Dream and Vision Case Study

Q.1..Is Vision just a dream?

A vision and a dream are quite different forms of senses. As stated by Banutu-Gomez (2011) that vision is a picture of an ambitious, desirable future for the organization, team or community. It is a desired future which an individual foresight for himself, his family or organization. Commonly a vision is influenced by the environment (living or working), desire for a position in future, and inspiration.

A vision can be termed as a source of motivation that compels a visionary individual to design plans and make arrangements in pursuit of his vision. It does this by showing people an attractive place to go and a reason to go there (Clark, 2008). A vision if rightly followed and managed can effectively aid in achieving the desired position.

In the current era of advanced technology and immense competition being visionary is highly valued to be successful.

Whereas a dream is an unintentional sense which also like vision is influenced by the working or domestic environment, issues an individual is countering with or maybe nothing. However, they are not considered for any future planning or ideas. According to Watt (2016), in reality, people have far more than one dream each night, however most of them are forgotten or ignored as soon as the person wakes up. Even that are remembered its hard to decipher them. In your dreams you enter a realm where the extraordinary is commonplace and sometimes everything feels so real, as if the sensations and images you are experiencing are actually happening, but then you wake up and can’t make sense of what you have seen (Cheung, 2010).

Though both the senses, dream and a vision share some common influencing factors but outcome and influence of both are quite different. Parker () stated that dreams are normally contained within sleep whereas visions can happen both when we are awake and when we are asleep, as such the dreams are based on unauthentic sources whereas a vision is the product of a mindset, idea and creativity.

References:

Banutu-Gomez, M. B (2011) Global Leadership, Change, Organizations, and Development. iUniverse: USA.

Clark, T. R (2008) How to Lead Change in the Global Age: John Wiley & Sons: USA.

Cheung, T (2010) How to See Your Angels. Simon & Schuster: UK.

Watt, C (2016) Parapsychology. Oneworld Publication: England.

Q.2..How can you create a vision that all stakeholders will share?

A clear vision or direction is mandatory for the success of an organization in a longer run. Designing strategies, technological advancements or changing policies may benefit an organization for a short period, but without a vision the same elements would be ineffective to retain the organization’s leading position. A vision defines what the organization is and what it does and provides important guidelines for getting the objectives and improving the organization (Kunert, 2018).

Organization to be successful requires a teamwork of all its stakeholders, as such the vision of organizational heads must be shared with all stakeholders so that they should know their direction and goals to achieve. It is the vision, rather than the details of outcomes, outputs and implementation structures, that appeared to motivate the participants (Rhodes et al, 2011).

A leader’s vision is a motivational narration of his idea of where he foresight his organization in future. Creating a vision that could be shared among all the stakeholders must not be of one’s own, rather it should involve the ideas and suggestions of all the stakeholders. The vision of an organization should also reflect the concerns of other stakeholders, like shareholders, customers, the local community and society in order to be effective (Bhandari & Verma, 2013). As such all the stakeholders must be onboard in creating the suggested vision. A vision created in consideration of all the stakeholders would be a clear vision illustrating precise directive and targeted goals to all the stakeholders.

As all the stakeholders are involved in creating the vision, there ideas and opinions must be shared constantly. Arranging frequent meetings would be productive in giving the final shape to the planned vision, also establishing an effective communication among all the stakeholders would be quite helpful for sharing of ideas incase if someone is not available or misses the meeting. Leaders who can develop personal visions but cannot effectively communicate and involve others in embracing those visions are destined to fail (Scott, 2014).

References:

Bhandari, A., Verma, R. P (2013) Strategic management. McGraw Hill Education: India.

Kunert, S (2018) Strategies in Failure Management. Springer: Switzerland.

Rhodes, M. L., Murphy, J., Muir, J., Murray, J. A (2011) Public Management and Complexity Theory. Routledge: USA.

Scott, D (2014) Contemporary Leadership in Sport Organizations. Human Kinetics: USA.

Q.3..How can you ensure that people throughout the organization understand and are committed to the vision?

A leader will not be able to accomplish its vision unless it is well communicated among all the members of the organization, acknowledged and followed by them with greater commitment and enthusiasm. Shared vision and values translate into commitment to shared goals, which leads to organizational success (Hadary & Henderson, 2013). Thus, all members of an organization willingly dedicating their efforts for a common vison will lead their organization to success.

In order to improve the work environment so that it facilitates employee acceptance of change, leaders must focus on their communication (Leonard et al, 2013). To ensure that all members of an organization are well committed to the vision, it should be translated to them in different forms that makes it simpler for them to understand, like pasting posters, drafting on white boards or slogans. Also, frequent reminders through varied means of digital communication will be an effective aid in keeping all the members involved with the vision, for instance posting slogans or inspiring quotes on group’s Facebook page or messaging on WhatsApp.

