done. I can also understand those employees who are affected with this transformation as they face with a financial threat as this job of their own is the primary source of their daily funds for their family. Luckily for us is not everyday and not all of the company always do the transformation as it takes a lot of effort and time to do it. It needs for the company to redirect their attention and business goals to temporarily halt the take effect the changes they need. Company who are in a good or let say in good conditions do not risk in trying to transform their company as they did not really know how this will play out in the end. And for this reason, developing for the betterment of the company sometimes is hampered by this idea. We know the fact that employee will always reject propositions that threaten them because they are not sure of what will happen to them in the future. And for the Owners and managers, they cannot simply disregard there employee because they are the working or the front liners of the business. So it needs a mighty act of will by the Business owners and Managers to make the transformation possible.

I have seen a lot of Organizational Transformation here in the Philippines; PAL for example fired almost 70 percent of their employee due to financial problems. Well this is better than closing the company and rather saving 30 percent of the employees. I see also a company who reject to use automated system unreasonable, luckily for them the owner was not always on the site to attest to their reasons. The first Philippine Automated Election almost was not push through because of a lot political parties putting their interest first before the benefits of the Filipino people. Thanks to the strong will of a few making it a successful election. For as long as there is a business institution they will always challenges that will ultimately lead to Organizational Transformation.

The five competitive forces that shape strategy

Of all the topics in the Organizational Analysis this is what I love most. Simply because it can be easily understand and applied to almost all types of business and industries. It’s amazing how useful looking at the graph of this five forces on how will you formulate your strategy in gaining strategic advantage over your competitors/rivals. Let me say something about this first force: THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS- Here in our country today, our parents now a days are so conscious in spending every dime they earned. So, spending in terms of paying their student’s tuitions fee in school must be also a smart choice. Parents must see to it that they children are getting what they are paying. But most of the cases, parents are looking a much cheaper school but without compromising the quality of the education of their children. So in this case, those new schools or education centers offers much cheaper tuitions or much lighter mode of payment will surely have a big bite in the market shares. So in developing enrollment strategy we must incorporate to our plans how can we combat this type of treats in our organization?! One of the most concrete evidence how our management combat this type of threat is by offering a very low entrance fee for the students for them to enroll in their desired course without worrying the entrance fee anymore. Additionally, when I say new entrants it doesn’t always mean that there is a new competitor. Sometimes the business is long before exists but this is the first time that they are offering this new course. So, if this new course belongs to a prestigious school so normally those who can afford will go to that school. Second Forces: BARGAINING POWER OF THE BUYERS- well student has a strong implication/ effect to the education sector where there are the direct clients of organization. The suggestion or complaint of the student cannot be set aside or simply cannot be taken for granted. One example, student now a day are now so very particular with the bills that they are paying. If they see that they are paying this service and they are not getting the most of it then for sure a complaint will be brought to our attention and if not be taken carefully will lead to a bad reputation to our organization and I’m sure we don’t want that to happen. So it forces our management to deal with it. Another example of this is that Local politicians are offering a significant big amount of money for sponsoring educational scholars among the local population. Normally, politicians give their budget to the schools who offer much convenient ways for paying the bills of scholars so the management must come up with a strategy how to meet their needs of the client. Let’s go to the third forces: THREAT OF SUBSTITUTE OR SERVICES – Normally people always look at first the price before the quality right. Weighing between the two the price and quality. In our community we cannot deny that there are some students who can afford the expensive schools and those schools that are within their budget. So, surely among the total number of students who are going to school will be divided into two. Sometimes student wanted to study in your school but cannot afford it so they force to choice to their second choice. Saying that schools are all the same, it depends only to the student where it might be right. But are we just going to let this scenario always to happen? I mean is there a way to combat this threat? Maybe in the financial matter we can’t do anything but if we just encourage them or let them understand that every cent that they spent to our organization will be back to them a million times then it might change their minds. So much for that let’s go to the forth forces: BARGAINING POWER OF THE SUPPLIERS- it this case we are referring to the parents of our students. Well without the parents of our students we won’t also have our students right now. Dealing with parents is as important with dealing with our students. Parents always so to it that they children will be in good hands or the future of their student are in the right hands. Parents tend to see all the necessary documents and accreditation of the schools before enrolling their students to that particular school. So if this is the case, schools must possess recommended accreditation certifications such as PACUCOA or such as the PAASCU accreditations. There are still a marginal parent who sought after a quality education and for them to know is by looking for any recognition and awards achieve by schools. This is why almost every year, school head quarters always giving recognition luxurious trophies to their branches and displaying it their gallery where it can be seen. The last forces: RIVALRY AMONG EXISTING COMPETITORS- for me instead looking at this in a negative way lets use this as a tool for us to develop our organization. Advertising is a good way to attract new enrollees but I guess to best way to prove it is by letting our student experience what we promise to deliver. If every school can find a unique need that they can set up to meet, if schools try to deliver something different from its rivals, multiple rivals can be successful. Instead of this destructing each other maybe it good to let them know what service you are trying to deliver and maybe they will choice a different one. I hope I share to you some my insights and thought about how can we make our respective organization become more successful. These five forces will always be around for as long the businesses exist.

