MSE 608BOL Management of Engineering Professionals

1. MSE 608BOL Management of Engineering Professionals Midterm 1 • Developing Self-Awareness • Gaining Power and Influence • Case study on ‘Managing Personal Stress’ Professor: Dr. Mark Rajai Prepared by: Rijul Dhruv

2. Developing Self-Awareness Prepared by: Rijul Dhruv

3. OVERVIEW • Key dimensions of Self-awareness • The Enigma of Self awareness • Understanding and appreciating Individual Differences • Important areas of Self Awareness • Summary

4. Key Dimensions of Self-Awareness • Publilius Syrus had proposed as early as 42 B.C.: “It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.” • Self-awareness lies at the heart of the ability to master oneself, but it is not sufficient. • Self-Awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. • Knowledge of oneself – self-awareness, self-insight, self-understanding – allows you to understand other people, how they perceive you, your attitude and your responses to them in the moment.

5. Key Dimensions of Self-Awareness Symptom Tactical Problem Strategic A Hierarchy of Personal Life-Management Skills

6. Sensitive line • Sensitive line comes at a point where individuals tend to be more defensive or protective when encountered with information about them. • Sensitive line is crossed when something goes against your own self-image that we hold. • Crossing the sensitive line makes us feel uncomfortable and rigid – psychologically and emotionally. • Self-disclosure is a very powerful tool that contributes to greater self-awareness without crossing the sensitive line.

7. Understanding and appreciating Individual Differences • Diversity is the key to success. • Differences among individuals must be perceived as a pool conflicting ideas that are passionate, innovative, focused and responsible for a great invention in the future. • Creating distinctions rather than focusing on differences bolster social barriers and restrain self-disclosure.

8. Important areas of Self-Awareness Five critical areas of self-awareness: • Emotional intelligence • Personal values • Learning Style • Orientation toward change • Core self-evaluation • These areas have been found to be among the most important predictors of various aspects of effective managerial performance.

9. Emotional Intelligence • It is the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage your emotions in positive and constructive ways. • I believe there are 5 skill sets: • The ability to quickly reduce stress • The ability to recognize and manage your emotions • The ability to connect with others using nonverbal communication • The ability to use humor and play to deal with challenges • The ability to resolve conflicts positively and with confidence • It is an array of non-cognitive skills.

10. Emotional Intelligence • A person with strong emotional intelligence is able to get in touch with and accurately diagnose their own internal feelings. • In corporate world, managers with high EQ are twice more likely to generate higher revenues or get promoted than those with low self-awareness or EQ. • Emotional intelligence evolves as a strong predictive power in managerial success and in work setting – much stronger than IQ scores.

11. Values • Values are the most enduring characteristics of individuals upon which attitudes and personal preferences are formed. • Cultural Values: • Trompenaars’ 7 major cultural value dimensions are coined to identify differences among national cultures.

12. Personal Values • Personal values are implicitly related to choice; they guide decisions by allowing for an individual's choices to be compared to each choice's associated values. Rokeach - Two Types of Personal Values: • Terminal • Comfortable life • Exciting life • World at peace • World of beauty • Equality • Family security • Others • Instrumental • Ambitious • Capable • Cheerful • Clean • Courageous • Forgiving • Others

13. Values Maturity Kohlberg – Value Maturity Model: • Three levels of maturity with six stages of development • Self-centered level – (1) obedience and punishment, (2) naively egoistic orientations • Conformity level – (3) good person, (4) “doing duty” orientations • Principled level – (5) contractual legalistic, (6) conscience of principle orientation

14. Learning Style • Learning Style is an individual’s inclination to perceive, interpret and respond to information in a certain way. • Two key dimensions include: • manner in which you gather information • way in which you evaluate and act on information • David Kolb's theory on learning style: • Concrete experience– learn through personal involvement • Abstract conceptualization – build theories using logic, ideas and concepts • Reflective observation – seek meaning through study • Active experimentation – change situations and influence others to see what happens

15. Scoring for LSI ConcreteExperience Accommodating Diverging Active Experimentation Reflective Observation Assimilating Converging Abstract Conceptualization

16. Attitudes toward change • Awareness about our orientation toward change is necessary in order to capitalize fully on the strengths of our learning style. • Two dimensions of change orientation are termed particularly relevant for managers. Tolerance of ambiguity: • The extent to which individuals are threatened by or have difficulty coping with ambiguity, uncertainty, unpredictability or complexity.

