Achieving and Maintaining Individual Excellence

Stacy Brothers

November 15, 2010

BSHS/462

Jeffrey Codner

Achieving and Maintaining Individual Excellence

Individual excellence does not happen over-night. Excellence takes a great deal of time, planning, and thoughts to reach the excellence goals. In this paper, I will formulate a framework for achieving and maintaining individual excellence for my life and list the skills I have or need to develop further. The first part of the paper is a force field analysis listing my personal driving and restraining forces as well as my current position and desire for each of the following conditions: Managing the environment, Planning and program design, Organizational design, Human resource development, Supervision, Financial management, Information systems, Program evaluation, and Leadership and organizational change. The second part of the paper is an examination and expression of how each of Peter Senge's Five Disciplines has meaning to the author. A self-assessment of the author's skills for growth in each of the five disciplines is discussed.

Managing the Environment

The environment affects people in many different ways. Managing the environment takes time and skill especially in the human service field. The author can manage her environment. The author's personal drive is to maintain control. The restraining forces of managing the environment are considered indirectly interactive forces. Indirectly interactive forces "include sociocultural, political and legal, technological, economic, and global influences (Wittens & Nagtegaal, 2001, p. 241). The restraining forces according to the author are the economy which limits the amount of money in a job, family such as children who do not listen and illness. The author makes the best decisions based on the situation.

Planning and Program Design

The author plans to continue with school and finish with a PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology. "Planning is the process of deciding what objectives to pursue during a future time period and what to do in order to achieve these objectives" (Rue & Byers, 2008, p. 95. Para.6). Currently, the author is a registered nurse and is working on her Bachelor of Science in Human Service Management. The plan is to continue and obtain a Master's in clinical Psychology and then the PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology. Money and time are the restraining forces. The author will master these forces by obtaining financial aid and maintaining time.

Organizational Design

People are the designers of their organization or life. Organizational design is considered a structure and process. "Organizational structure is what people usually think of when describing an organization. Organizational processes (Robey & Sales, 1994) are key activities that occur within the structure, including coordination among functions, organizational communication processes, control systems, and decision making" (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, 2007, p. 95). The author is in control of her organizational design which is her life and can possibly assist in an organizational design of a human service agency. The author has a family and has daily routines that are followed by everyone. The restraining forces could be if something would interrupt daily routines. The author is aware of certain changes and can conform to change.

Human Resource Development

If an organization wants to be successful, it should develop a human resource department. Human resources have many different departments such as payroll, benefits, information systems and several other areas. The payroll department issues the pay checks to the employees and communicates with administration on how much money is paid out. The benefits department deals with the medical, dental and vision insurance provided to the employees. The department also handles employee retirement and communicates information to Administration. The information systems department provides the training needed to the employees. The training may consist of a new computer system or preparing the employees for a crisis situation. The author understands the importance of human resource development and needs more experience in this area.

Supervision

Supervision is important in every organization. The supervisor has to help employees maintain job performance and ensure client needs are met. The author has been in a supervisory position when working as a charge nurse in a hospital. The author made sure the patients and employees needs were met. The restraining forces were the employees decrease in job performance. The supervisor handles this by communicating with the employee and assisting him or her with changes that will help.

Financial Management

Financial management and information systems may coincide. Financial management is considered the organizational budget, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and other financial aspects of the organization. Individuals have to manage their own finances in life. The author has a budget and keeps written documentation of money earned and spent. Restraining forces would be if the author was to lose her job. Finances would become strained. The author has been through this situation before and managed to find another job before all money was depleted. Information Systems

Information systems can be on a computer which has employee payroll and records. Information systems can also provide finance information for the organization and training for employees. Restraining factors for