Getting ready to jump in!

I have been thinking about what it will look like to visit the organization we, Monica and I, will be observing. We have made the first step by having my husband contact one of the managers (he does computer work for this company - but is not a full fledge employee) to see if it would be okay to visit, observe, and interview. The manager said that would be fine but wanted more information. Monica and composed an email to the manager and sent it today. Our plan is to do an initial visit Tuesday morning. We plan to have questions all ready to go by the end of the class tomorrow.

As I read this weeks articles on Organizational Intervention I am thinking about the questions that we may want to ask the staff. As most of the articles listed in the syllabus were not accessible, I did a Google Search and am reading articles that pop up.

One such article is Human Resource Tips - How to Initiate Organizational Intervention by Benjamin Nash editor-in-chief of DailyHRTips.comfound that I found at EZine@rticles. His tips are:

1. Are You Ready to Rumble? In order to create change there needs to be a readiness and openness to change. There needs to be a general dissatisfaction within the organization for employees to have the desire and willingness to want change.

2. Do you have the tools needed? If change is desired but the leadership does not have the skill to lead the change, or understand the change, then it can be a disastrous move. They need to make sure that there is someone who is knowledgeable and willing to see the change to the end.

3. What is the Back-up Plan?
Be aware that plans may need amending or even scrapped. Have a back-up plan. This reminds me of the book we are reading "Whatever it Takes" where the authors recognize that a plan for change may have challenges and that it is important to be flexible and work through the challenges, even if it is about starting over. This is how you lead a learning organization.

4. Culture Matters.
He says to make sure that any change initiated accounts for cultural values of the organization and the people who work there. Without accounting for culture change will to happen. This reminds me of what we have discussed in this class - to pay attention to the culture of the organization that we observe!

I am getting both anxious and excited to begin this journey!

How to observe an organization - my current thoughts and reactions

I am thinking that after tonight's class as afterwards we should be going out and starting our observations of an organization. After reading the material and talking about what to look for in class I am more intimidated about the process than I would have if I had gone blindly. I think I am nervous about the process because now I know how much I don't know!

So, what have I learned so far? What are some of the things I should look for?

Lewin's leadership styles, field thoery, and whole picture
Think about how he says that one cannot understand an organization unless you try to change it - I so get this now as I have made changes in my organization!

Schon's learning systems - double loop and organizational leraning and refelction action to professional activiity.

Cooperrider's appreciative inquiry as presented by Bushe in his article about changing social sytems.

Schein's organizational culture.

And all that has been discussed in class:
Look for technology, values, behaviors, beliefs and value of what is important (unspoken norms)
Shared meaning
Symbols, rituals, ceremonies, stories, routines

AND how it ties in with our other class about leading a learning organization!

Boleman and Deal's four frames: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic. Also, how making the organization as simple as possible, but no simpler. Key characteristics: organizations are complex, surprising, deceptive, and ambiguous!

Peter Senge's definition of a learning organzation - these organziations are flexible, adaptive, and productive. They will excel during rapid change.

Oh boy, I guess it is time to jump in!

"Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process." Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)

I am fascinated by Kurt Lewin's work. I have been feeling when the subject of dissertation topic is discussed and need some help focusing. I am inspired by Lewin's concept of social psychology, as he is known to be the father of the field, and may want to use his concepts to help shape whatever it is I select to hone in on for my topic. "To understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings," Gordan Allport. 

I am interested in how first year students feel, interact with, and deal with students different from themselves, especially heterosexual White students with students of color and students who identify as part of the LGBT community as they begin their higher education career at UCSB.  It seems to me that social psychology is a perfect fit to use to study these first year students as it focuses on situations and employs scientific methods and empirical study of social phenomena. This discipline looks at the impact that social the social environment and interaction has on attitudes and behaviors. 

In addition to the potential of Lewin helping me shape the study of my dissertation, I believe he provides excellent insight on how to approach our class project of observing an organization. First, the observance of the type of leadership that plays out in the organization is important - is it authoritative, democratic, or Laissez-Faire? Is it different amongst departments supervisors, teams?

Lewin makes the case to look at the whole by investigating the conditions and forces which bring about change or resist changing groups. His field theory that the "proposition that human behavior is the function of both the person and the environment." This can be expressed in symbolistic terms: B = f (P,E). This means that one's behavior relates to both one's personal characteristics and to the social situation in which one finds one self. So, when we are looking at an organization, we need to be thinking  about why a person believes and acts the way he or she does - what are the influences and how does this person fit into the whole picture and how do we figure that out?

Edgar Schein writes that he believes Lewin correct in how to approach consulting work from a clinical perspective. It starts with the assumption that everything done with a client system is an intervention, and, unless one intervenes, there is no learning of some of the essential dynamics of the systems really are. One needs to be cognizant that the interview itself can change the system and the nature of that change will provide some important data about how the system works, as stated by Schein.

Schein's concept of process consultation is a mode of inquiry to help learn enough about the system to understand where it needs help. It is a philosophy that acknowledges that the consultant is not an expert on anything - operating from a place of ignorance. This helps the interviewer pave the way to ask enough questions to genuinely understand what is going on (or the problem) to make recommendations, which is beyond the scope of our assignment.

Lewin states that "One cannot understand an organization without trying to change it." I think our role as observers will be to push at change by asking questions and seeing how the interviewees react. We are not looking to interfere with operations, but now I understand how we can intervene by simply being there.

Forming/Storming/Norming/Performing & The Culture of Admissions compared to Office of Student Life

I teach a leadership course in the Education with two colleagues titled Introduction to Leadership (ED 173). We incorporate theory with experiential activity. The students participate in a group project and are required to write a final paper reflecting on the theory they are introduced to in relation to their experiences with their group. One lecture I present is on group development and I focus on Tuckman's theory of Group Development. I think because of the simplicity of the theory and the ease of applying the components this theory tends to be one of the more popular students refer to in their papers. I plan to replace one of the readings for ED 173 with the one we were required to read. In addition to that reading, the article about managing groups is meaningful to the work we do in ED 173 and although I think we already do a good job with setting up the groups for class and incorporate many of the concepts the article suggests, there are some additional things I read about that I plan to use as well - specifically the What to Do Before Putting Groups Together.

Edward H. Schein introduces culture as customs, rights, values, norms, behaviors, patterns, rituals, and traditions of an organization. The fully understand the idea of the culture of organizations I thought about the differences of the culture in the works places I am most familiar with - Office of Admissions where I spent 17 years and the Office of Student Life where I am in the middle of my third year.

I have thought about the differences between the two office  an interesting exercise to practice the idea of organizational culture. This is what I discovered:

Admissions - larger staff, several levels of authority, communication top down, 8 - 5 norm, more isolated from campus as a whole, focus on perspective students, and more resistance to change

Office of Student Life - suite of offices with different focuses, not always knowing what office neighbor working on, more integrated into campus, work closely with enrolled students, deals with change regularly, and work schedules vary.