Organizational Clarity: Critical issues about data collection

In this forum, we'll discuss critical issues about data collection as they relate to our reading in this Module. I'll post a question to start our discussion and please chime in with your ideas and opinions. Feel free to add additional questions to generate discussion. Only start a new thread if you want to post a new question. To answer questions, click on the thread title and then reply.

Survey design by nature has several limitations, one being the response rates typically are low -- maybe 15-28% depending on sample population and also I would add culture of the sample org culture. What increases the response would be clarity and simplicity and the message of how and why the data is being collected

However, if one organization has a low tolerance for technology any survey given out will usually be on paper reducing the confidentiality of and likelihood that the survey would be taken. Plus, these surveys are could be collected by staff who will read the survey responses and possibly ask publicly why an individual has answered a certain way to the questions upon it. This action carried out about the management of the department also deters participation, creating a negative organizational culture. This air of intimidation can play a heavy factor in survey response rate.

Reference
Anderson, D. L. (2013). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.

Organizational Clarity: Leadership styles -Visionary Leadership

This assignment for Organizational Development touched upon different leadership styles and what I would consider is my leadership style. Also, why I would be comfortable implementing this leadership style in the workplace or in my career in the near future and why it should be implemented. I have posted the assignment below:

Well, in the same theme as my first posting I consider my leadership style more in the area of the Visionary Leadership as I stated before my style as I have gotten (way) older is one of inclusion instead of exclusion, I prefer to build up the people around me than follow a one goal, one vision purpose (Cameron, & Green, 2015). Getting people on board and developing their professional skills is very important for any organization to grow and prosper.

Although it is important to have direction in an organization, relying on the members there within is also important, meaning that you must be able to trust your employees to do their job, instead of micromanaging them to do what it is you hired them to do. This type of leadership style also builds upon the integrity and respect of the individual to do the right thing for the organization as a whole.  Creating a “company culture” that builds trust and communication, which then can lead (as I stated before) to an atmosphere of positive morale and innovation that will help the organization overcome issues that may plague it. The relationship builds on trust and personal/professional development assist a leader when they need to “see” what others see and develop solutions in areas they themselves are not too familiar with (Cameron, & Green, 2015).  Plus, innovation of course, buffers an organization against negative changes within the marketplace or help it develop new products/service that will give it an advantage over the competition, thereby leading to new sources of revenue.

Also, this leadership style personalizes the employees instead of look at theme as mere cog in the machine, that personalization to me, means that the organization wants to keep you around and understands that you are essential to its profit margin than simply being replaceable. With this type of leadership an organization essentially values the employee’s experience whether it is in areas of productivity, to problem solving or even developing market plans, the organization, wants to the employee to reach the highest potential in each area.  It’s my experience when management develops their employees they stick around longer, work harder and become more knowledge in the field of their expertise. These managers usually lead teams that are very successful in the past organizations I have worked for and are usually the ones that are most imitated.

However, this is more of a personality characteristic than a leadership style, building trust with others, a rapport and helping them grow professional although to me, is essential with working with others, is not always something that many of the managers I worked with, chose to do. Therefore, leading to high turnover rates, or migrating from one crisis to another on a daily basis without any end or positive turnaround in sight for the organization. I always felt this was a very tiring way to manage people (adults), it has been my experience to find out what motivates an individual, then personalize a goal for an activity’s completion and you will be to get a 110% every time out of an employee. Meanwhile you can be developing skills that will make the employee more productive and enhance their problem-solving skills in ways the organization and (yourself) as a manager can benefit from.

Reference
Cameron, Esther, and Mike Green. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers, 2015.

Organizational Developmental: A trip to Boston pt 3

To help combat the boredom that occurs after hours during an out of state event for your employees/team it is best to research events during the date(s) of the event, retail shops or restaurants nearby, to even different mode of transportation. This information can be used for team building events, ways for the team members to blow off steam. Also, this information can be used to solidify or build relationships between managers and their team.

Nothing informs an employee that you have their best interests at heart than informing them of either the respective hotspots near the venue you are staying at, or maybe where to grab the best burger. So long as it shows that the leaders who organized the trip and event were thinking of more than just the event itself. Empathy towards the employees you dragged across state lines to even five blocks down the street goes a long way.

It builds trust, comradery and a healthy dose of positivity in an event that employees/team members could just be viewing as a necessary evil to get a couple overtime hours in order to pay off some bills. The little extras can go a long way, even if you do see an immediate return it creates an organizational culture that will expect more and do more (production wise) in the future.

Organizational Developmental: A trip to Boston pt 2

I wanted to actually go through and have a non-eventful trip. And try to learn something about a process called onboarding along the way to increase my professional skill set. Of course, things do not go as planned and it made the event more complicated than it needed to be unfortunately things happen or turn out like that. Being the new person, I really could not just take control or offer too many suggestions because I did not have all the data to give a proper assessment. As the say experience is the best teacher and within this event there were a lot of issues that occurred that I believe could be easily handled or eliminated from occurring the next time around.

