Leadership and change

Old is Easy, New is hard (David B. and Mary Dee
Hicks, Personnel Decisions International)

“There is nothing more
difficult to take in
hand, more perilous
to conduct or more
uncertain in its
success than to take
the lead in the
introduction of a new
order of things”
- Niccolo Machiavelli,
1469 - 1527

 Organizations today face myriad potential
challenges.
 To be successful they must cope effectively
with the implications of new technology,
globalization, changing social and political
climates, new competitive threats, shifting
economic conditions, industry consolidation,
swings in consumer preferences, and new
performance and legal standards.

 Leaders can use goal setting, coaching,
mentoring, delegation, or empowerment skills
to effectively change the behaviors and skills of
individual direct reports
 Although leading change is perhaps the most
difficult challenge facing any leader, it may be
the best differentiator of managers from
leaders, and of mediocre from exceptional
leaders

 The best leaders are those who recognize the
situational and follower factors inhibiting or
facilitating change, paint compelling vision of
the future, and formulate and execute a plan
that moves their vision from a dream to reality

 Beer has offered a rational and straightforward
approach to organizational change that
addresses many of the issues raised by the
other authors.
 Beer’s model also provides a road map for
leadership practitioners wanting to implement
an organizational change initiative, as well as a
diagnostic tool for understanding why change
initiatives fail.

 According to Beer;
 𝑪 = 𝑫 × 𝑴 × 𝑷 > 𝑹 where:
 C means the Amount of Change
 D represents Follower’s Dissatisfaction with the status quo
 M Symbolizes the model for change and includes the
leader’s vision of the future as well as the goals and systems
that need to change to support the new vision.
 P represents the Process, which concerns developing and
implementing a plan that articulates the who, what, when,
where, and how of the change initiative.
 R stands for resistance; people resist change because they
fear a loss of identity or social contacts, and good change
plans address these sources of resistance.

 Followers who are relatively content are not
apt to change; malcontents are more likely to
do something to change the situation
 Follower's emotions are the fuel for
organizational change, and change often
requires a considerable amount of fuel.
 The key for leadership practitioners is to
increase dissatisfaction to the point where
followers are inclined to take action, but not so
much that they decide to leave the
organization.

 There are four components of the model:
1. Environmental Scanning
2. A vision
3. Setting new goals to support the vision
4. Identify the needed system changes
 A system’s thinking approach views the
organisation as a set of interlocking systems where
changes in one system can have intended and
unintended consequences for other parts of the
organisation

 Siloed Thinking involves optimizing one part
of the organization at the expense of sub –
optimizing the organization's overall
effectiveness.

 The change initiative becomes tangibleand
actionable because it consists of the development
and the execution of the change plan
 Change will only occur when the action steps
outlined in the plan are actually carried out
 The best way to get followers committed to a
change plan is to have them create it
 Leaders who address shifts in styles and
inappropriate behaviors in a swift and consistent
manner are more likely to succeed with their
change initiatives.

 The expectation – Performance gap is the
difference between the initial expectations and
reality
 If not managed properly, it can spark resistance
(R), causing the followers to revert back to old
behaviors and systems to get things done.
 Leaders can help followers deal with their
frustrations by setting realistic expectations,
demonstrating a high degree of patience, and
ensuring that followers gain proficiency with the
new systems and skills as quickly as possible

MANAGERIAL TECHNIQUES TO
REDUCE RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Techniques for reducing resistance to
change
• Education and communication. This technique
assumes that much of the resistance lies in
the misinformation and poor communication
• Participation. This involves bringing directly
affected by the proposed change into decision
- making process
• Facilitation and support. Involve helping
employees deal with the fear and anxiety
associated with the change effort

• Negotiation. Involves exchanging something of
value for an agreement to lessen the
resistance to the change effort
• Manipulation and co – optation. Refer to
covert attempts to influence others about the
change
• Coercion. Involves the use of direct threats or
force against the resisters

LEWIN’S 3-PHASE MODEL OF
CHANGE

KOTTER’S CHANGE MANAGEMENT
PROCESS

 STEP 1: Forces for change (internal and environmental forces) which affect:
 STEP 2: Performance outcomes (individual, group and organizational) which encourages
 STEP 3: Diagnosis of the problem (information, participation and change agent) which
leads to
 STEP 4: Selection of appropriate intervention (structural, behavioural and technological)
as constrained by S-P-O-T-S
 STEP 5: Limiting conditions (leadership climate, formal organization structure and
organization culture)
 STEP 6: Selection and Implementation of the method (timing, scope and
experimentation) provision for
 STEP 7: Evaluation of the method (feedback, adjustment, revision, reinforcement)
APPLYING THE 7-STEP, ORGANIZATIONAL
STRATEGIC CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

