Personality and Perception

Perception about an individual’s personality impacts on motivation at work and the airs surrounding the staff at an organization. Perception about an individual is mostly driven by individual perceptions that people around the individual generate, and the viewpoint of the beholder.  Whilst a very vibrant and positive personality leads to positive energy around the workspace and acts as an inspiration to co-workers, a closed, pessimistic personality leads to hate and negative energy in work areas where team interaction is the key. It cannot be absolutely said that positive personalities are always successful. Their success and goodwill in the organization is driven by people who have influence on the overall aspects of the organization. Politics, backbiting, spreading negative vibes out of jealousy and professional competition drive perceptions about an individual. Man is an animal and rarely reaches a state of complete satisfaction except for a short time, as one desire is satisfied another pops up to take its place.

These desires lead to all kind of issues among people in a workplace.

The paper in discussion has highlighted a situation that is very close to the one I had been involved with, and I would be throwing some light on the incidents that occurred. Ours was a team of 12 with a very diverse range of backgrounds. The project was one that revolved around the time and money model and the resources we had were critical to the completion of the project on time. While technical disturbances are commonplace to any workplace, the dependencies the issues create on the functioning of the project are not to be overlooked. Deb, a team member was on the verge of his appraisal for promotion and was going overboard in the project to project him as a very competitive. While the fact that he was very talented and a resource critical to the project were true, the behavior was one that was caustic and belligerent. The module that he was handling was one that depended on a database which was handled by an external organization.  Another team member, Bob who had a similar dependency was working on creating views for the business aspects of the project, and unknowingly had caused the database to crash. Deb was apprised of this thing and he turned violent, as though it was a personal issue and would destroy his life in the next instant. He raised an incident with the higher authorities and demanded an action against Bob. The issue was one that could be internally handled without any intervention from the higher authorities, the feeling if insecurity that the issue could hamper his performance and he held responsible for it was the reason for his extreme behavior.  A meeting was called for with the local HR and upon discussion, Deb  had to be taken off the allocation, and put into a position that was less critical and demanded less involvement with the teammates.

There are in fact many theories of motivation that are used within business organizations, which all have been designed for one purpose, to identify what motivates and enhances the performance of employees. It is important for a business to identify factors relating to motivation that could affect its competitiveness in the market, and implement ways to enhance the business performance. However the importance of perception and personality factors should not be overlooked, when introducing any method of motivation, as these are likely to determine whether employees will react effectively to any change in motivational style. I believe professional and personal motives must have clear a bridge between them and should be completely isolated from each other.

Organizational Culture

Summary:  In this reflection, I have attempted to describe the culture of the organization where I have worked before and in the process, I have expressed my views about the same .I have also indicated the kind of impact which my organization created to me about work culture.

An organization's culture varies as widely as the nature of work itself. Often a unique different mix of values and norms govern the cultural environment of an organization. In today's fast changing business environment, the cultural make-up of an organizations plays a critical role in the success of the firm to achieve its strategic objectives. In this paper I will explore the idea of organizational culture and discuss factors associated with understanding the reality of an organization's culture, with examples presented to illustrate my discussion points.

Culture is not an easily defined concept, but generally it is the values, beliefs, and norms expressed in work practices and behavior. An organization's culture is not necessarily an articulated list of values found in a carefully worded statement or available as an appendix in an annual report. Rather, culture is created by the organization itself. How employees treat and interact with one another and the values of the employees and the organization, such as work ethic, manifest an organization's culture. Some cultures encourage innovation and risk taking, while others punish those who challenge established norms and practices. 

Here, I’d like to discuss about work culture at my organization. After finishing my undergraduate in India, I worked for a startup in US where I had a brief encounter with the organization’s culture. The speaker addressed us as Software Developers instead of interns, which was our designation and we were asked to address any employee by their name (which is not usual in India where the senior people are addressed as “Sir/Madam”, so that was a complete change of grounds for me). Also the Identity card never represented the designation of a person. The main reason behind this was to reduce the “Power-distance” which is usually very high in India.  There is a kind of domination by the people in higher positions. I used to work along with CEO, CTO and other senior people in the same office and they were very much accessible to me. Every day all the employees used to had lunch and dinner with CEO, CTO.