From an organizational development perspective, it is required, necessary to baby step and focus on smaller problems or issues that can be fixed immediately, in a short span of time or with a limited amount other resources. I realize that I went through a crash course of training but in the near future I will be assigned to different events on my own. And after I lose the training wheels I will be able to make adjustments or add certain accompaniments that will streamline some of the processes that I immediately identified as ineffective or not as efficient. In other words, it is important as you start your own training process in an organization to not try to reinvent the wheel in your first couple of months there.

Because as much as you want to change the world there is simply too many x-factors or variables to truly state definitively that the "solutions" you are proposing are correct or would be effective. With time and some trial and error you can develop the right methodology or procedures that will make your organization a better place it simply takes time, patience and a couple of implementations to get it right.

Organizational Development: Challenging Questions about Data Collection

During an Organizational Development class, it was asked about our take on how to collect data or feedback from stakeholders within a corporate environment and during the class we needed to interact via an online discussion. Every once in a while, we have to pose questions to one another, in this post I have posted the question and my response to that question. I hope the interactions below assist in research, or even understanding the concepts of the data collection that engage stakeholders in a positive manner and what from some academic sense future practitioners think of these concepts and the arenas it can be used in.

Question: When maintaining open communications can often replace surveys. However, if I am seeking to gain collective insights and opinion on a program or service, I like to use the survey approach. Remember though that surveys in fact seek the information that we want to know, not necessarily the information that people want to share. This is the fine balance that you need to maintain when it comes to a survey design when seeking information. 

Anytime we have a question or a problem that requires input from others, it seems that we rush to create a survey. When exactly should we use surveys to collect data? What tools can we use to create better surveys?

I usually think of using surveys in larger organizations like a for profit institution, or an organization that is global, dealing with larger group of people with different cultural and geographical backgrounds, I would want to ask specific questions that are organization based without any leeway for interpretation or the introduction of personal opinion. I would also use surveys to clarify or support what was covered during another data gathering interactions such as a focus group or interview, that way it can lessen the bias in reporting the data given by the employee(s).

The only way I can think of creating a better survey is to use video or audio presentations coupled with the survey to make the person taking the survey more engaged and increase the likelihood of future buy ins for the audience the survey is intended for.

Organizational Development- Data collection methods

One of the data collection (gathering) methods I am most familiar with, are electronic surveys/questionnaires  (Anderson, 2013). This is a great icebreaker to start the discussion about daily work flows to what a team should order for lunch during a team building exercise. Also, with electronic surveys can be coupled with other data gathering methods fairly easy without that much setup. For example, if you require members of a focus group to complete a survey about what was discussed or how effective the meeting was before they leave the group not only have you increased the response rate but also increase the amount of data you gathered (Anderson, 2013).

Whenever I saw electronic surveys used as icebreakers to other topics or used with other data gathering methods in the workplace I have noticed that participation from employees increases the next time a survey is given. I have even created two electronic surveys via survey monkey for a Final project in my Human Performance Improvement class, although the electronic surveys were not used, I found that it was simple to create and not as time-consuming as if I was required to do the other data collecting methods. However, I feel that if I could correlate those two electronic surveys with another data collection methods I would have had more success with my response rate and commitment for those reviewing my work.

My question is when using electronic surveys as a primary data collection method what other method would you use as an additional method to increase the response rate (commitment) or would you just follow up with another survey? Also, how would you ensure the probability of following up with the survey takers if you coupled it with another data collection method?

Reference
Anderson, D. L. (2013). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.

Organizational Development-Toys R Us

When it comes to Toys r us going out of business I am happy, and I am sad, now coming from someone with a Masters in OD (Organizational Development) that must sound fairly “simple” and I admit it is. I am sad because a big part of my childhood and Americana is gone from the retail landscape. I still remember begging my mom to take 25 minutes into the suburbs to get the newest Universal Monsters action figures and playset. It was a place of wonder and imagination, in fact I still have one of those figures still.

But over the years a lot of the wonder and imagination Toys R US created faded, not because kids got involved in video games and the toy industry suffered. No, they sold video games at various Toys R US locations, and at any location you could find various adults spending their paychecks on not only video games but action (the collector’s type) figures as well.  The problems were more than that from expensive prices, lack of sales and advertisement, to even a lack of energy within the stores. Now these are off the top of my head, and I would not get into the condition of the packaging of anything I bought at (or nearly bought) Toys R US. Most of the items looked like they were used as footballs by store staff and with the attitudes they exhibited they truly must have.

