The Role of Leadership in Organisational Change

In discussing the role of windinging in formational budge, one must first empathize the rudiments of leadinghiphip and theories that surround it, understand what variegate is and the essential qualities that a draw must possess to summate about convince.Defining leadershiphipThere is oftenen literature and research in the argonas of leadership and oversight with numerous writers differentiating the two. A common conclusion is that a good double-decker whitethorn non be a good leader. So what is the rest between them? French, R., et al, (2011) avers that spell managers engage in solving problems and supervising work, leaders do non just instruct people on what to do. leading inspire and motivate the people who follow and stake them on that pointby creating opportunities for the long-term. An environment where leadership is mentioned a lot and developed is the military. However, the command-and-control leadership where an officer barks orders to his parad e is not leadership beca routine he is leg whole toldy authorised to do it (Cohen, 2010).In victuals of this, Buchanan and Huczynski (1985) say that it is a social play where one person mildews opposites conducts without using threats of violence. By the latter definition, we finish surmise that what goes on in the army is certainly far from leadership as threats argon a way of life in the military In the matter of the military officer, he is said to be endowed with Formal Leadership, grown him formal authority over his men. When a staff has access to resources, k nowledge or has specialised skills, he may be viewed as an versed Leader as he exerts influence over former(a)s who may not be their subordinates nor even be in the same department as them (French, et al, 2011).So, while managers make things happen beca example the comp whatsoever says they be authorised to do so, leaders attain the companys objectives by influencing their colleagues or subordinates to co-opera te (Rosen live & Taylor, 1993). Lussier & Achua (2007) say that mutual influence between a leader and those he leads kitchen range their compositional goals by making varietys together. concord to Fielder (1967), the acid testify of a leader is his ability to achieve enceinteer motion for his organisation. Hence, studies of leadership must be related to how the leader improves management control strategies and how he regulates work place behaviour (Thomson & McHugh,2002).According to Cohen (2010), there are 8 laws that he termed universal laws which forms the heart of leadership. Though these 8 things that leaders must do are simple, the absence of one advise make a exit between success and pallure. Although success canfulnot be guaranteed, abiding by these 8 laws, one can increase the chances of success 1.Maintaining absolute integrity2.Being technically equal 3.communicating expectations 4.Show exemplary commitment 5.Expect positive results 6.Looking after the intere st of your people 7.Putting occupation before self 8.Leading from the frontSECTION 2 Theories on LeadershipAccording to Bass (1990), the three canonical theories of leadership are the Trait Theory, Great Event Theory and transubstantiation Theory. Robbins (1996) had a different view and wrote that the three theories important to leadership teaching are Trait Theory, Behaviour Theory and Situational Theory. French, et al, (2011) summarised and divided the theories on leadership into 2 categories Traditional Theories and New Theories. Traditional Theories are further group into Theories on leader traits and behaviours and situational leadership. New theories refer to Charismatic Leadership and transformational Leadership. check into diagram below.Trait theories on leadership were developed from research which tried to position attri justes that great leaders were born with which differentiates them from non-leaders. How hard-hitting these leaders are depends on the influence the leader wields over his subordinates performance, satisfaction and boilersuit opinioniveness (Derue, et al, 2011). Galtons (1869) view that these immutable traits are only disgorge up in leaders born with them and they cannot be developed has been challenged and criticized by many for over a hundred years. However, research has continued on linking constitution traits on efficaciousness of leaders and showed that booming leaders possess constitution traits that impact their success.This helps organisations in their selection, training and development of potential leaders (Derue et al., 2011). In Basss (1990) Great Event Theory, leaders are created when great alterations or crisis happen driving certain characteristics to be forged in individuals, enhancing their performance. This theory predisposes that leadership creation is still involuntary and not proactive unlike the Transformational Leadership Theory where anyone can learn skills on how to lead. It would shape up t hat leaders are not born and they are determine by their environment, including upbringing and career. (French, et al, 2011)Criticisms of the trait theories led to the development of behaviour theories theorizing that actions and behaviour recorded by a leader and not his personality is what identifies him as one. In late 1940s, University of Michigan conducted