Leadership and Organization: Can Leaders Really Manage Change - Essay Example

Leadership and Organization: Can Leaders Really Manage Change? [Supervisor Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Defining Leadership 3 Leadership and Organizational Change 3 Theories Regarding How Leaders Manage Change 5 Burns and Bass Leadership Theory 5 Stodgill’s Trait Theory 8 Katz Skills Approach 8 Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory 9 Conclusion 9 List of References 10 Leadership and Organization: Can Leaders Really Manage Change? Introduction The characteristics of leadership are seen in everyday interactions with the people around us. Leaders are found in all forms, styles and characters. The aim of this essay is to verify and explain that effective leadership can always manage change. It will also analyze the concepts and styles of leadership that specifically affects the environment of every organization. It will highlight theories such as transformational and transactional leadership, trait theory, skills approach and situational/contingency theory that are helpful for the progress and development of business organizations. It will focus how and when change takes place within an organization, and how leaders adopt with it, deal with it and what are the consequences while dealing with the change. The essay will discuss the basic skills of leadership such as the ability to inspire others, have effective communication skills, is enthusiastic and inspirational. The importance of these skills would assist the leaders to manage the change. The main objective of this paper is not only to review the concepts of leadership on theoretical notions but to also elaborate the application of these theories with the real case study examples. Defining Leadership Leadership is an influence of people including leaders and followers who aim the actual changes and outcomes that reflect their shared drives. It reflects upon the changes and purposes being shared by the people (Daft 2008, p.4). Leadership involves the four vital factors including leader, followers, communication and situation that help to acquire the positive within an institute. Every leader should have personal responsibility and honesty towards the followers and organization, besides leader should have the mentality to accept changes and sharing purpose with the followers (Clark 2010). According to Daft definition leadership entails forming change, and not only being dependent upon the traditional concepts. This change directs to achieve the end-results that leader and the follower both desires. It helps to influence and motivate the leader and the follower to attain the mutual vision (Daft 2008, p.194). Leadership and Organizational Change Definition of Organizational Change: Organizational change is considered as an approach of bringing change in terms of transition within the team or organization in the current phase to the desired phase. There are different types of organizational change for which leaders are responsible including mission changes, strategic changes, operational changes technological changes, behavioral changes among the workforce (Boje 2000). Leaders are highly concerned with the emotional perspective of the individuals. In today’s world change is considered as one of the most imperative facet of life and work. In order to survive in this competitive environment it is necessary for every human being to handle with a variety of changes happening in their lives. Every person’s success and achievement is dependant upon how well they are adjusting to change. The leader is the person who always brings change within any organization (Williams 2008). First, leaders always create an agenda to bring change using a firm mission/vision. Second, a leader forms a strong execution network to make things done with the help of other people working within and outside the organizational context (Goodwin 2008, p.6 ). Change management process is usually the most crucial period, as during this time period the relationships between the leader-follower might be affected due to a number of reasons such as economic threats, reluctant of replacing the traditional infrastructure, apprehension of facing loss, cultural influences and lack of reliability. Many theorists have depicted distinctive change theories according to their research and understandings. Three of the prominent change models are Dunphy and Stace Change Model, Lewin and Schein Change Theory and Burns and Stalker Change Model. All of these theorists believe that an effective leader is the only person who brings change within an organization. He is the one who constructs an effective framework for accepting, leading and assisting change. Lewin and Schein believe that change is created on the conception of human behavior, and is ascertained by the cultural influences and the previous observational experiences. During this phase, an effective leader brings change by introducing new concepts or forces or by eliminating some of the existing concepts that are playing a major role in the current behavior or cultural context. It is the leader or change agent who identifies major causes that needs to be altered or changed within any organization. The inspirational role models known as leaders are the one who introduce the new actions that later becomes customary, and creates a modified self-concept within the employees while identifying new interpersonal associations (Wirth 2006). Theories Regarding How Leaders Manage Change As stated above leaders play an essential role in bringing change within an organization, and these changes can be managed by adopting different theories depending upon different