Perception - Motivation - Leadership - Organizational Change and Culture

Question: Discuss about thePerception, Motivation, Leadership, Organizational Change and Culture. Answer: Introduction Culture is an important aspect in the world. In any given setup i.e. a workplace and in the community culture plays an influencing role in a persons perception, leadership styles, motivation and organizational change. An individuals perception about something is influenced by the moral values the person holds, while culture determines the type of incentive a person requires. Different cultures place various values on incentive i.e. some like money more while others like presents a lot. This assignment focuses on perception, motivation, leadership, organizational change and culture relativity. Perception For the purpose of this report, I have chosen 12 years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen. The movie portrayed the picture of slavery in the 19th century. The film follows the tribulations of a man kidnapped from New York in 1841 and sold later as a slave in the south. The slave stripped of real identity, humanity, and his roots are later renamed Platt by his owner called Ford. The film had a lot to show depicting of the pain, sorrow, humiliation and suffering that slaves went through (Li, 2014, p.330). What I particularly liked about the movie is that each scene is engaging and capturing the attention of the audience. The movie tells the slavery story like no any other movie has done before. Fred, a colleague of mine also watched the movie but had different views about the film. He did not like it as he deemed it too horrific. Fred views the film as being too bloody and inhumane. He particularly pins points out the fact that the story line is lightning but the approach the director took was not the best. For me, the movie is an eye catcher, and the approach the director took was the best. Steve McQueen portrays slavery as it was and if you watch the movie never can you support slavery. Motivation Motivation can be defined as the desire and ambition of someone to do something or achieve a set goal. Organizations often us different ways to motivate their staff as there is no single best way. Some organizations use financial incentives, some non-financial benefits while other companies combine both the financial and the non-financial aspects of motivation (King and Mclnerney, 2014, p.179). For example, Daimler Financial Services holds big team events; they carry out motivational training, and some of its subsidiaries occasionally cook together and distribute baskets of fruits to employees. To make it a great place to work list, most if not all of these firms engage in corporate social responsibility thus motivating their employees a lot. To motivate employees, organizations create a standard culture that supports diversity. Companies such as Mars and Microsoft have re-engineered their communication channels and encourage their employees to take control of their tasks. This means there is minimal supervision, and an employee feels trusted and motivation. Microsoft encourages their staff to learn to keep being innovative. Microsoft offers tuition assistance to her employees. Another way these organizations use to motivate employees is by creating a good rapport built on openness and trust between the management and staff. Companies like firms engage more in CSR and ensure that each employee spends at least 40 hours in a year as volunteers to help their communities. Leadership Leadership is the ability of a person to influence the action and the thoughts of others towards the accomplishment of a common goal. Trait theory of leadership is based on a belief that leaders have certain specific traits while the behavioral theory believes that a leader has to behave in a certain way. Trait theory assumes that leaders are born with specific traits that enable an individual to be a great leader while behavioral theory does not believe in leaders being born with inherent potential (DeMatthews, 2014, p. 198). According to behavioral theory, any person can become a leader provided they acquire some training while trait theory believes that not everyone is born a leader. Organizations can select and develop capable leaders by training, delegating and successful succession planning. Firms can choose great leaders at recruitment and selection. During the hiring process, candidates with leadership skills, talent and experience could be identified. Organizations develop great leaders by training and succession planning. Through training, the leaders are impacted with the required skills that suit specific positions inside the firm. Delegation is another approach a lot of organizations are embracing. Through delegation, a potential leader is identified and then given tasks related to the position he is intended to occupy in the future. Succession planning helps an employee get acquitted with specifics of a job transforming him into a great leader. Organizational Change A sustaining innovation is one that does not significantly affect an existing market (Pratt, 2010, p. 12). In the past year, I have had the chance to interact with a variety of sustaining innovations. For the purpose of this report, the five innovations I have chosen are the Microsoft Office 365, WhatsApp call, WhatsApp document sharing, Uber and mobile banking apps. The emergence of these significant innovations has significantly improved lives. The Microsoft Office 365 offers consumers e-mail and social networking services and cloud storage services. Users can access their information from anywhere quickly. WhatsApp has combined many uses into a single app. Initially, it was just a messaging app, but now it has undergone various improvements to enable calls via the internet and document sharing. Disruptive innovation changes the basis of competition in the industry (Cortez, 2014, p. 177). The five disruptive innovations I will focus on are the transistor radio, Facebook, Personal computer, online marketing, and television. The advent of these inventions was greatly affected by prevailing market conditions, but they later changed the market and the industries as well. Facebook has helped my life as I can access and disseminate information from anywhere. Personal computers are useful in the completion of assignments and entertainment. Both the disruptive and the sustaining innovations have positively affected my life and added a lot of benefits. Cultures Culture is the collection of a groups beliefs, customs, arts, values, myths, and taboos. It is a way of life. Organizations as legal entities have a developed culture that guides their activities. Cultural relativism involves regarding the values, beliefs, and practices of culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself (Sikka, 2012, p. 51). Culture influences a persons interpersonal skills, group behavior, and leadership style. An individual will always behave according to the values he or she holds. Human resource practices are influenced by the prevailing culture especially human resource policies. To develop effective human resource policies a human resource manager has to use the culture as a guiding principle. Predominant leadership style is culturally relative. Motivation is a critical issue that depends on a lot of cultures. Not every employee can be motivated the in the same way. Some employees are motivated by financial gains while some are not materialistic culturally an d will settle for non-financial incentives. A good leader understands the prevailing culture and respects the values and beliefs of others. Culture is a crucial tool in any given society. Conclusion In conclusion, culture influences the perception, motivation technique, leadership style and organization change. People who share a similar culture are likely to hold the same perception and attitude about something. Factors that are culture relative need critical culture consideration for their success. References Bastedo, MN 2007, 'Bringing the State Back In: Promoting and Sustaining Innovation in Public Higher Education',Higher Education Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 155-170. Carrera, PM 2015, 'Incentives For Sustaining Innovation',Health Affairs, vol. 34, no. 5, p. 882. Cortez, N 2014, 'Regulating Disruptive Innovation,Berkeley Technology Law Journal, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 175-228. DeMatthews, DE 2014, 'How to Improve Curriculum Leadership: Integrating Leadership Theory and Management Strategies',Clearing House, vol. 87, no. 5, pp. 192-196. King, RB, McInerney, DM 2014, 'Culture's Consequences on Student Motivation: Capturing Cross-Cultural Universality and Variability Through Personal Investment Theory',Educational Psychologist, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 175-198. Li, S 2014, '12 Years a Slave as a Neo-Slave Narrative',American Literary History, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 326-331. Pratt, MK 2010, 'Sustaining Innovation. (Cover story)',Computerworld, vol. 44, no. 14, pp. 12-15. Sikka, S 2012, 'Moral Relativism and the Concept of Culture',Theoria: A Journal of Social Political Theory, vol. 59, no. 133, pp. 50-69.