The practicality of changing an organization’s culture - Is it Possible?

The practicality of changing an organization’s culture. Is it possible?

Change is tough, especially when done the wrong way.  Many companies have hundreds of posters, wallet cards, and slogans all over stating their leader behaviors or ideals.  We get monthly computer based training about the leader behaviors.  Writing up some MBA speak and passing it our via email and computer articulate training is easy.  Actually making it work is not.


Where I work, not once in three years has another human shared their experiences about the leader behaviors.  Had the HOME method been applied to all levels of employees, we might have more success.  It is obvious through our history we needed a change.  

In the past few years two companies merged.  Each with a unique culture and way of doing things.  Both had very different cultures.  Both had problems and successes.  An investor would hope the best from both worlds would come together to form the new company.

This required change.  Change that was harmonized and accepted as different from both sides of the new company.

Many of the existing staff from either company did not see the reason for the change and thus did not adopt it.  There is no oneness or unity.  Our performance is results based and competitive against our peers.  So working together is not always best for the bottom line.  This creates a sense of animosity.  Each unit operates in secrecy apart from other units.  There is often infighting for resources and space that there is little feeling of membership in a bigger picture.  Communication and exchange is done via rumor. Rarely is any ‘official’ word passed down. Another method that could have been used is the MARS method (Motivation, Ability, Role Perceptions, Situational factors).  Again, we have failed in that our motivation is skewed towards keeping a job in uncertain times and performance reviews, not common goals.  

Roles are unclear as many senior leaders have departed and not been replaced, so these vacancies lead to ambiguity and many of the staff are very uncertain how to proceed.  The lack of some oversight has allowed bullying and other situational factors to take over, causing a decrease in morale and productivity.

Change management can be a positive force and have an appreciable impact on a company, but only if its is supported and believed in at all levels.  Bad management and behaviors must not be tolerated and it requires constant vigilance, especially in the early moments of change. A failed attempt at change can harm a company via debased morale, lost productivity and lost trust more than no change at all.

Planning is crucial and obtaining constant feedback from all levels and listening (not just hearing) the feedback will lead to better results.  Change isn't easy but it can be done.

Do Vampires Exist?

Different cultures from different parts of the world have their own version of vampire; Dracula in Eastern Europe, Jiang Shi in China, Pontianak in the Malay Archipelagos, and the most recent one, Al Chupacabra from South America.

Pontianak

Jiang Shi i.e zombie in China

Al Chupacabra

Blood is a taboo for all people - well, most people, there is no accounting for taste. Some people faint at the sight of blood. But we need blood to live.  Preferably naturally made in our own veins.  But we can willingly give some to others via the Red Cross.

Blood throughout history has had many mysteries associated with it.  Early people didn't understand it.  They knew if we lost it we died, and if they drank it from their vanquished foes they may gain their strength.  Perhaps this gives rise to some early foundations for vampire lore.

Blood also has some connotations with evil. Blood stains were considered evil by ancient Chinese and they despised the menstrual output of a woman. The Malays think that menstrual blood will attract evil spirits and thus the toilet is not an appropriate place to stay for long.

So who would want to consume blood at all?

Fictional vampires
The famous Count Dracula of Romania is widely considered to be the most popular vampires of all. He was a Count, a nobleman in Romania during the dark ages, and he sold his spirit to the Devil so that he could achieve immortality. But he needed constant input of blood for sustenance.


Alexander Corvinus was a Hungarian warlord from the dark ages. He had two sons, Marcus and William Corvinus, Marcus was bitten by a bat and became the first vampire, and William got bitten by a wolf, survived and became the first werewolf. It was said that the bubonic plague that wiped out one-third of the population of Europe at that time came into his place and killed everyone except Alexander himself. He was baffled by his own ability to survive the plague, not knowing that he was achieving immortality. And this immortality got passed down to both of his sons.


Historical "vampires"
Vlad the Impaler, nicknamed Vlad Dracula.


He was a Prince of Wallachia, and his favourite punishment was impalement. It was said that minor offences were also treated with impalement. There was a lady who had an affair got her breasts cut off and later skinned alive (Chinese also skinned people alive during the Qing Dynasty), and then was impaled at the centre of the square, with her skin on a table next to her pole.

