Leader Impact on the Change Process - Literature review Example

Managing Change Fatigue Name: Student ID: Course Code: Date of Submission: 1.0 Introduction Change in an organisation can be incremental or gradual where amends are made according to analysis of existing challenges. Secondly, change can be radical in nature with rapid implementation of new strategies and lastly, there is the continuous planned change (Eisenbach, Watson and Pillai, 1999, p.81). Indeed Tung (2001, p.41) affirms that whichever model of change, change is critical in ensuring the survival of business organisation. Moreover, Eisenbach, Watson and Pillai (1999, p.80) indicates that change management significantly relies on leadership. Nevertheless, Beaudan (2006) in his work postulates that there is some fatigue associated with change that is likely to make employees resist the new strategies and hence, possibility of failure in the change endeavour. Thus, he observes that, to make change last, leaders have a significant position in managing and controlling the fatigue associated with the change process. The principal basis of this discourse is to interrogate critically the observation advanced by Beaudan (2006) about leadership and change that leader as individual can have major impact on the change process. In this regard the principal focus is on change fatigue and how leadership is critical in overcoming it. 2.0 Framework of the Paper In supporting the argument advanced by Beaudan (2006) that leader as individual can have a major impact on the change process, the paper adopts a two pronged approach. The first is the types of leadership styles which are critical in sustaining and making change last. These include transformational, transactional, consultative and motivational leadership and their critical role/ position in reducing change fatigue. The basis of the paper will be grounded on transformational leadership. The core concern of this paradigm would be to show the role that this style plays in reducing or overcoming fatigues associated with change. Such style is critical in creating an organisation culture that moulds individuals within it to be prepared for and withstand change. Thus, the paper aims at establishing nexus between different types of leadership styles and their significance or possible application in reducing change fatigue. The second facet which will be used to corroborate these leadership styles is the skills and attributes of a leader that are explained through trait theory and situational theory. The essence of this segment will be to show how these skills and attributes can be used to direct the behaviour of an employee so as to reduce change fatigue and thus, the critical role of individual leader in reducing change fatigue. The critical examples is how leaders have managed to create culture that sustains change and creating powerful teams that acts as core that directs change. The whole concept is pegged on human relations concept and the realisation that organisation is made of people and thus addressing their psychosocial needs apart from economic ones is critical in reducing fatigue associated with change. In a nutshell, the onus would be to show the capabilities of transformational leaders required to carry out the pertinent change process. 3.0 Leader Impact on the Change Process (Managing Change Fatigue) The key concern is that how can a leader overcome the fatigue associated with change? The answer lies on how well he or she is able to employ various people’s/ soft/ interpersonal skills in managing organisational behaviour by aligning the employees and other stakeholders with the change theme and eliminating non co-operative ones so as to ensure success. In this essence various leadership styles are integral in explaining how they can help in the process of reducing fatigue and thus critical in informing leaders on what to adopt. In addition, the traits and attributes are important in explaining on how to align employees to the manager’s belief through creation of culture that sustains change. The basis of these arguments is how leadership can help overcome perception or attitude that creates negative attitude towards change and thus, reduction of fatigue. In his change implementation curve, Beaudan (2006, p.2) observes that the stall warming stage is the turning point in the success or failure of a change initiative. This is dependent on how a leader is able to counteract resistance to change and the unexpected external or internal role developments. Change fatigue is associated with resistance which is exhibited by factors like outsiders questioning the value of the change effort, diversion of budget resources and key leaders not being available for the review process among others. The subsequent subsection outlines the capabilities required of a manager in addressing what Beaudan (2006, p.5 & 6) refers to us as “getting change back on track”. These capabilities are integral in enabling a leader rethink change goals and expectations, changing the mix of people, changing speed and adding excitement so as to get change on track. 