Nick Salvatoriello Midterm

MID-TERM EXAM: What it Takes to Move Up Identifying competencies important for obtaining high-level positions with organizational change

Nicholas Salvatoriello Professor Alan Belasen MBA 652 5/14/08 8:00pm

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What it Takes to Move Up The role of the middle manager has seen a lot of challenges and changes within the past two decades. Competition from an increasingly complex, competitive, and global business environment has forced great change on companies, sometimes unexpectedly. Massive corporations with bloated hierarchies found themselves in need of innovation or else become extinct. Those Managers who have survived these organizational challenges and changes at the socio-technical level are those who have mastered core competency learning and have used it to add strategic value to their position and those of their teams. They then successfully promoted themselves through utilizing key communication networks. Management studies have researched the successes and failures of groups, teams, and organizations that are in pursuit of high-performance leadership and also, the roles a manager, who wants to survive and prosper, must master and balance. Managerial leaders must work within an environment of complex and contradictory expectations, as the CVF suggests. There are eight different role behaviors expected from managers reflected in the CVF reflected as four separate models of organization, each with their own goals and leadership competencies necessary for achieving them. These leadership roles and competencies are charted along axes of orientation in the CVF which reflect an organization’s outlook, be it inward, outward, centralized or decentralized.

This framework suggests that some of the roles seem to be in opposition to one another in that they entail mutually exclusive organizational effectiveness criteria. It is in this reality that

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3 the astute manager will find the CVF useful in enabling themselves to increase self-awareness of the strengths and weaknesses associated with acting out the eight universal roles. The most important question therefore is how, according to the theory described in our course work, does the leader on the rise obtain responsibilities to demonstrate those competencies? The competencies necessary for mid-level managers wanting to move on to higher-level positions may vary in importance depending on the type of work processes involved. As one can see from Part III, of managerial leadership in the Belason text, Leading the Learning Organization leadership role studies were cited of USPS self-managed teams as compared to SMT operation in a distribution center. It was found that different roles need to be emphasized in each organization’s team. These results suggest some roles are less important than others due to the unique structure of teams, strong ownership of team goals or internalization of certain functions and responsibilities (Manz & Sims, 1987, p. 114). What the research concludes is that how people are organized around these new processes and changes at the socio-technical level requires the ambitious manager to adjust and learn competencies that were found to be essential in a discontinuous environment such as horizontal management and self-managed teams. A manager must: • • • •

The manager must reinvent themselves as a team leader, sponsor, and consultant. They must learn to communicate with equal effectiveness in all directions necessary to get the job done while at the same time sharing information at a level of transparency unheard of in normative structures (Mentor and Broker Role). They must adapt to deal with changing the organizational structure in response to the market (Innovator Role). They must become proficient in engaging others in decision making (Facilitator Role) while also demanding accountability and requiring improved results (Monitor and Producer Role).

Given these expectations, what we are shown is the Competing Values Framework theory has proven throughout the course text, class discussion, and case studies which is in every highly effective work unit, common models, roles, and competencies can be observed as a necessity for mastery if a manager wishes to move to higher levels of performance. This is desirable, as these competencies and roles enhance action-learning and maintain the “creative tension” necessary for businesses undergoing rapid change with teams that are functioning in a discontinuous environment. The consequences of not mastering these competencies can be very detrimental to a manager and an organization as a whole. One example would be the ‘Acquisition of Abbot Hospital’ case from class. Sister Mary Theresa is described in part two of the case study as being autocratic and acting without communication or participation with other stake-holders at Abbot, particularly John Coletti. “Staff at both hospitals were to be informed they could be transferred between hospitals at administrative discretion. No seniority and accrued benefits from Abbott would transfer to Mt. Mercy/Abbot staff status. John Coletti was not 3

4 consulted or notified of these actions by the Mt. Mercy personnel department…. John Coletti was furious and threatened to resign his position immediately unless this policy was altered. Sister Mary Theresa held to her basic reorganization plan, and Coletti resigned on February 1, 1991. Five department heads from Abbot also resigned.” (Longman 1994, page 7) Sister Mary Theresa is an example of an upper level manager who did not adapt to reorganizational structure. She did not engage others in decision making or share information, and did not reinvent herself in response to taking on Abbot Hospital’s management (which, up to acquisition, was essentially a self-managed team of administrators.) The result was low morale, people leaving the organization, and a very poor six months of performance for Abbot Hospital. My personal experience with upper level managers at Union College’s Office of College Relations has been much different. Working in a department whose top position is vacating in 3 months and whose own work group (The Union Fund) has experienced almost 80% turnover in the last 2 years, could suggest an environment fraught with anxiety and lack of cohesive direction. However, with regular interdepartmental meetings, frequent communications both horizontally and diagonally across the organization, most of those employed in College Relations are able to anticipate changes and help facilitate transitions as they occur which allows them to achieve good success. An example would be our monthly “celebrations” meetings wherein the entire department gathers in one space to celebrate birthdays, employment anniversaries, and shares updates from each area of the department. It’s a great networking environment where cross-functional relationships have been quickly established and maintained. Thus far, have reviewed examples of what to do and what not to do when it comes to gaining proficiency in the competencies needed in order to effectively become a desirable candidate for upper-management. What needs to finally discussed is what a good manager must do for his team so that it too can achieve a higher level of effectiveness and become a learning organization. A strategy I would recommend would be to institute action­learning as an overarching goal so  that they can demonstrate adding value to employees above and beyond the regular work­ processes required of them.  The manager must be confident enough in augmenting learning  opportunities and identifying and confronting behavioral problems may not have been typically  allowed to surface previously. I would also recommend that the competitive manager commit to a process of continual learning  and insist on the rest of their direct reports or team members ­ depending on your structure.  Hamel (1991, p. 98) cited by West and Meyer (1997, p. 41) proposed that “firms with a history of  cross functional teamwork and inter­business coordination were more likely to turn personal  learning into corporate learning than were firms where the emphasis was on individual  contributors and independent business units.”

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5 Managers who assemble and become part of cross­functional teams and reach out to other  businesses will be best seen as leaders who can become champions of a company’s change effort.  Belason’s text Part IV on Learning and Development cites an article by Carlvery, Mobley, and  Marshall (1994, P. 41).  What it states are the steps for a manager to help his organization become  a “learning organization.”  Some highlights are: • • • • •

Questioning current assumptions about learning Getting an outside perspective Articulating learning­organization ideas plainly Taking risks while simultaneously avoiding jeopardizing the basic security of the  organization Link individual performance with organizational performance

They must learn not just to be proficient in their responsibilities, but managers who want to  become leaders must show they are able to create a new vision, reshape the organizational  mission, and articulate the values which support that vision.  In conclusion, high performance leadership which empowers others is all about initiating transformational learning. The value-adding manager uses conceptual, non­autocratic power to  inspire employees.  Belason’s course text gives insight on how an effective manager facilitates  communication strategies and development methods through emerging paradigms seen in  industry today; self managed teams, action­learning, and the roles of the CVF.  This will take  discipline, confidence, and self­knowledge on the part of those who want to move up.  However,  this is what I believe it takes to stand out as the transformational leader that business is calling for  today.

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