I came to Philadelphia in the fall of 2008 to take up Organizational Dynamics. A lot was going on in my life, I decided to break the flow of negative chi and do what makes me happy. Something most Asians do is to break the cycle of bad elements to find a suitable balance. I was finding it difficult to adjust to the organizations that I worked for – whether it was as a journalist for a newspaper, a teacher at the university, or a corporate strategy writer and manager for a multinational IT company. The last time I was happy was when I was studying and interacting in a school setting. So I decided to come back to school and get to have some fun again; but mainly to discover myself and gauge the patterns of my life’s story. I guess this reiterates the results of my Hermann International Survey (2008). I love the adventure of a “spiritual” and “emotional” journey (Hermann International, 2008). Fun was every time I felt I learned about the truth, I presume it is the same for other employees – whether it was the truth of my surroundings (culture), my organization (politics and how organizations grow), my self (power), my work (codifier of organizational experiences/individual and organizational identities), and my employment (organizational change). And as student of truth, I had different roles: the cultural outsider/foreigner, game player, victim, writer, and employee amidst organizational change. Questions arise like why did I come to assume these roles? Was I successful in executing them? Did they cause internal or external conflict? Did these roles inhibit my growth, productivity, and development? Was I being “authentic” (Eldred, 2008)? Based on stories I have heard from colleagues and other employees who like me have difficulty integrating into organizations they work for, there are common issues that seem to cause the imbalance. In this paper, I cite instances where I found difficulty in fitting to existing norms and informal dynamics at work and my questions stem from this root. Skill and work performance were never issues for me. I was able to comply with requirements at acceptable levels, however, when it came to working dynamics and interpersonal relationships, I was a misfit in almost all the organizations that I worked for. Through Organizational Dynamics, I would like to discover why this is a recurring issue for me. And what would be the next steps in the learning process to help me be able to cope and adjust but still remain authentic? I begin by examining five specific questions stemming from five typical roles an employee like me would act out in an organization setting. The questions start from the individual at a micro level and expand to include her relationship in an organization at the macro level. From the framework presented during the first day of class, this paper examines the “I” as an individual and my transformation in the course of time – past, present, moving towards a future. I present five of my own unique narratives to be looked at. But before that, I review the importance of metaphors in the organizational setting in order to see if they are relevant to employee “fit”.
My first class in my student life taking up Organizational Dynamics is this Foundation class. The very first lesson was on metaphors. In his book, Morgan (2006) argues how metaphors help organizational players develop and understand organizational life. “All theories of organization and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that lead us to see, understand, and
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manage organizations in distinctive yet partial ways.” (Morgan, 2006, p. 4) If this is the case, can it be assumed that skilled employees who are unable to fully integrate into their organization have a misunderstood perception of what is actually happening in a given situation, and therefore could not appropriate the exact metaphor? To follow Morgan’s example, I would like to begin this paper with my own metaphor, a story of a mother and her daughter. One Sunday morning after church, the mother brought her daughter to the toy store to buy a gift for the coming holidays. As the mother watched her daughter look around the toy store, she said, “You can have any toy that you want.” The toy store was huge filled every floor inch with the latest toys and play things. Needless to say, it took a while for the daughter to find the perfect gift. The daughter moved around, and moved around, looking at every nook and cranny, seeing many novel toys with high tech features, but nothing called her to reach out for that perfect toy for the holidays. Until finally, the daughter saw, in the corner of the back shelf where simple, unwanted, no technology toys were kept, -- a ragged, last-holiday-season, and dirty doll. She knew in her heart that this was the toy for her. She bent over, picked up the doll, and ran to her mother. The daughter was happy in her heart, saying to her mom, “Mama, look what I found. I want to bring her home.” The mother looked at her daughter with surprise. She couldn’t believe that with all the toys that the daughter can have to take home, the daughter chose an ugly doll. So the mother asked the daughter, “Dear, why did you choose that old and ugly doll? There are so many other beautiful toys you can have.” “Mama,” the daughter said, “Don’t you remember what you said to me? When you love something, it becomes beautiful.” (Pasricha, 2008) I feel that this story is a good metaphor for describing my search for truth because truth is beautiful and also a formative metaphor for my sensibility as an employee. My life has been an existential search for the ragged, last-holiday-season, dirty doll. It might be absurd but this is how I can best describe it. So the search begins with my first question.
