leadership skills in Toxic environment

Toxic Behavior and Leadership Skills
One of the toxic behaviors that I expect to face when collecting data for my dissertation is role differences, where employees feel like it is the duty of management and not their duty to increase organizational effectiveness. This text analyzes how this issue can be resolved using Scharmer’s Theory U of Leading from the Future. The second part of the paper identifies a conflict theory from ‘Quantum Leadership: Creating Sustainable Value in Healthcare’ that I could use to guide my leadership endeavors.
Role differences can be a source of toxicity, especially when employees at the lower levels of the organization are unwilling to cooperate because they believe that it is not in their place to contribute to organizational decision-making. This is a common occurrence if the organizational culture does not promote inclusive decision-making and employees are continually taken as passive implementers rather than active participants in the decision-making process. Scharmer’s Theory U suggests that an individual could either learn from the future or the past (Gibbs, 2013). Scharmer advocates for individuals to learn from the future, a concept known as presencing, because this allows them to be co-shapers of destiny rather than victims of their past. Presencing involves letting go of the old beliefs, assumptions, as well as attitudes, and envisioning things from the sphere of the future rather than our ego. Presencing is a combination of two concepts: sensing and presence (Gibbs, 2013). The theory holds that when an individual moves into presencing, they make a shift from where their perception had previously been operating and change their blind spot, which is the place from which their attention and intentions originate (Gibbs, 2013). Only then are they able to see what future possibilities may arise.
The underlying idea is that exploring future potential requires that all individuals involved in a certain activity work jointly, read from the same script, and focus on the same line of thinking. The theory provides crucial information on how to handle employees with negative attitudes. First, I will focus on changing the negative attitudes they hold by actively engaging them in identifying the questions to include in the survey instrument, the determination of data collection methods, and even obtaining their views on the study findings. This will help them feel like active participants in the dissertation and increase their willingness to cooperate. The second part of presencing involves envisioning things from the sphere of the future. To achieve this, I will be keen to explain to participating employees how the findings of the study could help to improve not just organizational effectiveness, but how they relate with management, and how they perform their duties at the individual level. The bottom line is to make them feel that their participation opens opportunities for better prospects in the future and that their current negative attitudes and beliefs limit their opportunities for future success.
Conflict Theory
One of the primary types of conflict is interest-based theory, to which a leader responds by serving as a neutral third party or mediator (Albert et al., 2020). This type of conflict involves a lot of negotiation – offers are made and countered as the parties try to work out a solution that aligns with their interests (Albert et al., 2020). The authors recommend that the leader serves as a peacemaker when resolving interest-based conflicts. The resolution of an interest-based conflict involves ten crucial steps. First, the leader establishes the initial relationship, develops strategies to guide the process, and then familiarizes themselves with the issue(s) hand. Once they have understood the issues, they organize a mediation plan that is focused on building communication and trust. The resolution process then begins with the leader setting priorities/goals and looking for hidden agendas. The leader then helps the parties understand where they are in accord, assesses the applicability of potential solutions, and brings closure. The conflict-resolution model provides the insights required to deal with interest-based conflict. The toxic behavior described in part A of this assignment constitutes an interest-based conflict as the employees and management are both seeking to realize their individual interests at the expense of the organization. The above conflict-resolution model, in this case, provides opportunities for the leader to listen to their team members and identify where the differences between the two groups lie so that together, both sides can end up with an amicable solution that brings the conflicting interests together in a common accord.
References
Albert, N. M., Pappas, S., O’Grady, T., & Malloch, K. (2020). Quantum Leadership: Creating Sustainable Value in Healthcare (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Gibbs, G. K. (2013). Scharmer’s Theory U and Administrative Leadership: Seeking Leaders and Developing Candidates. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(14), 66-69.