Saskia.Parkerson Author

This week, your task is to find an article or web page on organizational change.   Describe one thing you found which you believe will assist with cultural change.   Explain why.   Be sure to include your citation.

The site that I found includes 4 tips for managing organizational change. The most important thing to remember in the company is that change will happen, and the best way to ensure that your company is ready to prepare for those inevitable changes. This site gives tips and tricks on how to prepare and work with those incoming changes. The four changes that were pointed out on this site are,

1. Start with a small group
2. Identify the keystone change
3. Network the movement
4. Surviving victory

These four tips once reading into them really makes sense, once you know a change is happening, start with a small group, tell them about the change, tell them what to expect from the change, and let that group be the trend setters for the rest of the company. In the end be sure to make sure to celebrate a successful changeover.

After reading page 333, “To Get the Most Out of Teams, Empower Them.” I choose the counterpoint, the reason that I chose this counterpoint is that the first thing that the book states is that empowerment is not a cure all for a company. Although, there are benefits that come from empowering your subordinates, there are just certain things that you can not improve just by empowering your employees. For example, you have a great employee a self starter, and you empower this employee to keep doing what he/she is doing they will do so. On the other hand, when you have an employee who is not as as motivated and you empower them it may actually encourage them to do less work. This can definitely not a solve all just like the book stated. The empowerment of good employees vs. bad employees can really make it or break it when it comes to that decision on whether or not you will empower that individual.

Although goal setting can cause anxiety as mentioned in the reading on page 234 of the book, this anxiety can also lead people to work harder for what they want. We are told all throughout our life that you have to set goals, that you have to reach those goals. To me personally reaching those goals is what got me to where I am today. In high school my goal was to graduate with a 4.0 and with that goal being set I was able to not only accomplish that but I was able to gain more experiences and future job opportunities. The importance of goal setting can be the difference between taking that extra step and just letting things slide that you would not normally if you had those goals set ahead of time. These goals will push people to reach for things that they would normally not have been reached. Goals have personally helped me reach for things I would not normally have. For instance, I am an enlisted member, but my goal is to commission as soon as I get my BA, setting this goal has made me work hard for what I want, has encouraged me to take more classes to knock things out more quickly.

What is your biggest take away from this chapter on Personality and Values?   How will you use it as a supervisor in the future?

Leading a team and being a Supervisor is more than just giving directions. There are many aspects that are important when it comes to leading your team to success. One of the biggest things that a supervisor needs to understand when they are new to a roll is how to work with all personalities and values that their team members will have. Although in a perfect world we would have a team that gets a long great, that never clashes, and that always completes work on time. But this is not the case when it comes to the real world. Everyone is different which means that their actions, their thoughts, and their personality will eventually clash with someone else on the team. Being a good supervisor is seeing those things happening and figuring out a way to stop it before it completely destroys the entirety of the team itself. Building relationships in business with your subordinates is very important, they need to be able to trust you no matter what the situation is. That is the responsibility of a supervisor and the best way to ensure that is to know how your subordinates act, what their personalities are and what they value.

When it comes to working, I have been working since age 10. I have gone through many supervisors and had many different responses to the way that I was supervised. A recent job that I have had that I was very satisfied and loved my work which let me have a good attitude about it. This was my 5 years at Spirit Halloween. I loved everything about that job, the people, the work, the customers, and the pure joy that I had while working there. This job gave me something to look forward too. I worked there everyday from a range of 5-10 hours for months on end. But because I loved the work I did not mind the hours. The late nights closing or dealing with the unhappy customers. But because I have a great manager I was happy with the work I was doing and more then content doing the work that nobody else wanted to do. This job was an incredible job, and I learned many things from my supervisors there. They were kind, they listened, but they also stuck to their words. The biggest thing I remember from that job is that they made everyone feel welcomed and a part of the family. I was able to make lifelong friends with the managers that I had there, well as soon as I became a manager as well.

For a job that I have had that I was dissatisfied with and although I have had tried time after time again, I have gotten a poor attitude towards is actually my current job. I have worked my butt off for 3 years there, and recently it seems that all I can do is mess things up, no matter how many tasks I complete there just seems to be something else I am doing wrong. Although my direct supervisor has my back and keeps defending me, the other leadership has not stopped looking at me to try and find something new to complain about. Instead of telling me things as they were happening, they are waiting until now to go nit pick everything that I have been doing. This is probably the worst thing they could have done, they have caused me to look at different jobs around the wing and has made me want to do less work overall. But because I am who I am I still complete all my tasks on time or before time. There are different kinds of management that people respond to, I am one of those people that responds to a manager who tells me task but lets me figure out how I want to do the tasks.