Vlad's involvement in war also meant that he impaled a lot of soldiers. The mighty Ottoman army that wanted to have war with him withdrew their soldiers when they arrived at the bank of Wallachia because the soldiers were so terrified by thousands of corpses of their dead comrades on poles on the river bank.


The Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory was also from Hungary. After the death of her husband she involved in the torture and killing of young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims.



Nobody knew why she was acting this way, though there were later writings claiming that she bathed in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth.

We also cannot forget the vampires of modern literature.  Where would teenage vampire lovers be without Edward Cullen and Bella Swan to read about?

In a few hundred years, the mythos of vampires through lore and fiction has gone from scary story to mythical hero.  As science explained away some of the dark shadows of the universe, the need for fantastical explanations waned.  While Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyers may pen tales about lurid romance with the undead, our need to justify life have decreased.

True vampires
Non-fictional vampires aren't human and they aren't immortal. Blood is not a good source of food so it's a pity they have chosen blood as their sustenance. The primary function of blood is to transport oxygen and carbon dioxide in our body. Apart from that, it also transports toxin into our kidneys to be filtered, and transports nutrients to various part of the body. An average human have about 5 liters of blood.

And since blood is of such low quality, why would anyone make it as their primary source of food? The vampire bat for example, has to drink a lot of blood to survive.

For smaller animals, their relatively small metabolism enables them to thrive on blood. Besides, blood is an easy food source, every living being has blood.  And if we are to live on blood, we have to drink a bathtub full of blood everyday in order to survive.

Evolution does not allow human to thrive on blood alone. Enough said.  As much as we can dream of being immortal, having crystal facet skin that shimmers and extra-human powers, we are, well, just human.

Information Hyperarchies

Informational Hyperarchies in Business

In the modern technological world information does not flow in a linear fashion and neither should management.  While there is a place for some hierarchy, you have to have a leader, the formalized strict reporting structures is often a hindrance to innovation and success. 

Integration on a global scale is crucial for international business and innovation.  Organizing information flows on a hierarchical basis works against integration of all information (Daniels, et al, 2009).  The modern sharing of information via social net works like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. show that volumes of information can be distributed over a wide area and filtered by those who find the need to know.  I personally would much rather have too much information sent to me and have to filter some out than find myself missing critical data that could have helped me.

One of the downsides to a hierarchy is that information is secular.  Divisions may not share with others and work at counterproductive goals (Daniels, eat al, 2009).  In addition, employee goal management may pit multiple groups against one another with conflicting goals for growth, profit, sales or efficiency.  In some cases, these segregated hierarchies can lead to legal issues like in the case of Enron (Petra, 2006).  A hyperarchy is more transparent and allows for more information to be shared, and enables for more transparency (Daniels, et al, 2009).

Virtual organizations are also becoming more dominant as globalization occurs, and workers will demand more and more virtual communication methods (Daniels, et al, 2009).  Allowing for reporting of virtual teams and groups is becoming more important.  Many companies have been successful using this type of approach like Straberry Frog marketing and any open source development system like Linux or Mozilla (Daniels, et al, 2009). 

Corporate governance should allow for horizontal and vertical information flow. Corporate failures and scandals such as Enron and MCI WorldCom have highlighted the need to establish good governance systems as an important issue for all countries (Davies & Schlitzer, 2008).  Developing a structure that is more transparent is one way to help prevent these issues. After the extreme corporate failures of Enron and MCI WorldCom in 2001, corporate governance became an important issue throughout the world. Many shareholders had lost confidence in businesses and corporate governance codes of best practice were the main means of restoring investor confidence. However, according to the special requirements of a country, many different corporate governance systems have evolved (Davies & Schlitzer, 2008).

Overall using a hyperarchy increases transparency and symmetry of information (Daniels, et al, 2009).  Through transparency, information can flow better and reduce potential duplication of work, as well as unethical behavior (Davies & Schlitzer, 2008).  As we move forward into the 21^st century, more and more global business’s will rely upon hyperarchies for information flow.

REFERENCES

Daniels, J. D., Radebaugh, L. H., & Sullivan, D. P. (2009). International Business (12 ed.). (S. Yagan, Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Davies, M.N., & Schlitzer, B.W. (2008). The Impracticality of an international “one size fits all” corporate governance code of best practice. Managerial Auditing Journal, 23(6), 532-544.

Kidger, P. . (2002). Management structure in multinational enterprises. Employee Relations, 24(1), 69-85.

