The Role of Leadership in Organizational Change - Essay Example

The role of leadership in organizational change Introduction This research paper considers the role of leadership in organizational change. On the basis of literature review, the suggested topic is discusses on practical research based on PowerCo case study. The importance of leadership in organizational change can be justified by following factors: 1) Leadership (L) can change communication in organization; 2) L. can change and develop roles of middle rank managers and employees; 3) L. can respond to the needs of HR of the company; 4) L. development is rooted in corporate strategy; 5) L. is a perfect mechanism of company success; 6) L. facilitates adaptation to organizational changes among employees and managers. These factors will be considered from many sides in section ‘Literature review’. Thus main ideas of modern researchers will be summed up and be a basis for research on leadership and its influence on organizational changes on the example of case study of PowerCo. Literature overview on leadership Modern literature is filled with research papers on leadership. This tendency is caused by companies’ desire to be successful and earn money hand over fist. Let us refer to appropriate sources in order to define the role of leadership in organizational change. Elving in conducted research (2005, pp. 129-138) claims that organizational change requires changes in communication. This study suggests that communication in organization creates a community and serves as an informative methodology. The researcher presents six propositions of communication factors which influence changes rejection. Nevertheless the author underlines that informative role of communication can positively influence readiness for changes in organization while it develops organizational commitment and give certainty to employees. Bovey (2001, pp. 534-548) explores resistance to organizational change. The author interestingly emphasizes that resistance to change is rooted not in individual, but in organization itself. He offers 5 mechanisms to resist organizational changes. Thus in case of following suggested mechanisms such as humor, anticipation etc employees and managers will easily adapt to newly introduced changes. Caldwell’s research (2003, pp. 285-293) explores change leaders as transformed managers. The author claims that change leaders are on the top of the company and they work out strategy of change and change managers translate their strategies into actions. We can correlate this study with the work by Smith C. (2002, pp. 448-460) on leading change which intrigues us with its correlation with Jungian interpretations of the book of Job. The story of Job from the Bible is considered to be the basis of current organizational life. The image of Job is a predecessor of modern leader. Transformation of Job in modern manager and change leaders as transformed managers has many traits in common. Modern world is anxious and modern leaders should have skills to react to all evoking changes and turbulences. Thus we can see parallels between a dissident character of Job and transformed modern, ‘change leader’. The research by Smith C. is impressive due to rich imagery, comparisons, and metaphoric interpretations and projection of Job image on modern managers. Another article (Anon., 2004) reviews a book by Burnes “Managing change and changing managers from ABC to XYZ”, which discusses changes on the example of two organization s ABC and XYZ. The first company showed trust to managing director and thus changes was a great challenge to this company. XYZ Company strived for changes but both companies introduced external change audit for better adaptation to changes. Another author Beugelsdijk (2001, pp. 311-326) in his study provides his research on the example of Heineken Inc case study too. Though methodologies of Burnes’ review and Beugelsdijk are the same, the authors conduct different researches though both of them are directed on leadership and organizational change. Beugelsdijk explores shapes of organizational change on the example of the case of Heineken Inc. The author reviews organizational change in Heineken Inc. in dynamics. No matter what kind of changes appeared, they were referred to equilibrium model of organizational change. Thus changes were differentiated as radical and incremental organizational changes. Radical changes are those introduced in Heineken Inc after WWII when occurred change in distribution system. Furthermore when in 80s middle management initiated strategy changes, stable status and long chain of CEO slowed these changes down. The study by Rowden (2000, pp. 30-35) is directed on the relationship between charismatic leadership behaviors and organizational commitment. On the basis of 245 representatives of 6 south-eastern American organizations he distinguished 6 behaviors of charismatic leaders. Such behaviors as vision and articulation, responsiveness to employees’ needs and environment etc lead to organizational commitment. Thus managers aware of organizational goals and HR considered as an agent of organizational change lead to organizational commitment. Graetz in her research (2004, pp. 550-562) “Strategic change leadership” sees leadership as a crucial role of current management and like Rowden underlines of leader’s charisma. Thus Graetz underlines that effective change leadership is possible if leaders are endowed with charisma, innovative knowledge and personal experience and skills. She suggests a cross-case analysis which underlines that effective leader develops and sustains organizational change underpinnings. The monograph by Sheard (2004, pp. 7-106) discusses a process perspective on leadership and team development. The influence of leadership behavior on team formation is discussed. The paper gives an overview of leadership, philosophy for leaders by Koestenbaum and team forming of leaders. Team development is influenced by leaders, while the main function of the latter is in managing controversies. Therefore the author underlines the importance of “team leadership”. Development and further cooperation of leaders will be a strong basis for organizational success. Groves (2006, pp. 566-583) explores leader emotional expressivity. He claims that there is direct connection between visionary leadership and emotional expressivity of leader, because in such a way