Collaboration Topics Round 1

Culture:

I found a book by Edgar H Schein called Organizational Culture and Leadership. This book basically outlines a few key points about how there are different cultural groups within organizations and how the concepts of culture show its relationship to leadership. To summarise this E.Schein (2004 p. 3) does a case study about how he helped a management group to improve its communications, interpersonal relationships and decision making. He found the group had high levels of interuption, confrontation, debate and found that all group members wanted to win all the time. So E.Schein (2004 p. 4) introduced suggestions such as better listening, less interrupting, more orderly processes of the agenda and reducing frustration levels. The group members found the suggestions helpful and changed certain aspects of there procedures. The group members even scheduled more time into there meetings but the basic pattern did not change. So with this in mind, all of E.Scheins interventions still couldnt change the basic style of the group.


However E.Schein continued to work with the group and during a meeting that had much debate and conflict suggested to one of the group members to restate their point instead of punishing the interruptor. The group then focused on the items on the chart and found that this helped there communication and descision process. E.Schein (2004 p. 6) then quotes "I had finally understood and entered into an essential element of their culture instead of imposing my own".
So culture as a concept can have multiple meanings. But in this case study it can show how the right kind of culture can influence how effective an organization can be.

Reference:
Schein, E 2002, Organizational Culture and Leadership, John Wiley and Sons


Management:

I found an article on Time management and the small business operator (Ingrisano 2008) Within this article Ingrisano talks about planning out your business day to try avoid working seven days as a business owner. But even by having a plan, things do happen that can disrupt this but it allows you to have a sort of control. (Ingrisano 2008) quotes that you need to "Compartmentalize your work. Do this by blocking out the things you will and must get done this day. Then estimate the time required and do not quit until they are done". I would also like to add that if you are doing a task and you see yourself getting stuck or into trouble with it down the line then ask you team members if you can split the work up or allocate more group time towards it. The earlier you can work out these kinks then the less problems you and your team will have come submission time.
(Ingrisano 2008) also talks about allocating time away from a busy schedule to relax, rest, hobbies, friends and family etc. (Ingrisano 2008 quotes) "Most of all, make a conscious effort to manage your time, your work, your life. Do not let others dump favors-that-need-doing in your lap or take on projects and jobs that do nothing for either your business or yourself". So learning to prioritize what comes first or what is more important to you will help in your decision making and time management.

Reference:
Time management and the small business operator 2008, BNET Australia, accessed 25 March 2009, <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5426/is_200810/ai_n30992309>.