Expressive Change: A Case Study and Mapping of Organizational Processes

This presentation explores expressive change through a case study and mapping of organizational processes. It covers challenges faced, reflections on the case study, and action thoughts for improving team dynamics and fulfilling the fundamental need for learning.

EXPRESSIVE CHANGE
Silent reflection and organisation
mapping

PROCESS
• In this case study, we teamed up as a group in order to learn
more about expressive change.
• We first decided to each individually conduct a research on
what expressive change was before scheduling our meetings.
• Our meetings were once every week and during the meeting
we were able to discuss what we learnt.
• We used an individual approach were each person was
allowed to air their views and feelings.
• We also conducted a research on the instrumental approach
so that we would have a better understanding of what
expressive change was.

• We recorded our processes in terms of minutes in every
meeting.
• Some of the results were in terms of the questions
answered, some in terms of questions and others in terms of
the strengths and weaknesses of the team.
• The results also included of ways that we can have
expressive change as opposed to using the instrumental
approach in our organisation.
• We also included the ways we can improve as a team in our
organisation.
• We submitted the results as findings

CASE STUDY
• In the case study provided, Jake Ward is given the
role of the team leader in his organisation
Divisional Plastics Inc.
• He is warned by the financial adviser that this
particular team is hard but he assumes it.
• He approaches the team just like he had
approached previous teams that he worked with.
• Jake was familiar with the team members and
also the previous leader who was Bill Butler

• Jake found the first meeting very difficult and
very stressful.
• After the first meeting he had to do reflect the
events that happened in the first staff meeting.
• He needed to evaluate ways in which he could
better the team that he had been put in charge
off.
• The meeting was very difficult and in his own
views nothing much was accomplished.

CHALLENGES
• Jake thought that handling the team would be easy
but he faced a number of challenges. These were:
• Communication problems
• Lack of unity
• The group had no motivation
• The group was not able to work together
• The group dynamics was poor
• The group did not feel a sense of community
• The group was not engaging

REFLECTION ON CASE STUDY
• After viewing the case study I believe that Jake has a lot of
work to do with this particular group.
• The group did not have any expressive change but rather used
the instrumental approach.
• I believe that the group did their work simply because they
were asked to and not because they had the passion to do it.
• From the study I have seen that this particular group does not
engage in activities for example when Jake Brought coffee.
• Their lack of engagement I believe reflects in their work output
which from the study is see it is not much.

REFLECTION
• I can attest that in this particular group, members have
conflict with each other.
• When one tries to speak the other interrupts and responds
angrily. Also they make mean faces at each other.
• I believe that this is the main issue that is causing them to
have poor output.
• I believe that the conflict is the cause of the group not
being able to work together.
• This is because with conflict then one cannot engage with
the other person.

• I also believe that Jake needs to engage with
the group members to create expressive
change.
• From the study the group members are simply
aware of what they need to do but they lack
motivation.
• By engaging, I believe Jack will be able to
motivate the team members, so that there
work output can be more efficient.

MAPPING ACCORDING TO THE CASE STUDY
• If Jake wants to make his group as effective as possible,
he needs to do the following things.
• First he needs to engage with the team members and
also encourage them to engage with each other as well.
• Engagement will allow the team members to be
motivated by learning what there roles are as well as
what they can do to improve.
• Second he needs to foster a sense of community. Most
of the group members feel like they do not belong and
therefore it affects their work

• Jake needs to promote learning among the group
members.
• When creating the budget plan it was evident that
many of the group members did not know what to do
with their templates. They need to be trained on such
tasks.
• Also, Jake needs to encourage the group members to
learn from each other.
• Most of the group members complained that they
were not able to share ideas in the group.

SILENT REFLECTION
• In my organisation, the fundamental need that I feel needs to be fulfilled is
learning.
• I feel that with adequate learning then we as employees in the company will be
able to know more and therefore want to use our gained knowledge in the office.
• I can say that many at times I am presented with tasks that I do not know how to
do.
• In this situations I am not taught what to do to create excellent work but rather, I
just do the task as long as I finish it.
• I believe that with learning I will be able to have an expressive approach towards
working.
• I will be curious to always learn more and will therefore gain more intelligence in
my area of work.
• With more intelligence, I will be able to increase my work output and be more
innovative and creative when doing tasks.

SILENT REFLECTION
• I believe that for me the fundamental need of learning is not
accomplished most of the time.
• For example during the planning sessions we use Microsoft excel at times
to create graphs on the growth we expect in the future.
• I personally do not know how to use the software and the team members
that knows does not teach us how to use it.
• At one time, the person got sick and we were not able to do any planning
sessions because the rest of us did not know how to use Microsoft excel.
• In this instance I believe that if I was taught how to use Excel then we
would have saved a lot of time instead of having to wait for the person to
get better.
• In this case, in the aspect of group dynamics I feel like the learning need
has not been fulfilled.

