Organization Management
Transformational Change
Transformational change within an organization connotes a movement within the organization following significant changes in the underlying systems and methodologies that have been employed by the organization in the past. Noteworthy, transformational change, in essence, encompasses the entire organization and is sanctioned over a considerable length of time. Institutions are under constant changes in the course of their existence. However, these changes don’t necessarily translate into significant differences in the cultures of the organization as the changes may occur in isolation in the various segments of the organization or on the basis of a lack of response from the organization environment to the changes. The culture of the organization or institution must be altered through the change in specific fundamental assumptions and institutional behaviors, processes, and products and services for a change to be regarded as truly transformational in an organization. Hence, a transformational change in an organization is deep and pervasive and affects the entire organization apart from being an intentional process that occurs consistently over a considerable (Eckel, Hill, & Green, 1998).
Bolden and company portend that change management is a commonly discussed strategy by organizations that aim to transform in an effort to actualizing their goals (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano and Dennison 2003, pp 35). Change is inevitable for institutions and organizations as a result of technological progress and the increasing impetus for organizations to restructure reengineer and transform their organizational culture so as to adapt to the changes in the industry. Consequently, change management, which encompasses transformational change within the organization, implies that institutions and organizations have no alternative but to focus resources in altering their systems and structures in an effort to maintain productivity, performance, and growth.
Empowerment
Empowerment as a philosophy is hinged on the notion of the enrichment of people’s jobs and, according them the authority to exercise control and power over their job responsibilities and also responsibilities for the outcomes of their job efforts (Venkat Ratnam, 2006). An organization that empowers its employees has an emphasis on autonomy, participation of individual employees and the movement of proper information. Singh (2003) portends that for an organization to realize or achieve empowerment of its employees In order to achieve employee empowerment, it is the mandate of the executives to ensure that the employee have the correct mix or combination of information, authority, knowledge, power and rewards which give them more enthusiasm to work more. Therefore, the importance of empowerment in an organization is evident in the areas of establishing autonomy for the employees, enables the employees to share responsibilities and power at various hierarchies within the organization and engender self-esteem among the employees.
According to Yari (2007), the empowerment of employees faces the pertinent challenge of a lack of adequate and reliable scientific research and resources and the unavailability of a trusted paradigm in the execution of empowerment strategies and plans within an organization. Yuri further posits that the lack of proper research on employee empowerment has resulted in many managers avoiding to implement empowerment programs and strategies within their organizations. Thus, empowerment may accord employees the authority to implement their ideas in the organization knowing all to well that they bear the responsibility of the outcomes from the empowerment. Noteworthy, empowerment, as a possible advantage to organizations offers no tangible way for its outcomes to be measured since it is too subjective and complex.
Organizational Learning
According to Argote and Miron-Spektor (2011), organizational experience interacts with the context of the organization for knowledge creation. An organization’s external environment is under constant change. Consequently, a learning organization can create important competitive advantage. Noteworthy, the concept of organization learning has been under criticisms for its lack of proper guidelines and instruments on its development. In as much as it can be expected that their is clear guidelines regarding the organization process in the creation of the learning organization, these clear guidelines do not exist according to Kline and Saunders (2010).
According to Pedler and company (1991), a learning organization is characterized by its facilitation of the learning process of the members of the organization and also advances a conscious transformation of the organization and the context of the organization. On the other hand, Garvin (2003) posits that a learning organization is one that is skilled at the creation, acquisition, interpretation, transfer and retainment of knowledge for the purpose of the modification of employee behaviour so as to reflect new knowledge and insights.
Also, according to Jashapara (2004), learning organization is a way by organizations to maintain competitiveness in the modern complex external and internal environments in which aspects as the assumptions of planning are changing continuously. According to Senge (1990), there are five elements which are vital for the learning organization. These elements are the establishment of a shared vision, personal mastery, working with mental models, team learning, and systems thinking. Noteworthy, Senge fails to structure the elements within a framework and also fails to provide a clear representation of the associations between the five elements. Importantly, the model introduces the aspect of systemic thinking in in the learning organization and identifies it as an element that affects the other elements.
