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Leadership as individual
Essays on organisational change and leadership
Multidimensional Model of Leadership
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The role of leadership can best be understood in organizational change as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Depending on the conceptualisation of organizational change you adopt, the leader’s role could be perceived to be a variety of things, from that of an initiator/visionary, the influencer of culture, a trigger for follower organizational identification, someone who redefines resistance, or a sense maker who introduces new discourses. The most useful approach can be to consider an issue from a number of different theoretical points of view before determining the most effective intervention.
Leadership has been conceived of in a multitude of different ways varying from Great man theory (Borgatta, Bales and Couch, 1954; Cawthon, 1996), trait theories (), and style theories (). More recent conceptualisations of leadership include contingency theory (), and transformational leadership (). Each of these theoretical models has a contribution to make in forming a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between leadership and organizational change and we shall explore how adopting a definition for leadership or organizational change infers the role of the other.
However we define leadership, the concepts of organizational change and leadership can be argued to be inextricably linked. If a leader was not able to effect any change within an organization then it is hard to imagine a way in which such a leader could be effective in their role. Thus organizational change is at the very heart of a leader’s role.
This paper will argue that a pluralist approach to understanding leadership’s role in organizational change possesses the greatest utility in informing practice. In doing so, it will present a number of different concepts ...
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...ind of universal sense as in doing so, one ‘mistakes the map for the terrain’. The role of leadership in organizational change is a multi-dimensional phenomenon which, it has been argued in this paper, can be most usefully understood by employing a pluralist perspective. That is to say, ‘a pluralist approach of comparing multiple plausible models of reality is essential for developing objective scientific knowledge’ (Campbell, 1988: 389, in Van de Ven & Poole, 2005). While there are a plethora of lens through which to understand both leadership and change it is more useful to consider a range of perspectives and only then assess the utility of each perspective and it’s appropriateness for informing a real world intervention. In the words of Pettigrew (2001) “In the absence of unambiguous foundational truth … the only sensible way forward can be conscious pluralism."
What is leadership? “Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right”. The meaning of leadership can bring to a variety of images. For example:
Leaders will act as role models to inspire their followers. Besides, the leader will challenge the followers to take a greater ownership of their work. Transformational leaders normally understand follower’s strength and weakness so that the leader will not affect their performance when allocating task for them. Nevertheless, transformational leadership can inspire or motivate followers to achieve a better result compared to originally planned (Mihhailova, 2014).
There are many leadership theories that play an important role in the every day workforce. Some of the theories are successful in producing a strong and productive leader, while others lack the qualities required for the job. Out of the multitude of available theories out there, I feel that the Transformational Leadership Theory is the one that stands out as being the most successful. This theory is far from coercive and instead focuses on making a satisfied team that collaborates to form a productive work environment. An environment like this, ran by a top-notch leader, is needed for success.
Change is a double-edged sword (Fullan, 2001). Change is a word that might inspire or put fear into people. Leadership is challenging when it comes to dealing with change and how individuals react within the organization to the change. Marzano, McNulty, and Waters (2005) discuss two orders of change in their book School Leadership that Works; first and second. Fullan (2001) also adds to the discussion in his book Leading in a Culture of Change, with regard to understanding change. In Change Leadership, Keagan and Wagner (2006) discuss many factors of change and the systematic approach to change. Change affects people in different ways. Leaders need to be able to respond to the individuals throughout the change process.
Every organization will experience a change of leadership at some point or another. CEO’s of organizations will move on to take on different challenges in their lives or many of them will retire. There are few changes that can occur in an organization that could have a larger impact than a change at the top of the management chain. According to Firoozmand (2014) resistance from employees is an occurrence that is a part of the natural process of change. This is no different in the event of a change of leadership. New leaders will bring in a new vision, culture, and expectations that employees may not be ready or willing to accept.
