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please see the attached file.

A shrewd, second century Chinese writer, Sun Tzu observed in his book that it was important to understand the motivation of neighboring rulers before entering into an alliance. He also knew that it was equally important to understand the terrain of a country before leading an army through it (Giles, 1910).

Managers who must use power and politics to coordinate and support the work of organizational members and to meet organizational objectives can use this same principle to good effect. Power and politics are usually adopted when there is a conflict over the best structure to adopt, best use of available resources, and the like. The potential for conflict rises when various types of personalities work together in an organization, as they often do.

According to McShane and Von Glinow, power is defined as the capacity of a person, team or organization to move others (McShane & Von Glinow, 2006). A leader who effectively uses power can dramatically affect his or her organization's environment. Peter Drucker summarizes the efficient use of power in the following eight practices.

o Identify what needs to be done?
o What is right for the enterprise?
o Develop and implement an action plan.
o Take responsibility for decisions.
o Take responsibility for communicating.
o Focus on opportunities
o Run productive meetings
o Think and Say "We" (Drucker, 2004)

All organizations face challenges especially in times of changes. Ultimately, the leadership skills and practices of executives can contribute to the success or failure of the company. An organization whose leaders effectively use power will run smoother and more productively. In the simulation, Good Sport represents an organization where the leaders display an exemplary model for the correct use of power through changing times and circumstances.

a. Briefly describe Good Sport. What organizational structure is in place at the organization? What type of culture exists? In what ways are the structure and the culture related? Are the two compatible? Explain your answer.

Good Sport, based in Coral Springs, Florida, manufactures fitness equipment such as treadmills, bikes, steppers, and rowers. Ex-basketball star, Jason Poole, founded the company fifteen years ago and is now the Chairman of the Board. Marvin Wallace, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), has driven the company forward in the last four years, with investments in improving the performance of the sales, production, and the research and development (R & D) teams. Marvin championed the use of fitness equipment in hospitals. This has brought good results for the organization, and the company is now expanding to the neighboring states?Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The organization also sells its products to clubs, hotels, and residential houses.

Good Sport's culture is primarily about contributing to society through promoting the benefits of fitness while working hard to drive the group's financial success and maintaining group diversity. A strong corporate culture can be an asset to a company's bottom line and Good Sport has been and is phenomenally profitable because it has a strong company culture. However, a strong culture may also undermine constructive conflict and suppress dissenting sub-cultural values that should rightfully become dominant values as the environment changes. Good Sport's strong company culture can become an issue at sometime in the future and stand in the way of company growth. The company's strong culture of commitment to the betterment of society can clash with profit seeking for example, and this conflict can cause ethical dilemmas for some employees. Such ethical dilemmas can lead to job withdrawal for these employees causing them to disassociate themselves from their work and finally to separate themselves from the company (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005).
Good Sport has very capable and even transformational leaders with a wide array of leadership skills such as emotional intelligence, integrity, drive, leadership motivation, self-confidence and extensive knowledge of the fitness and sports business. The management team at Good Sport appears to astutely perceive and regulate each other's emotional reactions to various proposed changes at the company. The management team also appears to have self-confidence in their leadership skills and ability to achieve organizational goals in relation to the proposed changes. McShane& Von Glinow, 2005).

An organization's culture has the potential to affect ethical conduct. It can also guide the conduct of its employees by entrenching ethical values in its dominant culture (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005). Good Sport appears to have entrenched an open and above board way of dealing with internal issues into its culture. All issues are openly discussed and there are no barriers such as secrecy to open and hones communication.

Organizational culture can also cause ethical problems when it exerts excessive control over employees. Although it is important that employees make decisions that are compatible with organizational objectives, and this alignment improves employee morale, loyalty, and longevity, some organizations tend to take over employee lives and deprive a person of individualism (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005). At Good Sport the organizations seems to recognize its employees' personal boundaries. Employees do not seem pressured to conform to strict company rules and are not asked to take work home which would intrude into their personal lives. Employees at Good Sport seem free to work and communicate in their own personal style and be allowed room for creativity and personal expression.

There are ways other than artifacts (the observable symbols and signs of an organization's culture) for further strengthening organizational culture. Five common approaches are the actions of founders and leaders, introducing culturally consistent rewards, maintaining a stable workforce, managing the cultural network, and selecting and socializing new employees (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005).

Good Sport continues to strengthen its culture through the actions of its leaders (they are open, honest, hard working and well respected by employees), using culturally consistent rewards (implementing enthusiastically offered employee initiatives) and managing their cultural network (honoring and respecting everyone's communication styles).

Good Sport's informal, diversified leadership styles combined with its management team's leadership competencies are compatible with the company's strategic goals as they are now, but the company must guard against too much culture entrenchment and remain flexible so it can make the necessary changes whenever the fast changing sports and fitness industry calls for them.

b. Briefly describe the power structures and politics that you see in Good Sport. To what extent are these the result of the organizational structure and culture? To what extent do they determine the culture? As you navigated through the various power structures at Good Sport, what decisions do you feel could have been made that stemmed beyond the options given to you within the simulation?

