Why Managers Can't Do without Leaders and Leaders Can't Do without Managers - Essay Example

ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP by 09 November Organizational Leadership Introduction Organizational change is impossible without leaders. However, whether or not leaders can foster organizational change is a continued debate. Basically, organizational change is the process of structural and strategic transformation, and leaders exemplify the main source of inspiration in organizations. Simultaneously, leaders are believed to lack the administrative dimension and managerial capacity to implement organizational change decisions. In the current state of business and environment, leadership is the foundational element of organizational success. In the meantime, the role of leaders in organizational change has to be reconsidered. The goal of this paper is to prove that leaders do have a capacity to manage and guide organizational change. Research objectives and questions The main goal of the study is to find out whether leaders can really manage change. The main research questions include: 1. What is change management? 2. What are the main features and qualities of leadership? 3. How do leaders manage change? 4. Why managers cannot ensure the success of organizational change processes and decisions? The research builds on the hypothesis that leaders can manage change, but neither leaders nor managers alone can ensure the success of organizational change processes and decisions. Organizational change and change management: understanding the meaning The essence of change management is a popular object of research and analysis. Leaders and managers tend to interpret the meaning of change management in entirely different ways. However, understanding the meaning of change management is extremely important and can facilitate the development of relevant leadership frameworks. According to Fincham and Rhodes (2005), change management is “the leadership and direction of the process of organizational transformation – especially with regard to human aspects and overcoming resistance to change” (p.525). Apparently, leadership is the foundational ingredient of change management in organizations. It is possible to assume that no organizational change is successful and meaningful without quality leadership. Change management involves and requires that employees have inspiration and motivation to accomplish their tasks in ways that foster positive change in organizations (Hughes 2006). Most probably, it is through leaders that employees acquire the desired level of motivation to cope with their workplace obligations and face the challenge of organizational change. Change management is more than a single change process. Change management involves all employees rather than one manager (Hughes 2006). The levels of involvement will differ considerably at different levels of the organizational hierarchy (Hughes 2006). The meaning and definition of change management implies that leadership is inseparable from change. This, however, raises the question of leaders’ capacity and their ability to guide and manage change in organizations. Morrison (1994) claims that leaders who help organizations to change do not need to understand the process of change; they need to understand people. Change occurs from and between people, and leaders possess a unique ability to unite their followers around common goals and pursue them. Simultaneously, leaders often lack an ‘administrative’ dimension and fail to attend to even the most urgent management tasks. Thus, leaders can successfully manage change, but only when supported by senior managers and executives. Their functions are complementary and create the pool of resources needed to foster positive organizational change. Various processes of organizational changes and reconstructions should be agreed, and if it may be easy in the small company, but considerable difficulties may appear in a big company. Such perspectives must be applied to the topic of the organizational change management and be closely considered, as it is often that different company’s departments work with similar issues and may come out with the suggestions which don’t correspond with the general policy of the organization, as well as standard methods; it may also occur that one of the departments comes out with a brilliant suggestion for organizational change and the task is to persuade other departments in the necessity for this change. In such cases management of the company should be very delicate in interfering with such matters. Organizational change management includes various aspects, - technological, structural, methodical, human and psychological. This makes the management obligations even more complicated, as the specialist taking part in the change process; try to impose their viewpoint and limited view at the complex problem. How do leaders manage change? Leaders have skills, knowledge, and capacity to manage change. Moreover, “managing change – its impact on organizational structure, group culture, and personal management styles – is one of the most fundamental and enduring aspects of leadership” (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004, p.112). The fundamental qualities of leaders and leadership imply that no change management is possible without leaders. Those who consider themselves leaders can use their knowledge, skills, experiences, capabilities, and motivation to engage the followers in a collaborative change effort. Leaders alleviate followers’ fears that change can be confusing and messy (Miller 2002). Leaders manage change, by building commitment and ensuring discipline in followers (Miller 2002). Leaders have the degree of adaptability to manage change effectively and successfully (Miller 2002). Leader beliefs inspire the organization and set the stage for the implementation of relevant change management frameworks. Leaders can manage change, since they are inherently opposed to status quo and seek to implement positive changes (Conger & Kanungo 1987). Leaders tend to hold an idealized vision of the organizational reality, which is very distant from the status quo (Conger & Kanungo 1987). Leaders’ direction and vision foster likeability and turn them into role models for their followers (Conger & Kanungo 1987). Eventually, leaders can apply to unconventional means of changing the status quo and display remarkable environmental sensitivity for changing this status quo (Conger & Kanungo 1987). Leaders manage change by articulating their vision and using personal power and charisma to motivate change in followers (Conger & Kanungo 1987). These are the qualities and capabilities which suggest that leaders do and can manage change successfully. The main question is in what exactly leaders do and how they use their qualities to manage organizational change. Leaders usually begin by establishing the sense of urgency, examining organizational realities, and identifying the scope and significance of the organizational crisis (Kotter 1995). Leaders built their change