Abstract
Organizational change is rarely easy. Many times, leaders and managers must deal with personality conflicts among workers, as well as tensions resulting from workers balancing work and home responsibilities. This chapter provides scholars and practitioners with an understanding of the influences value-based leadership and personality types play in driving leaders and behavior during organizational change. Further, the behaviors of stress and inaction of individuals and groups brought on by balancing work and home responsibilities during organizational change present readers with a deeper analysis and understanding of human behavior. Value-based leadership, perception, personality, and behavioral theories are discussed and examined through scenario activities designed for corporate, education, government, and non-profit sectors. Learning activity scenarios offer readers exercises in the decision-making process. Referencing personality strengths and areas of stress, readers have opportunities to engage in thoughtfully driven value-based solutions when managing an organizational change.
TopIntroduction
This chapter examines the impact value-based leadership and personality types have on leaders, managers, and team members undergoing organizational change. It will provide scholars and practitioners with an understanding of the influences personality and ethics play in driving leaders and the decision-making process during organizational change. Further, the psychological behaviors of stress and inaction of team members brought on by balancing work and home responsibilities during change, present readers with a deeper analysis and understanding of human behavior at work.
Value-based leadership and behavioral theories are discussed and examined through scenario learning activities for corporate, education, government, and non-profit sectors. Learning activities offer readers exercises in the decision-making process. Referencing personality strengths and areas of stress, readers have opportunities to engage in thoughtfully driven value-based solutions when managing an organizational change. Each scenario inculcates theories discussed into practical understanding.
In organizations, the issue of addressing change is multifaceted. However, when an organization's culture is founded on clearly expressed and understood values, decisions regarding how change is to be managed, who should lead the change, or even the type of change that must occur can help alleviate problems and facilitate success. Further, when clearly understood and accepted, values help alleviate employee behaviors that work against successfully implementing the needed change.
Value-based leadership encourages and guides decisions, thereby facilitating behaviors aligned with the organization's culture. Once a change is required, values clearly communicated enable employees to align with those values, while helping to manage the change and successfully transform an organization.
Value-based leadership is a model where the values of all stakeholders create an organizational code of standards and ethics that enables individuals to make independent decisions aligned to the organization’s values (Mendonca & Kanungo, 2007). Because the nature of change is a constant state of flux, the multi-layer process of change often demands and requires employees to act and think independently when making decisions. Further, value-based leadership incorporates the values of all stakeholders to shape an organization's culture reflective of ethical standards of behavior and thinking. Faced with a conflict or dilemma, it enables individuals to reflect on the values held by the organization and make decisions aligned with those values.
Decision-making is a complex multi-layered process where personal values and outside influences affect perceptions of behavior. In education, value-based theory holds that as employees and teachers gain experience, a deeper understanding of the role personal and social values play in resolving conflicts develops (Moore, 1992; Hamberger & Moore, 1997). This experience results in developing value-based behavior and thinking that can lead to solving dilemmas ethically when making decisions. These factors may serve to offset the influence of leaders' values and the values of an organization's culture.
When a value-based culture exists, a code of ethics is created that helps people perceive situations consistent with the culture and to know what appropriate action should be taken.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Construct: A psychological label representing clusters or domains of behaviors. Hypothetical constructs derive from observed behavior with inferring analysis of intangible qualities (Construct, 2015 AU41: The in-text citation "Construct, 2015" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Values: Beliefs, ethics, or principles that create a set of informal rules that regulate the behavior of a group or people bound by a common purpose ( Feldman, 2001 ).
Norms: Shared beliefs of social or professional groups about expected or desired behavior in a given situation or circumstance, constituting a collective conscience (Braxton and Bayer, 1999; Dubois, 2002 ; Durkheim, 1995 [1912]).
Ethical Dilemmas: Occur when personal values question or conflict with the accepted norms of behavior regarding rightness, wrongness, honesty, or fairness leaving more than one way to solve a problem (Strike, 1988 AU42: The in-text citation "Strike, 1988" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. in McKeachie, 2011 AU43: The in-text citation "McKeachie, 2011" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Ethics: A system of moral principles, values, or rules of conduct recognized by individuals, groups, or cultures that relate conduct or behavior with the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of the actions ( Stein & Urdang, 1971 ).
Value-Based Leadership: A model where the values of all stakeholders create an organizational code of standards and ethics and enable individuals to make independent ethical decisions when facing a dilemma where two correct solutions are possible ( Mendonca & Kanungo, 2007 ).
Perception: The act of capturing or understanding by the senses or the mind thoughts that acknowledge and recognize moral qualities ( Stein & Urdang 1971 ).