Psychological Adjustments for Hirschsprung’s Disease

Hirschsprung Disease Occurring once in approximately 5000 live births, Hirschsprung disease is a congenital abnormality characterized by the absence of autonomic parasympathetic ganglion cells in the colon preventing peristalsis and resulting in intestinal obstruction and abdominal distension. Also known as congenital aganglionic megacolon, this medical malady is an unfortunate anomaly of a very vulnerable population – infants and children. Hirschsprung disease can occur in otherwise healthy babies, but is commonly diagnosed in combination with Down’s syndrome and congenital heart defects. Functional outcomes, thanks to contemporary medical advances, are generally successful. As medical professionals, nurses play a significant role in helping patients achieve therapeutic goals. Therapeutic goals also include a level of psychological wellness in living with persistent bowel dysfunction after Hirschsprung surgery but few, if any, studies have addressed this likelihood. Focusing on the results after definitive surgical repair of Hirschsprung disease, the journal article, â€Å"An example of psychological adjustment in chronic illness: Hirschsprung’s disease† by Athanasakos, Starling, Ross, Nunn, and Cass, identifies outcomes in terms of psychiatric health. The primary aim of this study was to report overall outcomes after Hirschsprung surgery and to address the impact of the disease on the optimism for a normal life. Fecal soiling was identified as the most common problem for

Exemplary Leadership Free Essays

string(116) " him for the completion of many of my assignments, as he must approve many of my tasks before it is executed fully\." Abstract In order to be a successful leader, one must have specific virtues to qualify them as effective. This analysis examines how a leader utilizes organizational power, the magnitude to which the leader is constrained by contingency factors, how the leader deals with ethical issues, and the leader’s decision-making style and influence tactics in addition to other characteristics. The leader detailed in this analysis is proven to be effective based on certain qualities and the methods he employ to successfully reach the organization’s goal, and motivate the employees to efficiently meet their subdivision and complete organizational goals. We will write a custom essay sample on Exemplary Leadership or any similar topic only for you Order Now Upon completion of this analysis, it is recommended that a study is done to assess if factors such as age, sex, heritage, etc. contribute to the type of leader one becomes. Introduction Leaders are an essential part of every organization. The quality of leaders determines the success of the organization. There are exemplary leaders, and there are leaders that can learn a thing or two. What is a leader? Colquitt, Lepine, and Wesson (2011) define leadership as the use of power and influence to direct the activities of followers toward goal achievement (p. 451). This analysis will chronicle an exemplary leader that many other leaders can learn from. The analysis will assess the leaders use of sources of organizational power, how the leader is constrained by contingency factors, how the leader makes decisions, his influence tactics, and how ethical issues are dealt with. Context My boss at the job that I currently hold is a prototypical leader and the example chosen for this analysis. While studying Management at Howard University, one subject that was constantly visited is what makes a proficient leader. I always wondered where all of my bosses learned their horrible leadership skills from until I crossed paths with my present boss. His kindheartedness, importable nature, and accommodating temperament raises the bar for leaders everywhere. The way he interacts with his staff makes them happy to work dexterously to meet organizations goals above what is expected. These are the behaviors that Colquitt et al states an effective leader achieves. Discussion and Analysis The Use of Organizational Power Power is the aptitude to guide the performance of other individuals and limit unwanted influence in return (Colquitt et al. , 2011). The authors stated that even if one posses the power to influence, it does not guarantee they can effectively influence. Power is made up of five facets – legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent. My supervisor has the power to request that I perform tasks within the scope of his authority – legitimate, the power to extend specific resources I need and rewards I want – reward, the power to control consequences for adverse behaviors – coercive, the expertise that I depend on to get my job done and to grow within the organization – expert, and finally he is an individual that I’d like to be associated with in the organization – referent. He has all five facets of power as described by Colquitt et al. My supervisor exercises his rights to power in order to help the organization reach its overall goals and not to be seen as a coercive leader. He exercises legitimate power for reasonable requests such as asking me to come in earlier than my scheduled time to attend an important meeting that could only be scheduled at that time. Notice that he makes reasonable requests, meaning that he gives the option to decline if I cannot make reasonable accommodations. He exercises reward power by periodically making mention of how he intends to go about upcoming performance appraisals. This is actually a strategic method as he utilizes his reward power to remind me of what he can do, which in turn heightens the effectiveness of legitimate power as I am more prone to be submissive to his requests in order to receive greater rewards. My supervisor has been in the marketing field – the basis of our department – for over fifteen years, which makes him somewhat of an expert, giving him expert power. My supervisor is not a fan of coercive power, as he does not feel the need to intimidate because he