scenarios. Burns and Bass Leadership Theory James Burns and Bernard Bass have described two basic forms of leadership Transformational and Transactional Leadership that are highly effectual for leading and managing change. James Mac Gregor Burns was the first one to introduce the concept of transformational leadership. According to Burns, “Transformational leadership is a relationship of mutual help and support that helps followers become leaders, and may assist leaders to care more about their people” (Bono and Heijden 2008, p.31). He states that transformational leaders are inspirational, enthusiastic and a moral leader. The leaders give their followers a feeling of equality, sincerity, liberty, justice and a feeling of collaboration. Burns has described that a transformational leader can productively lead its organization through change. With the strength of transformational traits a leader can present his or her vision in a more effective manner and is able to inspire the employees to change expectations, insights and persuasion to work towards mutual goals (Boje 2000). On the other hand Bernard Bass took one step further and explained transformational leadership as how a leader influences its followers and assist his followers in implementing change. He described that a transformational leader enhances the follower’s selection of needs, boost the self-confidence and self-interest of a follower, lifts up the expectations of the follower and above all promotes behavioral change of the individuals (Bono and Heijden 2008, p.30). Transformational leaders are charismatic who provide vision and sense of mission, trust and respect to the followers. They promote intelligence, problem-solving techniques and encourages rational stimulation. A transformational leader is always humble to his followers and he provides personal attention to each of the employee and treats them individually. Moreover, they carry the potential to align organization’s internal structure and redesign the systems and jobs to attain a meaningful change management processes. A transformational leader has all the skills that are needed to handle and manage change (Bass 1990, p.4). Some of the high profile companies such as Sainsbury, Tesco, WHSmith, Marks and Spencer and many others are involved in transformational leadership particularly during change management processes. Marks and Spencer was loosing its position in the marketplace, therefore the Company decided to implement change by introducing new leaders with transformational characteristics from external sources. They focused upon applying best practices in the supply chain sector of M&S and reconnected the company with its consumers (Dixon 2011). As it is necessary for a transformational leader to be acknowledged with the happening at the market place and gain a reputation for being helpful on way to achieve organizations’ goals and objectives, it becomes important for them to have good knowledge about company’s business, its potential and history. Possessing rich knowledge about company’s business, the change leader will be able to handle the stress that team members will be experiencing during the change process by enhancing their knowledge and creating awareness among them. In case of M&S, the transformational leadership required will be responsible to highlight the importance of change and how is it valuable for M&S and its business. As M&S is revitalizing itself keeping the future requirements of the business, transformational leader will have to be idealistic, inspirational, charismatic and morally motivated. It is a tough task for leader to keep in mind the ethical values related to the organization itself, as well as the employees of the organization for successful articulation of ideas generated before and in between the change process (Bass 1990, 19-31). Don Hellreigel in his book Organizational Behavior describes transactional leadership as a leadership that involves encouraging and leading the followers predominantly through engaging in their own self-interest. To bring within an organization relying upon transactional leadership might be difficult because transactional leaders are reluctant to bring change. In order to bring change, it is tough to initiate a new idea and to direct the followers to pursue those new ideas. The transactional leaders use commendations for achieving accomplished performances. Second, in transactional leadership passive management is done by exemption. The leader implies different punishment methods in response to undesirable performances from the established standards (Hellriegel 2007, p.237). Third component of transactional leadership is Laissez-faire leadership in which the employees work on their own capabilities. Only a slight direction is provided to the workforce, and feedback is given to them at the completion of the task. Most often, this leadership style is effective when the individual team members are highly experienced, skilled and trustworthy (Daniels 2004, p.481). Mary Kay Ash who is the founder and the owner of Mary Kay Cosmetics is known as combination of a transformational and a transactional leader. She has always applied contingent reward system, she provides her consultants a high amount of compensation, Cadillac, commissions, yearly trips for the best sales person of the year and above all enables them a highly friendly working environment to improve their self-esteem and sense of confidence. These all rewards signify that every member of her organization is valued and they can achieve exceptional rewards by giving outstanding performance (Farnham 1993, p.1). Stodgill’s Trait Theory Trait Theory is one of the earliest theories of leadership explained