The Role of Social Construction in Making of Organisational Vision - Coursework Example

Sосiаl Соnstruсtiоn and Оrgаnisаtiоnаl Visiоn Name Institution Sосiаl Соnstruсtiоn and Оrgаnisаtiоnаl Vision Due to the changing external environment, organisations are often forced to adjust their strategies in line with the trends. Thus, employees adapt to the changes in organisations through social construction. Social construction can be defined as the way individuals go about constructing and relating their views about change. It takes place through continuous communication that shapes the adoption of new ideas in organisations. Kopaneva (2013) explains that to survive, organisations must respond to certain aspects of their environment. In other words, they must consider not only their interests but also those of the society. For example, changes in technology or consumer behaviour patterns may mean that organisation employees adapt to the market trends by familiarizing themselves with the new technology. However, employees do not adopt to change immediately but need to be guided through communication. Social construction plays a critical role in the making of organisational vision. Vision in an organisation means action; it should not be stagnant or fixed but change with the society. Social constructionists emphasize on relationships that for example enable an organisation develop its culture or go through change thus achieve its vision. Vision plays an important role both long-term and short-term success of an organisation. It guides an organization by articulating what it wishes to achieve and ways to accomplish it. The right vision is that which creates meaning in employees’ lives, attracts commitment and energizes people, establishes a standard for excellence and transcends the status quo. John Graham, a renowned spiritual leader, and coach, explains that vision helps inspire action by pulling in ideas, people, and other resources together Graham, 2016). Vision helps create motivation to make things happen as well as encourage individuals and organisations to commit, persist and give their best. Motivation also helps minimize disputes and strikes as well as increase the level of satisfaction among employees (Frey & Osterloh, 2002). Similarly, it helps keep organisations focused and together while growing through the challenges during the difficult time. The author says that a vision should be clear, positive, big enough, and dynamic. Social construction theory emphasizes that meanings arise from social systems rather that from individual members of the society. An organization is one such system where speech communities share socially constructed meanings. The meanings exist in the interactions of employees rather than the geographical location of an organisation or its buildings. Kopaneva (2013) explains that regardless of their number, all workers contribute to the construction of meanings related to an organization and its practices. He argues that the meaning of vision arises from the collective interaction between employees through creation, recreation, and changing of meanings. It is socially constructed vision that guides the life of an organisation. The theory conceptualizes language as necessary to meaning construction. Social Construction theory offers an opportunity for individuals to explore the meaning of an organisation vision, and how best to go about the challenges that they might encounter. Communication plays a significant role in determining whether an organization achieves its vision or not (Cartwright & Baldwin, 2006). Moreover, the role of communicating an organisation vision lies with its management. It is through communication that leaders help inspire employees commitment to a vision by being passionate and committed to it. Most times, dynamic leaders often speak about their vision for an organisation with staff and interested parties to keep it alive. It is also by communicating their vision that leaders may receive feedback from employees and other interested, which can help clarify on issues. An effective communication structure helps leaders handle changes with ease. Cartwright and Baldwin (2006) advise managers to treat every communication effort as the most important opportunity at passing the message out. They acknowledge that it takes more than one memo or speech to get attention and rally support. They add that managers should spread the vision throughout normal conversations, be dynamic and intentional about continuously communicating. They can for example, use stories to give life to a vision and enable individuals to visualize it clearly and memorize it. Stories help create trust, capture the mind and heart of the audience as well as establish common ground between a leader and stakeholders associated with an organisation. In other words, leaders should choose the best way to deliver their messages to employees for maximum results. However, communication challenges in organisations exist and usually have a negative effect on their performance. These problems can be grouped into interpersonal factors and small-group factors (Gillis, 2011). In interpersonal factors, the relationship between people may affect ethical decision-making. For example, lack of trust makes it difficult for an individual to make innovative, ethical decisions. The tension between employees and their supervisors can affect how employees make decisions on certain subjects, which may lead to a negative outcome for an organisation. On the other hand, peer pressure in workplaces can be both positive and negative. Most times, leaders can rush to make decisions out of peer pressure or due to fatigue. Therefore leaders should always be keen on making quality decision even it means postponing meetings to arrive at the best solutions. Similarly, some challenges may be derived from using new communication technologies that are sterile. The new media of communication such as websites, social media, and videoconferencing through cost effective are impersonal (Cartwright & Baldwin, 2006). They may also fail to develop or cultivate the needed human relationship in a communication process. Mostly, change process that is occasioned with changing routine in line with a new vision elicits vigorous and passionate emotions within an organization. The new modes of communication may fail to rally employees together for a common purpose. Additionally, though communication is important, leaders have to make sure that they only pass relevant information to prevent information overload. They ought to know that there are limits to the amounts of information that can be received and decoded by an individual within a certain period. Thus, only relevant information should be passed from the leaders to the employees Through communication, norms, identities, and relationships are created. Employees are more likely to welcome change when they have a sense of ownership of and control over the modification. Social construction that is achieved through continuous exchange makes it possible for organisation members to express their opinion in an open way and to have control in the way organisational identity is determined. The two things to consider always when preparing a vision for an organisation is first to engage members in brainstorming ideas then communicate compelling messages. Employee values also play a critical role in making organizations realize their vision. They play an excessive role in personality and organisational culture by serving as criteria for making decisions and setting priorities. Values help change the culture, which determines how employees relate and carry out their day-to-day functions. Hultman (2006) explains that the primary function of an organisation value system is to maintain and enhance its member’s collective self-esteem. He further pinpoints that a strong bond exists