Kreitner and Kinicki maintain that team effectiveness depends on two key factors: performance (how well the team fulfills the needs of its internal and external customers) and viability (how satisfied team members are to be part of the team and whether they continue to willingly contribute to it). Maximum team effectiveness requires a balance between these two factors. Additionally Kreitner and Kinicki identify some twelve characteristics of effective teams. When measured against these, Good Sport's management team is strong in all of the twelve characteristics (Kreitner &Kinicki, 2003). For example Good Sport's management team is able to come to a consensus decision about selling a new product although each group such as the Sales and Production teams have to be convinced separately using different persuasion techniques. This is because Good Sport promotes diversity among its management team members and allows each team leader to infuse his or her department and its members with his or her personality and style of communication. In this instance the culture determines the power structure for Good Sport.

Personalities of some leaders in the company's history however have been known to affect company culture. The simulation exemplified one CEO that had used his power to command and control the flow of knowledge to increase his own personal power and had thus demoralized the company.

The simulation showed that a manager has to use various political tactics to increase power within the organization. Each manager must determine which tactics to use based on the interdependency of various departments, hierarchy within the organization, and the personal equations between employees. At the middle management level, for example, the choices for presenting a new product to the Production and Sales departments had to be done with an eye toward preserving inter-group morale as well as achieving organizational objectives. To select the appropriate tactic, the manger needed a good understanding of the personalities involved and the culture of each department. Soft tactics such as using a person's preferred method of communication helped the manger to achieve that goal better than hard tactics like appealing to the authority of others higher in the chain of command.

As the Vice President of Production, the manger had to win the trust and acceptance of peers, subordinates, and the company CEO. Each level in the power structure required different treatment depending on the personality and context involved and the manager in this case also had to ensure that employee morale was maintained.

As the CEO, the manager decided to distribute power across the organization. Power distribution is a model usually practiced by very enlightened organizations, as Good Sport appears to be on all levels, and requires that the manger take on a great deal of responsibility. This requires a good understanding of the requirements of the respective hierarchy and maturity from the personalities involved.

c. In today's environment, change is a constant issue for organizations. Given the organizational structure, culture, power structures, and politics that you have identified at Good Sport, what specific strategies would you develop to manage resistance to change?

Resistance to innovative change is an unavoidable part of the change process and as such it is important fro change leaders to both understand and overcome this resistance (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004).

The change process entails learning new organizational practices, as well as stopping existing attitudes, behaviors, or organizational practices; change will not happen unless the members of an organization are motivated to change and this can be the most challenging element of the change process (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004). Resistance to change will happen even when the change has goals that are highly desirable; successful change entails reinforcing new attitudes, behaviors, and organizational practices (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004). For example JP Morgan Chase's GIS division and the leadership team achieved successful change through designing a change strategy with a realistic time frame and measurable results that invested enough organizational resources to fully educate employees as to the benefits of the change both individually and organizationally and also their specific roles in achieving change goals. Because the employees were able to fully participate in the change process from design to execution, their buy-in was assured and resistance did not become a problem. The GIs change process helped the company to develop an ongoing change habit which built on past success to solve the problems of the future (Worley & Vick, 2006).

As part of the simulation the manger introduces change in the form of a new product that represents somewhat of a departure from Good Sport's normal line of merchandise. In the scenario the manger uses knowledge of other managers' preferred personal communication methods to convey various benefits of the product to the sales and production departments and motivates these departments through offering them input into its selling and creation processes. The members of the sales and production department feel empowered as a result of being offered these inputs and accept the changes represented by the new product without further resistance.

One good tool for handling resistance to change is to have a list of ten of the leading reasons for resistance to change in people handy as well as prepared answers and tactics to combat the various forms of resistance.

1. An individual's predisposition toward change - Attempt to hire individuals that have positive predispositions. This can be done through attitude tests or rigorous standardized interviews.
2. Surprise and fear of the unknown. Put positive rumors in the grapevine which will fill any voids created in official announcements as well as keeping all relevant parties adequately informed.
3. Climate of mistrust. To build mutual trust with employees make the change process an open, honest, and participative endeavor.
4. Fear of failure. Make self-esteem building activities a part of an ongoing educational program that constantly fosters positive and up-to-the-times culture change.
5. Loss of status or job security. This is another problem that can be overcome through developing and deploying an integrated communications plan that takes into account all stakeholder needs.
6. Peer pressure. Employ open communication to reassure employees know that they and their coworkers are not under thereat.
7. Disruption of cultural traditions or group relationships. Encourage interdepartmental interaction as a positive activity for the company.
8. Personality conflicts. Deal with these head-on. Sit the individuals down with a moderator and have them speak frankly about the conflict until they can agree to disagree and then pledge that they will leave the conflict behind them when they leave the room.

