Leadership and Organizational Change Concepts

Leadership and Organizational Change Concepts Worksheet

Concept Application of Concept in the Scenario or Simulation Reference to Concept in Reading

Equity theory

“Emotion is really running high throughout this organization. Worse, it appears that many of the people are still not aligned with our new vision; they don’t even understand why we’re doing it!

And is it any wonder? Our directors are still preaching handling more clients in order to sell more products. They’re completely ignoring us (University of Phoenix 2007).”

In the scenario, the company is having a problem aligning the employees with the new company vision. But as this example demonstrates, the employees do not understand why the vision is important and necessary therefore, they don’t see it as fair and just to force them to promote. Thus, an example of the equity theory.

“Defined generally, equity theory is a model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchanges or give and take relationships (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2003, p. 290)”

Motivation through goal setting

“And the only way to do that is to focus on getting these new products out and using them to increase productivity. The new comp plan should help motivate my team to work even harder, because the higher they go above target, the better their bonuses will be (University of Phoenix 2007).”

Motivation is essential to employee productivity. In the scenario, the employer recognizes this importance and constructs the employee compensation plan around the motivation to work harder and exceed the goals because the higher they achieve the better their bonus/financial reward.

“The motivational impact of performance goals and goal-based reward plans has been recognized for a long time (Kreitner-KIinicki, 2003, p. 305).”

External Forces for change

“Since September 11, 2001, the financial services industry has been in a constant state of flux, never certain, always chaotic. The volatile climate has left many financial firms struggling to keep both their clients’ trust and Wall Street’s credibility. To succeed, investment companies need to offer an ever-expanding array of up to the minute products coupled with expert advice (University of Phoenix 2007).”

In the scenario, the external force of market change has forced the company, Intersect Investment, to take a new direction and a new approach to market their product and service their customers. “External forces for change originate outside the organization. Because these forces have global effects. They may cause an organization to question the essence of what business it is in and the process by which products and services are produced (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2003, p. 674).”

Behavior shaping

“You all raise great points. Hank, if we confuse our employees with mixed messages, they will leave. I have to own fixing that and focus on sending a single,