effectively gets his employees to do what they need to do. He encourages his employees to obtain the results he desires. Overall, my supervisor has a great deal of power. He strategically applies his powers in order to achieve what is most important – the organizational goal. As mentioned earlier, he uses his reward and legitimate power concurrently, which is beneficial for him and his staff. His expert power has strength in that I try to use it to my advantage to acquire new talents to help me grow in this organization and any future organizations. He is well respected because of his choice to not use coercive power. Contingency Factors There are four contingencies of power, which Colquitt et al tells us are substitutability, centrality, discretion, and visibility. My supervisor is insignificantly constrained by substitutability, which is the extent to which people have alternatives in accessing resources. My organization strongly attempts to adhere to budgets previously set for the year. o stick to budgets and discretion is the degree to which managers have the right to make decisions on their own (p. 455). Centrality represents how important a person’s job is and how many people depend on that person to complete their task, and visibility is how aware people are of a leader’s powers and position. . He does not have sole control of rewards and resources. A s a non-profit, my organization relies heavily on budgets and each higher manager must adhere to their budgets that must be agreed upon by the chief financial officer and president. So even with his reward power, there are limitations. His centrality contingency is not a restraint. He has a very important role in the organization as we rely on him significantly to bring money into the organization. I personally depend on him for the completion of many of my assignments, as he must approve many of my tasks before it is executed fully. You read "Exemplary Leadership" in category "Papers" The discretion contingency may serve as a restraint for my supervisor; while he is Vice President of Marketing, the CFO or president must approve many of his big decisions. They can then revise or rebut his decision if they feel it is necessary. The visibility contingency is not necessarily a constraint or helper to my boss. The resources he can provide are not necessarily organizational record but his title makes it known that he is above most employees and under just the CFO and president; this makes it so he still has relatively high influence. Influence Tactics Colquitt et al (2011) defines influence as the use of an actual behavior that causes behavioral or attitudinal changes in others (p. 56) or as Ceasar and Grant (2004) define as Influence tactics are specific types of proactive behavior used to exercise influence. The influence tactics that my boss uses are exchange, consultation, collaboration, and ingratiation. One of my supervisor’s favorite influence tactics is the exchange tactic, which is when an individual extends a reward or resource to the target with the intent for them to perform a request (p). This tactic is most common when my supervisor has projects with outsourced associates. If we are compensating someone for their expertise and we need them to start working prior to receiving payment, he will construct and send an email stating â€Å"your payment is on its way, in the meantime please†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Usually, when I am asked to complete an assignment, I am also asked how we should implement it and at that point he approves or change it somewhat. This is the consultation tactic, which is when the target – me – is allowed to participate in deciding how to carry out or implement a request (p. 457). He uses the collaboration tactic, which involves making the request easier to complete. He generally provides me with the necessary resources I need to complete the task as well making it simpler so that it is done efficiently and effectively on the first try. Ingratiation is his favorite tactic to use. Ingratiation is the use of favors, compliments, or friendly behavior to make the target feel better about the influencer (p. 457). He never fails to tell me how awesome I am, or on occasions he would tell me that he does not need to review my work because he trusts me, or explain that he gave me a task because he knew I was smart enough to handle it. Influence tactics are the medium through which managers convert power into behaviors; when managers need others to perform tasks or participate in activities, influence tactics serve as a means of facilitating individual cooperation (Ceasar Grant, 2004). The tactics that he uses are effective and he uses them appropriately as well. He also uses personal appeals because in his line of work, he deals with a lot of outside clients. It is beneficial for him to build relationships with people in other industries so that they are readily available to help us when we need them. All in all, the tactics my boss uses results in internalization, which involves getting the target to agree with and become committed to a request (p. 459). Ethical Issues My boss works extremely well under intense conditions and with conflicts. Just recently, we joined with a major corporation for a campaign and sought help from a board certified doctor so that the information we offered would be further validated. Prior to execution of the assignment by the doctor, he let us know that he was not satisfied with the pay and proceeded to tell the major corporation false accounts of what we told him were part of the agreement. My boss could have outright denied his claims in the same rude manner that the doctor was exemplifying. Instead, he apologized to the doctor for the misunderstanding and attributed his false account to miscommunication. He then asked the doctor what his normal fee was for the task he performed, and he accommodated him accordingly. He then concluded he would never use the doctor again. In this example of an ethical issue, the