Treading on thin ice: establishing and facilitating Action Learning Sets (ALS) in toxic organisations.

Rod R Waddington PhD candidate North-West University Lesley Wood, North-West University, Faculty of Education Sciences

Outline of presentation

• Research context• Why was it a problem for me – contradiction of values• Research question for study and one for this presentation –

two different things – this one is about ALS.• Theoretical framework • Method – need to define als and why use it• Results• Significance

Acknowledgement

• A community engagement grant from the National Research Foundation (NRF) enabled the research reported on here. Any findings, opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and therefore the NRF does not accept any liability thereto

My research context

• Corporate Centre of a TVET College. (1 of 50 TVET colleges in RSA. 5 campuses, 9800 exam candidates 344 staff members with 55 at Corporate Centre

• Dropped in academic performance from being in top 5 between 2003/8 to being in the bottom 5 in 2011/13

• Some staff undergone 3 migration/merger processes in the past 12 years.

• Staff wellness noticeably affected (emotional, mental, physical, spiritual) previously researched – indication of toxic climate

• As HRD manager – what could I do about it?

My research question?

“How do I improve my practice and influence those that I work with to improve their practice, so as to bring about personal and institutional healing ”

My qualitative research is embedded in an existential, phenomenological, critical, participative, action research paradigm

My conceptual framework?

Toxic Triangle Model

Toxic Leaders – destructive

leaders

Toxic Environment –

conducive environments

Toxic Followers –vulnerable

followers

Adapted from Padilla, A., Hogan, R. & Kaiser, B. 2007. The toxic triangle: destructive leaders, vulnerable followers, and conducive environments.

How do you put a meaningful ALS together in an AL/AR project with the purpose of

qualitative data generation for a living theory approach?

Become aware of self: ‘I-Thou’

Be practical: plan for fall out!

Be brave: practice inclusivity!

Build rapport! Build awareness: calibrate!

Purpose and Objectives

Engage ALS in practical non-threatening activity

• Creation of a Collage (Visual artifact) with explanation of their drawing

• Group Meta Reflections

• Personal Reflective Journals

Working with ALS’ emotions, values in an unthreatening participative way

• Trust issues“I am still worried through this process that something that you said will come back to you…that’s the culture … it comes back to bite you” (C:PRVJ:12/6/14)

• Fear issues“I felt reluctant to do the exercise because in the group I did not feel comfortable with really sharing my honest opinions regarding how I feel because in our environment doing something like that can be very detrimental to your carrier so it was a real challenge to be honest in front of people saying exactly how you feel” (E: PRJ: 27/814)

• Becoming stuck in the ‘blame game’“…know that we have done this (group reflection) we must move…otherwise we will stick in it and start blaming people all the time. (K:GVJ May 2014)“I think time is now to set new goals where everybody comes with what we can do together separated from race and culture or where we have been, but what are we now and what we do together in moving forward” (C:GVR May 2014)

Fears of the ALS members

• Sense of commonality -not alone“…sitting here listening to everyone , for me it became emotionally disturbing to see how people have been carrying this burden of emotions themselves” (I: GVR 24/5/2014)

• Someone is listening /something is being done / I am part of it.“umh, I’m happy. I just think that this part of talking about, it is very important and I think we must take it back, you know, to, I think there is a lot of this type of, to clean your system, to get a head at campus level, as well as with other cliques , I know this might be a repeat but that might be a strategy”. (G:GVR: 24/5/2014)

• The activity was a cathartic activity“what I learnt about the whole process was about myself is that it was a good psychological exercise to actually speak about your emotions getting it out hearing it sharing it with people. It was like a session at a psychologist where it is like a type of a healing process to try and deal with matters that you would rather if you hadn’t” (E: PRJ: 27/8/14)“Emotions of empathy and sympathy ran through my body, because of hearing how other people fell during this…….” (I:PRJ: 19/8/14)

Healing begins for the ALS members

Lesson learned thus far…..

• ALS are not ends, not means – but dynamic processes-networks that are simultaneously embedded in their own transformation and in the imagined solution.

• ALS are kept alive (motivated) by always offering them – the next step – hope.

• ALS challenge is: adaptability and flexibility.• ALSs are all about communication - relationships and it start

with the wo/man in the mirror. (Michael Jackson)

Thank you