A. To start with, I focus on Sara: The Cultural Outsider/Foreigner.
The journal and the session by Professor Dana was an eye-opener for me, and it has been an opportunity to address what had been bothering me for thirty years now – Why is it difficult to accept myself in relation to different others? “However, from my experiences, I have been troubled about the question which I asked in class. How do you remedy or fix a cultural misunderstanding committed during the first impression? In India, things -- whether food, money, gifts or anything -- are offered with the right hand. To offer with the left hand is an insult because the left hand is used to wash oneself as there are no toilet papers. In Japan, executives give their calling cards which are facing the receiver, with both hands and a bow. The slant of the bow denotes positions and hierarchy. In Europe, people are addressed as sir/madam, not by their first names especially during first meetings. In France, it is rude to disturb a person for an unannounced meeting during meal.” (Pasricha, 2008)
“What if people do not know these rules as they are not explicit codified statements? What if people make mistakes during the initial encounter? Does a mistake destroy a possibly beneficial relationship? Is there a way one can wiggle out of a mistake on the fly? I could never really figure out the answer to that. Because I do not come from one set culture and I do not operate in one set culture, I do not know the rules. I make a lot of big mistakes sometimes where I go beyond what is acceptable. As the world becomes more globalized, I guess these kinds of mistakes are becoming more common. But how can it be remedied or forgiven?” (Pasricha, 2008) The responses from my professors to my journal have proven to be a learning opportunity for me in understanding the issues involved in the context of culture: “You are the author of your own – no matter how multinational the story.” (Greco, 2008); “I think the global society will need to wrestle with this issue – a single tribal identity will no longer be possible or even religion or nationality as we homogenize.” (Greco, 2008); “Appreciation of differences and other cultures goes a long way to not making "wrong" moves… culturally speaking. But, as you point out, one does make mistakes. I think there are two general approaches...both can work but neither one is a 100% guaranteed to work. The first approach is to act first and apologize if you make a mistake. This is typically American, and perhaps more typically male. The second approach is to inquire and ask, before you act. This helps to assure a better first step and impression when one does act… but one will still make mistakes. This approach is more feminine… in terms of Hofstede's masculine- feminine cultural dimensions.” (Barstow, 2008) “Tolerance and appreciation is an important area for personal and organizational development in the global arena. If one has a developed sense of awareness, one can avoid mistakes and also know when one has made a mistake or miss step and apologize.” (Barstow, 2008) However much we think cross-national culture is becoming increasingly unified and tolerant of each other, we see how variations are fashioned in different areas of language, rituals, philosophies, ethics, etc. There is truly a dichotomy between the foreign and the local. So when skilled employees from various cultural contexts come together and work inside multinational organizations where all regions are represented, can there be some form of misunderstanding that can lead to disintegration? Why do foreign employees have a hard time fitting in? Cultural misunderstandings and remedying a cultural mistake continue to be an area of interest for me. I want to understand this deeply. Perhaps I will take classes on culture in the coming terms. As I explore this further, I find that cultural and political issues interrelate. I ask myself are political dynamics in the workplace a significant cause of why skilled employees fail to integrate as well? Skilled employees may have the abilities to deliver outputs but they do not necessarily effect a positive outcome. Is it probably due to the fact that they cannot get along with others? I would like to know what a skilled employee can do to understand politics better and be able to use it in her work environment as in Professor Eldred’s words -- an “artist?”
B. Sara: The Game Player or if I had the guts to call myself, Sara: The Game Changer
Through this class, I have learned that politics is defined as the resolution of different interests as found in Morgan’s book, “In its original meaning the idea of politics stems from the view that, where interests are divergent, society should provide a means of allowing individuals to reconcile their differences through consultation and negotiation.” (Morgan, 2006, p. 150)
These move me to ask: Why can’t we just do our jobs, relate with one another without an agenda,
and remain authentic with ourselves? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all worked in a self-actualized
organization where there is no power grabbing, wheeling and dealing, or Machiavellian maneuvering
for leadership position? Wouldn’t it be nice if we played in the sandbox and “shared the peanut
butter sandwich” (Obama, 2008)? Wouldn’t it be nice if we really lived up to what politics really
meant according to Aristotle?
