I CANNOT BELIEVE THE BROADBAND SPEED TODAY

I have broadband connection from TM UniFi of 10Mbps.

Today I did a speed test and amazingly it is shown below.

This 11Mbps download speed exceed what I paid for. I cannot believe this broadband speed today, first time. I must admit that TM UniFi is very reliable and the service support is very prompt. I pay RM199 per month for a 10Mbps broadband line and it comes with 20 free IPTV channels, Pay Serials and Pay Movies. The reception is much clearer than Astro normal as it is digitised and connected to the TV via HDMI cable, the same cable from the DVD player to LCD TV.

Keep it up UniFi and I will continue to sing your praise.

I SEE GHOST IN TOILETS

 

I wonder any readers reading this ever experience either personally or heard about from others about their fear of toilets. I remember when I was growing up in the small town of Kuching (it was small in the 70's), I studied in St. Thomas's primary school. I have this distinct fear of going to the school toilet. It was a big toilet, the ceiling was like 20ft high, dark and eerie. I dread to go to the toilet and I will "tahan" until I went back home to pee or doodie. Of course this didn't do my body any good as 20 years later I developed kidney stones. Never hold your bladder but go if you have to even when you fear toilets, but this is not the point of this blog post.

I used to get nightmares even through my teen years up till my 30's on toilet visits. I really mean nightmares. Usually, when I am sleeping and my bladder is full and the sensation of relieving oneself increases my nightmare begins. I am dreaming that I actually wake up to go to the toilet. However, in every dream like this one, when I enter the toilet, I will feel that there is something or someone in the toilet and almost 100% of my dream, while I am in the process of peeing, a ghost (I see dead people) will appear besides me. Usually, the ghost will not appear immediately but slowly approach, coming out from from one of the cubicles and slowly makes its way to where I am standing and peeing. Since the actual and real sensation of not really emptying my bladder has occurred I have no choice but to continuing peeing while this ghost is approaching and finally standing besides me. I am like, why am I still not finish with my peeing as I really want to run away from the ghost. In most occasion I will jerk up from my sleep and feel a sense of relief both from knowing that the ghost did not really exist and of course from releasing my bladder content.

I know others who are afraid to use public toilets as well. I never asked whether because it is a fear of ghost or just because public toilets are especially filthy. Whether they have stomachache or having their bladder full, they refuse to use public toilets and probably have to rush home just to do "their business".

Well, that fear of toilets have transverse one generation and now my son has a fear of going to the toilet, even at home. Every time he has to pee,I need to escort him there. I am his personal bodyguard to the toilet to ward off "dead people". He does not have nightmares like I did and I hope not coz, 30-odd years of the same scary nightmare is no fun if not permanent doing damage to my emotional state. I can really relate to the scene in the "Sixth sense" when he has to go to the toilet but is afraid coz there is a dead girl ghost waiting for him at the corridor, brrrr.

I am not sure why I am cursed with this nor why my son is now afraid of toilets, but I am glad that today, that nightmare does not haunt me anymore. I now do not any longer see ghost in toilets.

I SEE GHOST IN TOILETS, written by Christopher Lim

DEDICATED TO MALAYSIA, MERDEKA MERDEKA MERDEKA!

I love you Malaysia, My Country!

Warisan, by Sudirman

POWER AND POLITICS ISSUES DURING ORGANISATION CHANGE

Power
Behavioural scientists such as David McClelland contend that one of the basic human needs is the need for power. There are two “faces” to power. One face is termed “socialised” power and is scored in the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) as “plans, self-doubts, mixed outcomes and concern for others”, while the second face is “personalised “ power, in which expressions of power for the sake of personal aggrandisement become paramount. ²
Politics
Organisational politics involves intentional acts of influence to enhance or protect the self interest of individuals or groups.¹ An emphasis on self-interest distinguishes this form of social influence. Political behaviour becomes a negative force when self-interest erode organisational interests.⁶ Political maneuvering is triggered primarily by uncertainty.
Five common sources of uncertainty within organisation are:

• unclear objectives; vague performance measures,
• ill defined decision processes,
• strong individual or group competition, and
• any type of change.

