Individual Processes and Characteristics, Part 15

Question 1: The nature of change is to disrupt the status quo, which by definition indicates political activity. Discuss the politics of change as it pertains to change agents within the organization.

Answer 1: Change of any sort means some degree of disruption within a previously established system. When change agents come from within, they are often times individuals who currently hold little power, function at a relatively low level of influence, and have little invested in the organization in terms of time or finances; they have little to lose and much to gain. When a low-level internal change agent is successful, the change that is implemented is accomplished quickly and effectively. To the change agent, it means a rapid increase in power, influence and respect. Managers with many years invested and who have earned their way to the top and find change unsettling, are sometimes forced to implement it to demonstrate to customers, clients, shareholders or other interested outsiders that they are acting in the organization’s best interests. Higher level change agents with more to lose typically bring about change incrementally.

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Question 2: All managers would agree that at times they are certain their department or team performance is not top notch, but they cannot put a finger on why or what to do about it. A frequent response is to engage in a process consultation. Explain how a process consultation operates

Answer 2: When a manager feels there is a problem or issue within the team or department that is affecting productivity but cannot determine what it is, a process consultant is often brought in. Process consultation is an organizational development tool designed to help managers identify snags in the work process, ascertain the cause for the snags, and consider options in correcting them. Process consultation is based upon the premise that the efficiency of an organization is affected by the interpersonal relationships of its members. Problems can be based in the self’s relationship to itself; in relationships among two or more individuals, or externally, within the organization or other connected environment. A second, and equally important, tenant of process consultation is that the process must involve the manager as much as the consultant. The manager learns lifelong skills in diagnosing interpersonal problems and handling them.

Question 3: The traditional view of conflict within organizations was an entirely negative one. One later position, called the human relations view, however, disagrees. Explain how the human relations view differs from the traditional view.

Answer 3: While early schools of thought regarding conflict described it as damaging to an organization in that it negatively affected efficient and effective production, post WWII through the 1970s saw a major shift in thinking. The human relations school of thought considered that conflict was both natural and healthy. The best response to conflict, in this viewpoint, was to accept it and work with its presence as one of many components informing a situation. The human relations view even went so far as to suggest that conflict could, at times, inspire greater job performance by forcing individuals involved to deeply examine their positions, consider other possibilities and try to negotiate an agreement.

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