In the game of work, though, we are supposedly bonded by a shared vision and common values,
practically everybody wants different things. “These difficulties are often linked to another set of
problems: the development of subgoals and sets of interests that undermine the organization’s
ability to meet its primary objective” (Morgan, 2006, p. 30).
Could this dissonance in subgoals and interests be the reason why skilled employees are unable to
integrate into their organizations? There comes a time in an employee’s life that she begins to
wonder, am I giving way too much of myself to my organization, compromising important factors
such as peace of mind, health, and sanity? Is this a fair trade?
In this regard, I would like to explore the possibility that a skilled employee does not integrate to her
organization because she becomes part of the victim list. I would like to pursue the validity of this
question further in the course of my Organizational Dynamics study through taking courses on
power and leadership to help me better understand these areas of study.
Employees are unable to articulate what they really want from their work, their organization, and
even from own life for that matter. If an individual does not know what she wants, she walks blindly
without expectations for herself and her organization. She becomes a victim. I do not want to be a
victim.
C. Sara: The Victim
“If you don’t know what you want, you are on the victim list” (Eldred, 2008). This comment struck a
chord. All these years I have been playing the victim role. I was floating from one moment to another
and I really did not know what I wanted for myself and from life. Perhaps, this is why I was erratic
and unsteady. I would jump from one project to another, never completing either one to my best
ability. I was easily distracted by what my peers or superiors would say – even when inside I knew I
made sense. I did not argue. I did not suggest. I did not rock the boat or offer ideas out of the box
when really that is who I am on the inside. I was not comfortable in holding power. I wanted to get
along. Be liked. Not offend anyone who I care about or work with. (Power Management Inventory,
2000)
I went to the college and graduate business school that my parents convinced me to attend. I took
the degree that they chose for me. I took the jobs my parents approved. I came home by midnight
even when deep inside I wanted to continue the engaging discussions with my friends. These are
light situations but they nevertheless demonstrate how I let others decide for me. If I let these
happen for small things, then what more with the big things? I was not being authentic, I was being a
victim. Perhaps, this is why I was not happy, and that I wanted to break the cycle and go for change. I
wanted to be the Sara I really am. So the question is composed of three parts: (a) What does one do to know what she wants? (b) What does one not do to get victimized? (c) How does one become authentic?
“It is better to be authentic than to be participative” (Eldred, 2008).
Throughout the program, my search and interests revolved around authenticity. Authenticity comes
from a certain sense of shared identities between the skilled employee and the organization. True,
common values and shared vision bind them together but when identities are shared as well, then,
there becomes a meaningful relationship of partners and collaborators. However, I find that
identities of skilled employees are relatively fixed; it is the identities of organizations that are in flux
especially during times of crises. This leads me to my next question: How can skilled employees in
homeostasis and organizations in flux find a certain sense of shared identities?
I do not want to stop here. “As boundaries become more fluid, identity becomes more important”
(DYNM 501 Class notes, 2008). I am interested in finding out how organizations form their unique
identities as well. Names do not identify an organization, just as names do not identify us as persons.
We are the sum of our different experiences (Psychodynamics) and we are who we are at this
moment in time (Existentialism). So just as persons identify and differentiate themselves, how can
organizations?
D. Sara: The Writer
In my role as manager and writer for the Corporate Strategy Group at Satyam, I am part of the team
that manages and disseminates the SatyamWay. SatyamWay is a corporate wide initiative
spearheaded by the company’s chairman and founder. SatyamWay provides the framework for how
employees treat their stakeholders and provide a One Satyam Experience, in spite of the distributed
leadership model adapted by the company that caters to a virtualized service offering.