Politics in Organisation Change
Regarding the latter source of uncertainty; any type of change; organisation development specialist Anthony Raia⁹ noted,”Whatever we attempt to change, the political sub-system becomes active". Vested interests are almost always at stake and the distribution of power is challenged. An exchange system in equilibrium represents the status quo. Efforts to change the status quo involve political action, both on the part of those who wish to change it and those who seek to maintain it.⁷ Margulies and Raia⁷ suggested that the ability to understand and to act effectively in the political arena of organisational life is essential for the success of organisational change efforts.
“Change will not occur in an organisation unless power is exercise by somebody”.⁵ Power is either formal or informal. Its formal in terms of position or role in the organisation or its informal in terms of the chips you have collected, the information you can access or your adeptness at politics.⁵ When people get together in groups, power will be exerted. People want to carve out a niche from which to exert influence, to earn rewards, and to advance their careers.³

Power and Politics
When employees in organisations convert their power into action, we describe them as being engaged in politics. Those with good political skills have the ability to use their bases of power effectively.⁸ Robbins and Judge¹⁰ wrote about “legitimate political behaviour” which refers to normal everyday politics and “illegitimate political behaviours” that violate the implied rules of the game. An individuals’ investment in the organisation, perceived alternatives, and expectations of success will influence the degree to which they will pursue illegitimate means of political action.⁴
The more a person has invested in the organisation in terms of expectations of increased future benefits, the more that person has to lose if forced out and less likely he or she to use illegitimate means. The more alternative job opportunities an individual has-due to favourable job market or the possession of scarce skills or knowledge, a prominent reputation, or influential contacts outside the organisation-the more likely that individual is to risk illegitimate political actions.<sup>10

Next topic: Conflict Management during Organisation Change....to be continued</sup>
 
Reference:

1. Allen, RW, Madison, DL, Porter, LW, Renwick, PA & Mayes, BT 1979,’Organizational Politics: Tactics and Characteristics of its Actors’, California Management Review, pp. 77
2. Chusmir, LH 1986,’Personalised versus Socialised Power Needs among Working Women and Men’, Human Relations, February, pp. 149
3. Culbert, SA & McDonough, JJ 1980, The Invisible War:Pursuing Self-Interest at Work, Wiley, New York
4. Farrell, D & Petersen, JC 1982,’Patterns of Political Behavior in Organizations’, Academy of Management Review, July, pp. 405
5. Hurley, PG 1983,’Q. What in the name of OD do we do? A. Change’, Training & Development Journal, Apr, vol. 37, issue 4, pp. 42
6. Kreitner, R & Kinicki, A 2008, Organizational Behavior: Eight Edition, McGraw-Hill, Irwin.
7. Margulies, N & Raia, AP 1984,’The Politics of Organization Development’, Training & Development Journal, vol. 38, issue 8, pp. 20-23
8. Mintzberg, H 1983, Power In and Around Organizations, Prentice Hall, NJ
9. Raia, A 1985,’Power, Politics and the Human Resource Professional’, Human Resource Planning,no. 4, pp. 503
10. Robbins, SP & Judge, TA 2009, Organizational Behaviour:13^th Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Power and politics issues during organisation change, written by, Christopher Lim

AVATAR RE-RELEASE IN SEPTEMBER 2010

This holiday (Sept 2010) we will get to see the re-release of the (my opinion) all time great blockbuster movie AVATAR. If you did not get enough of the two-hours before, the re-release adds another nine minutes of added footage in this "SpecialEdition".

Here are some stills to rekindle your memory and whet your appetite. If you did not catch the movie the last time in 3D, I recommend you do so this time round.

Source: Yahoo!

CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES UTILISED IN MANAGING CHANGE AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

Organisation Change

In organisational behaviour, “organisation change” refers to organisation-wide change rather than to small changes. Examples of organisation-wide change might include a change in mission, restructuring operations, the adoption of major new technologies, and mergers.¹⁷

When two separate companies merged, they take the path of radical change.¹³ This is change that results in a major make-over of the organisation and of its component system. Change management has been defined as “the process of continually renewing an organisation’s direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers’.¹²

 

Change Strategies

Dunphy and Stace⁴ proposed typology of change strategies with two dimensions (incremental versus transformative, and collaborative versus coercive). Yukongdi¹⁸ expanded these to three dimensions:

• proactive versus reactive strategies;
• incremental versus transformative strategies;
• dictated versus collaborative delegated strategies.

 

Proactive-Reactive Strategy

The proactive-reactive dimension represents a fundamental aspect of an organisations strategic approach to change. Reactive change occurs in response to specific imminent pressure on the organisation from internal or external forces. Proactive change is initiated without any specific pressure in order to enhance organisational performance or improve organisational climate and culture.

Strategy is not new in the change management realm. Strategies are ways of pursuing the vision and mission.⁸ With change processes inherently complex, having clear priorities helps maintain order and keeps the process manageable.³ The psychological contract is an important consideration when examining the response of people to restructuring and is an unspoken understanding that people hold about the nature of their positions and their interaction with the organisation.⁶ When planning organisational change it is important to involve as many people in the discussion and decision making process. Ideally, everyone would have some opportunity to participate.

Participation in itself may not guarantee effectiveness.¹⁵ There should be several formalised ways to communicate so that the process is apparent to the people affected.¹⁰ The influence of participation on a set of dimensions related to the success of the implementation of deliberate strategic change is believed to have a number of positive effects on the strategy process. Most notably, it is assumed that involvement of those affected by a change in strategy will reduce organisational resistance and to create a higher level of psychological commitment among employees towards the proposed changes.¹¹ Also, participation has been argued to lead to qualitatively better strategic decisions.⁹ One reason for this being that a broader array of relevant skills, competencies and information is brought to bear on each stage in the strategic decision process.

 

Incremental-Transformative Strategy

The second dimension, incremental-transformative, refers to the implementation strategy for effecting organisational change.¹⁸ Dunphy and Stace⁵ defined four types of change including fine-tuning, incremental adjustment, modular transformation and corporate transformation. 

Corporate transformation encompasses change that is corporation-wide, characterised by radical shifts in business strategy, and revolutionary changes throughout the whole company. In large-scale changes such as organisational mergers and acquisition, restructures and downsizing efforts is common, and that this type of changes are often associated with significant, negative consequences for individuals in terms of their attitudes and well-being.⁷

Authors have suggested that transformational changes generally have detrimental effect on individuals as they involve a great deal of conflict and often bring to the fore personality issues and other differences that have previously been sublimated, adding to the confusion and uncertainty within the organisation.² The finding in the study by Rafferty and Simons¹⁵ provides evidence that it is worthwhile to treat readiness for corporate transformation changes.

 

Dictated-Collaborative Delegated Strategy

The third dimension on which change strategies can be classified, dictated-collaborative-delegated, relates to both the formulation of the change and its implementation.¹⁸  Participation is believed to make political realities of the organisation more salient and thus lead to choices that are based on political as well as socio-technical considerations. These and other putative effects are believed to lead to successful implementation of strategic change.¹¹ Some authors have argued that an important process mediating the link between participation and attitudes towards change and the organisation itself is that of building commitment to a decision and trust in change leadership. Trust in turn is related to the use of authentic participative processes in which solutions are developed in a collaborative manner with genuine consideration of each participant’s input values and views.¹¹

Next topic: Power and politics issues during the change process...to be continued

Reference:

1. Allen, RW, Madison, DL, Porter, LW, Renwick, PA & Mayes, BT 1979,’Organizational Politics: Tactics and Characteristics of its Actors’, California Management Review, pp. 77

2. Ashford, SJ 1988, ‘Individual strategies for coping with stress during organizational transitions’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, vol. 24, pp. 19–36