I could say only there were only few other big chains that had as many disgruntled employees as Toys R US, but only a few. So, I am fairly happy that they have gone out of business because the company that went out of business in 2018 was destroying my recollections of the company that gave me and a lot of other children hours of fun with the products they sold years ago. Going by a model like Amazon the company could have rebounded if they would have made their stores “must see locations of wonder” they would have gotten bodies into their stores, along with their dollars. But none of that happened the company seemly filed bankruptcy and went about business as usual, then they had to close, duh.

I was not pleased with Toys R US when it closed but I was still happy. Much like that always-failing ex that you hear stories about how bad they are doing after you dumped them, you wonder where it all went wrong, or maybe it was always there and no one saw it coming. With Toys R US the “writing was on the wall” and the chain could not have ended their time in the retail marker any sooner. My hope is that all those employees can find jobs doing something that pays the bills or that they love to do. Meanwhile I also hope this opens up customers to those smaller online and mom and pop stores that did not get noticed before, with the shadows of the combined might of Toys R US, Walmart, Target and Amazon looming over them. With at least one of these mammoths gone there can be a chance for the little guys (smaller stores) to break through and take Toys R US’s place in the hearts of Americana.

Organizational Development: Challenging Questions about Interventions

When an intervention fails the consultant can use this opportunity to just reexamine the situation and use that data to reconstruct a better intervention or an entirely new one that is better suited or the client’s organization. I believe that an intervention although can have negative effects if it is one of multiple failed interventions that have been implemented in a short amount of time, thereby ruining the credibility of the consultant and possibly lowering the percentage of engagement of the stakeholders.

Also, if the employees of the organization feel that the intervention does not have a positive impact on their professional development it may cause resistance or an increase in the organization’s turnover rate.

Were there any interventions or changes in procedures in the organization that you are presently with that occurred for only a short amount of time, only to go back to the “way thing was”? In your professional experience, have you seen coworkers become disgruntled by organizational changes that they simply resisted the change until it was repealed, or they left the organization because of it?

Organizational Development Article: Intervention Round Up-Sensitivity Training

During an Organizational Development class, it was asked about our take on models that seeks to engage stakeholders within a corporate environment and during the class we needed to interact via an online discussion. Every once in a while, we have to pose questions to one another, in this post I have posted the question and my response to that question. I hope the interactions below assist in research, or even understanding the concepts of the different models that engage stakeholders in a positive manner and what from some academic sense future practitioners think of these concepts and the arenas it can be used in.

Sensitivity Training is one of those interventions that is great (like my choice 360 Feedback) if properly used and everyone bought into the use of the intervention. However, I can see it be used in a negative connation to gauge where employees stand on certain organizational issues, or how employees feel about the current structure and policies of an organization only to have management use that information against the employee. In my experience when management asks “how do you feel...” about a certain issue, the current direction of or the leadership in the organization, they are usually mining for data to find the” trouble makers” in a department and make their time with the organization uncomfortable as possible.

With a lot of this depending on the emotional intelligence and egos of those participating how would you ensure that when this intervention is used, that participants do not act negatively in and out of group sessions?  How would you ensure that the original focus of this intervention stays on point for future usage after the OD Practitioner is gone?

http://www.citeman.com/979-sensitivity-training.html

Organizational Development Article: Intervention Round Up-Mentoring

During an Organizational Development class, it was asked about our take on models that seeks to engage stakeholders within a corporate environment and during the class we needed to interact via an online discussion. Every once in a while, we have to pose questions to one another, in this post I have posted the question and my response to that question. I hope the interactions below assist in research, or even understanding the concepts of the different models that engage stakeholders in a positive manner and what from some academic sense future practitioners think of these concepts and the arenas it can be used in.

Mentoring is an interesting intervention because much like other intervention like 360 Feedback (my choice) it can be used in a positive manner or with a negative connation for corrective action purposes. Through my professional experiences I have had great mentors and terrible ones, usually the latter I had to deal with supervisors or management that were busy trying to teach me how to disregard procedures to complete activities in order to raise overall productivity percentages.

However, it made them look good to upper management, this type of mentoring caused issues with the task completion when the completed activities were quality checked or needed to be replicated.
Keeping this in mind, in your experiences with mentoring have you encountered any ineffective mentors that simply stunted your professional development? Were there times in the mentoring process that you received duplicate training for two different individuals to the point it seemed repetitive?

Organizational Development Article: Intervention Round Up-360 Feedback

During an Organizational Development class, it was asked about our take on models that seeks to engage stakeholders within a corporate environment and during the class we needed to interact via an online discussion. Every once in a while, we have to pose questions to one another, in this post I have posted the question and my response to that question. I hope the interactions below assist in research, or even understanding the concepts of the different models that engage stakeholders in a positive manner and what from some academic sense future practitioners think of these concepts and the arenas it can be used in.

Question: The 360 Feedback tool which I think is overused and overcommitted to as a tool to provide feedback. The problem often comes from misperceptions as to what 360 is and how it can be effectively used to advance employee effectiveness.
Not to take a reductionist stance, but in essence evaluation must have a clear and focused context and a process that is consistent and valuable for everyone, not just a supervisor. Also, consider the variance between a transformational 360 feedback session versus a transactional session.