Core Competencies of the Organization

Before I will begin giving my thoughts about the core competency of the organization let me say this simple quote first “every great building is built with a strong column foundation”. The reason why our proudest building can stands tall because of its strong column foundation that supported it. All the beauty it brings is all because of it. So, the structure of the building I think we can associate this to a business. Business leaders should built their business with a strong foundation in business we called it as our core competency. Business leaders should view their organizations as a portfolio of competencies as well as a portfolio of products and services. It is this portfolio of competencies that provides the competitive edge needed to be successful in the future. Core competencies are what make your organization unique. They are the skills your organization possesses that set it apart from its peers. They are the sources of competitive advantage. They are the building blocks to future opportunities. Finding and using your core competency is a crucial in developing your organization. The rise and fall of a business depends on finding and using it in your own advantage. We know developing of core competencies takes time and needs a continuous development. A competence is a bundle of skills rather than a discrete skill. It is this integration of skills that that define a core competence. Because a core competency is the sum of learning across individual skill sets and organizational units it is unlikely to reside in a single individual or small team. Understanding and developing core competencies is necessary to enable the organization to exploit the opportunities they provide.

Before we can use our core competency to our advantage lets find first what our core competencies are. Based on some quick googling let’s define first how we can classify if it is our core competency in our organization. Some said it must pass these three tests to be considered core competencies.

1. The competency must make a significant contribution to customer perceived value or to the financial health of the organization.

2. The competency must be unique or performed in a way that is substantially superior to its peers.

3. The competency must be capable of being applied to a range of new products and services.

As an employee belonging in the Education Sector I can say that one of the most important competencies that an educator should have, aside from of course knowing first what are the skills needed by the student is his/her expertise and experience in the field of study he/she is handling. The actual experiences in the industry you learned over time cannot be experience until you try it. Because simply you cannot teach what you don’t have. Second competency I think your ability to transfer your knowledge to the student. The instructions and teaching materials you can provide depends on your skills. To measure the affectivity of our teaching is through the learning’s gained by our student. Measuring how good they performed will also reflect to us. Third is the ability of the management side to strongly support and implement new ideas regarding upgrading the student/school Services they provide.

Normally most of the employees in our organization are not aware what are their core competency possess and sometimes might be not utilize and use properly to their advantages. So, identify and use the core competency of your organization you are in and use it to grow and expand your business opportunities because knowing these are an excellent source of ideas for new services and products. The core competencies that are the foundation of your current products and services can provide the basis for a myriad of new ideas, some of which might have earned-income potential. They represent what you’re really good at, what your clients value, and what your competition would likely have trouble imitating.

Employee Motivation

Motivating the employees in a company is a direct factor which can affect and increase the productivity of the company. Motivating the employees in the company is also a big task/responsibility in the management side since it talks about handling your employees. Motivation is the process of persuading members of the organization to perform in a productive manner. To understand easily how I can motivate others, I will determine what are the things that motivate me:

[I will give as much as possible reasons or things that motivate me at work.]