between a company’s level of self-esteem, and both its vision and values it uses to achieve the vision. Mostly, companies with high morale find it easier to build commitment toward vision. Employees should have values that make them competent enough to carry out their responsibilities. Therefore, it is important that organisations identify factors contributing to low morale and address them to sustain a positive effort toward vision. Moreover, values ought to be considered before taking decisions. Hultman (2006) emphasizes on value-driven change for an organization to achieve its vision effortlessly. Value driven change enables both an organisation management and employees to be proactive, open-minded, vision driven, rationale and confident. To achieve values-driven needs in an organisation, the author says that the administration ought to understand the psychological needs of employees. For example, a manager ought to make employees view themselves as competent and capable of achieving their objectives. For this reason, employees will be more motivated which would also increase their chances of taking risks as well as using their talents and abilities. Likewise, managers should encourage employees to commend their workmates for work well done as individuals feel useful when they viewed by others as making a meaningful contribution to the organization. The level of trust among employees should also be high, which can be achieved through team building activities. Social character or acceptance also affects how employees feel about an organisation. Individuals feel happy when they see themselves as being considered as worthy of recognition. The feeling of being accepted elicits feelings of joy, happiness, contentment and adds an individual’s sense of self-worth (Hultman, 2006). An organization has to create a culture where all employees feel valued. Some of the reasons why employees may feel rejected arise from their physical appearance, seniority, race, religion, and socioeconomic status. Visions reflect the values key values of an organisation, which ethically appeals to shareholders. Shared values and coordinated behaviour of individuals serve as motivation for workers to act in the interest of the organization. It also allows organisations to operate smoothly as a unified force. Moreover, the personal values of employees should be in sync with organisational values. According to Ren (2010), employees who share values with their companies are more likely to be empowered with decision-making, which leads to higher organisational performance. For this reason, companies should hire employees that have the same values as it during their recruitment processes. Lencioni (2002) highlights that organisations should strive to integrate values into every aspect of workers’ lives through orientations and training programs. Every organisation has its social context, which enables employees to achieve a common goal. Social context is derived from assigned meanings that employees in organisation have been accustomed to Jabri (2010). Notably, assigned meaning is achieved through talk. Some of the talk is captured in text such as vision statements, emails, charts but most lies with the networks of relationships that develop in organisations over time. Jabri (2010) explains that before introducing change, an organisation management should conduct individual level analysis. Most people react to change at a personal level, and a clash of view among employees may scuttle the process. The author explains that managers ought to appreciate the individual’s differences before getting them to change. By being aware of the differences, the management of an organisation may work to achieve a common attitude among all employees. One way of achieving sameness is through team building that enables players to learn how to work with others. Also, knowing individuals strengths and weakness enables the people in charge of change to capitalize on strengths that they have. The author notes that it is possible to tell of individual differences by looking at what motivates people, their values, and the extent to which they can handle change affecting them and their locus of control. The process of identifying individual differences is social construction. Organisational culture determines the behaviour of members of an organisation. It is the way members of an organisation do things and is influenced by values and assumptions that they share amongst themselves. The values and assumptions are interpreted through different types of conversations that employees have with others that hold similar values and share them either intentionally or unintentionally. However, culture is not fixed as it is always in a continual state of movement. Jabri (2012) argues that a change in one aspect requires a corresponding shift in another. The change is only possible through social construction of unwritten rules. It is prudent that leadership has an understanding of the thinking and behavioral patterns of their employees and how mental energy exhibits itself in outward energy. Similarly, they must relate corporate goals in a manner that every employee identifies and internalizes those goals. Acknowledges that organisational culture is a continuous system of checks and balances that are required to be reinforced at all levels of the Organisational and employee lifecycle. Leaders make employees better by drawing out their individual strengths and raising them whereas employees make leaders better by refining their vision. Thus, leaders and followers exchange their views on issues that arise and how best to go through a challenging situation. In conclusion of the above discussion, social construction plays a significant role in shaping an organisational vision. Organisation vision provides guidance and a path through which an organisation can achieve its both short-term and long-term goals. Through communication, employees help create shared meanings in an organisation which influences an organisational culture. It is through leaders and employee interactions that ideas and issues are exchanged to enable an organisation to achieve its vision. However, communication challenges may stand in the way change or affect the implementation of a vision. Some of the communication problems may arise due to lack of trust among employees. The use of new communication technologies such as email, social media, and websites may also pose challenges as they lack personal appeal. Likewise, employees values determine whether the process of achieving the vision would be smooth or not. Mainly, employees that share the same values with an organisation are known to be more productive that those who do not. Based on that, companies should always strive to hire that share the same values with it during recruitment processes. References Cartwright, T. & Baldwin, D. (2006). Communicating your vision. Greensboro, N.C.: Center for Creative Leadership. Frey, B. & Osterloh, M. (2002). Successful management by motivation. Berlin: Springer. Gillis, T. (2011). The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Graham, J. (2016). The Importance of Vision. Johngraham.org. Retrieved 4 November 2016, from http://www.johngraham.org/coach/5-the-importance-of-vision Hultman, K. (2006). Values-driven change. New York: iUniverse. Jabri, M. (2012). Managing organizational change. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Kopaneva, I. (2013). Employee Constructions of Organizational Mission and Vision (1st ed.). Washington State University. Retrieved from https://research.libraries.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/4756/Kopaneva_wsu_0251E_10716.pdf?sequence=1 Lencioni, P. (2002). Make your values mean something. Harvard Business Review, 113-117. Ren, T. (2010). Value congruence as a source of intrinsic motivation. KYKLOS, 63(1), 94-109. Read More