3.1 Role of Transformational Leadership in Managing Change Fatigue One way that a leader can reduce change fatigue is through transformational leadership that is marked with various traits and situational characteristics like emotional intelligence and motivation. Eisenbach, Watson and Pillai (1999, p.83) citing works of others notes the following “Transformational leadership behaviours go beyond transactional leadership and motivate followers to identify with the leader's vision and sacrifice their self interest for that of the group or the organization (Bass, 1985). Bass' (1985) conceptualization of transformational leadership includes charisma or idealized influence (followers trust in and emotionally identify with the leader), intellectual stimulation (followers are encouraged to question their own ways of doing things) and individualized consideration (assignments are delegated to followers providing them with learning opportunities)”. The above approach is what differentiates it with transactional leadership. The concept of transactional leadership is seen to be based on the traditional roles of a manager of controlling and organising. The tenet of this approach is to appeal to the self interest of those being led. Transformational leadership is embedded on human relation approach to management (Pindur, Rogers and Kim, 1995, p.61). The human relations approach to management model form the basis of recognising leadership as a critical ingredient for organisations success. In the earlier years, management was based on classical model which stressed functions technical skills such as controlling, coordination and controlling as the core responsibility of a manager (Pindur, Rogers and Kim, 1995, p.61). Human relations framework realises that employees’ needs are more than economic gains since they have other psycho-social needs. Ability to recognise this appreciates the fact that performance of individual is tied to wide array of factors which acts as constraints (Pindur, Rogers and Kim, 1995, p.65).There are various theoretical models used in explaining capabilities of transformational leaders required to carry out the pertinent change process. Trait theory is grounded on the premise that leaders have certain traits that makes them successful. On the other hand behavioural theory posits that it is what a leader that makes him/her different from others based on energy, passion, self confidence and ambition (Bolden et al., 2003; House, 1996). Bertocci (2009, p.20) identifies traits such as intelligence, personality, communicative skills, physical characteristics and supervisory ability. Peter Northouse cited in Gill (2011, p.65) identifies traits such as ‘integrity, self confidence, sociability, & determination as well as cognitive ability’. The emerging theme is that various scholars in their works have identified different traits that make an individual/ manager an effective leader. On the other hand, situational theories were developed as a response to deficiencies associated with trait theory. These models conceptualise leadership as being a function of a particular environment and can vary as per the situation. This implies that an effective leadership in a given context might not be totally applicable to other situations (Bertoci, 2009, p.33). The situations that are likely to influence leadership quality of an individual include personal characteristics of a leader, the nature of the job, the nature of the organisation and the nature of the people who follow. 3.2 Transformational Leadership Capabilities in Managing Change Fatigue There is no important integral part of any organization more that the human resource. A united front of work force is one sure way to success while a disjointed one is a step towards failure. A manager should be able to inspire team spirit into the organization by instilling ethics, discipline, time management, consultation and motivation. This calls for team building (Schiffman, 2004, p.17). The next important skill is communication management. Communication management, which includes internally, for instance between different departments of the company and externally such as customer and suppliers, is an essential for all types of organisation (Kotler et al., 2006, p.78). 3.2.1 Consultative Leadership One way that a transformational leader can overcome change fatigue in employee is by being consultative. To underscore the important link and dynamics between consultative leadership and change Tichy and Ulrich (2008) offers an insightful discourse on the same. Tichy and Ulrich (2008, p.3) notes that resistance to change can be analysed from three paradigms. The paradigms they talk about are resistance as a result to technical systems like task based habits, fear for change due to unknown future and loss of sunk cost. The second is political system resistance as a result of internal groupings opposed to change, narrow thinking based on the perception that the imminent change is a direct challenge to the past administration & their failures and resource limitation. The last is the cultural system resistance based on the notion that the past is known, mastered and holds security and thus no one would wish to move out of his/her comfort zone thus, inhibiting change process. To overcome challenges inhibiting change, consultative leadership can be applied to bring everyone on board. Consultative leadership comes into place based on the fact that the success of any organisation is tied on how well the management relate with its employee. Employees are the epicentre of idea creation and implementation of strategic management plan of an organisation so as to achieve strategic positioning and market leadership. The essence of leadership is based on participatory approach to formulation of the desired objectives by having attainable, specific and measurable objectives. This would make the employees part and parcel of the procedure. This collaborative approach can only be realized