Student #1
Amar Verma
RE: Discussion – Week 7
COLLAPSE
Introduction
The evolution of digital technologies and technology-oriented modern working styles has given rise to virtual organizations. McCann and Kohntopp (2019) explained that virtual organizations (VO) usually contain non-locally situated people. VOs accord a level of independence to the individuals and organizations according to mutually acceptable terms. A critical difference between traditional and virtual organizations is that the geographic separation can result in leadership perturbations (McCann & Kohntopp, 2019). Virtual leadership leverages virtual communications to manage work, teams and accomplish organizational objectives.
According to the shared videos, the virtual organization mentioned by Dr. Marsh is going through growth challenges. As a result, there are organizational challenges that span areas of employee engagement and performance management. These videos prompt viewers to consider how the VO business model offers new opportunities and challenges for the organization and its leaders while testing the organization’s limits (Laureate Education, 2016c). In this discussion, I attempt to explore academic and practitioner literature that applies to Dr. Marsh’s VO scenarios. I also present my analysis on seminal work that can solve VO challenges, as mentioned by Dr. Marsh.
Academic and Practitioner Literature Applicable to Dr. Marsh’s Scenario
As explained in the video, Dr. Marsh’s VO employs 500 contractors distributed globally. The VO had grown quite considerably in a short period. Dr. Marsh had to solve the problems of employee engagement and performance management at the VO.
Buzatu (2020) explained that growth-oriented companies need to continually evolve strategies for better performance, improved processes, and lower costs. A streamlined digital and leadership approach can achieve all these growth objectives. Internationalization is an essential contribution to growth, including distributed teams. Due to the nature of prevailing threats to business operations, there is a greater emphasis on data and access control (Buzatu, 2020). As we can see, dispersed teams and controlling access to information are conflicting requirements. Northouse (2019) indicated that more technology access allows the followers to have better access to information. Improved information flow yields transparency, which in turn increases trust. At the same time, decentralization of information access diminishes the leader’s legitimate power. According to the six bases of power theory, leaders can utilize reward, coercion, and information power to exert influence to drive desired outcomes (Northouse, 2019).
Dr. Marsh instituted significant changes at the VO (Laureate Education, 2016c). The changes included better communication strategy, deploying front-line leaders, improved processes, and performance metrics. According to leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, the exchange between leaders and followers is normative (Northouse, 2019). Furthermore, Dr. Marsh provided better and direct access to the contractors to their front-line leaders. Also, Dr. Marsh instituted a performance management system that allowed a leader to monitor and measure performance over time (Laureate Education, 2016b, 2016d, 2016e). As stated above, employees positively reacted to an effective communication strategy combined with a transparent performance feedback system. Employees’ performance improved, the annual count of service interventions and service tenure with the organization increased (Laureate Education, 2016a). At the same time, a key performance indicator, “net promoter score,” which measures clients’ satisfaction with the organization, also increased significantly (Laureate Education, 2016a).
Employee engagement significantly affects organizational endurance, affecting the financial outlook (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). There is a direct relationship between employees’ engagement and organizational productivity. Disengaged employees feel not valued and disconnect from the organization. Expecting a long tenure or meaningful outcomes from disengaged employees is futile. According to the theory of servant leadership style, when followers view leaders with qualities of a servant leader, their level of engagement is very high. High engagement is reflected in a positive state of mind, collaborative approach towards work, and high level of contribution (Northouse, 2019).
According to the self-determination theory (SDT), employees’ psychological state and belongingness to the organization are related to their motivational levels. Leaders can influence followers to drive the collective vision and achieve desired outcomes. According to the theory of five-factor leadership, I can view that Dr. Marshs’ leadership style demonstrating a personality that combines agreeableness and conscientiousness (Northouse, 2019). Dr. Marsh affected change in his VO using his self-confidence, desire, and vision to inspire the followers (Laureate Education, 2016b). High level of motivation affected by the leader, along with improved processes transformed employees into more productive people.
Seminal Work To Form Strategy for Changing Organizational Culture
There is a lot of current research and seminal work related to virtual organizations and virtual leadership. Employee engagement and performance are intricately connected, and leaders explore meaningful ways to improve both (Northouse, 2019). Leaders may sometimes find that delegation of duties is difficult due to perceptions about the followers. However, delegation not only empowers employees but also improves their level of motivation (Inc.com, 2020). The autonomy of working in a VO is a robust base for motivation. Some other motivation channels that the leaders could use are learning, work-life balance, and financial stimuli. In addition, to increase motivation, leaders should consider improved communication, feedback, and processes (Inc.com, 2020).
Robinson (2018) explored how performance improvement plans are helpful to improve employee productivity. The author gathered survey data from 649 professionals from the human resources field. The author found improvement in employee productivity at organizations where performance improvement plans were instituted. Improved work quality and reduction in rework are some of the other positive outcomes of a performance improvement plan. At the VO, Dr. Marsh first defined the key performance indicators (KPI) and then tracked the progression of KPIs. Significant improvement was noted in employees’ engagement levels and tenure with the organization. The findings of Dr. Marsh match with the results of Robinson (2018).