Petra, S. . (2006). Corporate governance reforms: fact or fiction?. Corporate Governance, 6(2), 107-115.

Sir Isaac Newton

The 4th January 2013, the 370th birthday of the late Sir Isaac Newton, decoder of gravity, calculus and many other subjects we hate. So why am I writing about Sir Issac today in March? Simple, gravity.What goes up must come down -- that's gravity in a nutshell, or at least gravity as we most commonly encounter it on Earth. The force is a lot more complicated than that, however. Due to rapid scientific advancement, our scientific understanding of gravity has improved quite a bit over the last 50 years. For starters, scientists finally figured out why regions of Canada boast marginally less gravity than the rest of the world.

Yes, early gravity mapping efforts in the 1960s revealed that the Hudson Bay area in particular exerts a weaker gravitational force. Since less mass equals less gravity, there must be less mass underneath these areas -- but why?

Scientists had two theories. Either convection in the planet's liquid core was pulling down on the continental plates or the area had yet to spring back up from glacial ice sheet compression that took place 10,000 years ago. Both scenarios see Earth's surface compressing, pushing some of the gravity-producing mass to either side of the affected area.

Born two to three months prematurely on January 4, 1643, in Lincolnshire, England, Isaac Newton was a tiny baby who, according to his mother, could have fit inside a quart mug. He was a practical child, and so he enjoyed constructing models, including a tiny mill that could actually ground flour—powered by a mouse running in a wheel. I wouldn't want to eat the bread made from the flour.

Admitted to the University of Cambridge on 1661, Newton at first failed to shine as a student, much like Einstein..

In 1665 the school temporarily closed because of a bubonic plague epidemic and Newton returned home to Lincolnshire for two years. It was then that the apple-falling brainstorm occurred. Legend has it that Isaac Newton formulated gravitational theory in 1665 or 1666 after watching an apple fall and asking why the apple fell straight down, rather than sideways or even upward.

Despite his apparent affinity for private study, Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 and served as a mathematics professor and in other capacities until 1696. I remember reading from a book by Stephen Hawking that Sir Isaac Newton's post was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge, which was later succeeded by Paul Dirac in 1932.. then later by Prof Stephen Hawking himself.

Newton published his findings in 1687 in a book called Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) commonly known as thePrincipia. . Yet the book was read by only a handful, understood by far fewer. Yet they knew that the book was a great work, sorta like what Einstein did with his theory of relativity.

Despite his wealth of discoveries Isaac Newton wasn't well liked, particularly in old age, when he served as the head of Britain's Royal Mint, served in Parliament, and write on religion, among other things. As a personality, Newton was unattractive—solitary and reclusive when young, vain and vindictive in his later years, when he tyrannized the Royal Society and vigorously sabotaged his rivals.

In 1727, at 84, Sir Isaac Newton died in his sleep. What a good way to die for a tyrant.. anyway we have to thank him for his discoveries or else we wouldn't have GPS, TV Satellites, Rockets, this and that.. cheers Sir Isaac Newton.

One more myth to dispel about gravity.  The apple and it's story in the first place. 

There is a popular story that Newton was sitting under an apple tree, an apple fell on his head, and he suddenly thought of the Universal Law of Gravitation. As in all such legends, this is almost certainly not true in its details, but the story contains elements of what actually happened.

What Really Happened with the Apple?

Probably the more correct version of the story is that Newton, upon observing an apple fall from a tree, began to think along the following lines: The apple is accelerated, since its velocity changes from zero as it is hanging on the tree and moves toward the ground. Thus, by Newton's 2nd Law there must be a force that acts on the apple to cause this acceleration. Let's call this force "gravity", and the associated acceleration the "accleration due to gravity". Then imagine the apple tree is twice as high. Again, we expect the apple to be accelerated toward the ground, so this suggests that this force that we call gravity reaches to the top of the tallest apple tree.

How To Kill A Cockroach

Cockroaches.

Filthy.

Yucky.

Apart from acting as an indicator of hygiene, the presence of this six-legged creature often prompt nerve-breaking shrieks and wails from ladies and men alike.

Image: superstock.co.uk

Cockroaches, however, are no less fascinating. They're nocturnal, have two brains (one inside their skulls, and a second, more primitive brain that is back near their abdomen), they have cream-colored blood, they can tolerate a higher dose of radiation (cockroaches survived the atomic bombs test blast at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands), and female stores sperms which may last her a lifetime.

