Introduction
New Horizons is a highly effective agency that informs the public and government’s policies on autism. The organization acquires its authority from its skilled employees determined to cause real change. Over the years, New Horizons has operated with a significantly limiting communication policy. The entity’s communication guidelines demand that only its director communicates to the public about the agency’s stands on critical policy subjects. Such a policy endeavors to promote authenticity and authority in the message delivered by the authority. However, New Horizon’s now wants to enter the social media world to interact with online clients and partners. The strategy involves creating an organization-owned social media account.
Preliminary findings by the task force in charge of the transformation show that specific employees already run social media accounts under the agency’s name. The workers use such accounts to communicate personal sentiments that the online consumer fraternity perceives as the agency’s stand. Humphrey’s account and online sentiments contradict the agency’s stand concerning a current policy issue under consideration. Humphrey and his blogging colleagues under the agency make the management work hard by posting contradictory accounts that challenge the organization’s authoritativeness and reliability by the public. Humphrey and his colleagues need to be managed by adopting an effective organization-based social media policy. The action plan application shows a policy that allows the employees to blog under the agency-owned and managed social media handle as the best solution for the firm. Humphrey is informed and significantly helps the entity realize success through policy-related advice. New Horizons mainly requires a policy-directed environment where the bloggers communicate to the organization first before reaching the public.
Short Overview of the Agency
New Horizons is a conservative organization that is yet to adopt technological inventions such as social media. The agency experiences real problems with information technology and data management policy issues. Social media is a significantly powerful communication tool in use today. The failure to adopt a policy for the adoption of new technology sees some employees take advantage of the matter to promote individual sentiments online behind the organization’s knowledge. The breach of communication policy makes the public doubt New Horizon’s director’s stand, some arguing that the agency states otherwise via its online account. New Horizons already has a task force in charge of the online communication transformation headed by Jane. The committee recognizes the dangers of individual employees holding private blogging accounts where they give statements perceived to be from the agency.
Jane believes that the organization bans all the private blogging accounts to regain its authoritative control of information getting to the public. Jim, the agency’s director, opposes the suggestion, noting that such a move will disrupt the individual’s communication freedom, thus tainting its name significantly. Jane and Jim hold contradictory ideas, which cause substantial pressure in their job relationship. New Horizons needs all its current workers to maintain its efficiency and policy expertise. The workforce appears divided, with some utilizing the situation for personal gains. The best solution to solve the matter is to embrace technological innovations by enacting effective policies that encompass each player’s views. Applying effective research methodology to acknowledge the underlying organizational issues before going online is crucial for the entity. The work below applies the action research approach to the New Horizon case to offer a lasting solution to the agency’s current challenge concerning social media adoption and organizational culture.
Statement of the Problem
“Can action research help unravel and transform the deep organizational culture and workforce issues at New Horizons by delivering informed data-supported social media transformation at the agency?” is the question informing the present work. The agency plays a critical role in influencing most policies touching on persons with autism. Nonetheless, the current culture allows workers to operate in disintegration. New Horizon’s conservative organizational culture assumes several aspects concerning the modern workforce. The culture is also limited to the past ways of operation that adopted an authoritarian leadership model. The matter makes New Horizon think that all its employees will allow only the management to speak about the critical issues about autism and the general stand of the organization. The culture also errs significantly in expecting that the empowered workforce will fail to appreciate the new realities concerning social media in the communication domain. The assumptions are responsible for the current communication issues in the entity. New Horizons needs to enact appropriate policies that will appreciate the workers’ need for freedom and the place of social media in the agencies’ operations.
New Horizons’ human resources problem also needs resolutions to realize its purpose without pressure. For example, there seems to be a lack of cohesion between the workers in the agency. Jane is aggressive and wants to control everything under her domain fully. The worker is also highly knowledgeable and skilled in social media regulations. However, her desire to control issues often exposes her to the risk of infringing other people’s freedom. She needs to learn the art of talent development to promote workers’ talents without being threatened. Jane also needs to understand consultation skills to become a better team player. Jane seems over-confident that her task force exploited all potential solutions. She also thinks that New Horizons’ solution is a punitive social media policy that requires workers to stop blogging.
On the other hand, Jim is liberal and often leaves critical matters unhandled. He also loves detailed information but lacks pro-activeness, like Jane. Jim is correspondingly witty, brilliant, and knowledgeable, just like Jane. The pair can work effectively to deliver unmatched accomplishment when united. Specific employees working for the agency are further knowledgeable and outgoing. Jerry Humprey is a free employee who appreciates social media, unlike his employer. However, Humprey is inconsiderate and self-centered, based on his move to imply an association with New Horizons when making personal statements on his blogs. There is also a likelihood that he is a generation X personality, a generation that cherishes autonomy (Clark, 2017). The blogger commits this mistake habitually to get a larger following courtesy of the employer’s big name. Humphrey holds an influential position in the organization and is also highly informed.
