349 Final Examination

UNIVERSIDAD DE ZAMBOANGA
Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay

Name: ROSEMARIE E. DIOCARES Summer 2010
Course: ED.D.
349 Final Examination

Answers:

1. When working at a job, it is important to be a "team player." A team player works well with the other people on the job. Employers like when their employees get along and still get the job done. There are many things to be considered in order to judge an applicant as a good team player. When working with others, he must be willing to compromise. He must think of ways to solve problem and do not demand that his ideas be used. He should show loyalty to his team (socialized power); has strong attachment or connection (affiliation); be committed to the team's growth and improvement with high drive for achievement or accomplishment; think of ways to help his team meet its goals; find a way to work in different conditions; adapt to change in his work setting and be responsible and accept new ways of doing his job (personalized power). For more details, he should be responsible (If he is asked to do something, he’ll do it. If he needs to be somewhere for the team, whether it is a meeting or to support the team at an event, he’ll be there and be on time). He should listen to other team members without trying to guess what they are saying or judging them. He should be supportive (compliment other members of the team when they have worked hard or overcome a challenge). He should communicate effectively. He should be flexible (even if he has always done it one way, he’ll be willing to try another way. Finally, he should contribute. He should be willing to take on responsibilities and share the workload. If he does these things, he will be a better team member and would likely be hired for the job.

2. Albert Einstein said: “Try not to become a man of success but a man of value”. Indeed, to be concerned with character and be controlled by God’s Spirit will produce in a person the characteristic of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). With these, any person, wherever he/she is working will surely contribute to the success of the organization. These are the kind of people who are committed, accountable, and work for improvement. Given the right organizational vision, they can work harmoniously with people for better productivity.
Recently, organizations give emphasis to workplace values. Even the Department of Education is crafting its own core values along with almost all schools in the country to provide access for the attainment of the goals and objectives of the organization. Values are long-lasting beliefs about what is important in a variety of situations. It guides everyone to good decisions and actions. Another recent trend is the enhanced application of ethical values in the workplace. These moral principles determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad. So, with good personal values possessed by persons in the organization coupled with the organizational values/ethics, everyone can be assured of following the strategic direction towards the attainment of the organizations’ vision and mission.

3. An organization is a group of people who work interdependently toward some purpose. It has a structured pattern of interaction, coordinated tasks and has common objectives. An Organizational Memory System (OMS) on the other hand functions to provide a means by which knowledge from the past is brought to bear on present activities, thus resulting in increased levels of effectiveness for the organization. An OMS uses functions from systems for knowledge management, quality management, enterprise content management, workflow, groupware, document management, retrieval and research, and provides a collaborative environment which is already running in some intranets of some organizations. In future it will be greater than more organization to support supply chain management and information logistics.
The statement ‘without employees, an organization has no organizational memory’ is faulty because an organization like a school usually has employees and how can there be organizational memory when no personnel has to be managed?

4. Team building is a continuous process. More so, if there are new entrants in the team. Common work experiences would generate better communication and understanding. Common values and beliefs would also reduce conflicts and differentiation in the workplace. If 50% of the employees are new to the team, there are stages of team development which the team will pass through. One is storming, second is norming and third is performing. Motivation is vital in storming stage. Since the new entrants have skills and knowledge to perform the task, they only need to work cooperatively with the old members of the team. Strategies shall be employed to create lesser conflict, faster team development, better satisfaction of members and high work performance. In the norming stage, informal rules and expectations of the team has to be established to regulate member behaviors. Norms are being developed through the initial team experiences, critical events in team’s history, and the experiences/values members bring to the team. Moreover, team norms need to be changed when the need arises. In this case, it is necessary to present the already set up norms by the old members (the preferred norms), discuss counter-productive norms, reward behaviors representing desired norms or disband new members with dysfunctional norms. The third stage is the ‘performing’. It is important to make individual performance more visible to minimize social loafing. At this stage, employee motivation and job enrichment for the new members shall be implemented.

5. Leadership is defined as the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness of the organizations of which they are members. If problem arises in leadership as indicated in the given situation, there is indeed a need for the enhancement of leadership development program.
As a consultant, I would suggest Path-Goal Theory. This is a leadership theory that focuses on the need for leaders to make rewards contingent on the accomplishment of objectives and to aid group members in attaining rewards by clarifying the paths to goals and removing obstacles to performance. According to the goal-path theory there are four primary styles of leadership: 1. Directive Leadership: The leader explains the performance goal and provides specific rules and regulations to guide subordinates toward achieving it. 2. Supportive Leadership: The leader displays personal concern for subordinates. This includes being friendly to subordinates and sensitive to their needs. 3. Achievement-oriented Leadership: The leader emphasizes the achievement of difficult tasks and the importance of excellent performance and simultaneously displays confidence that subordinates will perform well. 4. Participative Leadership: The leader consults with subordinates about work, task goals, and paths to resolve goals. This leadership style involves sharing information as well as consulting with subordinates before making decisions.
Another model is the Transformational Leadership. This leadership leads in changing the organization to fit the environment. It creates the Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives and provides trategic direction in the attainment of these VMG. It is committed to achieve the vision. The leader lives by modeling. This type yields higher employee satisfaction, performance, organization citizenship and creativity. This model is widely used nowadays.