Cockroaches will eat almost anything including glue, feces, hair, decayed leaves, paper, leather, banana skins, other cockroaches, and dead or alive humans. They will not, however, eat cucumbers. They are particulary fond of dried milk around a baby’s mouth. German cockroaches Blattella germanica, the most common domestic roach in the United States, have been observed to live 45 days without food, and more than two weeks with neither food nor water.

Image: stockphotos.it

The roaches are not confined to any particular environment and live in a tremendous variety of places, from underneath woodpiles in Alaska to high in the jungle canopy in the tropics of Costa Rica. They are even found in the caves of Borneo and under the thorn bushes in arid stretches of Kenya. Wherever they live, they are masters at surviving.

Image: collegesuccess33.blogspot.com

The insect is also notoriously hard to kill.

Richard Schweid, the author of The Cockroach Papers observes that

“when a cockroach feels a breeze stirring the hairs on its cerci, it does not wait around to see what is going to happen next, but leaves off whatever it is doing and goes immediately into escape mode in something remarkably close to instantaneous fashion.”

Image: vishaaa.hubpages.com

Studies show that a cockroaches can respond in about 1/20th of a second, so

“by the time a light comes on and human sight can register it, much less react by reaching for and hoisting something with which to squash it, a roach is already locomoting towards safety.”

Image: buzzle.com

Since it's almost impossible to kill a cockroach physically, we must resort to chemicals.

I had the opportunity to test the resolve of the German roach firsthand.  In one of my past employment adventures I cared for roaches.  Yes, a long story for another blog entry.  Suffice to say, captive roaches do not fear Raid or HotShot nearly as much as I felt they should.  So what can one do if these visitors have infested their home?

Make them come to us and fight back dirty!

Get some moist stale while bread with warm, slightly soured beer, and then place it in a jar. Apply petroleum jelly, for example Vaseline to the interior rim of the jar to prevent the trapped insect from climbing out.

Image: k12.hi.us

Next, dispose the intruder accordingly. I suggest fire grinding or draino.  Raid will work, but close the container and let it steep. 

You may not want it to return so make sure it is killed and not released. It's not an endangered species anyway.

Info: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-kill-a-cockroach-with-your-shoe/

How organizational structure and conflict relate to each other.

How organizational structure and conflict relate to each other.

Teamwork requires cooperation and communication.  When you have diverse teams with different job tasks and goals, then conflict will arise.  In some cases this conflict will benefit the organization by motivating each team to work harder in competition with one another (Ivancevich et al, 2008).  However this can also backfire and cause anti productive behaviors between the teams.  If key factors are missing, then the conflict will often consume both teams and lead to failure (Sheard & Kakabadse, 2001).  

Key factors like clear goals for each time, clear leadership, good communication, appropriate resources and infrastructure are needed for success.  Without these factors conflict among teams can become disruptive (Sheard & Kakabadse, 2001).

If the organization has the foresight to design the teams and interaction with intelligence, then conflict can be reduced (van der Helm, 2007).  I have teams that are organized by floor in a large facility.  Each team is responsible for their own area, yet they have a reciprocal independence amongst each other.  The success of each team and the completion of their work relies upon the output of the other floors.  This can cause conflict if one floor perceives another as slacking or giving them inferior materials.  One of the techniques used to alleviate conflicts is common goals and objectives for all teams and variable rewards for achieving those goals. We have also provided better communication tools and training in conflict resolution so they can manage relatively minor issues independently without management involvement.  This has dramatically reduced the number of disciplines and productivity problems.

References:

Chong, P., & Benli, O. (2005). Consensus in team decision making involving resource allocation. Management Decision, 43(9), 1147-1160.

Drea, C., & Carter, A.P. (2009). Cooperative problem solving in a social carnovore. Animal Behavior, 78, 967-977.

Ivancevich, J.M., Konopaske, R., & Matteson, M.T. (2008). Organizational Behavior Management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Sheard, A.G., & Kakabadse, A.P. (2001). From loose groups to effective teams. The Journal of Management and Development, 21(2), 133-155

van der Helm, R. (2007). Ten insolvable dilemmas of participation and why foresight has to deal with them. Foresight, 9(3), 1-17.