Most of my experiences with 360 Feedback as a process comes from supervisors using the process as a corrective actions tool, emphasizing more of the negative aspects of my performance than including the feedback from myself or my peers.

Most of my coworkers and I would joke that it is called 360 Feedback because the process just runs the employee around in circles (360 degrees) without having any point to it. The only person who could make sense of this process was maybe the supervisor, who had an opportunity created by the one-way feedback session a scape goat.

Usually when I experienced or heard (from other employees) about this one-way feedback process, the purpose it seemed was to find the easiest person to blame for the team not meeting productivity goals. This process was filled, non- transformational sessions that caused more division and chaos than necessary and creates the misperception that the process is not for advancing employee effectiveness as you stated, but to punish.

I hope to be able to use resources such as my schoolwork, textbooks and the interactions with you and my fellow classmates to find ways to enlighten and teach organizational management in the future on the proper way to use the 360 Feedback process.

Organizational Development Article: Intervention Round Up

During an Organizational Development class, it was asked about our take on models that seeks to engage stakeholders within a corporate environment and during the class we needed to interact via an online discussion. Every once in a while, we have to pose questions to one another, in this post I have posted the question and my response to that question. I hope the interactions below assist in research, or even understanding the concepts of the different model that engage stakeholders in a positive manner and what from some academic sense future practitioners think of these concepts and the arenas it can be used in.

Question: I especially liked how you included self-concept or self-delusion of oneself. It is important to understand how we are viewed by others, especially if there are conflicts within a group/team/department. As you mentioned too often, I have too, 360-degree feedback is used incorrectly, and the focus is only on the negative versus the positive aspects. In this module, reading on 'Positive Organizational Scholarship and Appreciative Inquiry' it explains by focusing on the positive you can correct negative behavior without all the negative connotations.
Do you believe the 360 Degree Feedback can tied with POS or AI? Or that there would be benefits of realigning it so that it can be used more frequently as a way to improve an employee’s development?

Actually, I would use neither with the 360 Feedback. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that the individuals implementing the Feedback have no training whatsoever in the process and that is why it is done incorrectly, adding something extra to me is asking for more trouble.
For example, with Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) I can see management telling the individual how to be motivated as it benefits the organization not the individual leading to all types of conflict. With Appreciative Inquiry, again I also see organizational management taking control of this process in a negative manner and telling the individual employee again what should motivate them also that it is beneficial to them (management) or the organization but not upon the professional development of the employee.

It has been my experience that many individuals in management have no idea about these concepts and would rather practice aspects of each that would benefit their agenda. I would hate to take the chance and subject employees with management that can add extra ways to torment their employees due to my additional training, even I would hate me! I would rather keep it simple with one concept (the 360 Feedback intervention) train the management on how to properly use it and monitor them excessively to make sure the entire concept is being practiced and the training of how to use the 360-feedback process is permanent.

Organizational Development related post: MTBI and possible usage in the workplace.

During an Organizational Development class, it was asked about our take on the Meyer Briggs test within a corporate environment and during the class we needed to interact via an online discussion. Every once in a while, we have to pose questions to one another, in this post I have posted the question and my response to that question. I hope the interactions below assist in research, or even understanding the concepts of MTBI and what from some academic sense future practitioners think of these concepts and the arenas it can be used in.

Question: I have been an avid reader and fan of Carl Jung 's work. Over the years I have taken the Meyers-Briggs Test to satisfy my own personal curiosity and consistently I have been typed as INFJ.  I took the test recently and my result was personality type ENFJ. I attribute the change to work experiences that have forced me to be more extroverted. Do you think that an individual's personality type can change? Do you think the personalities of individuals can be adaptable to a workplace environment? How does the MBTI compare to other personality assessment tests administered to employees in the workplace?

It has been my experience that people do change aspects of their individual personality that they exhibit in the workplace. It is what I like to call a “workplace mask” in which individuals adapt (as you stated) or change their attitudes and responses to match certain instances or events. Usually I see this change in attitude is evident when managers or onsite directors are visited by out-of-town CEOs or COOs, they become positive and outgoing trying to interact with their employees, when otherwise they try to avoid those same employees at all costs.

To answer your question about administering personality tests at an organization, it has also been my experience that the organizations are not interested, whatsoever for understanding employee personality types. Organizations are more concerned for conformity to the culture that is present within the workplace, and any personality traits one exhibits that run counter to that culture must be eliminated or suppressed. A personality assessment test like MTBI is unfortunately not even on the radar for organizations like this.