9. Lack of tact or poor timing. Effectively explain
or "sell" the value of proposed changes, fully explaining how a proposed change is strategically important to the company's success.

10. Non-reinforcing reward systems. Have rewards that reinforce the desired behavior (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004).

Other approaches to consider in overcoming resistance to change:
1. Assess how ready the organization is for change through evaluating employees and management in areas like culture and values, past changes, personal readiness for change and presence and level of resistance.
2. Prepare and execute an integrated communications campaign about the redesign that addresses the needs of both internal and external stakeholders.
3. Design and execute an education and training program to build skills and knowledge centered on the redesign.
4. Make certain there is visible and active support for the redesign by the organization's leaders.
5. Design and implement relevant Incentive and reward programs these can range from small incentive programs to compensation changes that reward the appropriate behaviors for the success of the redesign.
6. Enable employees to share their thoughts and feelings about the redesign candidly.
7. Direct supervisor coaching should be available to help individual employees through the learning curve and emotional adjustment period of the redesign.
8. Have a toolkit for compassionately yet systematically manage resistance.
9. Consider involving employees in the plan of the redesign (Hiatt et al, 2006).

d. If Good Sport was going to implement a major change initiative, what leadership style would be most effective in ensuring the success of the change? Why would this style be more effective than other styles? What strategies would you develop to manage the different groups? What conflict management methods would you recommend to enhance performance?

Leadership is defined as the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members. Seven competencies of effective leaders have been identified as emotional intelligence, integrity, drive, leadership motivation, self-confidence, intelligence, and knowledge of the business.
1. Emotional Intelligence relates to a leader's ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in themselves and others.
2. Integrity is also known as "authentic leadership" because it relates to an individual acting sincerely and truthfully.
3. Drive is an individual's motivation to pursue goals.
4. Leadership motivation relates to leaders' interest in gaining socialized power as a means of influencing others to reach goals that benefit the organization.
5. Self-confidence is leaders' belief that they are capable of leading others.
6. Intelligence refers to the superior ability to process enormous amounts of information.
7. Knowledge of the business means that leaders have an understanding of the environment in which they operate and understand the organization's capabilities (McShane & Von Glinow, 2004).

Redesigning an organization or even one of its processes requires the development of specialized new management competencies suited to effective change leadership. These new management competencies are essential even in the day to day operations of today's workplace. These skills include avoiding the loss of valuable human capital, minimizing drops in productivity, preventing negative experiences for customers and making it possible for the organization to implement a plan on schedule and on budget (Hiatt et al, 2006).

To manage change successfully however, all these competencies must be put into the service of a transformational leader. Transformational leaders seek to change their organization's approach and culture so that it fits in better with its surrounding environment. Transformational leaders are change agents who inspire and direct employees to broaden and elevate their interests and awareness and accept the purposes and mission of the group. These leaders stir employees to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the group (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005).

Apple founder Steve Jobs, who is known for his motivationally moving speeches and for using his leadership power effectively is a great example of a transformational leader. As an innovator and leader Jobs easily persuades and accepts responsibility for delivering the message. He uses impression management techniques to charismatically lead and influence. This is a more effective use of power than deceit as in the case of Enron, where the leaders used a command and control style to stifle the flow of information and to concentrate power in their hands alone. By contrast employees at Apple are able to identify with their leader "through the leader's projection of shared identity, history and values and ensure followers' active involvement in the organization. The leader's performance needs to be congruent with followers' interpretations of their own empirical, experiential and cultural experience. (Harvey, 2001)"

If Good Sport were to implement major organizational change, it would need leaders with exemplary experience and knowledge who can leave their imprint on the organization by sharing and utilizing these skills. This will build relationships throughout various levels of the organization, and encourage teamwork through understanding. Initiating a mentoring program is a specific method of providing such an imprint. Mentoring can provide more visible and meaningful work opportunities and opens doors for protégés to meet more senior people. Mentoring also teaches newcomers influence tactics supported by the senior organization. (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005).

Conclusion

Organizational politics can affect companies negatively in many ways. One is that employees who think their organization is overly involved in organizational politics have lower job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship, as well as high levels of work-related stress which increases employee negligence in the form of diminishing work effort, less attention to quality, and a rise in absenteeism and lateness (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005).

Since leaders spend a large portion of their time dealing with these negative effects, organizational politics can be said to be the reason for decision-making delays (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005).

Scarcity of organizational resources brought about by organizational changes can cause organizational politics to flourish, since those who have power in an organization are usually in charge of allocating resources. Under these circumstances organizational politics can grow to the point where better politicians are promoted over those with real competence and this has the potential of eventually crippling an organization (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005).