studies concluding that there are 2 types of leadership Worker-oriented leadership and Task-oriented leadership. While the former is focussed on employee welfare, the latter concentrates on achievement of organisational objectives. Behavioural theory explains leadership vis--vis the behaviour of leaders alone does not consider the situation or the environment that the leader is run in. The criticism is that given different situations, the same leadership behaviours may not be observed.Shortcomings of the behaviour theories led to Situational Contingency Theories of Fiedler (1967), menage (1974), Hersey and Blanchard (19 88) and Kerr and Jermier (1978). Horner (1997), a situational theorist, says that an effective leader should be able to adapt his leadership style harmonize to the work situation he is in. The leadership styles identified by halls (1974) Path-Goal theory are Directive, Supportive, Participative and Achievement-oriented styles. Contemporary leadership theorists like House (1974) and Conger and Kanungo (1998) researched on Charismatic Leadership.They wrote that certain attitudes and attributes can be bundled together to determine charisma in a leader. What they do and how they do it to influence the desired actions from their followers is how charismatic leaders are successful as leaders (French, et al, 2011). Charisma is a cite component of transformational leadership and as such, many of its characteristics are also lay out in successful transformational leaders. So while charismatic leaders may not be transformational leaders, transformational leaders neediness to be charismat ic to achieve their mission of change (DuBrin, 2010).DuBrin(2010) wrote that transformational leaders display attributes that distinguish them from others. Some attributes include charisma, in high spirits wound up intelligence, visioning skills, conversation skills, give feedback, recognize subordinates achievements, practice empowerment, innovative and high moral reasoning. Bass (1990) distinguished between Transactional and Transformational leadership saying that the former has to do with daily chats and exchanges between a leader and his subordinates. This is normally task-based and routine. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, enables subordinates to broaden their goals and elevate performance beyond expectations with the use of charisma, earnestness, intellectual stimulation, and individualised consideration.SECTION 3 Organisational counterchangeThe mother of all clichs, The only eternal in life is change, sums up rather neatly that all organisations, large or small, simple or complex, go forth face changes deep down itself and in its environment. Writers slang consensus that at this day and age, change is a much larger restitution than decades past as the rate of change, especially for technological change, is increasing at an exponential rate (Balogun and entrust Hailey, 2004 Burnes, 2004 Senior, 2002). Being omni-present in organisations at all levels, the importance of the leaders ability to tax its present stage, evaluate it against its desired state, define its performance gaps and plan organisational changes to reach the desired end cannot be emphasized more (Burnes, 2004).Burnes (2004) goes on to say that organisational strategy and change are inseparable. According to Moran and Brightman (2001), because of the continually changing ask of stakeholders internally and externally, a good leader lead also be continuously planning the organisations pedagogy, its capabilities and structure to meet those changes. Because org anisational change is of par totality importance, the skills that a leader must take over to effect changes successfully are highly sought after (Senior, 2002). In fact, managers today may find that their primary task in an environment of globalisation, technological innovation, eternally changing demographics, deregulation and knowledge explosion, is to provide leadership for organisational change (Graetz, 2000)Organisational change can be planned or unplanned. Unplanned changes occurad libitum without any conscious apparent motion on the part of the manager to effect change (French, et al, 2011). It is ordinarily due to changes in the conditions of the environment and is reactive in nature. Planned change happens when the manager takes proactive measures to address a performance gap to get to desired outcomes that meet organisational goals and objectives. Although it is generally accepted that in a highly competitive environment, change is a necessity to survive, Balogun and H ope Hailey (2004) found that about 70 per cent of all plans for organisational change fail. According to Dunphy and Stace (1993), there are 4 characteristics in the scale of the change. They are finely Tuning, additive Adjustment, Modular Transformation and Corporate Transformation.In Fine Tuning, the leader makes in truth small changes to processes, human capital, structure and strategy so they work coherently to reach the organisational goal. It is usually done within the divisional or departmental level and is referred to as convergent change (Nelson, 2003) Similar to fine tuning, Incremental Adjustment involves making slightly more changes to managerial processes, corporate strategies and structures but not to