Progress in Career

Picked up some useful tips pertaining to career advancement at FCBC youth service today.

Three good attitudes to adopt at the workplace

1. Hard work

2. Honesty

3. Honour your boss


Two negative attitudes to avoid at the workplace

1. Being a slogger

2. Being a slugger


The three correct attitudes struck a chord in me, which I felt were extremely relevant in my current job. Could relate to the first attitude as it was part of my secondary school motto 'Nil Sine Labore', or 'Nothing without hard work'. One way to practise the second attitude is to ask a close colleague at work how do they find your work performance. The third attitude needs no introduction, and I feel that we should always relate to our superiors with a positive attitude, irregardless of the situation we are in. Will try to practise these good attitudes at work this coming week.

Organizational Management

Went down to the National Library today after my IPPT to look for a book on organizational management entitled 'Reframing Organizations'. Quite interested in management studies, and felt that this book would be relevant, since I'm now working in an SME.

According to the authors, Deal and Bolman, all organizations can be viewed from four perspectives, or 'frames', which are as follows:

1. Structural frame

2. Human Resource frame

3. Political frame

4. Symbolic frame

The structural frame emphasizes goals, specialized roles, and formal relationships. When viewed from this frame, organizations allocate responsibilities to participants ("division of labour") and create rules, policies, procedures and hierarchies to coordinate diverse activities.

The human resource frame sees an organization much like an extended family, inhabited by individuals who have needs, feelings, prejudices, skills and limitations. When viewed from this frame, the key challenge is to tailor organizations to people - to find a way for individuals to get the job done while feeling good about what they are doing.

The political frame sees organizations as arenas, contests or jungles. Different interests compete for power and scarce resources. Conflict is rampant because of enduring differences in needs, perspectives and lifestyles among various individuals and groups.

The symbolic frame treats organizations as tribes, theatres or carnivals. When viewed from this frame, organizations are seen as cultures, propelled more by rituals, ceremonies, stories, heroes and myths rather than by rules, policies and managerial authority.

Just as organizations can be viewed from these four frames, so leaders can have predominantly structural, human resource, political or symbolic leadership styles. Multiframe thinking requires movement beyond narrow and mechanical thinking. According to the authors, modern organizations rely too much on engineering and too little on art in their search for attributes such as quality, commitment and creativity. Art is not a replacement for engineering but an enhancement. The leader as artist relies on images as well as memos, poetry as well as policy, reflection as well as command, and reframing as well as refitting.

I feel that leadership has both an art and a science to it, and effective leaders are those who are able to strike a balance between a rational-technical approach that emphasizes certainty and control, and a more expressive, artistic conception that encourages flexibility, creativity and interpretation.

Hope to have the opportunity to read more of this book besides the introduction, and also another new book by the same authors entitled 'The wizard and the warrior'.