Leadership and Organizational Change Essay
An organization always have specific goals and objectives that need to be achieved within a particular period of time. However, without proper motivation, an organization will face a lot of challenges trying to attain its set goals and objectives. Therefore, to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of its operations, an organization might be forced to introduce various changes that will contribute to the effectiveness of organizational operations. In this case, therefore, the paper will discuss various factors that might force an organization into introducing new changes to its mode of operation to enhance the quality of service.
Change is considered to be a transition in which a real process takes place. The entire process might take time, but at the end, an individual might be in the position of learning new things, enhance innovation at the same time one might be in the position of changing his or her attitude or perception towards a particular aspect (Burns, 2012). At this stage, great administration and consolation are essential on the grounds that process might instill fear amongst the employees thus enhancing ineffectiveness. Therefore, the entire process of change requires a leader to work closely with his or her employees thus motivating the employees to be positive towards change.
Uncertainty, volatility as well as chaos is considered to be among the major factors that drive an organization into introducing new changes into its system. In this case, it is the primary responsibility of leaders to ensure that control the impacts of this factors to ensure that the impacts introduced to an organization do not affect it in a negative way but introduce positive changes that will boost the corporate image of an organization.
Uncertainty in the external environment is one of the factors that has been considered to affect an organization in various ways. In this case, the management of the respective organization has the primary responsibility of ensuring that employees are ready to face any challenges that they might face. For instance, Uncertainty in the marketing environment, have forced most organizations to produce quality products and at the same time being cautious not to make a loss in the marketing industry because of the ever-changing nature of the market in terms of demand and supply. In addition, technology has been considered to be one of the major changes that brought a lot of positive impact to organizational operations. In this regard, most employees were afraid that technology would take most of their jobs thus declaring them redundant (Wals and Corcoran, 2012). Therefore, most employees being afraid of the uncertainty, they were forced to take refresher courses to improve their skills and expertise. Therefore, the uncertainty in this aspect forced most employees to improve their skills thus enabling the organization to attain the required skills and expertise to enable the organization to effectively and efficiently attain its set goals and objectives within a particular period of time.
Change uncertainty is further classified into strategic, structural as well as job-related. In this case, leaders in an organization have to put the impacts of the above into consideration to ensure that change is directed towards the good of an organization. That is, they are expected to reduce the feeling of uncertainty amongst the employees and instill them with a sense of control over the respective uncertainty. As a result, they will be in a position to conquer the fear of the unknown and be in the position of offering quality service to enhance the quality of operations within an organization. In this regard, open lines of communication are considered vital in that it will enable employees, as well as the management of the respective organization, be in a position to share ideas thus introducing positive change into an organization.
Volatility, on the other hand, is the measures of dispersion on returns from a particular security market. In this regard, most leaders, as well as employees, are afraid of taking risks. Furthermore, it is clear that the higher the volatility, the higher the risk thus creating a sense of fear amongst the employees and the entire management (Dawson and Andriopoulos, 2015). However, through proper planning and management volatility can enable an organization to greatly increase its return on investment within a particular period of time. Therefore, it is the responsibility of leaders in an organization to come up with advance strategies to enable the organization to minimize its expenditure and maximize returns thus being in a position to attract and retain more clients to a respective organization.
Chaos, on the other hand, is considered to be a major factor that contributes to changes in an organization. In this case, changes can be based on various reasons. For instance, chaos can erupt in, an organization because employees are overcrowded in one section and the working place is not spacious enough. Therefore, employees might be chaotic trying to fight for the adequate and conducive environment for working. As a result, the management or leadership of the respective organization will be forced to be innovative and come up with a plan on how the employees will have a good working environment. A good working environment will motivate employees, and this will make them more productive. Therefore, they will be in the position of boosting the image of the respective organization thus enabling it to attain competitive advantage offer its competitors within a particular period of time.
In addition, chaos can also erupt because of poor remuneration. In this regard, the management will be forced to change their payment structure to ensure that they are offering a completive package will motivate and attract competent employees to come work for that respective organization. Employee motivation is considered one of the key aspects that drives the entire organization. Therefore, it is role ok organizational leadership to ensure that employees are always motivated thus reducing chaos in an organization and at the same time enables an organization to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in its daily operations.
Leaders on the hand, have a role to play in ensuring that changes are introduced in an organization in a friendly manner. That is, studies indicate that most employees are afraid of the unknown. Therefore, if employees are not well informed about the merits of introducing a particular change into an organization, they might be resistant to change thus disrupting the daily operations of an organization. Leaders, therefore, should prepare employees psychologically on how to handle any respective change to boost the operations of that particular organization. For instance, for effective introduction of change, leaders are expected to carry out the following aspects. Readiness for change, in this case, is considered the most important aspect that will enable an organization to work together towards the same goals and objectives (Burns, 2012). To enhance, preparedness, a leader will have to ensure that he or she opens the channels of communication between the management and the employees thus being in a position to receive and respond to employees grievances within a reasonable period of time.