Moreover, employees should be assigned tasks of which they are competent or trained for, task mismatching their knowledge or skills will not only effect organization’s performance but will also deter their commitment with the vision. If there’s a mismatch, the worker would have little reason to be committed to performing well in his Job (Cardy & Leonard, 2011). Thus, he would not be able to follow the organization’s vision.

As stated by Perry (2013) that the best way to ensure the employee’s commitment to the organization’s vision is to make sure there is something in it for them. A vision that have all the ingredients that are in the best interest of the leadership as well as all the members of the organization, will enhance loyalty and devotion of all the member and they will stand firm with the vision. Implementing a reward system to acknowledge the workers efforts or work, like cash incentives, promotions or recreational leaves would definitely enhance their commitment with the vision.

References:

Cardy, R. L., Leonard, B (2011) Performance Management. Routledge: USA.

Hadary, S., Henderson, L (2013) How Women Lead. McGraw Hill: USA.

Leonard, H. S., Lewis, R., Freedman, A. M., Passmore, J (2013) The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Leadership, Change, and Organizational Development. John Wiley & Sons: UK.

Perry, J. J (2013) Creating the Future of Your Choice. Xlibris: USA.

Q.4..Should a vision be attainable or not quite attainable?

Every individual has a vision, either it is about his own personal desires or his organization. Reaching a level that is among the top ten is a common desire of every single person on this planet, however not every person can attain the top position. Individuals or organizations who fail in achieving success in the long run or in other words cannot change their vision into a reality either have created an unrealistic vision or may have some flaws in following their vision. Unrealistic vision state aspiration that cannot possibly be achieved with current resources and within a reasonable time frame (Ackermann & Eden, 2011).

Vision can be termed as a foresight of one’s future, it aids in making the roadmap leading to the targeted level, however if a vision is not created in consideration of one’s capabilities and possible circumstances it could illustrate a future that is beyond one’s limit, as such it could not be attained. vision is only attainable for individuals willing to pick their heads out of the reeds, take a time-out, stop the insanity, and dream a bit about how the business can and will improve (Burton, 2012).

A realistic vision creates a motive for a desirable position in future, hence it should be attainable. A vision is the ultimate, preferably attainable, state the enterprise would like to achieve (Varajao, Cunha, Trigo, 2012). Though a vision should be attainable but it should be not be a rigid sticking to an only specific goal rather it has to be flexible to cope up with the unpredicted circumstances or changes. As a vision is futuristic and no one can predict the future with complete accuracy, it should always be adaptable to the changing conditions taking place in one’s surroundings (Ginter, Duncan, Swayne, 2013).

An attainable vision of an organization will not only aid in achieving the targeted goals, it will also enhance the loyalty and performance of the all the workers as they would be pouring in their efforts for a target that they see can be achieved.

References:

Ackermann, F., Eden, C (2011) Making Strategy. Sage Publication: USA.

Burton, T. T (2012) Out of the Present Crisis. CRC Press: USA.

Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., Swayne, L. E (2013) The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations. Jossey-Bass: USA.

Varajao, J., Cunha, M. M. C., Trigo, A (2012) Organizational Integration of Enterprise Systems and Resources. Business Science Reference: USA.

Q.5..How could Generics Group’s vision have been sustained?

A leader’s vision steers his organization to success, if the same vision is flexible to cope up with any unexpected changes. A leader in pursuit of the future position portrayed by his vision make plans, arrangements and perform moving towards his future goals. The created vision is based on the current conditions, resources and capabilities, expecting favorable conditions en-route to the desired target. However, future is always unpredictable, any unexpected changes in the conditions would affect the planned working procedures. Moreover, if changes are not made in the working procedure, modifying the created vision, vision in pursuit will not be accomplished. Vision cannot be static, it needs to adapt to the changing conditions (Hargreaves, 2011).

As stated by Gallagher (2012) that Effective leadership ensures that their management is truly adaptive to new knowledge and changing conditions. Though Generic Group’s vision leaded the organization to success during the initial period, but in later years owing to the external changing conditions the organization could not maintain its operations resulting in a collapse. Going through the case it can be ascertain that the Group’s vision was based on the conditions of the time when the Group was established, it was a rigid vision which had no provision to cope up with any changing conditions.

A vision can be sustained over time while the curriculum (in the hands of an expert staff) evolves and changes to meet the needs of a changing world (Koehler & Baxter, 2013). Generic Group’s vision could had been sustained if it would had been in consideration of any unpredictable changes in future. As the Group’s vision was focused on a fixed target that is “turning technology ideas into revenues”, it did not expected any such pressure from the stock market. While the Group’s vision was jointly shared by the top management, in response of the emerging stock market affairs, they should have re-formulate the Group’s vision making modification in accordance with the facing challenges and unpredictable future changes.