the extent of radical change (Senior, 2002). The difference is that the changes are big here. In Modular Transformation, the scale of change has move from being intra-departmental to departmental-wide or division-wide alignments.However, change in this category has not reached organisation-wide, which is discussed next. Major changes to key executives, restructuring of a division and downsizing a department are examples (Dunphy & Stace, 1993). Finally, Corporate Transformation which encompasses radical changes in mission, vision and subject matter values, major(ip) strategic direction shifts, organisational restructuring and changes in top management and key appointments, is the largest of the 4 types of change (Dunphy & Stace, 1993). The key difference between corporate and modular transformations is that the former is organisation-wide, which means that every(prenominal) person in the organisation is affected. SECTION 4 The Process of Change Beckhard & Gleicher (1969) wrote on a verbal expression for change. This formula is sometimes referred to as Gleichers Formula. The formula shows the forcesthat drive change and the aims to predict when change will be successful.This formula explains that leaders in an organisation need to be firstly, h ard put with how things are going and must know where they want to head towards. If D is absent, then the organisation may be complacent and may not want to move from their position. D without V will mean that the organisation has no direction for change. Even if D and V are present, without winning the first positive step, change will just be an stem hence, action must be taken.Therefore the convergence of D, V and F cannot be zero which means that any of the 3 values cannot be zero. If any of the 3 is absent, the drive to change will not overcome safeguard. The other factor to consider is the magnitude of D, V and F against the magnitude of R. The product of D, V and F must be greater than R for there to be change. The greater the product, the greater the probability that change will happen. However, this formula does not guarantee that the change will be successful. For change to be successful, change leaders or change agents must have attributes to lead change.There are many reasons why people resist change and it usually has to do with the fear of the unknown. As a result, they will find ship canal to slow change down or sabotage it so it does not happen (Lines, 2004). Instead of trying to overcome resistance, leaders should take it as a form of feedback and understand why the employee perceives threats to win them over and achieve change objectives (French, et al, 2011).SECTION 5 Phases of ChangeThe work of Kurt Lewin on phases of planned change is oft quoted and still very relevant today. He says that the 3 phases are Unfreezing, ever-changing and Refreezing and the leader should be sensitive in each of these phases (Lewin, 1952). Unfreezing or readying phase prepares the ground for change. Leaders will have convinced themselves of a need for change using the Formula for Change. What they have to do now is to enable his followers to feel the same need and reduce resistance to change.French, et al, (2011) referred to this phase as similar to genera ting energy for transformation in Miles (1997) model for planned organizational change leadership. Lewins unfreezing phase also includes what Miles refers to as Developing a vision of the future. The leader needs to evanesce thisvision effectively to his followers and ensure buy-in for his changes to succeed. The 8-stage process of change by Kotter (1996) lists the first 4 stages as Establishing a Sense of UrgencyCreating a Guiding Coalition Developing a Vision and Strategy Communicating the Change VisionKotter refers to these 4 stages as defrosting which essentially means unfreezing. He says that managers sometimes skip these 4 stages and go headlong into restructuring or downsizing and at long last face insurmountable roadblocks or change that is not sustainable, that is, change that will not stick. The next phase of change, Changing, according to Lewin (1952), refers to the nitty-gritty mild and bolts of change like re-structuring, re-organisation, reshaping culture, trainin g and development to build competencies required to bring about the new vision. According to Miles (1997), this is referred to as aligning the internal context. Kotter (1996), on the other hand, splits this phase into 3 more stages in his 8-stage process of creating major change Empowering Broad-based ActionGenerating Short-term Wins Consolidating Gains and Producing more ChangeLewins (1952) final phase, Refreezing, is where leaders evaluate results and either makes modifications to improve results from the change or reinforce outcomes for achieving change objectives. The purpose of refreezing is so that change can be permanent and will stick. Miles refers to this as Creating a transformation process architecture which involves having feedback and communication mechanisms, support, education mechanisms and coordination mechanisms. This stage coincides with Kotters final stage in his 8-stage process called Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture.SECTION 6 Leadership and Organisatio nal ChangeSetting direction, giving inspiration and ensuring that