It is, therefore, the responsibility of leaders to build a culture that will embrace change. That is, they will have to educate the employees on the merits as well as demerits of introducing new aspects into their area of operation. Employees, therefore, will be flexible and adaptable to changes. In addition, they will also be creative, and at the same time, they will be innovative to the solution in relation to business challenges. Furthermore, with adequate information, employees will be in the position of taking the calculated risks to enhance the success of an organization.
Encouraging failure and at the same time rewarding sustained efforts is also another major strategy employed by leaders to ensure that their followers are on the right truck in adopting new changes in an organization. The leaders are expected to create a room that will boost collaboration as well as sharing of information and ideas amongst the employees thus facilitating the introduction of new change in an organization without much difficulties (Burns, 2012). Leaders are also expected to train their employees on how to be patient as well as how to withstand pressure thus being in a position of overcoming the challenges that might come as a result of introducing new strategies or new policies into an organization.
Alexander the great is one the greatest leaders in the world. In his leadership, he is featured to be smart and employed military mind in leading his followers. In his reign, he knew that he had a lot of enemies thus he ensured that he prepares his troops well to be in the position of encountering any uncertainty from his enemies. In this case, uncertainty affected his decisions in a positive way because he trained his followers well and ensured that they are ready to face any challenge at any time. As a result, he was featured to be the greatest king of his time. Also, he is considered to be one of the chaotic leaders that the world has ever had. He used military strategies in leading his followers’ thus instilling sense of fear among his followers as well as amongst his enemies. In this case, the chaos is considered to have helped him in leading his people towards conquering many nations during his time. He used dictatorship type of leadership thus ensuring that his followers followed chis directions thus making it easier to lead towards the set goals and objectives. In addition, his leadership styles helped him introduce change to his people in a soft way. That is, through the military leadership strategies he had no objection from his employees who considered him to be a great king thus enhancing unity amongst his people.
Complex adaptive system models are one of the mechanisms employed by Alexander the great in introducing change during his reign (Spreitzer and Pertulla, 2004). That is, he ensured that his followers stick to certain rules that will guide them will interacting with a different environment thus enabling them to accept changes and be in a position to handle any challenge that comes along with the introduction of new changes. Also, computational models are considered vital in implanting change in an organization where a section of a system evolves over time. Therefore, it encourages leaders to introduce changes gradually to their employees thus reducing the rate of friction between the management and the employees.
Therefore, leadership and change are considered to be key elements in ensuring that an organization timely attain its set goals and objectives effectively and efficiently. Through proper leadership, an organization will attain positive corporate image as a result of the motivated workforce. Therefore, it is advisable that an organization employs good leadership styles in leading its employees towards the set goals and objectives. Just like Alexander the great, leaders are expected to educate their followers about uncertainty, volatility and its impacts on their daily operations. As a result, employees will feel as part and parcel of that particular organization, and they will work hard to ensure that they have attained the respective set standards.
In addition, to enhance the effectiveness of change introduction in an organization, a leader is expected to encourage innovation amongst the employees in an organization thus helping it to attain a competitive advantage offer its competitors. Therefore, there are various sections that a leader needs to ensure that the rate of innovation has been enhanced to the maximum. First is an innovation of the organizational structure. In this case, the management of the organization will have to ensure that it has a modern structure that will give room for all in an organization to participate in decision-making process. Also, the structure is expected to have open lines of communications thus enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of operations within an organization.
The innovation of the culture is another aspect that leaders give a lot of consideration while introducing change. That is, most individuals are used to their way of doing things and they would wish to retain that consistency forever. However, introduction of new strategies of doing things can bring a positive impact to the operations of the organization (Spreitzer and Pertulla, 2004). In this case, employees are encouraged to accept new changes that will help them to deliver quality work within the specified period of time. Innovation of the people is another aspect that was employed by alexander the great in his leadership. That is, despite the fact that he used military strategies in governing his people, he also gave his people an opportunity to apply their skills and expertise to invent new things. For instance, he encouraged his followers to develop advance weapons that he used to conquer most of his enemies and expand his territories. Therefore, despite the fact that his strategy was risky, he managed to boost the rate of innovation in his nation thus enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of his operation.
References
Burns, J. (2012). Leadership. New York, NY: Open Road Integrated Media.
Dawson, P. and Andriopoulos, C. (2015). Managing change, creativity & innovation. Los Angeles …: Sage.
Jorna, R. (2006). Sustainable innovation. Sheffield: Greenleaf.
Spreitzer, G. and Pertulla, K. (2004). Leadership. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Wals, A. and Corcoran, P. (2012). Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers.