3. Bruch, H, Gerber,P & Maier, V 2005,’Strategic Change Decisions: Doing the Right Change Right’, Joumal of Change Management,vol. 5, issue 1, pp. 97-107

4. Dunphy, DC & Stace, DA 1988, ‘Transformational and coercive strategies for planned organizational change, beyond the OD model’, Organizational Studies,vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 6-19

5. Dunphy, D & Stace, D 1993, ‘The strategic management of corporate change’, Human Relations,vol. 57, no. 2, March-April, pp. 106-14

6. Feldheim, M & Liou, K 1999,’Downsizing Trust’, “http:/www.dsmp.dauphine.fr/management

7. George, JM & Jones, GR 2001,’Towards a process model of individual change in organizations’, Human Relations, vol. 54, issue 4, pp. 419–444

8. Gill, R 2003, ‘Change Management or Change Leadership?’, Journal of Change Management, vol.3 (4), pp. 307-318

9. Kim, WC & Mauborgne, R 1998,’Procedural justice, strategicdecision making and the knowledge economy’,Strategic Management Journal, 19, pp. 323-338

10.Lees, M & Taylor, G 2004,’Mergers and the new workplace:The effects of a merger of two emergency departments on nursing staff’, Journal of Health & Human Services Administration, Vol. 26 Issue 4, pp. 470-484

11. Lines, R 2004, ‘Influence of participation in strategic change: resistance, organizational commitment and change goal achievement’, Journal of Change Managagement, vol. 4, issue 3, pp. 193–215

12. Moran, JW & Brightman, BK 2001, ‘Leading organizational change’, Career Development International, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 111-18

13. Nadler, D & Tushman, M 1998, Strategic Organizational Design, Foresman

14. Pollard, TM 2001,’ Changes in mental well-being, blood pressure and total cholesterol levels during workplace reorganization: The impact of uncertainty’, Work and Stress, vol. 15, issue 1, pp. 14–28

15. Rafferty, A & Simons, R 2006,‘An examination of the antecedents of readiness for fine-tuning and corporate transformation changes’, Journal of Business & Psychology, vol. 20, issue 3, pp. 325-350

16. Robbins, SP & Judge, TA 2009, Organizational Behaviour:13^th Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

17. Wood, J, Zeffane, R, Fromholtz, M & Fitzgerald, J 2006, Organisational Behaviour: Core Concepts and Applications, John Wiley & Sons Australia

18. Yukongdi, V 2009, MGT5000 Management and Organisational Behaviour, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba

Change management strategies utilised in managing change and their effectiveness, Written by Christopher Lim

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP APPROACH EMPLOYED DURING CHANGE AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Leadership

Good management brings about order and consistency by drawing up formal plans, designing rigid organisation structures, and monitoring results against the plans. Leadership, in contrast, is about coping with change. Leaders establish direction by developing a vision of the future; then they align people by communicating this vision and inspiring them to overcome hurdles.⁶

Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals. The source of this influence may be formal, such as that provided by the possession of managerial rank in an organisation. Leaders are responsible for intelligently and ethically influencing behaviour in a way that creates value.¹

Most leaders put a great deal of time into crafting strategy, selecting winning products, and engaging with analysts, shareholders, and major customers. But few realize the success or failure of their grand schemes lies in influencing the behavior of the hundreds or thousands of people who will have to execute the big ideas — their employees.

By contrast, the most influential leaders — the 5% who succeed consistently at influencing profound and essential behaviour change — spend as much as half of their time thinking about and actively influencing the behaviours they know will lead to top performance.

The 95% who dither and fail tend to delegate what they dismiss as "change management" to others, most often leaders in human resources — who often lack the credibility to influence real change. The average leader spends little, if any, of his or her time on active efforts to create behaviour change. Consequently, nothing changes.¹

Most change initiatives, especially radical change, require effective leadership, not just on the part of the chief executive and other senior managers, but from leaders at all levels in the organisation.⁷

Change  processes that have the support of the workforce require good leadership, an appropriate model of change, some room for negotiation and compromise, and well-planned communication.

