Individual Learning Project - Mark Griffin PDF

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The individual learning project uses the results of various personality profiles to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in an organization...

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Running head: INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

My Individual Results and Applications BUSI 240 – ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR I Professor George Jones Mark Griffin Liberty University December 5, 2018

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

2 Abstract

Currently, I own a free-lance digital marketing firm that focuses on email and social media marketing, as well as outsourcing of web design and photo and video production. However, for the duration of this project I will be focusing on a new role that I will step in to in the new year: Executive Operations Pastor. As an EOP, my focus will be managing the staff of the congregation, designing the organizational structure for our teams, and ensuring the smooth operations of the church. As a new (but fast growing) church, I will be the initial staff member hired besides the lead pastor. As staff members are added, my role will expand to accommodate the supervision of those members. This role requires strong interpersonal skills to maintain congenial interactions with the congregation, as well as team building, task delegation, and system design skills.

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3 Are You Introverted or Extroverted?

1. The purpose is to discover the extent of my introversion or extroversion. 2. 33 3. I am considered “Moderately High Extroversion”. I lean towards being talkative, gregarious, outgoing, and social. 4. With this test, it was relatively easy for me to identify where I would land. I am typically talkative and sociable and enjoy being around others. Within the spectrum of my future position as an Executive Operations Pastor, it will serve to benefit me on the pastoral side of my role. While my weekly position will require me to be more task oriented and visionary with staff, my weekend role will require me to engage with congregants and provide a welcoming experience. This can be directly accomplished by simply being outgoing. It also offers the potential benefit of being more charismatic in leading the staff of the organization. While charisma can offer potentially negative consequences (such as self-serving interests), it can be useful tool to inspire team members to undertake new projects. By no means am I making a judgement that I am better equipped to be a leader because of my extraversion. I’m simply observing that “extraverts get their energy from people and things around them, whereas introverts get their energy more from personal reflection on concepts and ideas. Introverts do not necessarily lack social skills. Instead, they are more inclined to direct their interests than to social events” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 41). This is not to say that I should not be cautious with my extraversion. It can be detrimental by seeming abrasive or forceful. When working with people, I will have to be aware of my input and ensure that I am giving others the opportunity to respond in conversations and meetings.

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4 How do you cope with stressful situations?

1. The purpose is to understand how I respond when stress is triggered in my personal or in my work life. 2. Problem Solving: 15 + Social Support: 6 + Avoidance: 9 + Blaming Others: 3 = Total: 33 3. I rank higher in problem solving as a form of coping to remove the stressor by changing the situation. With social support, I rank average when seeking support from others. Again, I rank relatively average in my avoidance by blocking the stressor through distraction. Finally, I rank low with blaming others to resolve the stressor. 4. I tend to be relatively anxious and can easily become stressed in my jobs. Previously working in ministry was rewarding, but the stress underwent took a toll and for my personal health I removed myself from the position to gain perspective and create a new work-life balance. Work overload was a key factor in it and what I am preemptively managing better moving forward. “Work overload is evident when employees consume more of their personal time to get the job done” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 112). Looking forward to this new position, I know that the stress of the position is great and can very easily be magnified by the fact that my beliefs cause me to reflect how every decision I make affect others eternity. I am preparing my preemptively cultivating the mindset that God cares as much about me as he does others and that my role is a helper in people’s lives, not a determiner in their decisions. My natural gravitation to problem solving is efficient in creating new avenues for organizational culture to run. It can become detrimental, though, if used to try to solve a problem that has already been extinguished (the could I or should I have done something different battle). Prioritizing my life will prove the most beneficial to reducing stress by creating clear lines on what is most valuable, what is beneficial, and what is necessary.

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5 How Strong Are Your Growth Needs?

1. The purpose is to reveal what kind of opportunity I require for personal growth and development. 2. 31 3. Based on the assessment, I have moderate growth needs within the organization. This would include the need for achievement, need for affiliation, and need for power. Essentially, they reflect my need for opportunity within an organization. 4. Personal growth is an important aspect of my faith, and therefore a necessity in my position. That not to say that the “need for power” that drives me is for God, as that is most likely a part of my own ambition. But opportunity is essential for me to feel fulfilled. My position as an Executive Operations Pastor is essential as high as I can currently go in the organization, but the success of the church has left a need for systems to be built and provides interest for me. Additionally, the vision of the organization is to plant additional churches over the next several years and position them to grow and thrive. This is perhaps the most attractive thing about the position; it gives me the opportunity to grow the width of the organization. Internal motivation is primarily successful at pushing me to accomplish job, with external motivation simply acting as a reward. “Organizational Behavior” provides clarity on this by defining motivation as something that “…consists of the forces within a person that affect his or her direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior in the workplace” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 145). My motivation for the role I am stepping in to is simply a gauge of the intensity that I purse the job.