17. Tolerance of ambiguity dimensions • Novelty score: coping with new, unfamiliar situations • Complexity:using multiple, distinctive, or unrelated info • Insolubility:dealing with problems that are difficult to solve

18. Locus of Control • The attitude people develop regarding the extent to which they are in control of their own destiny. • Internal locus of control: Individuals interpret the reinforcement they receive to be contingent upon their actions • External locus of control:Individuals interpret the reinforcement as being a product of outside forces

19. Locus of Control • Individuals possessing internal locus of control are more likely to • Be attentive to aspects of the environment that provide useful information for the future • Engage in actions to improve their environment • Place greater emphasis on striving for achievement • Be more inclined to develop their own skills • Ask more questions • Remember more information than people with an external locus of control • External locus of control is often associated with high levels of stress and violence, presumably due to less emphasis on self-control.

20. Core Self-Evaluation • Core self-evaluation represents a stable personality trait which encompasses an individual’s subconscious, fundamental evaluations about themselves, their own abilities and their own control. • Big five Attributes: • Extroversion: inclination towards gregariousness and being outward • Agreeableness: friendly and affable • Conscientiousness: careful, task oriented, and orderly • Neuroticism: emotionally fragile, negative, and fearful • Openness: curious and open to new ideas

21. Core Self-Evaluation • Four prominent components include: • Self esteem • Generalized self-efficacy • Neuroticism • Locus of control

22. Summary • Self-Awareness training programs should be encouraged in order to boost morale within every organization. • Relate what we see in others to our own experience to be able to manage or interact successfully with them. • Identify your personal sensitive line. • Recognize the cultural differences between your value orientation and individuals from other age, ethnicity, or cultures. • Broaden your perspective to welcome different kinds of activities and increase your exposure to new information. • Balance work activities with some time for self-renewal.

23. Gaining Power and Influence Powered By:-Rijul Dhruv

24. AGENDA • Building A Power Base • A Balanced View of Power • Strategies for Gaining Organizational Power • Transforming Power Into Influence • Conclusion

25. Building a Power Base “The art of leadership... consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a single adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention.” By Adolf Hitler Meaning Of Power • Power is the capacity of person, team or organization to influence others. • The most effective use of power is the most critical constituent of management.

26. PoliticalCompetence • An out-in-the-box process of methodically mapping the political terrain, building coalitions, and leading defines political competence.

27. A Balanced View of Power • Effective use of power is the most crucial element of management. • Influential leaders around the globe play a significant role in making others feel powerful by their own accomplishments in their organizations or institutions. Lack of Power: • Power is associated with domination, manipulation, cunningness or ruthlessness. • Powerlessness creates ineffective, desultory management, dictatorial, rules-minded managerial styles. • These negative views are often affiliated with ‘personal power’.

28. Abuse of Power • “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” by Edmund Burke, a British philosopher. • Abusive characteristics in managers result into dangerous consequences in their careers. • Lack of ethical values • Abrasive and intimidating • Arrogant, aloof and cold • Overly ambitious • Corrupt and untrustworthy • Both lack and abuse of power are equally weakening and destructive.

29. Strategies for Gaining Organizational Power • It is key to learn how to use power wisely using different strategies. • Having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right.

30. Sources Of Personnel Power • Expertise:Self learning, formal education and experience from work knowledge • Personal attraction: • Charisma • Agreeable behavior • Physical characteristics • Effort:Individuals are reliable and dependable • Legitimacy:Increase in acceptance within the organization

31. USING POWER WISELY • Acquiring Power can be tough but Balancing it is the toughest. • Personal attributes and position characteristics determine a person’s power in an organization. Networking: • Network across departments builds strong social ties & provides additional support. • More the decision making a position offers, more is the power. • Involvement in problem solving opportunities. • Involvement with activities directly related to goals of organization automatically commands power.