decisions on a coalition of followers; actually, only leaders have the capacity and skills to form a powerful coalition (Kotter 1995). Creating a coalition implies gathering a group with power to lead change and encouraging the group to work collectively on change management tasks (Kotter 1995). Leaders manage change, by creating a vision and communicating this vision to the followers (Kotter 1995). Leadership is a necessary precondition for implementing change initiatives, since leaders develop strategies to achieve the vision and teach followers new behaviors and skills to foster change (Kotter 1995). The most important is the leader’s ability to empower others to achieve the change vision. This means that leaders get rid of barriers to change and encourage innovativeness and actions in followers (Kotter 1995). More often than not, leadership (especially transformational leadership) inspires and motivates followers to act beyond their capacity, and this is what makes change realistic and possible. Leadership facilitates learning in organizations (Schein 1993). Through learning organizations achieve the desired state of business consciousness and enhance their competitive position. Learning fosters continuous change. The example of IBM suggests that leaders play the fundamental role in change management. For many years, sales-and-marketing used to be the guiding principle of organizational development at IBM (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004). With time, organizational leaders at IBM learned that customer orientation in product manufacturing and sales was to become the basic element of continued business success (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004). Leaders were at the forefront of cultural change at IBM; they created a new cultural vision and led the process of transformation into a customer-oriented company. Leaders played the major role in the implementation of change at IBM – they defined what the future would look and inspired the followers to pursue the predefined vision. Logically, many organizations ask themselves why executives and senior managers cannot manage change. Really, senior managers possess resources and skills to manage change processes. Yet, past organizational experiences have proved that CEOs often lead their organizations to change failures. At the beginning of the 1980s, the new CEO a large international bank announced a new change initiative (Beer, Eisenstat & Spector 1990). Competition and deregulation demanded radical structural changes in management and leadership principles (Beer, Eisenstat & Spector 1990). To respond to the market and regulatory changes, the new CEO designed a new mission statement, initiated the development of new companywide programs, changed the organizational structure, shaped a new performance appraisal system, and implemented a system of management surveys (Beer, Eisenstat & Spector 1990). Yet, after a series of change management initiatives, nothing changed. Two years after the change management program had been implemented, organizational behaviors did not change (Beer, Eisenstat & Spector1990). Needless to say, managers cannot manage change without leaders. Leaders do have skills and capabilities to manage change. Managing change is the foundational ingredient of leadership (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004). Senior managers and executives alone cannot manage change, since they often lack commitment and integrity provided by leaders (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004; Kotter 1995). Only three out of four change efforts are successful (Miller 2002). Executives tend to underestimate the importance and scope of organizational change (Kotter 1995). They find it hard to move out of their comfort zones; while change is natural for leaders, managers are often reluctant to break the existing status quo. At times, managers and executives simply lack patience to promote positive change (Kotter 1995). They also hold fears about the process and future of change – they are easily paralyzed by the risks of failures and downsides and scared off by employee resistance (Kotter 1995). The sense of urgency among managers helps to foster change, but someone else must get managers and executives together, and this is where leadership becomes the main driver of positive change. Managers do have the capacity to initiate change, but only leaders can ensure that the organization achieves the desired result. Like managers cannot do without leaders, leaders cannot do without managers. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, said that organizations cannot grow long-term if they cannot manage short-term objectives (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004). In the process of organizational change, leaders fulfill long-term functions, whereas managers provide short-term fulfillment of organizational tasks and functions. Leaders are prospective; they define the future of the organization, create a new vision of the organizational reality, and provide inspiration to achieve change goals (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004). Simultaneously, management is essentially about the process “of maintaining systems to provide goods and services efficiently” (Ahn, Adamson & Dornbusch 2004, p.114). While leaders create the inspirational foundation of change management, managers support the resource and short-term management side of organizational change. Change leaders and change managers are complementary (Caldwell 2003). Leaders can manage change, but only with the help and continuous support of managers. Conclusion Leaders do have a capacity to manage and guide organizational change. Leaders can manage change, since they are inherently opposed to status quo and seek to implement positive changes. Senior managers and executives alone cannot manage change, since they often lack commitment and integrity provided by leaders. Like managers cannot do without leaders, leaders cannot do without managers. While leaders create the inspirational foundation of change management, managers support the resource and short-term management side of organizational change. Leaders can manage change, but only with the help and continuous support of managers. References Ahn, MJ, Adamson, JS & Dornbusch 2004, ‘From leaders to leadership: Managing change’, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, vol.10, no.4, pp.112-123. Beer, M, Eisenstat, RA & Spector, B 1990, ‘Why change programs don’t produce change’, Harvard Business Review, November-December, pp.158-166. Caldwell, R 2003, ‘Change leaders and change managers: Different or complementary?’, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol.24, no.5, pp.285-293. Conger, JA & Kanungo, RN 1987, ‘Toward a behavioral theory of charismatic leadership in organizational settings’, Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review, vol.12, no.4, pp.637-647. Fincham, R & Rhodes, P 2005, Principles of organizational behavior, OUP Oxford. 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