fault is not of my organization or my boss but that of the doctor. However, my boss handled the situation in an ethical manner when he could have very well become as unethical as the doctor. I personally respected him for his handling of the situation, as I know my initial instinct would have been to react a lot differently. Decision-Making Styles Colquitt et al talks about four decision-making styles: delegative, facilitative, consultative, and autocratic. With delegative style, a leader gives an individual employee or a group of employees the responsibility for making the decision within some set of specified boundary conditions and with facilitative style, the leader presents the problem to a group of employees and seeks consensus on a solution, making sure his or her own opinion receives no more weight than others (p. 488). With a consultative style, the leader present the problem to an individual employees or a group, asking for their opinions and suggestions before making a decision him- or her- self and with autocratic style, the leader makes the decision alone (p. 57). My boss uses three of the four decision-making styles as he sees appropriate. For example, he would use the delegative style in a situation where he gives the staff a project. He will provide the specified conditions and then allow us to determine the way we carry out the assignment. He would use the consultative style in a situation where he may want different vi ewpoints about a decision he has to make to see if he explored all relevant avenues before ultimately making the decision based on his own views. He uses the autocratic style when the decision does not directly affect the team and he needs no further input. Transformational Vs. Transactional Leadership According to Colquitt et al (2011), transformational leadership involves inspiring followers to commit to a shared vision that provides meaning to their work while also serving as a role model who helps followers develop their own potential and view problems from new perspectives (p. 496). Transactional leadership occurs when the leader rewards or disciplines the follower depending on the adequacy of the follower’s performance (p. 98). Grant (2012) defines transformational leadership as a central purpose to articulate a vision that focuses employees’ attention on their contributions to others. He states that this form of leadership motivate employees to perform more effectively. My boss is a transformational leader. Not only is he great at inspiring his staff to commit to a shared vision, he makes sure that their w ork is worth their while. He continually asks if our work is sufficient and challenging enough because he does not want us to become bored. In addition, he gives us tasks that may go beyond our duties just to develop us into more valuable professionals. He gives us leeway to execute our tasks in a manner that is most comfortable to us while giving his input when we ask or when he sees it is necessary. He does not micro-manage and puts more focus on making us better employees so we can help him with our current skills while learning new skills to be more of a help in the future. Neutralizers Vs. Substitutes Neutralizers, as Colquitt et al (2011) explains, reduce the importance of the leader but have no beneficial impact on performance (p. 05). Substitutes reduce the importance of the leader while providing a direct benefit to employee performance. My supervisor’s effectiveness is rarely affected by substitutes. Because our organization is small, outside staff is less likely able to help us because each department has its specialty. Staff could gain experience that will lessen the extent to which they need the manag er’s help but could never alleviate it completely because he is the provider of the tasks. Neutralizers are also minimal. There is task stability, formalization, and spatial distance, but inflexibility is not a factor. For the most part there are tasks that are unchanging and daily and there are written instructions for many of the tasks. Also, all leaders have offices and therefore there is spatial distance. Impact My supervisor has a major impact on performance and commitment in a positive way. His personality and leadership techniques make it so he is a pleasant person to work for. He governs over his employees just enough to make sure the work is done while giving enough space for them to be creative and comfortable. His behaviors definitely influence commitment because it is rare to find a boss of this caliber. Conclusions and Reflections I have always viewed my boss as a great boss. I never had the opportunity to think of why he was such a great boss. This assignment allowed me to do just that. And from my research, I found that my boss has virtually everything that makes a boss a great one from his personality to leadership skills. I have always had the attitude that I want to work for myself because most bosses were not very nice people. While I still desire to work for myself, I would not mind working with a boss like mine and now know that all bosses are not horrible people. I desire to be the exact type of boss that my boss is because his methods are effective. After taking the initiation and consideration assessment, I found that my score for initiating was considered low and the score for consideration was considered high. That coincides with the way I think I would lead. I would care about more about input from group members and their comfort than being more autocratic as a high initiative score would indicate. I would be interested in further researching if certain characteristics attribute to the sort of boss a person becomes such as gender, race, age, etc. References Colquitt, J. , Lepine, J. , Wesson. M. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and commitment in the workplace. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Gardner, W. L. , Ceasar, D. (2004). Transition to Self-Directed Work Teams: Implications of transition time and self-monitoring for managers’ use of influence tactics. Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 25(1), 47-65. Grant, A. M. (2012). Leading with Meaning: Beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership. Academy Of Management Journal, 55(2), 458-476. How to cite Exemplary Leadership, Papers

