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Future search should be used by the CEO. There are issues that Open XYZ Corporation must properly address in order to avoid going out of business. The CEO of the corporation wants to make significant changes, which could have a detrimental effect on the organization’s general management, necessitating full participation from all parties, even the less-experienced staff. The solution to the problems that arise as a result of the significant changes should also be thoroughly examined. Involving all the stakeholders would ensure that the good and bad effects of the changes are discussed. The Corporation has several managers and employees and hence the need to incorporate their ideas in the changes to be made by the Clothe CEO has no option but to make good use of Future Search to enable him or her make a wise decision (Rogers, 2010 pg. 101).
Future Search refers to a 3-day planning meeting enabling individuals to fully cooperate different situations such as uncertainty and conflict. The organization’s top management seems to have different ideas despite all of them supporting the changes that CEO intents to implement. It would be much difficult for the CEO to make the changes without convening a meeting where the different opinion would be had and also discussed. Future search is appropriate for such a situation because it involves between 40 -80 individuals in a single room, the senior managers with different opinions, are 50 in number which falls between the category (Owen, 2008).The changes the CEO want to make are aimed at improving the general performance of the organization; there is, therefore, the need for all the stakeholders to be involved in every decision made.
Being a large company the most suitable to the two approaches would be Open Space Technology; this means the CEO should make good use of this approach. There are some reasons why the CEO should use this approach; one is because the approach is the only one aims at expanding on space and time for an organization to carry on its activities. The approach is productive for any tasks of situation can be in, this hence would help the CEO to have an easy moment running the organization (Rogers, 2010 p.g 100).The CEO would also like to have the views of the Company’s employees; this is a good move because it offers room for brainstorming and it makes employees have a sense of ownership which is important in any successful organization. With the number of employees the CEO wants to get ideas from, the only approach that would be appropriate would be Open Space Technology which is suitable for meetings ranging from 5 members to about 2100(Owen 2008).
(Pashley, 2012) Observes that with this approach, those attending the meeting would have to come up with the agenda and hence whatever decision would be made would be binding to all the employees, here the CEO would not face any opposition when implementing the changes. Being a humble person, the CEO might come in one way or the other face opposition from other leaders, this would make it difficult for him or her make decisions that could help the organization do well overall but when the decisions come from the employees themselves, the work of the CEO would be to implement it. Being new to the Company, the CEO would like to understand how the company usually carries its operations, its challenges and how different situations are handled by its employees and managers. This would enable the CEO to fit in easily and even understand the Company better thus enabling him or her to discharge their duties accordingly.
The CEO, in this case, should use Open Space Technology. Open Space Technology (OST) refers to an approach that brings the different divisions or departments in an organization together and shares ideas and information. This approach works best where individuals involved are diverse which is the case in this situation where employees come from the three different divisions which include tax, accounting information systems, and auditing(Nixon, 1998 p.g 11).If the accounting company is to succeed, there should be a free flow of information and ideas in the three divisions. Even though employees in the three divisions are hardworking, their quiet state could their hard work be of no importance; this is because none of each of these divisions can do without the other. This approach would enable the CEO to have all the employees from the different divisions to come together and discuss the issues that affect them. It is during such meetings that employees would air their grievances and their opinions which the CEO would use to make important decisions affecting the Company at large.
This approach is involving in nature (Pashley, 2012), this would prove to work in a situation where members are normally quite thoughtful, this is because with this approach there is no agenda to be discussed upon, and it is the participants that come up with the agenda. This would enable the employees to be addictive during the meeting they will be much conversant with the issues being discussed on. Each of the employees would have a moment to contribute their thoughtful answers which will be of help to the CEO. The work of the facilitator here would be to allocate and provide equal opportunity for all the employees irrespective of their position or rank. This would enable the silent but knowledgeable employees to fully contribute to the meeting for the good of the organization and employees themselves.
Employees at the end of the day don’t fully implement the recommendations made during the conference because of some reasons; one is that the employees seem to be forced to attend the conference. According to my understanding, Open Space Technology conference should be open for every employee and not compulsory(Pashley, 2012), when one is forced to attend such a conference he or she would not pay attention throughout the session and hence will not feel to be part of the decision-making process. With Open Space Technology approach, there is no list of topics to be discussed; here the CEO is missing the point, he or she is forcing employees to discuss particular issues that might not be of interest to them, this makes them not be willing to implement them. In Open Space Technology conference, employees are free to contribute to the agenda of the day; the CEO should not dictate what should be discussed in the conference. This approach should not have the desired outcome; the CEO is misusing the approach making it difficult for the employees to implement the recommendations.
The CEO violated some principles that guide the approach; one is that of freedom of expression by the participants. The CEO in this situation dictates what the participants should discuss during the conference; this is going against the principle of the approach. Participants have the freedom to attend the meeting or not (Leith, 1996 p.g 20-21), the CEO goes ahead to force employees to attend the meeting violating this principle. The other principle that characterizes this approach is that of uncertainty in the outcome of the meeting, the principle calls for the participants to be prepared for anything but in this situation, the CEO has a predetermined outcome hence going against the principle.
Leith, M. (1996). Organizational change and large group interventions. Career Development International, 1(4), 19-23. [ProQuest]
Nixon, B. (1998). Creating the futures we desire - getting the whole system into the room: Part I.Industrial and Commercial Training, 30(1), 4-11. [ProQuest]
Owen, H. (2008). Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide (3rd Edition). Williston, VT, USA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. [EBSCO eBook Collection]
Pashley, S. (2012). Open Space. NHS Research and Development Forum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEBcr_YkHU
Rogers, J. (2010). Large group interventions. Facilitating Groups. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education. Pp. 98-104 [EBSCO eBook Collection.
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