Study to Collect Sound Evidence to Help Address the Problem
Organizational transformation is an intensive process that involves a lot of activities. Simón and Ferreiro (2018) note that an effective business revolution involves activity-based and cultural changes. An organization’s culture comprises the values, beliefs, and mentalities that stakeholders exhibit towards each other and the public. New Horizons requires a holistic transformation that takes care of independent activities and organizational culture. The technology-related department in the entity requires to evolve quickly to enable the agency to grow to levels where Humphrey is no longer a threat. Every person working for New Horizons seems to have dissatisfactions that need resolution. Employees like Humphrey want an open organization where workers can blog freely to express their personal feelings and stands without conflicting with the agency’s philosophy. On the other hand, Jane wants an agency where she can operate autonomously without experiencing Jim’s control. Jim further wants a peaceful organization where everybody works freely without jeopardizing the agency’s position.
Understanding the needs of every party in New Horizons will inform the development of the correct intervention approach. The consultancy’s primary purpose is to ensure that every member of New Horizon is empowered to realize the best self or talent without adversely affecting the agency’s influence and authority to the public. Participatory action research thus remains the most suitable investigation methodology applicable in this case. The approach assumes a qualitative study technique but takes an active form, where the population involved in the case takes a direct role in the investigation. The researcher applies several initiatives while directly collecting data to test the interventions’ impact and success to deliver the targeted outcomes (Debbie et al., 2019). Action research’s format allows a researcher to utilize various strategies to know what works better and whether a combination of approaches can deliver superior results (Eden & Ackerman, 2018). A researcher applying action research goes through a series of planning, action, observation, and reflection cycles (Debbie et al., 2019). The methodology thus creates ample room for the investigator to generate striking results that can cause fundamental transformation.
Literature Review
Action Research Application
The action research tactic involves repeated altered interventions with the investigator collecting and evaluating information and feedback as the specific mediations take effect. There exist several forms of action research that consultants targeting to induce organizational transformation to a client’s system can adopt. The present work utilizes Kurt Lewin’s concept of action research as described by Eden and Ackerman (2018). Lewin’s approach involves three transformational phases; input, transformation, and output, also called unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. A consultant using this approach works with the client’s team through the various stages until authentic and holistic evolution is realized (Eden & Ackerman, 2018). The approach’s supporters maintain that the likelihood of accepting new ways increases with the direct involvement of the individuals in decisions leading to the changes (Debbie et al., 2019). The method’s outstanding capacity to cause a positive impact makes it necessary in the organizational change domain. The discussion below describes the various phases’ application in the New Horizon case.
The Unfreezing Stage
The unfreezing stage starts when an organization or society encounters a dis-conformation and becomes aware of the need for change. The step often presides the invitation of a consultant to help in the events leading to the anticipated transformation. During this input stage, the consultant worked together with the client to investigate all the underlying issues for documentation. Data supporting the existence of the problems was also retrieved to convince members of the need to transform (Stahl & King, 2019). Together with the client, the change agent then set practical actions plans, which they implement as a team.
The unfreezing stage mainly involves preliminary identification of all the client’s issues. Data concerning the identified events was gathered and initial feedback issued to the concerned parties. All the parties found to conflict or contribute directly or indirectly to the issues come together to develop a joint action plan with the facilitation of the change agent (Stahl & King, 2019). The phase helps the members of the client’s team to appreciate the existing problems and their need to participate in resolving the issues. The client team also learns the essence of the change agent at this stage and thus becomes welcoming and more open to diagnosing and resolving problems together (Stahl & King, 2019). Therefore, part of the unfreezing stage at the New Horizon involved rapport creation among all the parties involved in the problem resolution and organizational transformation process.
The input phase at the current setting aided in bringing Jim, Jane, Humphrey, and the entire New Horizons team together to determine the agency’s problems. The stage also assisted each party in realizing its role in the organization’s cumulative challenges. For example, the consultant led the agency’s top management to appreciate its fault in disregarding the place of social media as a communication channel when its employees cherished the matter. The input stage also helped the management team recognize the agency’s conservatism mistake and the failure to evolve with time. Jane further learned her mistake in using force to control people and issues. The stage also helped Jane acknowledge her mistake in operating the task force without involving the other stakeholders, such as Jim.
Moreover, Jane learned about the alternative human resources management that promotes responsible autonomy and personal development instead of dictatorship. Jim’s mistake of operating reactively on matters also came out during the unfreezing stage. Other employees exhibiting traits similar to those of Humphrey likewise learned about their mistakes lovingly. The appreciation of each party’s weakness, the impact on the organization, and the possibility of doing things better to promote organizational development will form a crucial starting point for the consultancy process.
The Action Phase
The action or transformation stage constitutes the second phase of the action research methodology. The stage mainly involves roles’ analysis and learning individual behaviors, coupled with planning and executing behavior change initiatives among the client team members. The consultant and the team members are involved in a deep feedback analysis during this stage. Alteration of initial plans occurs as the consultant, and the client’s team try different transformation initiatives to see what works better. The objective, however, remains to find superior change platforms that promote each party’s growth and team cohesion (Eden & Ackerman, 2018). Actions found to work during this phase form the center of the last stage as the organization, with the aid of the consultant, makes them (the beneficial actions) part of the organization to realize actual positive revolution.
