Approaches to Organizational Leadership Change - Assignment Example

Approaches to Organizational Leadership Change Name: Course: Institution: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Action Research Approach 3 4.0 Change Process 4 4.1 Planning 4 4.2 Action 6 4.3 Evaluation 7 4.4 Reflection 8 5.0 Conclusion 9 References 11 1.0 Introduction Despite the numerous challenges presented by globalization in the global market, international organizations face increasingly growing challenges in their management and operations. In this case, it is imperative for the respective organizational managements to develop strategies for dealing with the emerging challenges. Among the major challenges facing organizations today include leadership style challenges (Khosrow-Pour, 2006). In recognition of the rationality and the eventual management benefits, this report develops an argument for the improvement of leadership styles at IAS organization. In this regard, the report adopts an action research approach in developing the appropriate market recommendations. 2.0 Action Research Approach The action research approach in dealing with organizational challenges is a traditional management principle (Clark, 1976). The practice has been in application over a range of issues. In particular, the action research approach is a problem solving approach developed to resolve immediate organizational problems. The approach focuses on a particular existing challenge and subsequently develops appropriate resolution measures. In addition, action research is applied n the development of wide scope problem solving decisions due to their application of team work and consensus building in resolutions development. As Craig (2009) states, the action research approach is a methodical process that incorporates the presence of a range of stages including the planning, action, evaluation and reflection stages respectively. This report evaluates on the application of the diverse steps in resolving the organizational leadership style challenge. 3.0 Rationale The proposed leadership change process is based on the organisational analysis establishment. As revealed under the IAS organisational analysis, the organisational executive management is engaged in the day to day running of the organisational as well as its operational activities. As such, the management lacks enough time to concentrate and focus on the strategic components of the organisation. Consequently, this implicate on the overall organisational strategic competitiveness in the market. Therefore, this report concludes that it is imperative for the organisation to adopt a leadership style change, to a transformational style, allowing the management increased focus on the organisational strategic issues. 4.0 Change Process 4.1 Planning The organization currently experiences and practices the participatory leadership approach. Under this approach, the leaders in the organization involve the employees in the daily functioning and operational organizational decision making processes. However, this presents a challenge in the management process. The direct involvement of the leaders in the daily operational activities o the organization makes them operational managers rather than strategic managers (Aswathappa & Dash, 2008). The high degree involvement leads to increased time constraint for strategic management. In resolving this challenge, planning is an imperative stage for the change process. Under planning, the organization should develop cross functional teams incorporating the supervisors, employees, as well as other organizational stakeholders. Upon the development and identification of the desired team members, the team s should be sub divided into sub teams each with a sub-team leader as the command centre. The establishment of teams in resolving organizational challenges is the basis of the action research problem solving approach. Under this principle, the concept holds that the application and use of cross functional organizational teams in developing appropriate organizational challenges, enhances a wide scope resolution development perspective. Therefore, Oliehoek (2010) argued that planning for the utilization of these teams is an important aspect in the leadership style challenge resolution. In addition, it is imperative to plan for the training and mentoring of the respective sub team members. Such training incorporates the instilling of team work culture and ethics in the leaders. Charan, Drotter and Noel (2011) argued that team leaders serve as a critical determinant of their respective teams’ success. This is because, the team leaders influence the nature and manner in which respective team members interact and share ideas. Moreover, they facilitate and enhance synergy and flow of ideas between members. Thus, training the respective sub-team members would significantly boast the subsequent developed teams’ success. In addition, the planning stage should incorporate the development of efficient communication channels. The developed teams though cross functional and mandated to effect leadership style change, fall under the organizational formal structure. A review by Marolee (2006) established a majority of teams fail due to lack of contact with the respective organizational executive management. In this regard, the study established that such lack of communication leads to team activities diversion from the organizational vision, goals and objectives. Thus developing an appropriate communication system will enhance the team’s success chances in the market. 4.2 Action The action stage in the action research approach incorporates the actual implementation of the desired change process and change enhancement process. Under the implementation stage, it is imperative for organizations and managements to consider the organizational goals, objectives, as well as the mission and vision statements. In this regard, organizational change processes should be developed and based on these principles. A study by Haddadj (2003) established that organizational change process that equitably considered the elements listed above registered increased success rates. Therefore, the IAS organizational goals as established under the organization analysis are based on the establishment of a religiously equitable society through promoting Islamic education in the education system. Therefore, the change process should ensure that it falls within the structures of this strategic objective. In this regard, the established sub teams should develop individual leadership profiling strategies for the adoption of the transformational leadership approach. Radical changes face time and financial constraints. Thus, the teams should develop gradual process criteria of how the leadership style can be established and fully realized. In this case, the sub teams’ recommendations should be compared and an ideal change process developed. Upon the establishment of the ideal change processes, the sub teams should be charged with the responsibility of identifying the challenges and eventual potential challenges facing the implementation of the proposed leadership style transformation process. Similar to the change process determination, the sub-teams should work individually and only share their final findings with the entire team. Upon the establishment and combination of the respective change process challenges, the team as whole should develop a risk management process through which the potential change challenges can be mitigated and avoided as appropriate. Such a development would facilitate increased change process success in the organizational leadership The final step under the action stage is the team’s resolution communication. Through the established organizational communication channels both internal and external, the team should communicate its resolutions to the respective stakeholders. Communication is an imperative concept in change success enhancement. Through such an approach, the team will create an overall change process awareness and subsequently reduce on the perceived change process resistance in the organization. 