SILENT REFLECTION
• Generally I think most people in our team do not
believe that the fundamental needs are being met.
• Most of our team members responded that there
were no trainings about new tasks or the use of
new technology that the organisation had
purchased.
• This I found to be true because ever since I got into
the organisation I have never gone for training.

SILENT REFLECTION
• I think that my team manager answered that the learning fundamental need was
fulfilled.
• This is because personally, I believe the manager thinks that everyone is aware of
their tasks and roles in the organisation.
• This way everyone knows what they are supposed to do and therefore do not
need to be taught anything.
• I also think that the board members answered that learning is fulfilled.
• This is because from the statistics the company is doing fairly well and with this
they will assume that the staff are learning enough and are able to bring profits.
• I also believe that my fellow staff that were not part of my team answered that
learning is not fulfilled.
• This is because I have been able to interact with them and they have complained
that they do not know how to carry out most of the tasks.
• They are also not taught how to accomplish them once the tasks are assigned.

MAPPING ORGANISATION
• The core processes that make up the life of my organisation is
staff meetings, board meetings, client briefs, team meetings,
individual meetings, consultations and fundraising events.
• In the staff meetings, all the staff at Divisional Plastics Inc meet
weekly to discuss on office related issues. These include the
progress made and the plans that the organisation wants to
achieve.
• In the board meetings, all the board members plus the team
leaders meet to discuss the way forward for the company plus
the changes to be made.
• In the client briefs, we as staff meet with our clients to get a
description on what they want and how they want it.

MAPPING ORGANISATION
• In fundraising events, our teams goes out to charity events
to help the community around us in developments.
• The process that I feel the fundamental purpose of
learning is being achieved fully is in the individual
meetings.
• In this process our team leader engages with us on a
personal level and I feel that during these meetings I am
able to learn a lot.
• The team manager helps me in identifying my strengths
and my weaknesses.

MAPPING ORGANISATION
• The process that I feel the fundamental need of learning
is not being fulfilled is that of the team meetings.
• I feel like during the team meetings each individual is
doing their own thing.
• In this instance, we are not able to learn from each
other because there is no sharing of knowledge and
skills.
• The group also believes that the tasks that we do
together brings a lot of confusion due to the different
ideas and opinions.

MAPPING ORGANISATION
• I also feel like the learning process is hindered by the
communication during the team meetings.
• We do not know how to communicate with each other
and this encourages more people to work on their
own.
• This I have noticed does not motivate us to learn from
each other and therefore everyone keeps to
themselves.
• Without communication also we do not ask or inquire
areas where we need clarification.

ACTION THOUGHT
• I would make the learning more expressive than instrumental
by encouraging people to have the curiosity in knowing more.
• Also I will suggest that the organisation conduct more training
sessions for the staff members.
• The trainings I believe will allow one to have more
intelligence through the acquired knowledge on what to do.
This way one will be more creative and innovative when
carrying out tasks.
• I will also encourage team members to share more of their
thoughts, ideas and skills with other team members because
this is also a learning stage.

ACTION THOUGHT
• I would encourage my team members to have a sense
of community. I realized that most of my team
members preferred doing work alone.
• This is an instrumental approach and for it to have an
expressive approach we need to adopt good group
dynamics.
• With this dynamics we can be able to work together
efficiently and even accomplish tasks on time .
• Working together will allow for the team members to
engage and socialize with the other team members.

ACTION THOUGHT
• I will bring a more expressive quality to tasks like
evaluation by ensuring that each member is fully
aware of there roles and responsibilities.
• When we are evaluating a certain task to
determine what to do next it is important for
everyone to know what they bring to the table.
• When a person knows what they are
contributing, then they are able to have more
purpose on their day to day activities.

ACTION THOUGHT
• The aspect that I thought had strong expressive
quality was the individual meetings between the
team manager and the persons in the team.
• To increase the expressive quality of these
aspect I will encourage the team manager to
engage more with the team members.
• This is done by learning their strengths and
weaknesses as well as learning what they want
and prefer.

ACTION THOUGHT
• I will also bring a more expressive quality to governance by ensuring
that the person in charge has a personal relationship with the staff.
• When the leader does not have a personal relationship with the
staff, then they are using the instrumental approach, and here they
will just assign tasks and duties to people because it is their jobs.
• However on the other hand if they are having a personal
relationship, then they will have to care for the person.
• This way, they will be motivated to not only assign tasks, but also to
provide guidelines on how the tasks can be accomplished.
• This will cause an expressive change because the governance will be
engaging more with the staff rather than just using them as tools for
completing tasks.

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