by Stodgill in 1948. In earlier 20th century it was believed that people such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Buddha and other great people were born leaders. But later Stodgill challenged that every person has certain characteristics. Every person is not the same. He suggested, “An individual with leadership traits, who was a leader in one situation might not be a leader in another situation”(Northouse 2010, p.15). In 1996 Alliger and Lord De Vegar highlighted that personality traits are highly influenced by a person’s perception about leadership. Some of the skills that trait theory supports the leaders are those that present-day organizations most needs and are customarily required for change management projects. In 1989 Nadler and Tushman took one-step further and explained trait theory as Charismatic Leadership, which is greatly needed for implementing effective change. In today’s world Barrack Obama is one of the biggest example of a charismatic leader who has all the specific traits that are highlighted under charismatic leadership, these traits includes self-monitoring, personal integrity, open-mindedness, providing impressive management, excellent communication skills and motivation to acquire social power (Northouse 2010, p.16). Katz Skills Approach In 1955 Robert Katz published an article in Harvard Business Review in which he introduced another leadership approach known as Skills Approach. This approach suggested that knowledge, capabilities and experience are highly necessary for effective leadership. Katz illustrated three primary skills; technical, human and conceptual. Katz contended, “Skills are what leaders can accomplish whereas traits are who leaders are” (Northouse 2010, p.40). All the departments of organization such as accounting, marketing, production, technological and distribution requires technical skills. Any person who is in favor of bringing change, but does not have appropriate technical skills can never be an effective leader and cannot guide his followers successfully. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard introduced a novel model of leadership theory known as Situational Leadership Theory that gained a success in the development of management structures and individuals. Situational Leadership theory is considered highly appropriate for leadership skills in the organizational change processes. It mainly focuses upon followers’ readiness. Hersey and Blanchard emphasized that situational theory recognize the significance of external environment institutional forces in effecting organizational performance and the ability of organizations to selectively adapt to these environmental changes” (Sisaye 2001). The situational or contingency approach persuade the leaders to communicate, coach and elaborate a broader picture of the organization, prop up the change management and express how the change is suitable for the overall company’s vision, strategy and plans (Robbins 2010, p.37). Conclusion Effective leaders can always manage change and the above analysis states that leadership is a dynamic affiliation based process for bringing and maintaining change management in every organization. Choosing the appropriate leadership approach has a great impact upon the leader as well the management of the organization. A leader always has to build a strong people-based network in the organizational context, thus improving the capability and capacity needs of the senior executives, managers and other workers to develop sustainable business environment. Leadership for change in successful organizations usually prefers to have a mix of leadership approaches and skills such as transformational and transactional leadership or situational and charismatic leadership. Leadership for change should not be restricted to either traits or only skills, however it should be a blend of all the characteristics with a reaffirmation of importance of adopting the appropriate behavior. List of References Bass, B., 1990. From Transactional to Transformational Leadership: Learning to Share the Vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(3), pp.19-31. Boje, M.D., 2000. Transformational Leadership. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 19 October 2011]. Bono, D.S. and Heijden, B., 2008. Transformational and Transactional Leadership. In Beatrice Van Der Heijden, S.D.B. Leadership, Traits and Responsibility. New York: Meyer and Meyer Ltd. p.31. Clark, D., 2010. Concepts of Leadership. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 19 April 2011]. Daft, R.L., 2008. In The Leadership Experience. Mason, OH: Cengage Brain. pp.4-7. Daniels, R., 2004. Leadership Approaches. In Daniels, R. Nursing Fundamentals: caring and clinical decision making. New York: Cengage Brain. pp.480-85. Dixon, S., 2011. Transformational leadership: why your business can’t grow without it. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 04 November 2011]. Farnham, A., 1993. Mary Kays Lesson in Leadership. Fortune, p.1. Goodwin, N., 2008. Leadership in Public Health. Research Report. Hellriegel, D., 2007. Leading Effectively; Contemporary Developments. In Hellriegel, D. Organizational Behavior. Mason: Thomson Learning. p.236. Northouse, P.G., 2010. Theory Approach. In Northouse, P.G. Leadership; Theory and Practice. Thousand Oakes CA: SAGE Publications. p.16. Robbins, S., 2010. Management 10/E. New Delhi: Pearson Education. Williams, L., 2008. Understanding the Change Process/Cycle of Change. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 15 October 2011]. Wirth, A.R., 2006. Lewin/Schein’s Change Theory. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 15 October 2011]. Read More