Organizational Clarity: Human Performance Improvement -PDI Feedback

In another assignment in Human Performance Improvement class I was given the assignment to focus upon a creating change to a fictional organization (or part three) it focused upon the external stakeholders involved and how HPI can be used towards this group. Again, this is a fictional account with the details listed in an assignment and the parameters dealt with worst case scenario type issues in an organization so therefore with the idea of unlimited budgets and resources (I know when does that happens?) this assignment was crafted with those variables in mind. Please post any comments or questions to facilitate a discussion in the comments sections below.

Focusing on the Human Performance Technology (HPT) Model and building on the Cause Analysis mechanism, in the form of student surveys we build a foundation to gain an understanding of the environment factors which impact the team's and organization’s overall productivity. We also implement employee, management surveys to recreate the team spirit that is missing from the department. Therefore, using the HPT Model as the basis, we have selected five interventions for this project as defined in the Performance Support Tool 9.1:

1. Personal Development Interventions (Feedback).
2. Performance Support Interventions (Documentation and Standards)
3. Organizational Design and Development Inventions (Empowerment-Team Strategies)
4. Human Resource Development Interventions (Organization Growth-Management Development/Individual Growth-360-degree Appraisals).
5. Organizational Design and Development (Organizational Values-Culture).

Of all the five interventions chosen, the number one intervention I deemed necessary to the success of this project is the Personal Development Interventions- Feedback. (Van Tiem, et al., 2012). This way team management The FA email team and site directors can discuss the issues of the Email backlog, low student survey score, lack of support, etc., in a collaborative manner. Done without fears of corrective action or further isolation occurring with the 360-degree feedback model (Hamilton, & Patel, 2012). This I feel is the easiest method to communicate solutions regarding the dysfunctional structure of procedures and processes that the organization’s customers are complaining about.  Since the organizational culture is embedded and the likelihood of a miraculous 360 change for the entire department or organization will not happen overnight.

I believe this is a more team oriented approach that allows all those concerned to gain an understanding how to improve their overall team performance and create an immediate but practical solution for productivity. This speedy intervention from an internal standpoint, allows immediate feedback and focus on the problem. From an external standpoint it immediately deals with issues that presently concern the student body. If we were to implement the other, protracted interventions first, the University would possibly face a major exodus of students as a result.

By administering a 360-degree survey the employees express their individual perceptions through the rating process of how the organization perceives them and their effectiveness in their job roles (Hazucha, et al,.1993). Included in that is how effective each individual perceives the impact of their coworkers and management staff this is all done anonymously so that the data is accurate as possible.

Coupled with the data gathered by the student surveys employees are then presented with all the material in a supportive atmosphere so that it facilitates effective coaching and development amongst the team members (Hamilton, & Patel, 2012). In this environment constructive feedback is shared between the employees and management staff so the performance responsibilities are clearly understood and the team’s performance can be improved. 360-degree feedback meetings and duplicate surveys are rescheduled for reinforcement purposes on a monthly basis are added to complement the original surveys and 360-degree meetings. This is done to judge the impact of the program upon the initial perceptions of the employees and what degree of change has occurred as a result.

Steps to administrating 360 Feedback Sessions

1.      Conduct Student Survey

2.      Gather Student Surveys

3.      Conduct Employee and Management Surveys

4.      Gather Employee and Management Surveys

5.      Tally all three surveys to rate the effectiveness of Management and Staff

6.      Constructive group feedback (through FA Jeopardy/team strategy meetings)

7.      Constructive individual feedback (through role playing/discussion of strengths and areas of development regarding performance)

8.      Monthly Follow up Surveys

My second choice was the Performance Support Intervention of Documentation and Standards, although I feel that employees need to be clear about the job requirements for their daily tasks, the Feedback intervention (360-degree feedback) would cover the basics of the intervention (Van Tiem, et al., 2012).  I would also add that the FA Email team overall customer service score on the student surveys was 63%, therefore one can concur the foundations for job expectations is already exists. Understanding why the performance gap happened and how to reach the desired performance in this situation could not be solved with just repeating current policies and procedures, to the employees.

Discussion for solutions for faulty procedures and policies as covered in the Feedback intervention would astern workable approaches to the enormous time sensitive problem that faces the team.
My third choice is the Organizational Design and Development Invention of Empowerment: Team Strategies again the basics of this intervention will be emphasized in the Feedback intervention (Van Tiem, et al., 2012). The problem here is that the FA email team is on an island by themselves, the organizational culture divides its departments into task oriented teams and by the type of Financial Aid knowledge needed to complete daily tasks. Included into the factors the strengthen this division are the competitive goals set by the organization which increases the negative effects that occur.

Stressing team exclusion is part of the organizational culture this problem is far-reaching to the point that there is a division between the FA email team and its management staff. The Beginning for the viable lines of communication with Feedback intervention starts the baby steps to becoming a true cohesive unit and meets the basic needs of all the stakeholders, now.

