Leading Organizational Change and Personal Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy - HR Paper Example

1. Personal self-esteem and self-efficacy

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Self-esteem is a stable and enduring personal state of a person and is affected by a variety of own beliefs about oneself such as the physical appearance, behaviors, and emotions (Healey, 2002). On the other hand, self-efficacy is the individuals behavior in his or her ability to execute behaviors that are crucial in the attainment of specific performance (Bandura 1997). Self-efficacy is important as it shows one's confidence in the control of his or her own behavior, motivation and social environment one is in.

Since I grew away from my parents, the attribute of self-esteem and self-efficacy were very important for my survival. I used to go to school barefooted and with tattered clothes and often hungry. Those who were surrounding me were well as compared to me and this made me feel ashamed of myself, hate my own self, my society and the world that had put me in the situation I was. This situation was not going to be my state forever, I began to talk to myself deeply and that when I realized the set of values that had led my life to my current state. I always convinced myself to accept my situation and subsequently work harder to overcome the obstacles that hindered me from achieving my goals.

This initiative bore fruits when I scored highly in my self-esteem test that I took at the start of the class. I came to realize that self-esteem is very important to lead a healthy life and without a solid sense of myself, I could not have taken the steps to live a fulfilling and productive life. In the leadership aspect, I strongly believe that I should lead myself first before leading others according to the organizational behavior course book that states that what nurtures and sustains a persons self-esteem in adults is not how one is dealt with by others but how one deals with himself in the face of the challenges of life through the choices one makes and the actions he or she takes (Kreitner et al., 2013)

On my self-efficacy, I believe in my ability to handle challenges and accomplish my goals. I strongly believe that whatever I tune my mind to is attainable. This confidence of mine came from a book I read in my childhood about a great Ethiopian scholar and a composer of church music. The scholar could compete with other children and they could laugh and make fun of him. On the realization that he couldnt be successful in school, Yared left school and went to a town that his uncle used to stay. On his way, he was forced to seek shelter under a tree due to the heavy rain that was pouring and this is where his life changed. As he was leaning on the tree thinking of his poor performance in school and his failure to compete with his peers, he saw an ant that was carrying a heavy load trying to climb the tree six times without making but on its last trial, it climbed and offloaded its food at its destination. Yared was moved by the level of determination of the ant to accomplish such a great thing whereas he lacked the patience to succeed in his school work. He cried but got a lesson from the ant that became his source of inspiration to go back to school.

In times when I feel weak, I refuse to doubt myself and remind myself of Yareds story with the ant because role models can inspire us to build our self-efficacy (Kreitner et al., 2013). In this course, I have learned the importance of self- efficacy and how it correlates with job performance positively. Therefore, in the instance of being a leader, I am determined to use the techniques I have learned to boost the level of self-efficacy in the organization.

2. Building trust

Trust is the condition of reliance on the integrity, ability or character of a person or something (Vonnegut, 2012). Trust is very important in every organization, especially to the leaders. Leading a team that has no trust on one another is a very hard task. In the instance I am a leader of an organization, I can help my team develop trust by leading them by example. This means that I trust them so that they can trust me as well as trust their fellow teammates. Another way I can help build trust in an organization I lead is by talking openly. This can be made possible by encouraging all the employees to talk to one another in an honest and meaningful manner. This can be accomplished by creating a team charter where everyone has his or her role and also organizing team building exercises.

3. Leading organizational change

Organizational change is a very important strategy in ensuring that an organization remains relevant in the always changing business environment (Englund et al., 2003). Organizational change comes in three types namely the developmental, transitional and the transformational change. They involve the improvement, moving from and old to a new state and the fundamental changes in strategy respectively. Transformational change is the hardest of all types of changes because it involves the employees changing the aspects what they are and also leaders changing their own identity and mindset. This is because many people including organizational leaders have little or no willingness to change from whom they are and adopt other ways. In an instance am an organizational leader I would instill the sense of change gradually so that there can be little or no resistance from my employees towards the change.

References

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control.

Englund, R. L., Graham, R. J., & Dinsmore, P. C. (2003). Creating the project office: A manager's guide to leading organizational change. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.

Getting from good to great: a conversation with Jim Collins William C. Finnie, Stanley C. Abraham Strategy & Leadership 2002

Healey, J. (2002). Self esteem. Rozelle, N.S.W: Spinney Press.

Vonnegut, N. (2012). The trust. New York: Minotaur Books.