Free One From Many Essay Example

Hock’s approach at Visa is the best policy through which organizations and companies can expand, hence become successful. In a nutshell, Hock employs servant leadership. Throughout the stages, Hock ensured that the priorities of other people were the first ones to be met before his own interest. By helping the servants grow as persons, they get the necessary courage to perform their duties excellently. This reflects back to the performance of the organization. Although this concept may seem natural to many, practicing it has often proved difficult as people end up putting their interests ahead. Although visa started as a small company, it has grown tremendously because of the dedication from its founder. This is the approach that should always be taken into account in management and marketing.
Hock defined the term chaordic to refer to a system in which an organization mixes both chaos and order. Such a mix (chaos and order) can best be described to be a harmonious coexistence in which both characteristics are displayed (Hock, 1999). In such systems, neither of the two characteristics dominates the other. Both chaos and order, according to Hock, play a major role in shaping up various organizations. This chaordic principle has been employed in various circumstances. Effectively, the principle has been used to explain nature, describing how the evolutionary process of organisms arose through the chaordic process.
According to Hock’s understanding, the idea of community is very important as far as understanding of organizations is concerned. In his book, Hock suggests that the leaders of organizations should ensure they are open, ethical, honest and constructive. With such people, leading the organization is easy (Hock, 2005). The collective and individual sense of how and where people should be led plays an important role in the progress of the organization. The collective aspect is related to the community. Leaders should ensure to epitomize the sense of community and behave in a manner that is consistent with the communal values and expectations. The community shapes the rules of engagement of the organization, meaning that it plays a significant role in the rise of an organization. This role was well played in the case of Visa, where the interests of the community were addressed to give the organization a sense of belonging. If this is well-taken care of, then there are high chances that the organization will progress.
Today, visa is classified as a public company, meaning it is publicly held. After being owned by a number of institutions (banks) the company’s stock was subjected to the largest IPO. In the year 2006, MasterCard Worldwide went public.
Via is managed by a management board that is tasked with ensuring the day to day operations of the company are smooth. Although the company is comprised of a number of companies that are separately incorporated, the worldwide parent is the ‘Visa International Service Association). Some of the separately incorporated companies include Visa USA Inc., Visa Europe Ltd and Visa Canada Association. In practice, each region is guided by the prevailing laws on such transactions. This is because each country has its own rules that could be different from other countries. Despite this, Visa Inc. has certain regulations that apply universally.
At Visa Inc, there are rules in place that dictate what happens incase an innovation proves to be a mistake. Important to note is the fact that Visa Inc. encourages innovativeness and encourages its members to try to be innovative. With this in mind, it is never a big deal if an innovation goes wrong. The company has a trial and error system which means that making an error is acceptable, as far as the intention was to come up with a potentially productive innovation (Hock, 1999). To date, Visa’s success is based on technological innovativeness. To curtail it or punish innovations that prove to be a mistake would therefore be contrary to the mechanisms that guided the company to unparalleled success in the corporate world. There is evidence that a number of innovations have proved to be a mistake, but innovative ideas keep on being encouraged.
According to Hock, noise can only become data if it contains a cognitive pattern. Without this, noise will not be essential in the progress of any organization. From this, the data is then converted to information only if it is assembled to become coherent to the extent that it can be related certain information. After this, information can be converted to knowledge if it is integrated o combined with other information to make a useful form of decision-making, or even determining various actions. Knowledge can then be converted to become understanding if it is related to the available information in a useful manner in judging, anticipating and acting. After this stage, the understanding gained can be converted to wisdom if it is informed by ethics, purpose, memory, principles and projection.
According to him, Hock thinks that his greatest failure at Visa was his failure to accept resistance for change. Like many other people, it is always difficult to accept change. Hock asserts that during his tenure, Visa sought to build the company using the Newtonian mechanistic model. In this model, the hierarchy dictates what is to be accepted and what should not be accepted. In such cases, planning is managed at the top level and distributed downwards. The only thing that is distributed upwards s power and money. This is what brings endless rules and regulations. According to him, there was need to change this nature at Visa to ensure everybody was treated with dignity.
As a matter of fact, Visa trademark conversion was complicated and difficult for a number of reasons (Hock, 2005). For instance, it was difficult to determine whether such trademark had been used anywhere throughout the world in the financial services field. After a search, it was apparent that a number of such trademarks existed. The major challenge was whether or not the company would receive worldwide acceptance from the members. Despite these challenges, the trademark conversion was completed four years less than the anticipated time. One reason for this is that after intense efforts, a large percentage of the members got convinced of the need to change. With this, the implementation process proved to be seamless.
Hock has immense contribution to the understanding of organizational change. In one way or the other, he introduces a new approach that if effectively used, is likely to see an improvement in the performance of an organization. Unlike the traditional methods, he advocates for a complete overhaul of the leadership mechanisms and advises leaders to embrace servant-leadership. This way, organizations can easily progress.

References

Hock, D., & VISA International. (1999). Birth of the chaordic age. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Hock, D., & VISA International. (2005). One from many: VISA and the rise of the chaordic organization. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.