Another instance where the culture in my Organization had a positive impact on me was when I learned about the Values, which were believed and practiced by every employee of the organization. Those values are – Executive Support, Training Leading change, Integrity, Respect for individual, Learning and sharing. 

Executive support: Executives in the organization must support the cultural change, and in ways beyond verbal support. They must show behavioral support for the cultural change. Executives must lead the change by changing their own behaviors. It is extremely important for executives to consistently support the change.

Training: Culture change depends on behavior change. Members of the organization must clearly understand what is expected of them, and must know how to actually do the new behaviors, once they have been defined. Training can be very useful in both communicating expectations and teaching new behaviors.

Leading change: All the employees are given the freedom to think innovatively and make necessary changes to the project they are working in; the main motive behind this is that we believe that change is very essential and leading change helps us gain a potential advantage in the competitive market. 

Integrity: Integrity is a mirror revealing the truth about an individual or a corporation. It involves walking the talk -- not just talking it. Integrity is violated when corporate policies and procedures are thrown out the window in the quest for personal or corporate gain. From an organization's perspective, personal and corporate integrity are two sides of the same coin. In order for a corporation to have integrity, it must have an ethical environment with employees and business partners willing to follow and enforce corporate culture, policies, and procedures. From an individual's perspective, an employee or partner wants to for a corporation aimed at doing the right thing and in-sync with their personal values and beliefs.  

Respect to individual: As I have said before, all the employees are treated equally disregarding to their designation and role in the company and everyone has freedom to access any employee including the senior management.

Learning and sharing: One’s knowledge doubles when he/she shares it with others. I strongly believe in this and have always done that which I continued to do at work with my organizations support.

Considering the size of the company, I was a bit uncertain during the initial phase of my job but the clear mission, vision and value statements and the level of coordination and integration among the employees definitely reduces the uncertainty. 

Conclusion:Discussing all this, I should say that the culture at my organization definitely had a positive impact on me; it has created a positive and comfortable work environment. Organizational culture is a very important factor for a company and the culture of an organization represents the organization.

   

Ethics

Summary: In this reflection, I have attempted to describe a situation in which I had faced an ethical dilemma and have expressed my views about the same .I have also indicated the kind of impact the entire situation has created on me, and how it has influenced my decisions.

The call of duty precedes the call of your heart. A university stands for humanism, tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of idea and for the search of trust. Being built such strong principles, this was deeply integrated into our value system right from the beginning and we have taken its path too. Being an undergraduate student with an eye for entrepreneurship and technology, i have strong tied my beliefs to this thought system. To take a path less trodden, and to explore avenues less familiar to me, i took the path of starting my own little firm providing services in hosting and web services. That was at a period when the word 'startup' was alien to me, but i had already taken its path.

Those were my early years of under graduation.  On the verge of entering into my final year, i was selected as an assistant for college affairs and internal administration, at the college of Engineering at my university. That was a stage when i could be called an amateur and be brushed aside as a junior, but the strong foundations the university was built on, and a healthy value system it had, was an inspiring model for me.
Being a student and an intern, the situations that my assistantship gave me and the kind of people I met, imbibed in me things that could were paving the way for the professional i was eager to evolve into. The concept of assistantship and student affairs being handled by interns was evolving only then and was not actually much in place, but most of the decisions in day to day affairs had to be taken by us, making the job challenging and equally providing a very steady learning curve.  In addition to this, I had a penchant for security systems and cryptography. I had been working on a project, the potential of which was not exactly known to me. During my day to day interactions with the professors at my university, I was sighted by the head of Computer Sciences department, who was also the dean for Student Affairs. He arranged for me interactions, and made me understand the importance of the thing I was working on. I was very much excited as that could be a major break in my life, and he had promised to support me, given my dedication and abidance to his guidelines. I was called to meetings that were open only to the professors at the university and was made to actively interact with people in the discussions. I found these experiences invaluable, and instilled in a great sense of respect for my mentor.