Things that motivate me to works are:

1. This is the most important for me, and I think this is also the case to others. –my compensation and benefits to work. Of course we are working to earn money so that we could pay our needs and responsibilities on our daily lives. Though there are some persons who don’t feel the same as I do about working and I admire them. [These are the person that we need in our world today.] The most evidence of this is that when so search a job on the net, you would always find the job title and the job description and lastly the estimated monthly salary income for that job. So Salary or compensation plays a big factor in motivating your employee. Or simply by raising their monthly income just a little bit gives them a sudden boost in their job performance. Of course not all company can afford to do this and it and it takes a lot of time to materialize this.

On the second thought, determining how to motivate others I find it very hard since satisfaction in work is defends on the person since we have different personality as we are all unique to each other so we have different needs and perception. But anyway...

2. If feel motivated to work if I feel that I’m given a place or importance or I feel that I can make a difference in the work place or I can make an effect in the over-all result of my task that I was given. When your employees achieve a particular target, make sure that you celebrate their achievements. This will provide great motivation to them. They would feel that their efforts are appreciated.
3. If feel also motivated if I know if I did something good or if I perform very good that I will receive a reward. Not that I’m expecting a cash reward or money but at least recognition will be fine and I think it’s not too much to ask... Isn’t it?!
4. The work that I love doing. These are the works that I feel light doing it and it makes me feel good doing it.
5. Doing the work that I have interest in learning it. The work that I will feel that I’m going to learn something new.

But in this times where there are a lot business and corporate layoffs, and the advent of outsourcing and steep disparities between executives' and frontline employees' salaries, it is no wonder rank-and-file workers increasingly question their loyalty to companies. Which means retaining and motivating employees is a challenge for the management.

But if we come to think of it, we are so fortunate that we have our respective job right now, that we have money to spend to support our daily needs. I mean; there are a lot of people in our country who doesn’t have a work/job right now or if there is... it’s not that compare to us. What I am trying to say that for having this job for me is a motivation already. Won’t you?! Think about that…

Organizational Change

Organization changed happens due to internal or external needs of the organization. Because of the changing conditions and the new needs of the customers the organization must evolved to keep up with the other competitors. Organizational change usually is speaking to the change of the culture, or even roles within an organization. This sometimes can also refer to restructuring as a result of bankruptcy.

Normally, organization change for the good and benefits of the organization but sad to say sometimes for the employees who are affected by changes may not be good for them. Due to change, some employee’s services might not be needed anymore so the change is not good for those affected employees. It needs a powerful force for a company to be change. It also needs a clear vision on where the new direction of the organization.

Most of the scenario where there is change is when the organization has a new management; normally there will be a lot of movement between positions and there are a lot of new people (work force) coming in the organization. This will lead sometime so disorientation since they try to cope up with each other or trying to follow the new culture that the new management is going to implement in the work place. The other scenario will be if the company is losing and it needs an abrupt decision or course of actions. Normally the solution is changing the business operations or replaces the people who will execute the business operations more efficiently. The third scenario will be, if the company sees a new opportunity to widen the business operations. In order to grab that opportunity, the company must adopt to it and therefore the organization much undergone a transition to meet the new demands of that opportunity.

Organizational change must be initiated by the higher management for the lower positions to follow it without or hesitation on their part. Since the confidence an trust of the employees are on them.

Where I worked before and now, I have seen a lot of change. Almost all of the change I seen is for the betterment of our Organization. And you know; not only the organization benefits from the changed but also a lot of employee are great full of it. It is normal that the employees are so hesitate what might the change might bring or there are doubts on the back of their mind. But as soon the transitions starts and they taste the sweetness it might bring to the employee and as well as to the company they will work hard to finish the transition.

"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up."

But for me, no doubt that the Organization must change to sees new opportunity and keep up the demand of this ever changing world and economy. Clients always needs something new.

Passive-Aggressive Organization

“Even one bad apple can not only spoil, but destroy the barrel”.