My fourth choice is Human Resource Development Interventions whether it is Organization Growth with Management Development or Individual Growth with 360-degree Appraisals the feedback approach is well and alive in both methods (Van Tiem, et al., 2012). In the 360-degree appraisals the customer surveys I have included in the Feedback intervention echoes here. However, there is no intent to “soften the blow” of the information given to the employee with the Organizational Culture that exists such an exercise would have a negative effect. This is due to the lack of knowledge that team management and FA site directors have of the expected job duties of the FA email team therefore without further information about these duties the ratings will be askew. The same holds true from the Management Development approach this is a lengthy approach that addresses the lack of interpersonal skills of the management staff, however due to time constraints training to bridge this lack of knowledge and personality is not suitable for this situation (Van Tiem, et al., 2012). The break between team management and the team itself is based on the lack of problem solving skills of management which this method adheres to solving. But an extensive needs assessment is required to fully understand that performance gap, something the organization is not willing to endure as the issues of low productivity numbers by the FA email team are affecting the rest or the organization.

To explain why my final choice is Organizational Design and Development, Organizational Values-Culture there is a realization that the Organizational culture is the initial cause for divisions in the department and the rest or the organization (Van Tiem, et al., 2012). This division is paralyzing the entire Organization to the point where simple restructuring of teams or the temporary assignment of employees to assist the FA email team is almost impossible. From a clinical and realistic standpoint, the organization needs to change entirely but not all of the stakeholders can wait for widespread modifications. As the survey data shows the student population is not elated with the University’s performance so far, and will not be patient. With any Organizational culture there is resistance to change for the organization to be successful in meeting the needs of its students it must have zero resistance to change. Therefore, the Feedback intervention is chosen to focus mainly upon the immediate team involved with this issue to get to the heart of the matter and work on creative solutions that address the issue at hand.
           
The best practices as demonstrated by the 360-degree feedback implementation at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. would be replicated here at Omir University (Caruso, 2011). For example, in the survey process, Starwood decided that their survey questions would be adjusted or aimed at the skill levels of management, not just the employees. Furthermore, this process addressed individual strengths along with areas that still needed development, through positive assessments and not the usual one on one coaching methods, that have considerable negative conations. This way everyone can add into this data their unique perceptions of how they contribute to the organization, what they do best and what they believe they need improvement with on a daily basis, without judgment.
           
As at Starwood, the 360-degree feedback implemented at Omir University would give the entire team a structure or foundation of “what to focus on” the team’s knowledge of individual expectations so that bridging any performance gaps will be simple (Caruso, 2011). From an organizational standpoint, the benefits gained from these best practices is a foundation of data to grow upon. Additionally, from this data, the University’s Human Resource department can develop additional programs with a distinct scope that reaches into each part of the department. This extended reach allows the University to reduce the waste of previous resources similar to the implementation at Starwood (Caruso, 2011).

References
Caruso, Karen N. (2011)“Case Study: Starwood Hotels Takes 360 Degree Feedback to a New Level” viaPeople Insight - Performance Management & Succession Planning Blog Mon, Aug 29, 2011 ViaPeople Retrieved on February 23, 2017 from: http://web.viapeople.com/viaPeople-blog/bid/65018/Case-Study-Starwood-Hotels-Takes-360-Degree-Feedback-to-a-New-Level

Hamilton, Diane, & Patel, Nilesh (2012) “Best practices in 360-degree feedback” Forward HR Aug 22, 2012 In Business Madison Retrieved on February 16, 2017 from: http://www.ibmadison.com/Blogger/Forward-HR/August-2012/Best-practices-in-360-degree-feedback/

Hazucha, J. F., Hezlett, S. A., & Schneider, R. J. (1993). The impact of 360‐degree feedback on management skills development. Human Resource Management, 32(2‐3), 325-351.

Van Tiem, D., Moseley, J. L., & Dessinger, J. C. (2012). Fundamentals of performance improvement: Optimizing results through people, process, and organizations. John Wiley & Sons.

Organizational Clarity: LinkedIn connect with your Alma Mater part 1

Connecting with professionals and academic mentors is a key part of networking, LinkedIn is a great tool for this if you are comfortable with having a LinkedIn account. The LinkedIn account does expose you to everyone your places of employment, academic status and those within your professional circle. If you are okay with that then one suggestion I have is to link up with Professors from your Alma mater, this way now only can you give the appearance of that student who excelled in their classes so much that their professors actually like them! Ha! But also, you can reach out to them for questions regarding your degree field, mentor ship, or even possibly letters of recommendation.

This is an example of one of the messages I sent to a Professor on LinkedIn was:
“Good afternoon Professor

I was wondering if I could ask you for some advice. After graduation as I work on my job search, are there any keywords or areas I should be applying my focus in regards to organizational development?
Have a good day”

It is very basic however by sending a short message I was able to reach out, connect, and add a Professor from my Alma mater to my connections for my LinkedIn account. I was actually successful 5 times with his approach and it adds some variety to my body of connections. This is very important to have a connection list from various bodies of affiliation especially to potential employers who will then see that you an outgoing professional not just at one job or school but multiple.