Other than these, my mentor being the dean too, I had to report to him cases put forward by students from various colleges under the university’s umbrella.  I would like to express my feelings about one case that I had encountered and had been in a fix. There was a classmate at my Electrical Engineering class, who was very promising and was working on a project that could be pivotal to this future. Though the intellectual quotient in question was high, the moral and monetary support from the family was not enough to balance the talent that he possessed. As a part of the regular policies at the university, a student has to clear all the fee dues to qualify for appearing for an examination.  My classmate had some deep financial issues at home, and could not pay the semester fees on time, but was working hard on his project. He was summoned by the student affairs office, in this regard and was informed about not qualifying for the exams, in case the fee wasn’t paid on time. This was a very depressing time for him, and approached me for advice in this regard. He asked me to recommend to the dean, his case for an exception and extend the deadlines for him.

Having known for a couple of years, I empathized with him, and promised to help him any possible manner.  After a lot of thinking, I approached the dean with this case and explained him the plight of my classmate. Being a person in authority, he asked me to go according to the rules and revoke him the exam qualification. I requested him to consider this case and extend the due date, which was flatly refused.  Realizing my friend’s need to take the exams on time, and my strong will to help him out, I informed my dean that in case he could not make an extension, I would escalate the issue to the higher authorities and get an extension for him. My mentor was clearly enraged for my opposition and said in such a case, I would not be getting any further help from him in my research project.  Weighing the ups and downs of my decision, and the fact that a student’s entire career was at stake, I was in a dilemma. 

At that point of time, I realized that I could complete my project even without my mentor’s support, but with a higher level of hardship. All that could matter to me then was the future of a student who would be promising, and I could not afford to jeopardize his career. I made a special request to the university’s registrar and since he has special powers in such matters, he accepted my request on a condition that I assure he pays the dues within a month after the examinations. Upon conveying the decision to my dean and my classmate, I saw feelings of indifference from the dean and joy from my friend. Being a human with a set of values, what mattered to me was the joy of a person, rather than material benefits.

I remember my ensuing conversation of rejection which I had with my dean, with a sense of regret. I wish I could say I managed this dilemma well, but I realize that I failed to account for the fact that I could not substantiate the situation, by being diplomatic at both the ends. Societies in my opinion are more importantly social, educational and vocational unit than the rules put forward by workplaces, and when testing times arrive, the dilemma that these put us in is unexplainable. By not giving thought to the consequences of my actions, my project had to be completed in a tougher manner, but ultimately I achieved success and my classmate finished his course on time. Through this, I have learned a valuable lesson on integrating business rules and ethics, and have vowed to utilize this insight into all of the decisions I make.

Conflict Management

Conflict

Conflicts are few things that happens usually between individuals/organizations. However, there are completely different ways to handle conflicts a few are more effective than others. Before I justify these different ways, its vital to grasp what conflict is. "Conflict happens whenever disagreements exist in a very scenario over problems with substance or whenever emotional antagonisms produce frictions between people or groups. There are 2 distinctive forms of conflict, "substantive conflict" and "emotional conflict".

Substantive conflict arises when one person fundamentally disagrees with another person or group in the advance of accomplishing business.

Emotional conflict intrudes into the sentiments of a scenario, like anger, mistrust, dislike, fear, resentment. This can be commonly known as "clash of personalities". This kind of conflict will generally be a lot of draining, and exclude from the vital work that has to be done. Typically this happens between co-workers who might not like each other, or with customers who don't seem to be treated properly.

Conflict Management In My School

I see conflict as being a contest ought to haveeither rewards or recognition. we tend to explore our own effort and hard work when some other person wins that reward or recognition, which might bring on don't deserve. In highschool, i used to be on the chess team. I actually have had several disappointments, and then I have had some lucky matches where i do know the opposite person was far better than i used to be as a result of of |tougher work, however i might take that win for the team regardless how truthful it absolutely was, as a result of sooner or later, i might understand that i'd get shafted with that unfair match. The difference between sports team and the business world is there is no third party to give feedback about performance in business. Sometimes I feel that just the constructive criticism from a coach or team mate is enough recognition for me, especially if you lose.

Conclusion

This essay paper has explained what conflict is and the two types of conflict there are. It listed each style of management used to deal with conflict and which styles work best. I enjoyed learning more about the different styles of managing conflict while writing this paper. My desire is now to be able to recognize conflict when it happens and use a style of management that will best resolve the issues in the conflict.