Disadvantages of Teamwork in the Workplace - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Disadvantages of Teamwork in the Workplace. Answer: Introduction Formation of teams, their working, coordination, conflicts as well as collaboration is an important aspect of every organization (Ellis Bach, 2015). Team work is not always easy to establish, however it is largely important for the expansion and growth of the organization (Costa Anderson, 2017). This case study throws light on the team work at Sun Microsystems Inc. Global manager, Greg James, is responsible for a 45 member global team based out of France, UAE, India and Unites States. Greg is having a hard time in order to get the team to work in consensus and ensuring that they work together as a single unit. The Indians feel that their working hours are longer and their thoughts and opinions are disrespected. France employees feel that they are underpaid. UAE members feel they are distant from the parent company and have shown a fear of become reportable to the Indian team. And lastly, the US team has depicted discomfort with the high number of vacations availed by their France c ounterparts. This report has laid emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages that accompany a team based organizational structure and the recommendations that Sun microsystems can avail in order to improvise coordination and bring consensus to the global team led by Greg James. Advantages of team based organizational structure A team based organizational structure involves forming of various teams on the basis of departments, sectors of work, geography or designation. This kind of an organizational structure has various advantages as given below: New ideas Working together as a team leads to the generation of new ideas. When a number of people brainstorm on a single subject, everyone can provide a different idea as every person has a different perspective to a single situation. This global perspective assists organizations in improved growth and better solutions to organizations problems (Kirugi, 2015). The case has demonstrated a global team spread over 4 countries and 45 employees. It is only natural that the diverse nature, working background and culture of the team members would bring new ideas to the table. Fosters creativity and learning Team work leads to increased innovation as fresher generations of ideas. It leads to overall growth and development of the team members (Carpini, Flemming Parker, 2015). Members can learn from one another and hence increase their efficiency (Putra Fibra, 2016). This in turn leads to satisfied employees and improved performance of the team. Every team members from different parts of the world would be able to learn different ways and aspects of the business. Increased efficiency Working in team leads to accomplishments of organizational goals in a much faster manner as compared to members performing their tasks individually. Every member of the team can contribute their bit and lead to quicker completion of goals (Hazel, Heberle, McEwen Adams, 2013). If proper coordination in the team persists then there are various advantages of this global team in Sun Microsystems. The organization is able to serve various customers across different parts of the world, across different time zones and all times is only owing to a widespread presence of Sun Microsystem employees in different countries. Disadvantages of team based organizational structure Timing discrepancy In a diversified team especially a geographically diverse team, it is often difficult to coordinate with one another owing to different time zones that the employees work in. It is increasingly difficult to establish contact and hence leads to unnecessary delay. In the case of Sun Microsystems as well, it has been noticed that the Indian employees have often complained about longer working hours. Greater conflicts Whenever there is team work, there is often a lot of blame game involved. This indicates that members of the team face increasing conflicts due to delayed communication, difficulty in establishing contact, lack of respect or even unequal participation (Joseph, 2015). In the case study, we have seen that the job roles of employees are still not clear and in case of a discrepancy they resort to blaming each other rather than working together to solve the problem faced. Unequal participation There are people in the team who work hard and there are employees who leave it on the rest of the team members to perform the tasks. This leads to unequal participation in the team which causes frustration among performing employees and lethargy among non-performers. The personal goals of the people in the team may also vary leading to unequal participation (Currie, Gormley, Roche Teague, 2017). The case study also brings to attention that the US employees feel an increased work load due to higher number of vacations taken by their France counterparts. Slower decision making Due do delayed communication, lack of coordination and reduced consensus among the team members, the decisions taken by the team as a whole take longer. This in turn leads to delay in accomplishment of organizational goals. The H S Holdings conflict explained in the case could have been resolved much sooner if the team members were better coordinated. Recommendations The members of Gregs team are all well qualified and highly talented employees. Therefore the business does not need a complete overhaul rather just a few small changes to bring about more coordination among the members. Looking at the increasing problems faced by Greg James in managing his team, the following recommendations have been listed. The aim of these recommendations