And potential employers do search the internet for your LinkedIn account so building up your connection list is key. Keeping thinking variety, variety, variety and having a Professor or two from your Alma mater only adds that necessary “sparkle” to your profile, where nothing else can.

Organizational Clarity: Goals when learning about HPI

In one of my classes we were asked define our goals when it came to the class and what we should learn from HPI these are very general goals so bear with me! This is an actual entry from that class, please add any questions or points you want to share to this blog post. Please add points or possible solutions to the comments section of this blog entry.


What are your learning goals for this course? Why are they important to you?

My learning goals in this course is to understand the definition of HPI comes in the forms of questions as HPI translates differently from the academic (text) to real world application. For example, who is accountable for Intervention maintenance after the invention is completed and what factors determine the length of maintenance? This is important to me because even though an intervention is successful if the intervention is phased out after less than a year in operation what is the point of it?

I have seen this multiple times in which HPI programs have been rolled out and were implemented with success, the program got great feedback from management and the employees only to be trashed six months later. The reason I usually hear is because the program was not maintainable, whether due to budgetary concerns or staff allocation, which if proper planning was done this would not be a problem! However, it is usually because of other external factors which somehow floats the responsibility of such programs to different individuals each month like a game of spin the bottle that makes the program lose its consistency.

Another goal is to understand how Sponsors are really aligned with HPI, because accountability seems to be a problem whenever I see a workplace intervention that deals with HPI. Sponsors simply have no connection nor want to communicate or interact with anyone else involved other than say how good the intervention is going which is usually not the reality. In textbooks like the one for this class, sponsors are required to be in it for the long haul, but that is not really the case in real life applications (Van Tiem et al., 2012)! I hope that this class and the text can give me the insights to nail down disappearing sponsors that shy away from things like accountability and sustainability but look for a sizable ROI nor want to make decisions that affect change.

Oh I was sure I had to add this with the goals forum altogether but this is my questions forum post as well:

One of the burning questions that I have about HPI that I hope to be able to answer is, how to gain or maintain sustainability after a success intervention? Also another question I have, is how do you hold accountable a sponsor who is interested in a HPI one moment, then loses interests (and the HPI loses support) the next, only to be shocked when the HPI fails?

Organizational Clarity: Organizational Development terms

As in many fields, OD has acquired its own language. There are many terms, ideas, and concepts that may be new to you. Here you will have the opportunity to begin to master "OD" speak. Below are a number of common practices in OD. Some are theories, some are practices, but all are part of the field.
Create a thread and put the name of your term in the subject box. In your post, define one term and add at least one link to a site that corresponds to that particular term by cutting and pasting the URL (website address) and placing it in your post. Review the posts and links of others asking questions, adding supportive comments, and offering new ideas.

Choose one of the following terms or another term of your choice.

Action Research
Appreciative Inquiry
Team building
Search Conferences
Strategic Planning
Learning Organizations
Knowledge Management
Process Consultation
Open Space Meetings/Conferences
Resistance
Whole Systems Change
Coaching
Mentoring
Myers-Briggs
Data collection methods
Qualitative analysis
Quantitative analysis
Systems Theory
Change Models
Culture
OD Ethics
Confrontation meeting
Workout

For this forum OD Speak I chose the term Myers-Briggs (Type Indicator) or MBTI this is an engagement assessment based on the theories of Carl Jung that broke down personality types in to sixteen various categories. The questions are divided even further into different groups of questions such as Favorite world, Information, Decisions, and Structure how the individual answers each of these questions shapes the assessment of their personality (Myersbriggs.org, 2017).

This is a great tool usually for personal usage but also for use in professional settings by consultants to gather a vague idea of individual viewpoints and personality types. Although it is not a strict, detailed assessment of an individual’s personality it can give the consultant insight of how to address individual tastes and tailor organizational programs to increase retention and cooperation. The results of the MTBI may also assist the consultant in addressing such aspects as roadblocks to team building, assist in one on one coaching sessions, and getting a better understanding for conflict resolution purposes.

The high reliability of the test makes it a great tool for professional usage, but should only be “loosely” used so that individual test takers are not “pigeonholed” as one personality type and eliminated by the consultant from programs or activities that may be apathetic to the personality classification (Anderson, 2013).

This is a link that discusses briefly about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

You can take the personality assessment here:
https://www.mbtionline.com/TaketheMBTI

References
Anderson, D. L. (2013). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.
Myersbriggs.org (2017) “MBTI Basics” The Myers & Briggs Foundation Retrieved on March 22, 2017 from: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

Organizational Clarity: Status plus moving forward

Looking through old assignments and found a couple of useful things that I can post upon here to help give some clarity to the field of organizational development. I noticed that many students and professionals post a few blog posts online with some great information but after a while either get disillusioned and quit or did it for an assignment then stopped after it was completed.

