Week Four Reflection
Annie Hales, Elizabeth Hernandez, Frederick Stokes,
Jonathan Brown and Sarah Shillingford
MGT/311 - Organizational Development
December 8, 2014
Sonny Bowman

Learning Team Reflection

During Week Four, Team B learned the various influences of power, politics, organizational structure and culture behaviors comprised within an organization. The team gain insight to a variety of conflicts, problem solving techniques, and how best employees should communicate with managers especially during difficult times. Understanding power, political strategies, and tactics used in companies are imperative for anyone who seeks to become a strong leader. Although learning the concept of various political powers that can affect an employee’s behavior in the workplace, the contents studied were user friendly, less stressful, and enjoyable to read. However, applying the strategies and tactics may require practice to become an effective leader, especially one of power, and authority.
In addition, leaders of power and managers of authority figures are either granted formal or legitimate power. The team learned that in many companies, an employee’s job title usually show ranks of his or her position of authority have substantial and limited power (for some) in which instructions from such supervisors must be obeyed. Whether for organizational behavior control purpose, political or social movements, civil rights, racism, barriers, and diversity of culture differences; Week Four presented a learning opportunity for Team B to streamline social conflicts, power, and politics associated to “Game Playing” that affects the mechanic or organic structure in an organization including but not limited to the battles of hierarchy positions that often occurs in most businesses.
Despite the differences of high and low end workers, power and politics in a company with a well-established organization structure sometimes recreate titles of positions for political interest to attract key candidates that possess certain expert power and skills in which executives find beneficial to the company objectives. During an economic meltdown, many companies struggle to stay afloat and in some cases, have to change the way they do business. Power, politics, money, and wealth become targets of social conflicts that often distance people from one another. People of various race and cultures in America today continues to struggle with the on-going reality of the importance or organization structure much needed in the work force, communities, and society as a whole. It so happens that the material in Week Four relates to current events today associated to bureaucracy, chain of command, and control effective use of power, politics, culture, and organization structure. Today, America is in great need of serious organization structure in communities as the world watches on as protesters seek justice to bring about change in policing and racial conflict.
As one team member mentioned, Week Four material was comprehensive and easily understood. Not only did the material relate to current events the one subject that continues to be of concerned in the work place is “the connection of sexual harassment and abuse of