The Refreezing Stage
Refreezing involves a fundamental change in the client team’s behavior and the appreciation of the set corrective actions. Progress data is also gathered by the consultant and the other team to celebrate changes and success (Debbie et al., 2019). Identifying a need for a major adjustment during this phase leads the team back to the first and second phases of the action research methodology. However, minor modifications are converted into learning activities that the team learns together, with feedback collected until the consultant, and the client’s team are satisfied (Debbie et al., 2019). During the last phase, Jane and Jim will be able to work together without each accusing the other of alienation to some distracting behaviors.
Solution Proposal
The consultant started the action plan by employing different versions of social media policies and watching their effects. The first form suggested a policy that bans the employees from blogging to give the director and appointed staff room to pass the agency’s message to the public. The task force in charge of the social media policy development, led by Jane, embraced the policy significantly. However, Jim and the specific employees operating blogging accounts shunned the suggestion, some holding that it infringes personal communication freedom. The first proposal’s failure led the team to try several other policy designs until the one that allows private bloggers to share blogs with the management before posting them on the agency’s social media handle realized superior results.
New Horizons woes are solvable by enacting appropriate communication policies that create room for organizational social media-based communication. Another critical policy required at the organization touches on the need to undertake continuous staff training and reviews on the developments involving new communication channels. A third policy requirement at New Horizons regards organizational leadership and culture. The top management needs to appreciate the junior staffs’ communication needs to embrace new opportunities and agency development. Jane and Jane are conservative, while employees such as Humphrey are dynamic. A policy allowing the two groups to work together is key for effective teamwork in the agency.
New Horizons is a highly influential agency that succeeds from its informed and knowledgeable workforce. However, the failure to adopt proactive communication strategies exposes the organization to considerable challenges. For example, the inability to enact an effective social media policy jeopardizes the agency’s voice on critical policy matters touching the subjects they endeavor to protect. Jim is the primary spokesperson for the agency and often holds meetings with media personalities to give the organization’s stand. However, the director’s communication authority seems challenged by the absence of an inclusive social media policy stating each member’s rights and responsibilities.
New Horizons Agency anticipates transforming into a social media platform for communication purposes. The change will see the agency own a social media handle or platform to give its official sentiments and stands on policy issues affecting autistic people to the online consumers. The public will be able to follow the sentiments online and learn from the agency. Such is what New Horizons Agency wants but faces substantial constraints currently. The delay in enacting the social media policy sees some of its employees use its name to blog and get a big following. The blogger often gives personal sentiments that contradict those of the agency. That is why adopting an inclusive social media policy stands to help the entity immensely.
Enacting a development-oriented social media policy is one of the best solutions for the New Horizons Agency. Jane was initially for the idea that New Horizons enforce a policy that bans the independent bloggers from expressing personal opinions when affiliated with the agency. However, the best approach towards this matter is to create a local environment where employees can wring internally accessible blogs, where only the agency members can view them, to inform its growth, as noted earlier. The transformation will convert the blogging efforts of Humphrey and the others into the agency-accepted and celebrated aspect, thus promoting their personal desire to express themselves (Green & Huntington, 2017). The organization will also manage to control its voice to the public without other conflicting opinions from within.
The enacted communication policy also allows Humphrey and his colleagues to maintain personal blogging accounts, which will now reinforce the agency’s voice. New Horizons stands to benefit more by having a website where its employees with blogging accounts can publish their blogs for solidarity purposes. Resolving the communication conflict effectively further promises to repair the disagreement between Jane and Jim, thus offering a lasting solution to the organization.
Plan B
Applying action research on New Horizons’ case provides an inclusive social media communication policy as the best solution to the current problem. The policy requires the agency to create a social media platform that allows private bloggers to post their content and have a following such as in regular personal blogging accounts. The policy promises to offer New Horizons the capacity to regulate what reaches the public from the agency and promote individual talents and communication freedom. However, the adopted approach is slippery and hard to implement with an uncooperative workforce. That is why the agency maintains a plan B option of banning all its employees from operating private blogging channels if conflicting interests continue to arise. The alternative option posits significantly hurting consequences, which the agency will not hesitate to overlook if some individuals become problematic to manage.
Conclusion
New Horizons Agency is conservative on social media and its impact or place in the contemporary organization. The organization plays a crucial role in the U.S. by informing subjects concerning autism on both educational and social grounds. Many people around the country, and even worldwide, esteem New Horizons because of the informed policy and parental guidelines it offers. The organization’s success, however, suffers one critical thing. Applying action research in the New Horizons case depicts the conservative organizational culture as the primary cause of the issues faced. The research method helps the entity adopt a progressive social media policy that allows workers to blog under the agency’s online platform with the information meeting the public first passing through some scrutiny.
References
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