is to improve communication, bring in consensus and increase coordination among the team members: Frequent trip to headquarters In order to increase coordination, the team members from across all the locations must be invited to the headquarters in United States. This could be achieved by creating turns and each employee could be invited for a week in every six months. This would also build an increased sense of ownership among employees and bring them in line with the head offices organizational culture and their long term goals. The Indian team has 16 members. If all of them were to visit the headquarters for a week in 6 months, it will ensure that throughout the year, one of the Indian team mate would be in Santa Clara. This would lead to efficiency in communication and faster delivery of targets. Understanding of culture Presentations and seminars must be conducted across all the locations which lay importance at understanding different cultures of various members of the team. This would lead to enhanced knowledge of culture and would enable the team members to respect each other more (Cramton Hinds, 2014). This would in turn cause an increased coordination and improved understanding of each other (Alvesson, 2016). Greg must personally oversee these presentations and ensure their impact is effective enough to bring about increased coordination and respect within the team. Conference call timings Conference call timings must be made slightly more flexible. It is understandable that it is increasingly difficult to bring about a consensus in conference call timings that suit all the members of the team. However, slight flexibility is possible and it must be implemented. Two different timings of the conference calls could be finalized which would be implemented on alternate weeks. Country Current Time (Time 1) Proposed Time (Time 2) India 20:30 IST 18:30 France 17:00 15:00 UAE 19:00 17:00 USA 8:00 6:30 Both the work timings could be implemented in alternate weeks. This would require the American team mates to report earlier one day in two weeks. However, this must be implemented as the Indian counterparts report to work by 6:30 every day. This would demonstrate flexibility and respect among the team in general. Clear hierarchy Sun microsystems must establish a clear hierarchy among employees for them to understand who they report to. UAE team has expressed the fear of being subordinated by the India team. This fear must be resolved as Greg personally must ensure and specify the importance as well as independency of the UAE team time and again. Foster respect There must be a deep respect for every member of the team. Strict action must be taken against members if they are seen disrespecting each other (Richter, Clarke Fernandez, 2014). At the same point of time, any issues brought forward by the employees that involve feeling disrespected must be addressed by Greg in a serious manner. Conclusion Sun microsystems has a global team spanned over four countries (US, UAE, India France) led by Greg James. The team is facing various issues owing to different cultures, geographical locations and lack of coordinated communication. This is hampering the performance of the team as a whole and adversely impacting the level of service provided to prestigious clients. Greg James has put in immense efforts in establishing this team across four location and does his best in ensuring complete coordination. Also, there are various advantages of having a team spread over various locations. The company executives are easily reachable by customers across the globe and at all times. Different cultural backgrounds and working experiences have also helped employees in garnering knowledge and enhancing productivity. However, it is imperative that steps are taken on an urgent basis to ensure better performance and increased coordination in the future. It is recommended that Greg offers flexible timings for conference calls which could be implemented in alternate weeks, employees from other countries must be invited to spend at least a week every 6 months in the headquarters in order to get accustomed to the Sun culture and develop and sense of ownership. And lastly, training and induction seminars must be conducted across all the offices to enhance knowledge about each others culture in order to foster respect and understanding among employees. References Alvesson, M. (Ed.). (2016).Organizational culture. Sage. Carpini, J. A., Flemming, A., Parker, S. K. (2015). Multidisciplinary team briefings: a way forward.Day Surgery Australia,14(2), 12. Costa, A. C., Anderson, N. (2017). Team Trust.The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Team Working and Collaborative Processes, 393-416. Cramton, C. D., Hinds, P. J. (2014). An embedded model of cultural adaptation in global teams.Organization Science,25(4), 1056-1081. Currie, D., Gormley, T., Roche, B., Teague, P. (2017). The management of workplace conflict: Contrasting pathways in the HRM literature.International Journal of Management Reviews,19(4), 492-509. Ellis, P., Bach, S. (2015).Leadership, management and team working in nursing. Learning Matters. Hazel, S. J., Heberle, N., McEwen, M. M., Adams, K. (2013). Team-based learning increases active engagement and enhances development of teamwork and communication skills in a first-year course for veterinary and animal science undergraduates.Journal of veterinary medical education,40(4), 333-341. Joseph, C. (2015). The Disadvantages of Teamwork in the Workplace.Demand Media. Kirugi, M. (2015). Advantages of Teamwork. Putra, S., Fibra, A. (2016). Teamwork as an Innovation Generator: An Analysis of Project Hatchery at Binus University International.Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences Humanities. Richter, A. W., Clarke, R., Fernandez, R. (2014, January). Strong Ties and Team Interdependence: A Social Network Approach to Dyadic Team Effectiveness. InAcademy of Management Proceedings(Vol. 2014, No. 1, p. 14558). Academy of Management.