 Step one of the strategic change management process starts with an
assessment of the organization’s Mission and Vision, challenges (pains),
enablers and values.
 The following strategically-relevant items form the scope to be scrutinized by
business managers:
 The company's mission statement
 The company's strategic plan/vision
 The financial status of the organization
 How the organization is currently structured and operating
 The level of expertise of their employees
 Customer satisfaction level
 Tools:
 SWOT Analysis
 PESTEL Analysis
STEP 1: FORCES FOR CHANGE - INTERNAL
AND EXTERNAL STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT

STEP 5: LIMITING CONDITIONS -
FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS

 Charismatic leaders are passionate, driven
individuals who are able to paint a compelling
vision of the future
 A combination of a compelling vision,
heightened emotional levels, and strong
personal attachments often compels followers
to put forth greater effort to meet
organizational and societal challenges.
 Charismatic movements can result in positive
or negative organizational or societal changes.

 Max Weber maintained that societies could be
categorized onto one of three types of authority
systems:
1. Traditional Authority System
2. Legal Rational Authority System
3. Charismatic Authority System
 James Macgregor Burns believed that leadership
could take one of two forms
1. Transactional Leadership
2. Transformational leadership
a. Refreshing

 All transformational leaders are charismatic, but
not all charismatic leaders are transformational
 Three newer theories of charismatic or
transformational leadership:
 Conger and Kanungo: Leaders build trust in their vision
by personal example, risk taking, and their total
commitment to the vision
 House: Charismatic leaders achieve higher performance
by changing follower’s self concepts
 Avolio and Bass – Transformational leaders achieve
stronger results because they heighten followers’
awareness of goals and the means to achieve them, they
convince followers to take action for the collective good,
and their vision of the future helps followers satisfy
higher order needs.

 Several common threads exist in the behavior
and style of both charismatic and
transformational leaders.
1. An imaginative, future – oriented vision
2. Superb rhetorical skills
3. An ability to build a particular kind of image in
the hearts and minds of followers and to build
trust by showing commitment to followers’
needs
4. A personalized leadership style

 Charisma is probably more a function of the
follower’s reactions to a leader than of the
leader’s personal characteristics
 Four unique characteristics of the reactions that
followers have toward leaders:
1. Identification with a leader and the vision
2. Heightened emotional levels
3. Willing subordination to the leader
4. Feelings of empowerment

 Situational factors play an important role in
determining whether a leader is perceived as
charismatic. Those factors believed to affect
charismatic leadership are:
1. Crises
2. Social networks
3. Outsourcing and organisational downsizing
4. Time

 Charismatic leadership is most fully understood
when we consider how leader and situational
factors affect the attribution process
 It is unlikely that all the characteristics of
charismatic leadership need to be present before
charisma is attributed to a leader
 Charismatic leadership can happen anywhere
 Charismatic leadership is a two way street
between leaders and followers
 Overwhelming evidence supports that charismatic
or transformational leaders are more effective than
their non – charismatic conterparts

 Transformational leaders are more successful due to
followers’ heightened emotional levels and willingness
to work toward accomplishing the leader’s vision.
 Transactional leaders motivate followers by setting
goals and promising rewards for desired performance
 Transformational and transactional leadership
comprise 2 independent leadership dimensions
 Multifactor Leadership questionnaire(MLQ) assesses
the extent of transformational or transactional
leadership and the extent of follower’s satisfaction with
and belief in the effectiveness of their leader.

CHARACTERISTICS OF
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

 Transformational leadership is seen in all
countries, institutions, and organizational levels
but more commonly in public institutions and at
lower organizational levels
 Transformational leadership is significantly better
predictor of organizational effectiveness than
transactional or leissez - faire Leadership
 Laissez – faire leadership is negatively correlated
with effectiveness.
 Leaders can develop their transformational and
transactional leadership skills
 Charisma ultimately exists in the eyes of the
beholder

 The rational Approach to organizational change
emphasizes analytic planning and management
skills
 The emotional approach to organizational change
emphasizes leadership skills, Leader – Follower
relationships, and the presence of a crisis to drive
organizational change.
 Either approach can result in organizational
change, but the effectiveness of the change may
depend on which approach leadership
practitioners are most confortable with and the
skill with which they can carry it out.

Leadership and change

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