Management of Change: Organisation Development and Design — Microcredential — Open University — ¼

I recently got my results back for my Management of Change: Organisation Development and Design Microcredential from the Open University. Thankfully I did really well, passing with a distinction. Rather than letting all that hard work sit on my hard drive gathering dust I thought it might be a good addition to my little blog. As part of the assessment, I was asked to produce 4 essays this is the first of these, enjoy.

Task 1

Write an opinion piece of 500 words, informed by your study of the course content, addressing how you will be working professionally in an increasingly digital working environment.

This should be based on an organisation you are currently working with or one with which you are familiar. Use the 5W and H technique (as described in Week 1, Step 1.8) to frame your writing.

Develop your opinion and argument based on transformative events which move us ever closer towards a digital world, using the content from Weeks 1, 2 and 3, which delved into stories, collaboration and organisational behaviour at the micro level.

Please refer to Step 4.15 for a list of activities which you might find helpful to underpin your work.

I am a graduate who has recently started on the Deloitte Analyst Induction programme. As part of that induction programme, I have just spent three weeks on a virtual onboarding process and now am at an inflexion point where I will begin my real job. Deloitte too is at an inflexion point they are changing from a traditional office environment to a hybrid working model where we as employees can choose when we need to go into the office and when not to (Deloitte, 2021).

At the micro-level (Collins et al, 2021, Step 1.4) this has some benefits for one, I no longer have to perform a stressful daily commute which can lead to poorer wellbeing (Novaco and Gonzalez, 2009), and increase aggression in the workplace (Hennessy, 2008).

While this increase in aggression in a nomothetic (Mullins and Christy, 2016, cited in Collins et al, 2021, Step 3.4) pluralist (Collins et al, 2021, Step 4.4) organisation can create more opportunities for debate which ENTP-A (16Personalities, no date a) enjoy and thrive on (Filbeck and Smith, 1997). Being an INTJ-T (16Personalities, no date b) architect, I am glad for this reduction in the level of aggression in addition to a higher level of agreeableness (Taber, Dominguez and Whittaker, 2021) which help me to improve my performance in the working environment. Hennessy and Jakubowski (2008) argue, that these benefits will be magnified for me due to the mentally strenuous types of tasks that I need to do on a day-to-day basis.

Evans et al. (2021) argue that this is not the only way that personality affects my work from home performance. They argue that the introverted part of my personality is helped by the reduced social interactions in a given day, giving me more energy to use on my work responsibilities. However, the flip side of this is that I find it more challenging to interrupt others in a work from home environment due to not wanting to disturb them and not having the real-world social cues to know that they are available (Kroeger, Thuesen and Rutledge, 2009).

This is particularly important for me currently as I am just joining a new organisation and thus in Tuckman’s (1965) forming part of the model with low collaboration (Archer and Cameron, 2013, cited in Collins et al, 2021, Step 2.5). Currently, my role is very transactional, I swap my labour on a project for the learning experience of being part of the project team and network opportunities with my colleagues. This willingness to work hard with a high standard of output leads to building trust while networking helps to overcome the barriers of not knowing one another so that we can move to the higher forms of collaboration in Archer and Cameron’s (2013) model. However, this is easier said than done as everyone learns to adapt to an online working environment (Lucas, 2021).

References

16Personalities. (No date a) Debater Personality ENTP-A / ENTP-T. Available at: https://www.16personalities.com/entp-personality (Accessed 15 October 2021).

16Personalities. (No date b) Architect Personality INTJ-A / INTJ-T. Available at: https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality (Accessed 15 October 2021).

Archer, D. and Cameron, A. (2013) Collaborative Leadership: Building Relationships, Handling Conflict and Sharing Control, Taylor & Francis Group. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=1143875 (Accessed: 16 November 2020).

Collins et al. (2021) ‘A basis for collaboration (Step 2.5)’, BZFM802: Management of Change: Organisation Development and Design. Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/management-of-change-organisation-development-design/2/steps/1204465 (Accessed: 15 October 2021).

Collins et al. (2021) ‘Course outline and learning outcomes (Step 1.4)’, BZFM802: Management of Change: Organisation Development and Design. Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/management-of-change-organisation-development-design/2/steps/1204441 (Accessed: 15 October 2021).

Collins et al. (2021) ‘Organisational conflict and control (Step 4.4)’, BZFM802: Management of Change: Organisation Development and Design. Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/management-of-change-organisation-development-design/2/steps/1204502 (Accessed: 15 October 2021).

Collins et al. (2021) ‘Recognising individuality and identity (Step 3.4)’, BZFM802: Management of Change: Organisation Development and Design. Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/management-of-change-organisation-development-design/2/steps/1204483 (Accessed: 15 October 2021).

Deloitte. (2021) Deloitte gives its 20,000 people the choice of when and where they work. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/deloitte-gives-its-20000-people-the-choice-of-when-and-where-they-work.html (Accessed: 15 October 2021).

Evans, A.M., Meyers, M.C., De Calseyde, P.P.V. and Stavrova, O. (2021). ‘Extroversion and Conscientiousness Predict Deteriorating Job Outcomes During the COVID-19 Transition to Enforced Remote Work’, Social Psychological and Personality Science, p.19485506211039092.

Filbeck, G. and Smith, L.L. (1997). ‘Team building and conflict management: Strategies for family businesses’, Family Business Review, 10(4), pp.339–352.

Hennessy, D.A. (2008). ‘The impact of commuter stress on workplace aggression’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(9), pp.2315–2335.

Hennessy, D.A. and Jakubowski, R.D. (2008). ‘The impact of stressful commuting on subsequent performance during low versus high frustration tasks’, Advances in Psychology Research, 54.

Kroeger, O., Thuesen, J.M. and Rutledge, H. (2009). ‘Type talk at work (revised): How the 16 personality types determine your success on the job’, Delta.

Lucas, D. (2021). ‘Practicing Servant Leadership in a Virtual World (Listening, Empathy, and Trust in the Time of Zoom)’, Michigan Academician, 47(3), pp.34–34.

Mullins, L. and Christy, G. (2016) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 11th edn. New York: Pearson. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/manchester/reader.action?docID=5175113&ppg=144 (Accessed: 17 November 2020).

Novaco, R.W. and Gonzalez, O.I. (2009). ‘Commuting and well-being’. Technology and well-being, 3, pp.174–4.

Taber, L., Dominguez, S. and Whittaker, S. (2021). ‘Cats, Kids, and video calls: how working from home affects media self-presentation’. Human–Computer Interaction, pp.1–26.

Tuckman’s, B. (1965). ‘FORMING, STORMING, NORMING & PERFORMING TEAM DEVELOPMENT MODEL.