In civilization, leadership could be a tool to maneuver society from one steady state to another; it is essentially regarding modification. Leaders play a crucial role, not solely as creative thinker and models of reliability in their discrete capability, but also institutionally, in describing, motivating and seeing through transformation. Vision, efficiency and uprightness are at the core of effective leadership. These approaches of leadership are crucial for little and huge scale modification and toward achi...
Change is something that is necessary for the survival of a company, but can sometimes be difficult to instate. That is what is discussed in the book A Sense of Urgency by John Kotter. The central theme of this book is leadership, and how it is required to initiate change.
Tucker, Bruce A. ; Russell, Robert F., “The influence of the transformational leader”, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2004. (http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-2375126_ITM) viewed 5.05.2008
According to Yoder-Wise (2015), a leader can be defined as, “an individual who works with others to develop a clear vision of the preferred future and to make that vision happen” (p 35). As employees, we often have our own ideal of a good leader, which may be influenced by experiences and perception of workplace norms. While one’s opinion of an effective leader may vary, there are several recognized leadership theories. The following will focus on the transformational leadership approach.
A solid theoretical foundation is required to lead and manage change. For efficient and effective change to take place it must be intentional. Leadership set the tone and the direction of an organization allowing it or hindering it to change and adapt. Leader can use tactics and skills to create an organic change environment with the right change models and interventions when the organization is most ready for change.
The idea of approaching leadership from the standpoint of values has been echoed in several studies. O’Toole (1995) compared and contrasted contingency and situational approaches to leadership with value-based leadership. He stated that all leadership styles eventually force the individuals to follow what their leader commands them to do rather than focusing on what is the will of the followers – this he called as disrespect for the individuals. It is important for the leader to understand, why people are resistant to change in reality and must make a personal commitment to overcome this resistance to a changing environment or culture. He suggested that if the company wants to initiate change that is constructive, focus must be placed on the value-based leadership (O’Toole, 1995).
“Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail” is an article written by John P. Kotter in the Harvard Business Review, which outlines eight critical factors to help leaders successfully transform a business. Since leading requires the ability to influence other people to reach a goal, the leadership needs to take steps to cope with a new, more challenging global market environment. Kotter emphasizes the mistakes corporations make when implementing change and why those efforts create failure; therefore, it is essential that leaders learn to apply change effectively in order for it to be beneficial in the long-term (Kotter).
Transformational leadership theory conceptualized in the late 1970’s, proposed that leaders could motivate followers through shared vision and mutual interest to uplift the entire organization to a higher morality (Burns, 1978). Morality was defined as leaders and followers working together to fulfill organizational goals and achieve higher performances within a context of change and innovation. Leaders would surpass their own self-interest, in order to, foresee, foster, and indoctrinate a new organizational vision to their followers. Bass operationalized Burns’ seminal work into a leadership model to better indentify transformational leadership characteristics. The model emphasized four dimensions such as idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration in order to achieve success.
Leaders are the individuals who help to create options and opportunities. They help in identifying the choices and solve the problems. They build commitment and coalitions. Leaders do this by inspiring others and working along with them to construct the shared vision of the possibilities and commitments of a better group, organization or community. They engage the followers in such a way that most of the followers become leaders in their own right. The variety of demands of an increasingly complex world very often require that leadership be shared by most of the members of an organization, in appropriate ways for different situations. A leader is the on...
Certainly, an army would not be able to battle in the war without a commander who in charges of the whole strategy. Correspondingly, any organisations cannot function without leaders. Leader is the most substantial element of successful organizations. Becoming outstanding leaders, leadership skill is vital in order to drive the organizations forward. Several leadership principles are extensively used these days. Burns (1978) identified two types of leadership comprise of transactional and transformational leadership. Hence, leaders should be capable to indicate which theory should be applied in accordance with organization’s culture and objectives. This essay aims to evaluate the resemblances and the differences between transactional and transformational leadership as well as the feasibility to utilize a mixture of them by giving the definitions and examples followed by the supporting researches and studies.