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How leaders can assist both themselves and their employees in changing their behaviors?

Cognitive dissonance refers to an inner discomfort that arises when an individual holds two contradicting thoughts in mind simultaneously (Festinger, 1957). It occurs in the conflicting instance between one’s belief, attitudes, assumptions which are perceived as the truth by far and the real evidence encountered.
Mostly, cognitive dissonance is considered as the obstacles in the organizational operations as it entails stressors, damaging the team spirit and demotivating the employees’ enthusiasm for the best performance. However, it is not a unique aspect of the existence of the concept in life. Alternatively, cognitive dissonance could be beneficial for both the organization and the individual as well. It is the fact that the conflicts arise from the contradiction between beliefs, attitudes and the actual experiences on the issue while beliefs, attitudes are varied and not always accurate. Thanks to the practice evidence encountered, the organization or individuals recognize the correct orientation to follow. For an example of changing the habits in the workplace taken in the instance. It is your strongly believes that in the professional work settings, you need to remain serious and stay focus on the job during working hours. Consequently, having a joke in a working hour is limited by you. A newcomer joins the team and he gets started his friendly natures to the team by joking during working, freshening up the team with happiness and comfort, thereby the effectiveness and solidarity get improved immediately. At the time, you realize that your habit should be changed as the positive effects of joking during working hours, which is beneficial for not only the individual but also the team (the organization) in the instance.
3 specific things that a leader can do to minimize the impact of cultural dissonance within an organization
In the context of the negative influence of cognitive dissonances, it is critical to follow the 3 steps in order to minimize the conflicts within an organization. According to the state of Wengrzyn (n.d.) in Study.com that 3 ways to reduce cognitive dissonances are suggested in the following:
First, change belief and behavior. Obviously, the inner comfort arises from the conflicts between the 2 different belief and the actual evidence. In order to eliminate the contradicting feelings, it is critical to choose the perspective should be skewed too, selecting one means eliminating another one. For example, continuing the discussion on the example aforesaid. As a cultural intelligence leader, you would not spend much time on being in two minds to force the seriousness and focus of the team within working hours but you consider the positive impacts on free-easy work atmosphere in favor of the greater productivity and proficiency.
Second, justify the behavior by changing conflicting cognition. There are no shifts of behaviors in the instance but your perception of the changes should be justified based on the constructive improvement of the new cultural cognition. It is an example of the absentees in the workplace. It is a policy for the employees of the hotel to punch in at 8.30 AM and punch out at 5.30 PM every day. In the sales team, there are few sales member who could not check-in the office on time while they often leave for the office late without overtime counted. The leader of the team should utilize the justification of the existing policy and explain for the issue that due to big workload making the employees work late, it should be flexible for them to be late check-in for the office within 15 minutes. This solution would be harmonious and effective enough to illustrate the empathy for the employees’ efforts
Third, justify our behavior by adding new cognitions. Instead of following the original beliefs which are considered as the truth, another solution for the leader to get out of cognitive dissonance is to add the new cognition as the reason for the selection. Similarly, in order to approve for late arrival at the office of few staffs, the leader could add the cognition that they are young and need more time to sleep over after some chatting at night with friends or surfing the internet during their free time.
3 specific things that a leader can do to leverage the effect of cultural dissonance within an organization
As aforesaid, cognitive dissonance is not always negative so that it should be leveraged in order to utilize its beneficial signs. First, the leader should be open-minded to welcome the diversity of behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs of the employees. Second, if there is a gap between the ones of employees and the company explored, the leader should find the solutions to changes the employees’ behavior suggested in the last part of the post. Simultaneously, if the behaviors are positive while the organizational ones entail obstacles for the intercultural interaction, the justification and normalization of the company’s beliefs should be implemented for the progress.     
It was indicated by Vujosevic that leaders should possess strong elements of flexibility, innovation, collaboration and openness to new ideas (June, 2011) so that the leaders could analyze the issues and make the mindful decisions. A leader should encourage employees to participate and be willing to share their discomforts or concerns since definitely there are possibilities for the gap between individual behaviors, organizational beliefs, and their actions and behaviors (Culture Intelligent for Leaders, 2012). Courageous leadership for particularly sharing the employees’ concerns and exploring the stories towards the employees’ beliefs would be the effective tool to prevent the organization from blind spots hidden or ignored by leaders while those entail cognitive dissonances in the organization (Culture Intelligent for Leaders, 2012). In the meantime, utilizing storytelling to unite cultures, encouraging the employees to abide and guiding them particularly new employees to understand the company’s culture. Further, according to the research of Saylor Academy named Culture Intelligent for Leaders, leaders should ask themselves to explore dissonance by 3 questions as the way to help the employees to recognize their self-concept to effectively cope with cultural interactions as follows:
What is changing? Before any changes, it is essential for leaders to recognize what is the change and what would be beneficial for the organization to implement the change. The question should be explicitly answered so that the leader could deliver the right decision of change.
If there is any opposition by employees for the behavior changes in the organization, it would be essential for the leaders to use storytelling to convince the team at play. The stories should evoke the intercultural diversity and harmony in the company, manifesting the organizational core values or exhibit the warning signs particularly for new associates about the negative possibilities would occur if there is no shifts or improvement. Changing minds, changing behaviors through storytelling (Culture Intelligent for Leaders, 2012, p.154)
References
Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012). Saylor Academy. Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Vujosevic, M. (June, 2011). The Effects of Leadership Style and Cognitive Dissonance on Team Success. The Faculty of the Adler Graduate School. Retrieved from http://alfredadler.edu/sites/default/files/Vujosevic%20MP%202011.pdf
Wengrzyn, R. (n.d.). How Cognitive Dissonance Affects Workplace Behaviors. Study.com. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-cognitive-dissonance-affects-workplace-behaviors.html

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