The Change Process

The Change Process

University of the Cumberlands

Weeks 1 & 2

Course Overview

Interdisciplinary approach to the management of the change process with respect to individuals, groups, local community, and the American society.

Drawing on concepts from the psychology of learning, human resource management, and sociology

Looks at how educators and various social and political forces, including government policies and court decisions, interact with local culture to impact individual and corporate human behavior.

Course Requirements

1. Syllabus Quiz: 5 points

2. Discussion Forum Participation (7 forums, 15 points each): 105 points

3. Residency Weekend Participation (3 days, 50 points each): 150 points

4. Draft Change Initiative Paper: 60 points

5. Practical Connection Assignment: 50 points

6. Residency Weekend Presentation: 50 points

7. Final Change Initiative Paper: 100 points

The final grade is determined by dividing the total points earned by 520

Leadership and the Change Process The Change Puzzle

Geography?

• Why geography in a change process or human resource class?

• Who cares about the capitals of countries?

• Why is knowing about other places important?

Geography?

• Geography is much more than capitals and where places are located.

• How and in what ways places and organizational settings are culturally and socially different.

• There are three kinds of regions: • vernacular (pertains to culture and identity); • formal or uniform (like an area of common traits

like a political unit); • functional (a service area with a node or point of

origin—like a dairy or local newspaper).

Where and Why?

• As human resource managers, we must move away from a middle school understanding of geography.

• Geography asks two questions: where and why something is where it is located.

• The “where” involves people and the ways in which they interact as well as the way they “do things.” It is much more than just political boundaries and natural resources.

• How people interact (social–sociology) and what they do (culture— anthropology and cultural geography) are important to consider in understanding leadership and follower roles.

Organizational Culture

Culture’s effect on organizational success (1) When aligned with strategy and leadership, a strong culture drives

positive organizational outcomes.

(2) Selecting or developing leaders for the future requires a forward-looking strategy and culture.

(3) In a merger, designing a new culture on the basis of complementary strengths can speed up integration and create more value over time.

(4) In a dynamic, uncertain environment, in which organizations must be more agile, learning gains importance.

(5) A strong culture can be a significant liability when it is misaligned with strategy.

GROYSBERG, B., LEE, J., PRICE, J., & CHENG, J. Y.-J. (2018). The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 96(1), 44–52.

Readiness to know

• As leaders of organizations, you will perhaps serve in a place that is unfamiliar to you.

• You cannot know everything there is to know about a new place, but you must be ready to learn.

• Your survival depends on it.

• Leaders/managers must also be followers, for seldom do they have complete power.

Our Course is Unique

• We will not just focus on how to lead change, tell people what to do, or carry out mission statements, although these things are not neglected in the Change Process/Advanced Human Resource Management.

• Discuss the Golden Rule

• We will also contrast Andragogy, as a form of human resource development, with pedagogy, which is how we were taught as children.

Golden Rule

• Who would argue with the Golden Rule?

• “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

• “Lead others as you would want to be led”

• What assumption is made in the Golden Rule?

• How does that assumption differ from differentiated instruction and awareness of cultural diversity?

• As a leader of adults, please consider the strengths and weaknesses of the Golden Rule in highly diverse workplace.

Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2013). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Platinum Rule

How would you describe it?

How does it compare to the Golden Rule?

Organizations are made up of People

• This may seem like a “duh comment,” but we are going to go deeper than that simple statement.

• Organizations such as a college, a department, or a business entity are made up of formal and informal groups.

• Groups are made up of individuals.

Learning Behavior

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

Shedding Ourselves of Universal ideas of Good and Bad

The Golden Rule suggests

that we all value things

the same way.

Consider this: Scenario:

A Mom says she punishes little Johnny, but the child keeps acting

out.

The mom is assuming that

she has punished the behavior, but she is in fact

offering him a reward, which is most likely

attention.

Operant Conditioning: Punishments and Rewards are Subjective

• B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) popularized his notion of operant conditioning.

• Side note: pre-test scores in the EdD/PhD program in leadership show that most students do not fully understand it. It has great relevance for leading adults.

• Stimuli are things that are applied to people that cause them to either increase, decrease, or remain constant in a targeted behavior.

• Through the consequences for behavior, individuals will be motivated to behave in predetermined ways.

Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2013). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Negative Reinforcement

• With an adjective like “negative,” how could anyone not think that these stimuli are bad things. They may or may not be bad or good for that matter.

Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2013). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Positive Reinforcement

• With an adjective like “positive,” how could anyone not think that these stimuli are good things. They may or may not be good or bad for that matter.

Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2013). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Punishment • Punishment is a stimulus that causes a decrease

in the frequency of a targeted behavior.

• Undesirable consequence for undesirable behavior

Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2013). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Implications for Operant Conditioning

• One cannot decide if a stimulus is a punishment until one measures the frequency of the behavior after it is applied.

• The same can be said of a positive or a negative reinforcer.

• It is the targeted behavior that must be examined to see if the intended outcome was achieved.

• Be prepared to change a plan of rewards and punishments if the targeted behavior is not achieved.

Individuals

• Individuals come from diverse cultural and psychological worlds, hence the need to see how a stimulus affects each person.

• Each person’s world and his or her experiences in those worlds created the individual’s biography.

• We all have biographies. Think about what shaped your life story. Did your local community influence your way of thinking? Your ethnic background? Gender? Political party?

• Did these influences affect the way you see authority, power, order, and the creation of your work-related values?

Primary and Secondary Groups

• Individuals bring their biographies with them to their workplace, which is a formal social organization.

• While at work, they are simultaneously members of primary (informal and emotionally bound to others in the group) and secondary groups (formal and detached).

• Most formal organizations are made up of these two groups, but they are not the only groups that affect individuals’ perceptions of their surroundings as well as others.

Reference Groups

• Reference groups are categorizations of people (a list if you will) that are identified by an individual.

• People that we use to compare our behavioral standards.

• Help gauge our successes and failures.

Geography, Groups, and Individuals

An understanding of individuals and their respective behaviors is called psychology (shrinkology).

An understanding of group behavior is called sociology.

An understanding of how social behaviors and individual cognitions interface is called social-psychology.

When these are applied to the workplace with an understanding of geography (place and culture), it is called human resource management, and they are prerequisites for leading and managing the change process.

Activities & Assessments

Weeks 1 & 2

• Complete the Syllabus Quiz by Sunday of Week 1

• Complete the Student Introduction Discussion Board assignment

– Post by Sunday of Week 1; respond by Sunday of Week 2

• Conduct independent research relating to this week’s content