The New England Wire and Cable (NEWC) present a situation that was quite possibly very common amongst many towns and smaller cities in the United States during the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. As large corporations with new technology swept across the country, small town American and its legacy manufactures and companies struggled to keep pace. This case study references the New England Wire and Cable Company that in some ways was resistant to change. John P. Kotter’s article, Why Transformation Efforts Fail, outlines eight classic errors that are made in the transformation process. Likewise, Kotter’s article also outlines eight steps that could spearhead transformation within an organization. There was clearly a commonly hidden problem within the NEWC the so many times goes unseen. That problem was the leadership of NEWC. In John Kotter’s article, the first error mentioned I believe is one of the most important of all the steps. Not establishing a great enough sense of urgency is a very common error. Without this, a company usually has no idea how it has already started the failure process. In the reference to the NEWC, Gregory Peck’s character Andrew "Jorgy" Jorgenson is the benevolent and folksy leader who is very near and dear to the small Rhode Island company. He is in a sense the hometown hero. Even his nickname, Jorgy, shows the affection that the workers established and personal relationship they with their boss. From his speech, it is clear that he and everyone else knew NEWC was in trouble financially. During Jorgenson’s appeal to the shareholder, he spoke as a friend and not as the leader of the company. Danny DeVito’s character Lawrence "Larry the Liquidator" Garfield was a seen as a big city investo... ... middle of paper ... ...ons need to keep adapting to ever changing situations. Successful change in a sense is measured by longevity. Flexible leaders realize the need for change and innovation within a company. Great leaders are those that recognize the need for change. They tend to learn more from their success than they do from there failure. Companies like Wal-Mart, Nike, and 3M have all made major innovations over the years that allowed each of them to have continuing success. Companies like Kodak and Blockbuster that claimed victory to soon fail to innovate which lead to their failure. How much of this is determined by the leadership? I think the leader is the proponent of transformational change within an organization. I do not think NEWC declared victory too soon. They had withstood the test of time, but what they did not do was adapt and continue to change.
“The Heart of Change,” by John Kotter and Dan S. Cohen can act as a diagram for any organization facing challenges that come with implementing change. In the 21st Century in order to stay competitive with your competitors you have to implement changes, new systems and approaches to keep the organization relevant. With changes there comes errors that a company may encounter, sometimes these errors if not fixed can make the change within the organization impossible. Employees are reluctant and can’t see the views or their leader, and this makes change unsuccessful. That’s where Kotter’s eight step change model can give an organization a guideline and understanding of some of the challenges that they may encounter with change. Comparing Kotter’s
Wright and Pandey researched and wrote“Transformational Leadership in the Public Sector: Does Structure Matter?”(2010). The duo contend that transformational leadership is a style that dictates the leader change the “attitude and assumptions” (2010) of his/her employees. This is accomplished through a series of events. First, the employer shares the expected organizational outcome creating a heightened sense of personal interest in “higher order needs” (Wright & Pandey, 2010). Second, the shift to transformational leadership creates a sense of defined loyalty which inspires employees to rise above their own needs and motivates him/her to do what is best for the business/company
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.
"Regardless of culture or Organization, being an effective Leader is a challenge. Even when provided with a clear definition of what makes a Leader effective, being effective in a Leadership role is often easier said than done" . Furthermore, the failure of most Organization to give Leaders the freedom to practice new skills or apply new gained knowledge is effecting negatively in mounting of the Leadership effectiveness. As a result, majority Leadership is routine, without ingenuity and with no further improvement in the job's produced quality.
This paper will be broken down into six sections profiling each critical part of implementing and managing change in an organization. The sections included are; outline for plan creating urgency, the approach to attracting a guiding team, a critique of the organizational profile, the components of change, and how to empower the organization.
Today’s companies become successful based on their abilities to create and manage change. They can no longer survive without “…courage and imagination – the courage to challenge prevailing business models and the imagination to invent new markets.'; As the globe continues to evolve into a marketplace with vanishing boundaries, competition becomes stronger, tighter, and smarter than ever before, ultimately forcing organizational change. The tidal strength of competition that has been upon us over the past few decades has fundamentally changed the “blueprints'; of many corporations and how they now need to be led. Businesses have awakened to the hard fact that leadership can no longer be defined by the effective management of people and systems, but most importantly by the effective leading of change. Leadership, or the lack thereof, is proving to be one of the most crucial determinants of whether organizations will survive and flourish in the next century’s business frontier.
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.
Kotter, JP 1995, Leading change: why transformation efforts fail. In Harvard Business Review on Change, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
“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).
Organizational change is a very big risk for organizations. The process of change can be very difficult for employees as well as the leaders implementing the changes. The changes are usually planned to improve the company. However, sometimes change can destroy a company when things don’t go as planned. From a change in management to a change in the company structure, or way of doing daily task, organizations must carefully execute the process of change and use change strategies that will ensure success.
Kotter, J. P. (2007). ‘Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail’. Harvard Business Review, January: 96-103.
As John P. Kotter suggests in his article "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail," not establishing a sense of urgency is a number one failure for leaders. Lacking a great enough sense of urgency, senior managers in Engineered Woods Division did not cooperate in moving the division from commodity to a specialty business and the efforts remained fruitless. This was a leadership issue that few members of senior team were motivated and passionate about the transition.
According to Josh Bersin, it isn’t the leader but the leadership strategy that makes the difference (2012). In his article, “It’s not the CEO, it’s the leadership strategy that matters, Bersin offered why several newly hired CEOs for organizations like Apple have managed to “pull it off” (2012, p.1). In other words, be successful after replacing the previous CEO. Moreover, after conducting extensive research on companies and their correlated business performance, Bersin identified several best practices which include “high-performing organizations directly link leadership strategy to business strategy” and “high-performers develop leaders at all levels” (2012,
Reavis, C. (rev. 2010 November 9). Turnaround and Transformation: Leadrship and Risk at Boston 's Institue Of Contemporary At. Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Case (Library) 10-104.
More often organizations are getting into bigger risks in the market with their leaders in nowadays economy. The resistance to change is a reason why organizations trying harder to keep earlier recognized reputation within clients and community. The theme of leadership is relevant for each person as it occurs almost to everyone during the lifetime or to those who at least were a part of a team.