Essay 2 Single Space Three pages or more Here’s the situation I want you to imagine… You’ve just been hired into a new management position. You think back to your favorite class back at good ol’ KSU, Mr. Bohan’s Organizational Behavior course, and you remember how often he addressed the importance of building and sustaining a strong, positive culture. Further imagine that you’ve already gathered a good bit of information about the current state of the eight Culture Levers. You found serious deficits that you need to address in four of the Culture Levers. Here’s a summary: Communications: The Communication Lever is very Tight. Information is provided on a “need to know” basis only. Your department reports that it can be very difficult to find out what it needs to know to get the job done. “The treat us like mushrooms…they keep us in the dark and feed us worm poop.” Decision Making and Planning: Decision Making and Planning has been strictly Top Down. Your department reports that they have been seriously micro-managed and that they have to get approval for the smallest decisions. “You can’t buy paper clips here without getting management approval.” Innovation: The Innovation Culture Lever is very “Tried and True”. Your team members report that they don’t even bother coming up with new ideas or suggestions. In fact, they tell stories of getting in trouble for the smallest improvement changes they’ve made to processes and procedures. “New ideas? Heck, accounting still uses an abacus.” Teamwork and Collaboration: The Teamwork and Collaboration Culture Lever is best described as Teamwork Light. The members of your team report that they get along and work well together. On the other hand, previous managers of the team have seen no value in working as teams on solving problems or creating improvements or even getting work done. “We get along pretty well within the department but if management sees two or more folks talking, they assume we’re wasting work time.” Your task in this essay is to come up with a plan to improve these four levers. Your plan must include specific initiatives for improving each of the four levers. You’ll need at least one improvement initiative for each of the four levers. Here are the criteria for the initiatives you propose: Be specific as to exactly what you will do or what you’ll put into practice…it won’t be enough to say, for example, “I’ll make information more available,” or “I’ll push decision making down to my team members.” You’ll need to describe HOW you’re going to accomplish those improvements. Be very clear as to which principle we covered in class supports your initiative. If one of your initiatives is “I’ll put up posters that promote teamwork all over the department,” you’ll need to clearly point to which principle that we covered in class supports that idea.