lasting change is carry outed organisation-wide is a key role that all leaders play. Good leadership and management of change is a scathing ingredient in organisational change because it is essentially a people issue and human nature is such that its first instinct is to resist change (Coburn, 2006). Lack of effort, likewise great a change over too short a time and emphasis on top management rather than engaging lower levels are key reasons for failure to hunt down change programmes (Manikandan, 2010).It is critical to understand that organizations consist of complex human interactions such that all intended change needs to be handled with sensitivity. Change initiatives fail not because of the lack of intelligent leaders or noble causes but due to the lack of emotional buy-in from stakeholders. So leaders of change need to have skills and competencies to ensure successful change initiatives. Buchanan & Boddy (199 2) grouped 15 core competencies and skills into 5 clustersDiagram 1 Buchanan & Bodds Clustering of Skills and Competencies Buchanan & Boddy (1992) grouped the skills and competencies into clusters of activities. However, upon analysis, they can be grouped into 2 broad categories Competencies & Attributes of good leaders and communion & EQ Skills of good leaders. This is illustrated in the diagram below.Diagram 2 Grouping Skills into Competencies and Skills Competencies & AttributesA successful leader must be sensitive to his environment, including but not special(a) to being aware of market conditions, intra-company politics, conflicting goals of different departments, how the sum of split in an organisation works together to achieve its goals (helicopter viewpoint) and who the power brokers are within the organisation. Having this competency will enable the change leader to quantify the status quo and determine the gap that needs to be closed in order to reach the new vision. Hence, the leaders comprehension and lucidity of his vision will be enhanced. Flexibility and Tolerance of ambiguity major power well be two sides of the same coin. Not all changes will go according to plan nor all reactions to change, especially resistance, are predictable.Hence, a good leader will have a fair amount of tolerance of the unknown and in exhibiting this, be flexible enough to stipulate his change plans to reach his objectives and to minimise resistance to change. Finally, the leader must have enthusiasm as he is the change agent. He is the champion of that change and if he cannotshow that he believes in it and is behind it 100%, he will not be able to get buy-in for it. Communication & EQ SkillsThe skills listed in this box are all related to skills in effective communications but tempered with a good measure of emotional quotient (EQ). As discussed above, the challenges in change management are mainly found in the management of people. Hence, EQ in communication is key to success. sound communication where the message is conveyed accurately from the sender to the receiver is a sanctioned requirement of any leader. However for a change leader, communicating while exercising EQ will make the message more acceptable to the recipient and hence enhance successful change.This is especially true when a leader wants to sell the idea of change or when he negotiates for a win-win solution to effect changes. He has to use all his influence and exhibit charismatic leadership to win the support of his colleagues and subordinates. How he does this may be through the use of motivation. Using his EQ, the leader will be able to empathise with his subordinates and understand their fears and concerns know what motivates them and use this in his effort to garner support or reduce resistance.The leader needs to use his networking skills to access resources within and outside the company in order to implement his change plan. One must not forget that in transf ormational change, everyone and every department in an organisation will be affected. Hence the leader cannot work in isolation. Finally, using teambuilding skills, the leader can build a cohesive force to successfully implement all the changes that the organisation wants to put in place and make those changes stick or in the spoken language of Lewin (1983), Refreeze.SECTION 7 ConclusionFor over a century, behavioural scientists, psychologists and even sociologists have analyze leadership, trying to define, explain and even predict situations when leadership qualities and attributes will be displayed. They have tried to explain if leadership is inborn or a result of the external environment. Whether it is inherent in personality or whether it can be learnt and developed. Contemporary theorists conclude that although certain traits that are inborn are those found in greatleaders, other attributes of good leadership can indeed be developed.Organisational change, inescapable as it we re, is a challenge for leaders. Leaders need to prepare the ground and communicate the changes needed to move the organisation forward (Unfreeze), make the changes with sensitivity and exercise EQ (Change) and get buy-in and support for the changes to make them stick (Refreeze). To execute change plans, leaders need to have the communication skills, EQ, competencies and attributes required for transformational change.