I started the blog as an assignment but decided to add more to it because there just is not a lot of information about the field out there. Plus, if there is any information it is usually disjointed or all over the place, giving the researcher multiple sources with bits and pieces everywhere. Hopefully, these new posts will streamline that process for everyone and make researching for material and sources easier for everyone.

Organizational Clarity: Social Networking and Organizational Learning does not always work.

Although there are a lot of modern day organizations using Web 2.0 social networking applications, these are usually organizations that are trying to meet a market standard and a certain customer in order to maintain engagement between the organization and its clientele. However, this is a challenge for those organizations without the budget or nor desire to focus on social networking and learning technologies as a viable option to how organizational procedures are currently structured.

The motto, especially within my organization, when it comes to interdepartmental communication or any type of basic training is: “This is how we always do it” and usually none of the technology mentioned in this post associated with either process. As most organizations are moving towards using video conferencing, online wikis and other options to decrease costs and standardize training methods there are still organizations that will always defer to traditional methods as the “best way” to do things.

I personally have used online training, wikis at other organizations and have created multiple blogs for academic reasons each of these instances allowed me to see the benefits of Social networking and Learning technologies. Unfortunately, it is hard to create tangible examples of these benefits to create the desire that all organizations even the reluctant ones I have aforementioned to buy into this way of thinking.

Reference
Iverson, Kathleen (2011) “Social Networking and Organizational Learning” May 31, 2011          Retrieved on March 29, 2017 from: https://rutraining.org/2011/05/31/social-networking-and-organizational-learning/

Organizational Clarity: Performance Guru

In one of my classes we were asked to find a Performance guru someone who revolutionize the industry that they were in, or made such a s huge impact that their contributions were felt on a global scale.  This is an actual entry from that class, please add any questions or points you want to share to this blog post. Please add points or possible solutions to the comments section of this blog entry.
Identify someone you admire--someone who has accomplished something that you'd like to do one day but just haven't been able to pull off. This can be a person who is well known or an unsung hero. The accomplishment should involve factors outside the realm of natural or inherent talent (for example, if you can't carry a tune, don't choose Adele) and in large part due to aspects of performance that can be managed. Tell us about your "Performance Guru" by:

Including a brief bio of this person and a link to a web resource if available
Describe why you selected this person
How this person's performance drove his/her success--add details and specifics where available
How his/her performance relates to the principles of HPT

Although, he is not my first choice, I picked Ray Kroc founder of the McDonald’s System, Inc., that and because of the movie “the Founder” which I have yet to see (The Biography.com, 2017).  Ray Kroc was not the founder of McDonald’s he was merely a milkshake machine salesman that understood the potential of the business and how to franchise it. McDonalds was actually a Barbeque restaurant founded in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald, he (Kroc) merely took what they started in terms of an assembly line and standardized food portions for the product and applied this laser-like focus to everything else in the restaurant. Kroc became the president of McDonalds in 1955 to 1977 his determination engaged the people around him and underneath him (community of practice) to take McDonald’s from its humble beginnings in San Bernardino and create multimillion dollar corporation that evolved its reach to even larger global force it is today (The Biography.com, 2017).

As my third choice, I like the fact that Kroc saw the methodologies that the McDonald’s brothers had in place, and simply improved on the policies and procedures then applied that singular focus to other areas of the restaurant such as cleanliness and store design (The Biography.com, 2017). This limited the amount of investment and funding planning/decisions that each Franchisee would need to implement. The McDonald’s corporation already forecasts these practices as evident through their product portion sizes, or packaging designs, McDonald’s has with years of experience developed a formula of automation and standardization that allows it to maximize its potential and profits.

Ray Kroc used Strategic planning to direct the organization into franchisees and developed a formula which included not only the franchisees but also the organization’s suppliers; and employees. This allowed a measure of talent management that created “Hamburger University” in which he created a standardized method of management training (Mcdonalds.com, 2017). It also allowed Kroc to push the concept that individually owned franchisees although are their own, singular business, are still united under the McDonald’s organizational umbrella. With employee training, employee, career and organization development being united into one message of organizational commitment that the training at Hamburger U provides Kroc developed a successful business model that is a great example of the principles of HPT (Van Tiem, et al., 2012).

Web bio for Ray Kroc: http://www.biography.com/people/ray-kroc-9369349#synopsis
McDonald’s Web bio for Ray Kroc: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html

References:
The Biography.com (2017) “Ray Kroc Biography” Biography Retrieved on February 13, 2017 from: http://www.biography.com/people/ray-kroc-9369349#synopsis
Mcdonalds.com (2017) “About us: Our History” McDonalds Corporation Retrieved on February 13, 2017 from: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html
Van Tiem, D., Moseley, J. L., & Dessinger, J. C. (2012). Fundamentals of performance improvement: Optimizing results through people, process, and organizations. John Wiley & Sons.