In a passive-aggressive organization based on my quick googling (Mga 1,640,000 Na resulta 0.34 segundo) lets see the 7 Traits of a Highly Passive-Aggressive Organization.

1. Senior management leaves unclear lines as to where accountability lies.

2. Employees put forth only enough effort to look compliant.

3. Managers are absolved for almost anything they do.

4. Employees wait interminably for a "project go ahead," and then their actions are accompanied by a sea of second guessing.

5. To learn, to share and to achieve are actions that are not encouraged.

6. There is either too much or too little control at the top.

7. Employees can't understand why their promising projects can't get traction.

Source:

(http://www.hospitalimpact.org/index.php/leadership/2007/04/23/the_passive_agressive_organization)

1. Senior management leaves unclear lines as to where accountability lies.

-these will lead to decisions that will later on be overridden by higher authority and if it fails the blame will be on someone else because there is no one who is really in charge for the course of action to be taken.

2. Employees put forth only enough effort to look compliant.

-Too many excuses why the task was not done in time or making complaint why the task was given to him or complaining if this task is really a priority.

3. Managers are absolved for almost anything they do.

- Manager is always right with their decision on all cases. They are free from guilt or blame or their consequences with their actions.

4. Employees wait interminably for a "project go ahead," and then their actions are accompanied by a sea of second guessing.

-

5. To learn, to share and to achieve are actions that are not encouraged.

-Employees were working to do best and yet there are no even a reward once the job was completed or even a recognition where their work. Sometimes for us even the smallest congratulation will mean something to you. Right?!

7. Employees can't understand why their promising projects can't get traction.

- sometimes when somebody present a better idea or suggestion it seems that the top management seems to accept the suggestion but sooner or later it will not be implemented or be followed and you will wonder why. Because maybe there is something else happening behind close doors meeting.

Of all the facts and observation about this passive-aggressive organization though these 7 traits of being a passive-aggressive organization actually occasionally occur in my organization but still I cannot tell that my organization is a passive-aggressive organization and I think this is the same problem with other company because we cannot really get rid of the bad apples during when we harvest the apples from the tree. This type of organization can be easily cured by selecting those spoil apple before it starts to spoil the remaining good apples in the basket.

Organizational Empowerment-[for the betterment]

Once said "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."- This phrase what I always remember about the word "empowerment". Empowerment is defined as "the freedom and the ability of employees to make decisions and commitments. We know that a good manager is expected to assist employees to improve job success by supporting, training, leading and giving advice but I think the power that managers have should be shared also with their employees with confidence and trust that will give their employee an inspiration, and support to their company. In other words, it means giving employees the authority, opportunity, and motivation to take initiative to solve organizational problems on their own power.

Now, let’s that a look on the actual settings we have in our own organization we are in now. Are we an empowered individual employee?! Well me I think I am because based on our daily routine we are given a freedom to do our task and take corrective actions whenever problems arise, applying changes whenever necessary. And I think this is the same almost with other organization in Mindanao Companies and Organization/Institutions. This is because the upper management is so busy also with their task at hand. So, being an empowered employee it gives us the ability and the opportunity to become a self-reliant. As a result the company’s overall output increases as their employee become more effective in their work assigned.

But empowering employees also pose some issues. The empowered employee also tends to abuse their given temporary powers by doing things beyond the interest of the company or institutions. (dami nyan dito sa pinas) or since the empowered employee has the autonomous to do their work they tends to become relax and forgot their primary task.

Knowing the pros and cons of idea of empowering the employee it is still a big factor that the management still has a check and balance mechanism to make sure that the flow and order or the temporary power given the employee will not be abused.

So, let’s empowered our employees and let’s draw out the best in them.

Thoughts on Organizational Analysis

For many years, Business Institutions and Organizations struggles to be the best in the business sector they are in. Producing and developing plans and business strategy to gain strategic advantages over their competitors. Business establishment battled to standardizing their processes and even automating their processes. I believed the organization's success depends on innovation, make innovation a strategic imperative and even incorporating a mandate for innovation into their organizations' mission statements. For a business to grows, it is very important for the owners to analysis its organization/business. Set Visions and Missions to have a concrete direction of progress. Set attainable Goals as key indicators that we are moving in achieving the Vision and Missions of the company or business and in this matter for me, I think Information Technology has a great influence in Organizational Innovations in exploring new ways and finding solutions to many problems an Organization is facing.