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6

What is Your Preferred Decision-Making Style? 1. The purpose is to reveal what influences my decisions and what decision making style I adhere to. 2. Rational Decision Style: 16 + Intuitive Decision Style: 13 3. This assessment displayed that I prioritize making decisions rationally as opposed to intuitively. However, my numbers were relatively close, indicating that while I have a preference, I do remain sensitive to whether a decision is good even when it has already been labeled as logical. 4. Comparing fact versus feelings is always a tough place for me. In my role, I see the logic behand certain decisions, but also must remain sensitive to the work and direction of the Holy Spirit. This balance between the two types of decision making is an excellent style to have for that reason. Analyzing the logical points and taking them for the value that they offer is beneficial but remaining open to what needs to be done it vital in this line of work. For example, an interviewee may have an excellent resume and seem like the ideal fit, but it’s up to intuition to field those elements of character that cannot be quantified with data. However, I also have to be cautious that my emotions do not get the best of me and lead me to jeopardize a strategic move simply because I don’t “feel right” about it. The textbook “Organizational Behavior” shares on this by describing an opportunity as being “… experienced as an exciting and rare revelation, so decision makers tend to have an emotional attachment to the opportunity. Unfortunately, this emotional preference motivates decision makers to apply the opportunity and short-circuit and detailed evaluation of it” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 191). By running through the decision making process and evaluating opportunities, I can avoid regrettable mistakes.

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7 What Team Roles Do You Prefer?

1. The purpose is help discover what my preferred role is in assigned teams and meetings. These roles can include information collection, expounding on ideas, coordinating projects, and more. 2. Encourager: 11 + Gatekeeper: 7 + Harmonizer: 7 + Initiator: 12 + Summarizer: 10 = Total: 46 3. With this assessment, I was able to understand that I have a high preference to be the initiator in teams. This is an indication of being the team member that sets the meeting trajectory by outline goals and ensuring team movement towards those goals. 4. In evaluation, I can see how being the goal oriented team member can be beneficial in my role. It is helpful in managing the staff and driving the team in a common direction. This does present some challenges though. My lower score as a harmonizer and gatekeeper can allow discord to build and some team members to go overlooked. This can be balanced by intentionally compensating to ensure every team member has a voice and encouraging unity. Alternatively, this can be supplemented by staffing towards my weaknesses. Instead of seeking out team members that are goal driven, finding members that create harmony and ensure that everyone has an opportunity to voice their opinion can be beneficial. None of this is possible without first recognizing my tendency to overlook these areas of team roles. McShane outlines this in our text by identifying the value of teams and the individual roles; “First, teams exist to serve some organizational purpose, so effectiveness is partly measured by achieving that objective” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 220). I focused on the “partly” portion of that excerpt. Team effectiveness is not just about the accomplishment of the goal, but the effective cohesion of the members to accomplish that goal.

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8 Are You an Active Listener?

1. This assessment helps to identify if I am actively engaged in conversations with clients and/or co-workers 2. Avoiding Interruption: 5 + Maintaining Interest: 6 + Postponing Evaluation: 3 + Organizing Information: 4 + Showing Interest: 8 = Total Score: 26 3. My total score revealed that I am a moderately active listener and focus well while sending feedback to those I am in conversation with. My lowest points were in Postponing Evaluation and Organizing Information, revealing that I have significant opportunities for improvement. 4. This assessment revealed a significant flaw that was previously unnoticeable to me (primarily because I didn’t value it). My inability to postpone evaluation in conversation can be detrimental to my success as a team member. Not allowing team members to fully articulate their thoughts before I give them feedback and prematurely cut off the development of creative ideas. The textbook outlines this process of active listening as sensing. “Sensing is the process of receiving signals from the sender and paying attention to them. Active listeners improve sensing in three ways. First, they postpone evaluation by not forming an opinion until the speaker has finished. Second, they avoid interrupting the speaker’s conversation. Third, they remain motivated to listen to the speaker” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 268). My problem is not so much with engagement as much as it is interruption. Maintaining an open mind about the subject until the speaker has finished communicating their thoughts is both respectful and beneficial. However, my total score does show that I am a moderately active listener, noting that I am doing well in many ways and simply have room for improvement.

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9

What’s Your Approach to Influencing Co-Workers? 1. This assessment is intended to evaluate the various ways that I can influence co-workers (specifically those on the same level as me in the organization) and what influence types I naturally gravitate towards. 2. Persuasion: 12 + Silent Authority: 11 + Exchange: 4 + Assertiveness: 4 + Information Control: 11 + Coalition Information: 9 + Upward Appeal: 9 + Ingratiation: 12 = Total Score: 72 3. There are so many different elements of influence at play, but my top seem to be persuasion, silent authority, information control, and ingratiation. All are more passive ways of influence. 4. Seeing that my personality tends to lean towards more passive means of influence is not surprising. What it does is make me more cautious about is information control. I do not want to explicitly influence a decision that may not actually be the best based on the fact and information presented. However, I don’t want to swing in the other direction with being overly assertive. While assertiveness is beneficial when handling “no compromise” situations and influencing decisions that must correlate to our organizations culture, it can be detrimental if it simply becomes a form of bullying. Which form of influence I use is typically a matter of what kind of power I hold in a situation. “Power is the capacity to influence others. It exists when one party perceives that he or she is dependent on the other for something of value. However, the dependence person must also have countervailing power—some power over the dominant party—to maintain the relationship and the parties must have some level of trust” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 299). So all of the forms of influence do come in to play at different points in my position based on what the situation is, what kind of power I hold, and the level of trust I have with my team mates.

