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Affecting Change

Affecting Change
TWatkins
University of Phoenix
MEMBA109; LDR 531
April 30, 2009

Leadership has been defined as the ability to motivate and influence others to work towards achieving a goal. Leaders of any organizations are sometimes faced with challenges of encouraging employees to adapt to organizational structural and culture changes. “In large organizations, the effectiveness of managers depends on influence over superiors and peers as well as influence over subordinates.” (Yukl, 2006, p.145) The COO of Smith & Falmouth (S&F), in the Leadership in Action simulation was faced with the challenge of leading a group of stubborn employees to achieve the company’s goals. The following discussion will address the present cultures within S&F and will make a recommendation for restructuring the e-tailing division that would improve the culture while empowering the employees.
Current Culture
“The culture of a group can be defined as a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solves its problems and are taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.” (Schein, 1993) S&F Online operations present culture has been identified as a subculture that has been led by the project manager. The project manager and his web development team has been running the department the way that the saw fit. The project manager works very well with the logistic manager and his team. The structure has been identified as centralization. The decision making in an organization is heavily dependent on the type of organizational culture existing in the organization. This fact is not only true with decision making at the higher levels but also applicable to the decisions at the lower levels in the organization. The level of centralization and decentralization with respect to decision making in an organization clearly stems out of the prevailing organizational culture. For example, if the culture of the...