32. Sources of Position-Power • Four important factors that defines a position’s power potential in an organization: • Centrality:The more centralized in position and the more critical in function, the more of organizational power they gain. • Flexibility: • Flexibility or discretion is the freedom to exercise one’s judgment • Power can be diminish because conditions change faster than people are willing or capable of change to keep up with it • Flexibility is also associated with the lifecycle of a position • New tasks are much harder to standardize

33. Sources of Position-Power • Visibility:Try to increase your visibility; expose your name every chance you find. Make your presence count. • Relevance: • Being engaged in activities that are directly related to the major goals and issues in an organization. • These days base on the companies nature and the focus of the business these positions may differ. • As in a developed consumer product oriented economy, sales and marketing represent the central focus of most business.

34. Gaining Influence: • Transforming Power Into Influence • The skill of transforming power into influence centers on achieving the support of others in ways that stimulates commitment instead of resentment and resistance. • Power is transferred to influence when the goal individual allows to perform base on the desire of the power holder.

35. Influence Strategies: The 3 R’s Three important strategy categories: • Retribution: Through intimidation (pressure) or coercion (threaten) • Reciprocity: Through ingratiation (obligate) or bargain (exchange) • Reason: A direct approach in persuading the use of facts or needs to support one’s viewpoint

36. Pros and Cons of the 3 R’s

37. Ways of Using Power • Expert power: • Act confident and decisive • Keep informed • Willing to share your knowledge with others • Don’t threaten subordinates’ self-esteem – be approachable • Referent power: • Treat subordinates fairly • Defend subordinates interests • Be sensitive to subordinates’ needs & feelings

38. Ways of Using Power • Legitimate power: • Be cordial, polite, and confident • Make appropriate requests • Follow proper channels • Exercise power regularly and enforce compliance • Reward power • Verify compliance and accomplishments • Offer rewards for desired actions and behaviors • Offer credible rewards that are desired by subordinates • Coercive power • Inform subordinates of rules and penalties • Understand the situation before acting & warn before punishing • Administer punishment consistently & punish in private

39. Neutralize Inappropriate Influence • It is as important to be able to control and resist the unwanted influence of others as to be able to influence them. • In real world you need to be strong and explicit to develop and master the skill of opposing inappropriate efforts to control your behavior.

40. Summary • Two skills discussed focusses on gaining power and translating power into influence. • Skillful use of power for constructive growth of the organization. • Consequences are destructive if power is used solely for personal gain. • Increase centrality of your position, flexibility of your job and visibility of your job performance. • Continuous implementation of the three R’s strategy and its neutralization to avoid unwanted influence from others.

41. CASE STUDY PAGE 116 - MANAGING PERSONAL STRESS • Powered By:-Rijul Dhruv

42. Violation of Time and Stress Management Principles: • Ineffective and inefficient use of time. • Chet lost track of time because he is always overscheduled. • No specific set agenda or time limits to accomplish tasks. • Work piling – Tasks were not prioritized and issues were handled as they came along. • Wishful thinking – Undetermined long term goals and objectives. • Lack of organizational skills in dealing with the project as a whole rather than dividing and working in parts.

43. Organizational problems reflected in this case study: • Chet must inform the VP and General Manager of day-to-day operations about the Central Plant in order for them to be answerable to the departments they are in line with. • VP and the GM must be responsible for internal employee problems, discussing delivery issues with the secretary at the treasurer’s office and answering to VP sales’ questions. • Chet must have at least one administrative assistant to keep track of his daily logs.

44. Chet’s personal characteristics inhibiting his effective time management: • Chet spends most of his day on trivial issues rather than the important ones. • He gets the job done no matter what but for long-term and preventing future mistakes he needs to set a balance between his daily schedule, family, weekend and personal life. • Seemed more like a pushover and needs to learn to say ‘NO’ to other people’s request. • Needs to balance his work with proper hygiene by taking rest and having regular lunches.

45. If hired as a consultant to Chet, I would advise him to: • Firstly, review the organization chart and job responsibilities of top management; eliminating redundancy by finishing incomplete tasks. • Set-up a schedule for him to comply in order to seek help incase of any undone tasks remaining at the end of the day • Outline clear and specific goals and objectives and execute open door policies. • An established information system by the company in order to save time and money on operations. • Creation of an advanced database system for production.

46. Thank You MSE 608BOL California State University - Northridge Professor: Dr. Mark Rajai Prepared by: Rijul Dhruv