One Additional Strategy
Dr. Marsh explained that the continuous feedback and revision of the process management framework would yield even better outcomes at the VO (Laureate Education, 2016c). I would like to mention that building up skills and educational opportunities for the employees will provide additional benefits to the organization. Northouse (2019) states that more learning opportunities for followers results in self-delegation of leadership controls. Therefore people with more education tend to require lesser supervision. Such an outcome is desirable due to enhanced organizational productivity.
References
Buzatu, A. I. (2020). International growth strategies for digital entrepreneurial companies in developing countries from eu region. Junior Scientific Researcher, 6(1), 2–14.
Harris, K. J., Wheeler, A. R., & Kacmar, K. M. (2009). Leader–member exchange and empowerment: Direct and interactive effects on job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 20, 371–382.
Inc.com. (2020, February 6). Employee motivation. https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/employee-motivation.html
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016a). Leading a virtual organization: Conclusions [Video file].
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016b). Leading a virtual organization: Employee engagement [Video file].
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016c). Leading a virtual organization: Introduction [Video file].
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016d). Leading a virtual organization: Leadership [Video file].
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016e). Leading a virtual organization: Performance management [Video file].
Lee, M. R. (2014). Leading virtual project teams: Adapting leadership theories and communications techniques to 21st century organizations. CRC Press.
McCann, J., & Kohntopp, T. (2019). Virtual leadership in organizations: Potential competitive advantage? SAM Advanced Management Journal, 84(3), 26–39.
Moldovan, O., & Macarie, F. C. (2014). How to change the informal side? A comparative analysis of organizational culture transformation models. Managerial Challenges of the Contemporary Society, 7(2), 40–45.
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Sage.
Osborne, S., & Hammoud, M. S. (2017). Effective employee engagement in the workplace. International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), 50–67. doi:10.5590/IJAMT.2017.16.1.04.
Robinson, S. (2018, May 16). Why performance improvement is essential. TD.org. https://www.td.org/insights/why-performance-improvement-is-essential
Student #2
Kerstin Williams
RE: Discussion – Week 7
COLLAPSE
Employee engagement can be seen as a perspective of how the employee feels about their role in the company. In the case of Dr. Marsh, his challenge was to figure out how to make 500 employees who were contracted and worked remotely feel that their role was valued and appreciated. Finding out what employees looked for to feel appreciated and motivated was the ultimate goal. He needed to work from the top down, executives down to frontline workers to achieve this goal.
What aspects of the academic and practitioner literature did you find particularly applicable to Dr. Marsh’s scenario?
Understanding how to make changes that employees would buy into was the most significant part of the literature that I found. When making changes, they have to be very transparent and appeal to the employee and how it will positively affect customers. Chatman (2014) explains this as Jennifer Cook took on merging four different brands and learning what motivated employees and how the different cultures would merge and adapt. This was similar to Dr. Marsh’s case as he also had to define how the business would run and worked and what did not. While there is no defined way to determine this having a roadmap and open discussion helped. Also, having meetings with the leadership team and frontline employees helped understand the goal and what engaged employees Laureate Education(2016).
Whose seminal work would you adopt to help you form your strategy to change the organizational culture of this virtual organization?
With any change, there will be natural resistance because people cling to what they know. In the study, Schultz (2014) shows that people are not unwilling to change but are hesitant. In order to make an effective change, they must know how it will affect them and their job performance. Understanding this provides confidence in the employee that the change will be meaningful to them and the company. Dr. Marsh’s biggest challenge was engaging remote employees worldwide Laureate Education(2016). Understanding what motivates employees from vast cultures and making everyone from the top down feel empowered was a challenge, but as Dr. Marsh mentioned, making regular update meetings was the best way to gauge how well changes were being accepted and working.
If you were in Dr. Marsh’s position, what is one additional strategy you might have employed to more effectively lead or develop this virtual, globally dispersed team? Provide a rationale for your selected strategy.
One strategy that I would have employed is preventing the organizational silo (Ready, 2014). When trying to make changes, everyone must feel included, so the idea that every department is independent of each other must be eliminated. Leading a globally dispersed team means that cultural differences need to be addressed, and there are multiple ways that ideas need to be presented. I chose this method because it is all-inclusive and helps show that everyone needs to be represented and included in significant changes. (Moldovan & Macarie, 2014) mention that change starts from the top and works its way down. I agree with this because executives are the leadership and set the example; once employees see that they agree with the change, they are more willing to make the changes.
References
Chatman, J. (2014). Culture change at genentech: accelerating strategic and financial accomplishments. california management review, 56(2), 113–129. https://doi- org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1525/cmr.2014.56.2.113
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016c). Leading a virtual organization: Introduction [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Moldovan, o., & Macarie, f. c. (2014). How to change the informal side? a comparative analysis of organizational culture transformation models. managerial challenges of the contemporary society, 7(2), 40–45.
Ready, D. A. (2014). Is Your Company Failing Its Leaders? Business Strategy Review, 25(2), 78–81. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/j.1467-8616.2014.01076.x
Schultz, J. R. (2014). creating a culture of empowerment fosters the flexibility to change. global business & organizational excellence, 34(1), 41–50. https://doi- org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1002/joe.21583
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