Personal/Individual Learning
Mullin (2010)portends that individual learning is life continuous process which is viatal for employees to cope with the changes inherent in the nature of organizations. Moreover, the significance of people as a resource in an organization renders individual learning a critical area of research (Senior and Swailes, 2010). Individuals are at the center of organization changes and usually affect the process of change in an organization through their personal abilities and attitudes towards change. Furthermore, according to Buchanan and Huczynski (2010), the learning process within an organization is characterized by the acquisition experiences which are based on knowledge and necessitate change in the behaviour of individuals within the organization. Moreover, Hendry (1996), posits that the learning process in an organization can be regarded as a redirection of the attention of people within the organization and that the most significant aspect of change within an organization and the process of learning within an organization is the commencement of the processes. According to Kim (1993), organizations eventually learn through individual employees which underscores the importance of individual learning theories in organization learning although the entire organization learning is a more complex process and is characterized by dynamism beyond the idea of enlarged theories of individual learning. According to Campbell and Armstrong (2013), the consideration of vital barriers and enablers is necessarily in both individual and organization learning. Moreover, according to Tynjälä (2013), the vital barriers and enablers in personal and organization learning are categorized into Lerner factors and learning context factors. Noteworthy, the author further portends that the lerner factors which are subjective encompasses al the positive enabler and the adverse or negative barriers that emanate from the learners themselves, their knowledge at a personal level, experiences, abilities and also their motivations. Also, in as much as the objective learning context encompasses all positive (enablers) and
negative (barriers) factors that contextually emanate from the learner during the learning process like through fellow employees, the structure of the company, working environment and the rules in the work environment.
Group Learning
There exist notable inconsistencies in the concept of group learning since according to Rosenthal and Rosnow (1991) and an ultimate unifying perspective of the idea of group learning would aid the comprehension of the phenomenon as pertaining to an organization. The concept of group learning has been been defined by Argote, Gruen-feld and Naquin (2001) as the sum of activities through which an individual undergoes the process of acquisition, sharing and combination of knowledge in a combined experience with other people in a group. Moreover, group-level
learning us mainly a combination of interpretation and integration processes (Crossan, Lane, &
White, 1999).
The advancement of change a group’s repertoire of potential behavior a connotation of as group learning the implicit adoption of a cognitive
approach is necessary in consistency with general trends in organization behavior according to Ilgen and Klein (1989). Moreover, a cognitive approach is appropriate since the proceation is essentially a social process amd thus group learning is a necessary process owing to the complexity and the volume of employees within an organization. The benefits uply converged with individual learning. The author further portends that the team learning cycle commences with the current activities of a team that are improved after evaluation. The evaluation provides a mutual comprehension of the situation at the present for the team members and is a an opportunity for the setting of the future state by the team. Also, Ruohotie (1997) posits that aspects of group learning such as group discussions, experience sharing is critical in exposing and clarifying tacit
knowledge.
Senge (1990) also argues that the foundation of learning in organizations are teams. Hence, group
thinking in which defensive barriers have been eliminated enhance the growth of the individual within the organization. Moreover, Goh (1998) posits that teamworkis the core building block for learning organisations as it converges the collective skills of people and emphasized the necessity of a cross-functional teams the most effectiveness of teams.
Learning
Nonaka and Takeuchi (2007) define a knowledge-creating company as an organisation with the capacity to advance innovation continuously the commitment of the employees to the organisation and the mission of the organization which occurs through the creation and availability of personal knowledge at all the levels in the organization. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) portend that knowledge creation by the organization starts with the process of socialization characterized by sharing of experiences which is followed by Externalization which is the sytem entailing the creation of content and stimulated by dialogue and reflection. Next step is the process of Combination which is the transformation of systemizing concepts into a system of knowledge. Finally, the process of internationalization which is the application of learned knowledge into practice
is the process of applying what has been learned into practice.
Gumusluoglu (2009) portends that the learning process is a change in the ability and capacity of individuals to respond to the demands of a task or the pressure of the environment through various methods. In general, learning which is knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization of the acquired knowledge.
Coaching
Coaching in organization’s has risen in prominence in the current business environment as more organizations are employing coaching to improve performance, develop skills, anf establish the facilitation of the development of leadership (Hamlin et al. 2011). Vidal-Salazar and colleges (2012) posits that coaching has a positive impact on change in the organization. Also, Baron and Morin (2010) argue that coaching portends a practical effect on the establishment of strong self-efficacy which aids in the effective performance of tasks. Coaching as an activity by the management is critical in the promotion of change in the organization and ensures sustainability according to Bozer and colleagues
(2013).
Page and de Haan 2014 portend that coaching is an interactive method of organizational learning and the development of leadership. The author further portends that coaching is vital in enhancing behavioral change by the the executive via self-awareness and learning and thus contributing to the success of individuals and the entire organization. According to Connor and Pokora (2007), coaching can be employed to enhance team work for existing groups and the development of new teams and also the improvement of communication skills between the leaders of the team apart from establishing cross boundary
teams. The coaching process also promotes entrepreneurial skills development via the facilitation of personal strategic vision implementation.
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