employees are easily adapted to organizational change. High emotional expressivity of leaders influences the audience and evokes attention and further development of visionary leaders. This author underlines importance of leader’s charisma in organizational change involvement. But visionary leadership behaviors can’t bear fruits alone. They should be integrated with high emotional expressivity in order to achieve high organizational commitment. The article by Allio (2005, pp. 1071-1077) discusses leadership development and concentrates on teaching and learning aspects of future leaders. He claims that trainings of leaders are ineffective due to lack of practical skills in spite of strong theoretical background. What is interesting is that leadership can be learned under circumstances which require deliberate leadership actions. Therefore the author suggests teaching leadership background and developing leadership skills. Top managers on their own experiences should instill leading abilities among middle managers and the latter will bring up the next generation of leaders. Furthermore Stewart (2007, pp. 239-251) in the research paper is focused on leadership, learning and organizational flexibility too. The author underlines the importance of e-learning in a public organization. On the example of a new IT system implementation in one public agency which was introduced in order to facilitate managers’ and employees’ role understanding he shows that e-learning in combination with human factor is a right way for company success. Robinson (2008, pp. 466-480) considers global leadership on the background of culturally diverse world. The main factor of leadership involvement is caused by global culture. New leader requires new skills which will furthermore develop organizational culture. The main goal of modern leadership is to find solutions under different culturally-diverse circumstances. VBLA is introduced by the author as an algorithm for discerning new values of leaders underlining that responsiveness to culturally diverse changes is the best performance of modern leader. Research by Smith M. (2003, pp. 249-261) in his research on changing organizational culture basing on 59 organizations’ analysis underlines that culture change is the most frequent change in organization. Therefore we can correlate this research with the one by Robinson. Smith M. claims that leadership among middle managers positively influences culture change. In case when employees’ needs are correctly responded, system of rewarding is implemented than culture changes are successful. As far as we can see, both authors consider leadership on a diverse cultural background and discuss its influence on organizational changes in culture. Gaps in literature Research gap of the abovementioned studies can be seen in a lack of attention to leadership development among employees and middle rank managers. Therefore it is necessary to conduct a research of organization interested in these issues and fill in the gap of leadership research conducted in outer sources. Research objectives The knowledge on effective leadership development and its influence on organizational changes require practical decisions and effective suggestions. Thus the objectives of this research are as follows: a) To realize underpinnings of leadership development in the company; b) To understand the importance of leadership development; c) To work out systematic and alternative methodologies of leadership training. Research Methodology This part of research paper deals with appropriate research methodologies and approaches which will be used during the research on leadership and organizational change. The appropriate methodology can be found in a framework on how to develop leadership skills among Human Resources of the company PowerCo. This methodology is justified due to the reliability of the company and its organizational changes which require leadership involvement. Research paradigm Phenomenological paradigm is chosen for the research conducted on the example of PowerCo case study. It is appropriate while phenomenon of leadership is aspiration of employees and goals of CEOs. Data sources and target respondents The potential respondents are middle managers of the respondent company and employees. Having referred to the case study of PowerCo (Gibb, 2007) we can see the process of leadership trainings in dynamics. Furthermore PowerCo consults with external partners who can increase leadership potential among company’s employees. At this point our research paper correlates with the works by Allio, Graetz, Sheard, Smith and others filling in the gaps of these researches, adding strategic and tactical aspects of leadership development and its influence of organizational change. Training of future leaders is guaranteed by a learning culture of the PowerCo Company. Moreover, leadership upbringing is an underpinning for strategic improvement of the company. PowerCo is an apt example, while it ensures constant positive working experience, which improves self-subjectivity and independence of thinking among employees thus being a perfect background for leadership development. For individual improvement and self development, PowerCo provides equal opportunities to all individuals. Every employee is a valuable resource of the company. This leads to personal contribution to success of the company. The company respects an individual, an individual respects company. In accordance with some researchers (Adkins, 2003) mutual respect of employees and the company is of high relevance in modern business world. PowerCo is worth being respected by its staff because it invested £4.8 million in work-based 460,000 employee hours training over the year (Gibbs, 2007). Data collection methods Data will be collected via e-mails sent to middle managers and employees (approximately 50 participants) chosen by chance of PowerCo Company. Of course, they will be sent in groups and respondents will voluntarily take part and fill in questionnaires on leadership development in the company. These data will be analyzed and decision on further development of leaders in PowerCo and appropriate models and methodologies of leadership trainings will be worked out. Background and results of research In accordance with the HRD director of PowerCo, there are 4 issues which should be taken into account for further leadership development: 1) delegation of training authorities from in-house HRD staff to line managers. 