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10

What’s Your Preferred Conflict Handling Style? 1. In this assessment, five main conflict-handling styles are gauged to discover which are most dominant in my personality, values, self-concept, and past experiences. 2. Yielding: 10 + Compromising: 13 + Forcing: 16 + Problem Solving: 16 + Avoiding: 10 = Total Score : 65 3. Problem Solving and Forcing are my two most apparent forms of conflict handling. Beyond that, I also show some tendencies to compromising. Yielding and avoiding are two areas that I have perceived as forms of weakness and have subconsciously avoided. 4. I can readily say that I am problem solving when it comes to conflict resolution (and my wife would say in every area). I tend to look for problems and immediately begin to try to find the solution that is both most attainable and most beneficial. However, I was surprised to see that forcing played such a large part in my conflict handling. This may be because in my line of work, I tend to remain calm and level headed even when I push for what I believe is best. Whether it be pride, wisdom, or simply conviction, I know that I can be unwavering in handling conflict. This is beneficial in the sense that I can be resolute in what I know is best. It reminds me to be cautious and remain open to what others have to say. I will often be willing to compromise and find a solution that can be universally beneficial when possible, but do not often find myself yielding. What I can benefit most from is recognizing which conflict handling styles should be used to address certain types of conflict. “The ‘optimal conflict’ perspective remains popular and may be true in some respects; too much of any conflict is probably dysfunctional. However, the emerging school of thought is that there are various types of conflict with different consequences” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 307). Task conflict (aka constructive conflict) can be beneficial when managed well.

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11

What’s Your Preferred Conflict Handling Style? 5. In this assessment, five main conflict-handling styles are gauged to discover which are most dominant in my personality, values, self-concept, and past experiences. 6. Yielding: 10 + Compromising: 13 + Forcing: 16 + Problem Solving: 16 + Avoiding: 10 = Total Score : 65 7. Problem Solving and Forcing are my two most apparent forms of conflict handling. Beyond that, I also show some tendencies to compromising. Yielding and avoiding are two areas that I have perceived as forms of weakness and have subconsciously avoided. 8. I can readily say that I am problem solving when it comes to conflict resolution (and my wife would say in every area). I tend to look for problems and immediately begin to try to find the solution that is both most attainable and most beneficial. However, I was surprised to see that forcing played such a large part in my conflict handling. This may be because in my line of work, I tend to remain calm and level headed even when I push for what I believe is best. Whether it be pride, wisdom, or simply conviction, I know that I can be unwavering in handling conflict. This is beneficial in the sense that I can be resolute in what I know is best. It reminds me to be cautious and remain open to what others have to say. I will often be willing to compromise and find a solution that can be universally beneficial when possible, but do not often find myself yielding. What I can benefit most from is recognizing which conflict handling styles should be used to address certain types of conflict. “The ‘optimal conflict’ perspective remains popular and may be true in some respects; too much of any conflict is probably dysfunctional. However, the emerging school of thought is that there are various types of conflict with different consequences” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p. 307). Task conflict (aka constructive conflict) can be beneficial when managed well.

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12 Do Leaders Make a Difference?

1. This assessment is intended to help me identify whether leaders truly make a difference in the success of an organization. 2. Total Score: 38 3. I know that leaders can have a heavy influence in the success of an organization. While my score reflects that, I also know that it is more than leadership that influences an organizations success or failure. Simply having the right thing in the right place at the right time can compensate for poor leadership and create a successful organization and vice versa. 4. I have often found myself infatuated with the idea that a good leader means a healthy and successful organization. After time in several mega-churches, though, I have seen that success can simply be a factor of coincidence or favor from God with little attributed to the quality of leadership. I can benefit from this any apply it to my current situation as well. Our organization has quickly become known as the “fastest growing church in America in 2018”, but the health of it is not necessarily corresponding to the success. Without a staff (aside from the lead pastor) and relatively few systems in place, I have recognized that success in an organization is not always proportional to good leadership. I can further apply this knowledge by relieving myself from being the perfect leader and instead simply becoe the best leader I have the ability to be. The success will rise and fall on a number of factors: the city the church is in, the amount of “competition” (thought it feels strange to even say that) we have amongst other churches and activities, the time of year, the state of our nation, and much more. I must simply do my best to play my role well and be as accurate a representation of Christ as possible, keeping in mind that my role is to manage church operations but my calling is to be a shepherd of people.

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13

What Organizational Structure Do You Prefer? 1. This assessment aids in identifying what organizational structure I prefer based on my personality, experience, and values. 2. Total Score: Tall hierarchy: 8 + Formalization: 10 + Centralization: 3 = Total Score: 21 3. My score re...