But knowing all this fact, the question now is how can we applied this to our respective institutions or organization we are in. Maybe I'll just start with internalizing and believing to our Vision and Mission of our company. Knowing why our institution exist and what we are trying to accomplished as employees to this institutions or organizations. I think doing that gives us sense of what we are trying to do everyday aside from working to have money to spend or support our responsibilities to our family.

Employees as like the heart and souls of a business establishment or company. guided and bounded by the MISSION and VISIONS of the company set forth. They where the one you will determine the success and failure of the business. Aside from the fact that the employee has the responsibility to do his/her task or job assigned that is why we need to work as hard as we can but I rather do this because this job that I have is the one of the primary source of my income I needed for day to day spending. If your company is doing a good job then for sure all of the employees in that company will have a taste of that success also.

Organizational Change

Managers Vs Leaders

Last time I had this in our class we had a great debate regarding this idea MANAGERS vs LEADERS. As the businesses now a days are battling for success and dominance, comes the need for the business owners to hire people who can manage and lead the growing companies, but this growing need also raises some potential questions: Can anyone become a leader or a manager? Is there a difference between the Managers and Leaders? Can people be trained to become leaders or managers? Just like many other questions that might be asked in business; these questions have no definite answer. But before we go into details about Manager and Leader let's begin first by acknowledging the definitions of the two root words; the word manages means to handle, where as the word lead means to go. Similarly as the two words have different definitions, they also have different purposes. Some said, "Any company that cannot imagine the future won't be around to enjoy it." Therefore before any manager or leader can affect changes in their business they have to do what describes as visioning; they must mentally look into what they want to see as the potential outcome of any given situation.

Managers are concerned with the problem at hand. They focus on what has to be done. Leaders on the other hand, notice what has to be done, but spend their time figuring out how to get it done. Managers vision the destination; leaders vision how to get there. To be an effective leader it is important to focus on the gritty details of a situation, look for opportunities and how to achieve them. Visioning cannot be taught but can be developed. Suggests people start from the end and works backwards, or thinks to them "what will this team accomplish because of me?" Leadership is all about taking an organization to a place it would not have otherwise gone without you, in a value-adding, measurable way. When you vision, you think your way into a situation and it... Leadership can be seen as performing the influencing function of management, largely involved in goals setting and motivating people to achieve them. Leaders decide ‘where we are going’ and influence people to take that particular direction, rather than describe ‘how we are going to get there’. Inspired leaders are not necessarily good organizers and excellent managers. The most effective managers are also leaders, and the quality of leadership has become and increasingly important part of management ability.

“Managers are people who do things right and Leaders are people who do the right things”

Being a leader requires having passion, authenticity, integrity, and ethics as the foundation to become an effective leader upon which we lay the basis to bring out change. And these are personal choices, not simply what we come to know by studying about leaders.

Ok. Let’s ask our selves, what is our role in our institution we are currently connected right now? Are we a leader or a manager? In answering this, let’s not forget being a Leader or a Manager doesn’t attach to a particular position. It means it’s somewhat a characteristic of you. Are we a person that do the things right?! Or a we a person that always find a new ways to do the things right.

I think these two characteristics cannot be compare which is better because these two characteristics have two different task and responsibility to take care of. Rather than finding what is better between the two I think it is nice to make these two as a compliment characteristic to make us a better employee in our Institution today. So simply, become a Manager in your respective departments or sections and be a leader for your co-office mates and co-workers (Easier said than done :).

But now a days we are so busy in our personal life as well as to our busy schedule in work, we have a little time to take some new or try to implement innovations in our respective institutions unless it requires to do so. So being a manager and a leader is in you, its about your willingness to become a leader or a manager. Even in our busy schedule lets not still forget our responsibility to contribute in the development of our institutions. Every little thing we do it helps.