2) In order to decrease external expenses on training, PowerCo intends to reduce number of external suppliers of training and costs by 20%. 3) PowerCo involves innovations and modernization across all departments, such as e-learning. At this point we can trace correlation with the research by Stewart (2007). We complement his paper and claim that e-learning should be considered more properly. Concentration on this aspect allows company to train their employees more effectively. In such a way modern and innovative technologies and strategies are available for the company HR. 4) PowerCo intends to train engineers in asset management and not just “people skills”. This decision is caused by current needs for keeping up to date with technical innovations and management of assets. Generally, there intended to be learning group of engineers, which will share their professional knowledge. Thus we can refer to Sheard (2004) who underlines importance of team leadership in his monograph and claim that it will be possible not only to develop leaders, but also widen potential leaders’ horizon in ‘alien’ professional sphere. This point of leadership development kills two birds with one stone while it can bring up one leader who will be professional in several spheres. Furthermore team work encourages individual performance during master-classes organized by potential leaders. Alternative approach to leadership development Leadership development can be supplied by external providers coming into an organization or by staff going outside the organization (Kundu, 2004). Outsourcing is of great demand in modern business due to integration of experiences and skills and its positive influence on the development of future leaders and company itself. Effective management of leadership development is an underpinning of effective management of external partners. Successful partnership is a key to company prosperity. Nevertheless it is necessary to underline the required needs and skills from partners to integrate them into the company. A lot of ambiguities and incongruities can appear while leadership training. First of all, the very possibility of training future leader can be questioned in accordance with Allio (2005). The second reason is that drawing in external partners to leadership training process can be the reverse side o the coin while leadership development in companies’ teams can also be successful and there is no need to spend lots of money on external partners’ drawing in to this process. Let us consider probable outcome of leadership development with the participation of external partners. Nevertheless, outsourcing is hard to reach. There should be a strict structure of HR in order to develop leadership in the company. After an employee has gone through thick and thin, got a lot of experience and opened new horizons for further self performance and is on the closest stage of becoming a leader, it is desirable to let his knowledge and experience available for external partners. Companies with the same approach would tend to do the same thing. Therefore a successful cooperation would appear. Fortunately, the outcome of leadership training by external partners is positive. Moreover, we can conclude that successful external partnership is a crucial point in success of the company and quick adaptation to newly introduced organizational changes. But it is necessary to remember that external partners can influence positively on PowerCo if internal atmosphere of the company is favorable for employees. PowerCo’ main goal is to become international electric company, that’s why training of future leaders among employees and effective outsourcing is pivotal issues for consideration for the company managers. Timescale for the Research: Initial Research: 1 month Literature Review: 1,5 months Research Process: 2 weeks Analysis of Research Finding: 2 weeks Conclusions: 1 week Works cited 1. Adkins, S.S., 2003. The Brave New World of Learning. T+D Magazine, pp. 29-37. 2. Allio, R. J., 2005. INFORMED VIEWPOINT ARTICLE. Leadership development: teaching versus learning. Management Decision, 43/ 7/8, pp. 1071-1077. 3. Beugelsdijk, S., 2001. Shapes of organizational change: the case of Heineken Inc. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15/2, pp. 311-326. 4. Bovey, W., 2001. Resistance to organizational change: the role of defense mechanisms. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16/7, pp. 534-548. 5. Caldwell, R., 2003. Change leaders and change managers: different or complementary. The Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24/5, pp. 285-293. 6. Developing change and leadership capabilities, 2004. Strategic Direction, 20/6, pp. 24-26. 7. Elving,W. J. L., 2005. The role of communication in organizational change. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 129-138 8. Gibb, S., 2007. PowerCo case study adapted from: Learning and Development, Processes, Practices and Perspectives at work. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 9. Graetz, F., 2000. Strategic change leadership. Management Decision, 38/8, pp. 550±562. 10. Groves, K. S., 2006. Leader emotional expressivity, visionary leadership, and organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27/ 7, pp. 566-583. 11. Kundu C. et al., 2004. Creating a Talented Workforce for Delivering Service Quality. Human Resource Planning, 27 (2), pp. 40+. 12. Robinson, D., 2008. Global leadership in a culturally diverse world. Management Decision, 46/ 3, pp. 466-480. 13. Rowden, R., 2000. The relationship between charismatic leadership behaviors and organizational commitment. The Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 21/1, pp. 30-35. 14. Sheard, A.G., 2004. A process perspective on leadership and team development. Journal of Management Development, 23/ 1, pp. 7-106. 15. Smith, C., 2002. Leading change: insights from Jungian interpretations of The Book of Job. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15/5, pp. 448-460. 16. Smith, M., 2003. Changing an organization’s culture: correlates of success and failure. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24/5, pp. 249-261. 17. Stewart, J., 2007. Implementing change in a public agency. Leadership, learning and organizational resilience. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 20/ 3, pp. 239-251. Read More