4.3 Evaluation Despite the development of an efficient implementation strategy for respective organizational changes, a majority of the change process fail due to poor evaluation strategies and measures. Evaluation is a management function incorporating the development and establishment of strategies and approaches through which the change process success rates can be evaluated. In this case, the establishment of key performances indices is an imperative approach. Moore (2008) stated that benchmarking is the process through which strategy and process performances are evaluated and compared against expectations. In developing an appropriate management and change process, the respective sub teams should adopt appropriate performance evaluation measures. In this regard, the team should develop leadership style change milestones. The development of milestones enables scheduling of a change process to reduce on time lags and the eventual failure of the change process. The development of an appropriate benchmark system enables the establishment of process implementation tracking and the subsequent development of corrective measure. Among the recommended benchmark tools for the IAS organizational leadership change, is the acceptance levels of the new leadership styles by the internal stakeholders. In this case, the team should develop a plan through which the respective change process can be implemented. In doing this, the change process ought to be broken down into respective stages whose attainment can be established and successfully attained. Besides the development of a scheduling process as a key performance index for the proposed organizational change, the teams should develop a costing analysis. In this regard, the team should develop an appropriate costing system for the respective change process stages such as the training and sensitization processes in the organizational change process. Through this approach, the team will facilitate the attainment of the change process within the organizational resources limits. Such an approach adoption increases the organizational change success possibility as the change process outcomes can be evaluated against the expected results and appropriate corrective measures adopted in the market. 4.4 Reflection The last change in the action research process for change implementation is the reflection stage. The stage is the imperative stage for the evaluation of the challenges and the process of change implementation in the market. Through this approach, the organizational management develops appropriate management structures and frameworks through which subsequent changes in the organization can be implemented. The development of an appropriate change reflection approach enhances the development of relevant organizational risk management structures. For instance organizations develop appropriate operations management frameworks for future application purposes. On one hand, Fleenor (2000) argued that the development of a reflection approach on a change process serves the diagnosis purpose in strategic management. The diagnosis incorporates the evaluation of stages with positive achievements as well as those with challenges. In the case of leadership change at IAS organization, the change process should be evaluated and examined. Such an analysis incorporates the evaluation of the change process schedule against the forecasted schedule as well as the costing implications. In addition, the evaluation incorporates a review of encountered challenges as well as the applied resolution measures. Additionally, the review should focus on the merits and demerits encountered upon the change implementation process. Subsequently, the reflection should focus on developing alternative measures whose implementation in the future would enhance identical change process success in the future. The development of such an analysis would facilitate increased organizational success in the future with increased risk and challenges mitigation and avoidance approaches proactive development. In developing the argued recommendation, the IAS should use the same team involved in the development of the change implementation process. The utilization of the same group enhances the retention of the group focus and the integration of the initial change expectation and the eventual change outcomes. Such a perception and wide scope focus enables the organization increase its overall change management framework into the future. 5.0 Conclusion In summary, this report reviews the concept of the change execution process. In this regard, the report focuses on the execution of a leadership style change process at IAS organisation from its current form to a transformational style. The analysis applies the action research approach, dividing the stages into the planning, action, evaluation and reflection stages respectively. The report concludes that the leadership change process framework is best drafted by a cross functional stakeholder’s representative team subdivided into sub-teams. In summary, this report concludes that the leadership change process is viable and yields beneficial potential on the organisation. References Aswathappa, K., & Dash, S. (2008). International human resource management: Text and cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishers Charan, R., Drotter, S., & Noel, J. (2011). The leadership pipeline: How to build the leadership powered company. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Clark, A. W. (1976). Experimenting with Organizational Life: The Action Research Approach. Boston, MA: Springer US. Craig, D. V. (2009). Action research essentials. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass. Fleenor, J. W. (2000). The role of reflection in managerial learning: Theory, research, and practice. Personnel Psychology, 53(3), 773-775 Haddadj, S. (2003). Organization change and the complexity of succession: A longitudinal case study from France. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 16(2), 135-153. Khosrow-Pour, M. (2006). Emerging trends and challenges in information technology management. Hershey, Penn: Idea Group. Marolee, B. S. (2006). A study on South African corporate business failures. The Business Review, Cambridge, 6(1), 168-172. Moore, R. (2008). Benchmarking 100 success secrets: The basics, the guide on how to measure, manage and improve. S.l.: Emereo Pty Ltd. Oliehoek, F. A. (2010). Value-based planning for teams of agents in stochastic partially observable environments. Amsterdam: Vossiuspers UvA. Read More