with a properly formulated organization structure that has leadership which motivates, sets out vision and creates the need for its people. Goal-setting theory in the organisation is reliant on how the management treats objective setting process in the organisation (Bacal, 2012, p.8). Setting objectives is a sub step in planning (Koontz and Weihrich, 2008, p.82). This should be done with short and long term focus in mind. 3.2.2 Motivational Leadership There are numerous theories that have been used to explain the same. Expectancy theory that is based on expected rewards. Concepts that explain how people are motivated to perform when rewarded or not rewards include social learning theory and cognitive learning theory. Cognitive theory underlying assumption is that people interact with their environment based on how they perceive and interpret it. In a precise term, people build an internal (cognitive) map of their external (social) environment, and these perceptions determine their behaviour (Restle et al., 1975). Social learning theory acknowledges the fact that behavioural patterns are acquired by links or contingencies established between the behaviour and its consequences. Further, it acknowledges that, when behaviour is followed by desired results (reward), that behaviour is ‘reinforced’ (made more likely). On the other hand, when behaviour is followed by undesirable or aversive consequences the behaviour is made less likely (Coleman, 1994). Thus in this case if good performance is rewarded then the person is likely to keep it up and if not he is likely to give up or quit. Creating room for employees that one is capable to attain whatever he or she wants is a critical component of a manger. Motivating employees make them work hard towards achieving certain goals. 3.2.3 Emotional Intelligence Katzenbach and Smith (1994 cited in Bolden et al, 2003, p.12-13) observes that critical behaviours of effective leader include asking question and not giving answers, doing real work in support of others, providing opportunities for other, becoming match maker instead of the focal point and seeking common understanding instead of consensus. In a nutshell, the role of a leader is to shape the behaviour of others towards desired end (Wooten, 2008, p.8). One of the entry points in managing people so that change fatigue does not arise is through emotional intelligence. A work place is like a small community with its own dynamic and one is able to analyse and speak to the emotions of others is likely to win them and have them do what he or she wants. This equally boils to leadership. The role of emotional intelligence in the styles of leadership would to inform the manager what to apply at a given condition and what is to be avoided. This is based on the fact that emotional intelligence allows one to read moods, emotions, empathize, create rapport and show seriousness among others. Moreover Emotional Intelligence can empower one to be in a position of paying attention to employee’s social, physiological, esteem, psychological and self –actualization needs through a collaborative effort. This is critical because a satisfied employee is likely to give maximum effort as opposed to those who are disgruntled and disfranchised. 3.2.4 Creation of Culture that Supports Change One of the models of organisational culture is based on Rowe et al. (1994) works. In their model, they postulate that there are four typologies of organisational culture. There argument is that organisation cultures exhibit certain clues that can be used to initiate change (p.473). The first culture that they identify is productive culture. The theme exhibited in this is on efficiency and consistency under controlled environment. These are the organisations that are resistant to change. The second is quality culture. In this they note that organisations seek to guarantee development of employees through problem solving platform. Thus, they are more adaptive to change. Next is creative culture. Under this approach, innovation is the order of the day. This means that the organisation is more risk taking. The last is supportive culture. In this cultural environment, teamwork is embodied in all their processes. Culture is summarised as “Organisational culture is a sophisticated method to control employees”. Based on this realisation, leaders should create a culture that supports change. 4.0 Conclusion The aim of the paper was to examine the role of leadership/ a leader in helping overcome fatigue associated with change. The core argument of this paper was to interrogate this proposition by Beaudan (2006) from the perspective of transformation leadership. The underlying assumption was that transformational leader posse’s certain soft/ people’s skill that if well applied can help overcome change fatigue. The basis of transformational leadership is tied to the fact that human need supersedes economic gain alone and that creation of sense of possibilities among employees is the key. This taken from organisational behaviour and human relations perspective, the role of a leader is to develop close rapport with employees by exploiting emotional, psychological and social factors so as to overcome negative perceptions and attitudes that might derail change. The paper outlines these capabilities as motivational leadership, consultative leadership, emotional intelligence and creation of culture that sustains change. References Bacal, R 2012, Performance management, New York, McGraw-Hill. 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