 

Transformational style leadership approach

Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their own self interest for the good of the organization and are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on their followers.⁶

They pay attention to the concerns and developmental needs of the individual followers; they change followers’ awareness of issues by helping them to look at old problems in new ways; and they are able to excite, arouse, and inspire followers to put out extra effort to achieve group goals.

 

Effectiveness

Transformational leaders are more effective because they themselves are more creative, but they are also more effective because they encourage those who follow them to be creative too. Goals are another key mechanism that explains how transformational leadership works. Followers of transformational leaders are more likely to pursue ambitious goals, be familiar with and agree on the strategic goals of the organization, and believe that the goals they are pursuing are personally important.

An organization’s internal capacity to initiate and sustain a major change effort involves a number of aspects and is affected by both human and material resources.⁵

Kaplan and Norton⁴, for example, argue for the importance of “organizational capital,” consisting of leadership, culture, alignment, and teamwork in change efforts. In the quest to study the interrelationships between societal culture, organisational culture, and organisational leadership, the project GLOBE was conceived.²

One major question addresses by GLOBE concerns the extent to which specific leader attributes and behaviours are universally endorsed as contributing to effective leadership, and the extent to which attributes and behaviours are linked to cultural characteristics. The results from the GLOBE program conclude that there are some universal aspects of leadership. Specifically, a number of the elements making up transformational leadership appear to be associated with effective leadership, regardless of what country the leader is in.³

The elements of transformational leadership appear universal: vision, foresight,providing encouragement, trustworthiness, dynamism, positiveness, and proactiveness. The results also led the GLOBE team to conclude that “effective” business leaders in any country are expected by their employees to provide powerful and proactive vision to guide the company into the future, strong motivational skills to stimulate all employees to fulfil the vision, and excellent planning skills to assist in implementing the vision.

Change processes that have the support of the workforce require good leadership, an appropriate model of change, some room for negotiation and compromise, and well-planned communication. Most change initiatives, especially radical change, require effective leadership, not just on the part of the chief executive and other senior managers, but from leaders at all levels in the organisation.⁷

Next topic: Change management strategies utilised in managing change and their effectiveness....to be continued.

Reference:

1. Grenny, J 2009, 'Leadership: Intentional Influence', BusinessWeek Online, pp. 21-21

2. House, R, Javidan, M & Dorfman, P 2001,’Project GLOBE: An Introduction’, Applied Psychology: An International Review, vol. 50 ,issue 4, pp. 489-505

3. House, RJ, Javidan, M, Hanges, P & Dorfman, P 2002,’Understanding Cultures and Implicit Leadership Theories across the Globe: An Introduction to Project GLOBE’, Journal of World Business, pp. 3-10

4. Kaplan, RS, & Norton, DP 2005, Organizational Capital I, Supporting the Change Agenda That Supports Strategy Execution, Managing Change to Reduce Resistance, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, cited in Kee, JE & Newcomer, KE 2008,'Why Do Change Efforts Fail?', Public Manager, vol. 3, issue 3, pp. 5-12

5. Kee, JE & Newcomer, KE 2008,’ Why Do Efforts Fail?', Public Manager, vol. 3, issue 3, pp. 5-12,

6. Robbins, SP & Judge, TA 2009, Organizational Behaviour:13^th Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

7. Wood, J, Zeffane, R, Fromholtz, M & Fitzgerald, J 2006, Organisational Behaviour: Core Concepts and Applications, John Wiley & Sons Australia

8. Yukongdi, V 2009, MGT5000 Management and Organisational Behaviour, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP APPROACH EMPLOYED DURING CHANGE AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS, WRITTEN BY CHRISTOPHER LIM

2010 NISSAN 370Z COUPE FEATURED CAR FOR AUGUST

The 2010 Nissan 370Z coupe is one great car. I am featuring this car for August.