For the last three years, I have been responsible for the language and writing part of SatyamWay. I
have looked at SatyamWay as a handbook that should be free of grammatical and typographical
errors, and omissions. However, as I have matured as an individual far away from my home country
and as I have gained understanding of the greater influence of my work, I see that SatyamWay is a
game-changing proposition that when applied multiplies value both intrinsic and monetary by
greater than 2x. This can be compared to the butterfly effect, where the movement of butterflies
affects at the macro level the world’s weather patterns by more than just a linear and direct
relationship. Similarly, SatyamWay seeks to have a snowball effect as an added value resource when
combined to the daily operations of the business. SatyamWay is the company’s key differentiator in
a competition of low-cost IT service companies losing its clients to the global economic meltdown.
Doing SatyamWay leads me to ask -- How can a skilled employee integrate to an organization amidst
change? How does a skilled employee cope with internal and external change? Is she able to be
resilient and adaptive? Is she mature enough to handle tough situations in a cool, calm, and
collected way? Can she take the heat of the kitchen? Would it be reasonable then to say that a less
skilled employee who can better adapt to volatile situations produces better results for herself and
her organization than a highly skilled employee who is maladjusted?
E. Sara: The Employee Amidst Organizational Change
Currently, with the global economic meltdown and the slowing American economy in which Satyam is highly dependent on, Satyam is experiencing narrowing margins and a diminishing competitive advantage. To combat these, Satyam has initiated an organization-wide restructuring of its leaders and employees in an effort to streamline and be more cost efficient as a company. One division has been greatly affected by this reorganization, and that is the division which I worked for – Corporate Strategy. From what I can say, however much the profits may be increasing, the founder is displeased by the five-year declining margins caused by the Rupee Appreciation, Subprime and Financial Crises, the Oil Price Increase, etc. I learn that: “The problems at these companies are rooted more in the past decisions than in present events or market dynamics. Yet management, in its haste to grow, often overlooks such critical developmental questions as, where has our organization been? Where is it now? And what do the answers to these questions mean for where it is going? Instead, management fixes its gaze outward on the environment and toward the future, as if more precise market projections will provide the organization with a new identity.” (Greiner, 1998) I would like to know how can one convince people up the totem pole that change is a natural part of the “evolution and revolution as organizations grow” (Greiner, 1998). There is no need to panic, wag the finger, and shoot at whoever is standing. But leaders and founders take things personally, instead of realizing that “Managerial problems and practices are rooted in time. They do not last throughout the life of an organization” (Greiner, 1998). If we calmly come together as reasonable adults and take the chaos as a natural part of how the organization is developing to the next level, we can come up with reasonable solutions instead of creating distress and anxiety. But how many leaders, founders, managers listen to those who are below them in the organizational hierarchy? As the popular adage goes, business is not personal. Every employee who has lost his or her job, who is struggling to pay the mortgage, buy the groceries, etc. will tell you otherwise.
CONCLUSION
I have begun a new chapter in my life. This is a new narrative. In three years, when I finish the program, I would like to pursue a career in coaching and change management whether as a consultant, a teacher, a writer, or all three together. But by pursuing the roads that lead me to discovering the truth about Sara: The Cultural Outsider/Foreigner, Sara: The Game Player, Sara: The Victim, Sara: The Writer, and Sara: The Employee Amidst Organizational Change, I would like to answer the most important question of all. Who is Sara? I believe if I am able to completely and honestly answer this question, I would resolve the issues of not being able to integrate into the workplace, and be a role model to others like me who are different.
References: Greiner, L. (1998, May-June 1998). Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow, Harvard Business Review. Hall, J., & Hawker, J. (2000). Power Management Inventory, Teleometrics International Inc. Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization, Toronto: Sage Publications. Peltier, B. (2001). The Psychology of Executive Coaching, Theory and Application, New York: Routledge. Rogers, J. (2008). Coaching Skills: A Handbook, Second Edition, New York: Open University Press Satyam Computer Services, Inc. (2006). SatyamWay, Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services, Inc. Sorenson, S. (2000). Webster’s New World Student Writing Handbook, 4th Edition, Cleveland: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Turabian, K. (2007). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Thesis, and Dissertations, 7th Edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
