change leadership essay

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Leadership Role in Change Management

Introduction, responsible leadership in organizational change, organizational change, sustainability of organizational change, reference list.

The dynamic nature of the contemporary society has resulted in diverse changes in the organizational set up (Anonymous n d). The economy is characterized by fluctuating demand and supply, constantly changing consumer needs, and advancement in technology and service provision. This has prompted organizations to undergo intensive structural changes in order to remain at par with the contemporary expectations. Change in organization has become a norm in the society today (Anonymous n d). Major change efforts have assisted various organizations to adapt significantly to shifting conditions in the global environment consequently promoting their competitive advantage.

In some situations, the outcome has been very rewarding while in other organizations the outcome has been disappointing and companies have ended up wasting substantial resources, frustrating both their customers and employees and this has resulted in overall business failure. To some extent, the limitations of change are inevitable since forcing people to adjust to certain shifting conditions will always be associated with resistance. In addition, the dynamic nature of the current environment makes it difficult for change leaders to predict future outcomes. This may result in substantial failures in organization’s performance as well as decay.

Research has confirmed that a leader’s style and approach plays a significant role in organizational change (Orridge 2009). Numerous organizations in the modern economy have experienced business failure, which has been attributed to failure in management. In order to understand the role of human aspect in organizational change, we have to analyze the nature of change that takes place within organizations, the forces behind these changes, and the importance of maintaining these changes in the long run.

Human aspects of change are complex and most difficult to manage. Therefore, we need to address the role of responsible leaders in managing this complex yet highly flexible and adaptable entity to cope with change in such a way that they promote organization’s long-term survival. The leaders of the 21 st century have to deal with changing expectations of modern organization as well as the conduct of their employees, increased global competition, and the advent of an information age that has not only promoted knowledge among the population but has also reduced the world into one global village (Anonymous n d)

A considerable number of companies in the world have reported huge business failures or filed bankruptcy as a result of poor leadership (Orridge 2009). These failures can largely be attributed to irresponsible leadership prevalent in these organizations. Organization leadership plays an important role in management of change in the organization. The leaders should be in a position to influence the process and outcomes of change (Cook 2004).

Traditional leadership context involved setting of the objectives, defining the procedures, and monitoring of the change process (Cook 2004). However, in the modern setting, the leaders play a more active role in the process of change implementation by inspiring fellow employees, role modelling, and providing advisory services in order to promote good performance (Cook 2004).

The modern leaders focus on the long term objectives and device mechanisms to achieve these objectives. They strive to be change leaders. Change leaders should possess the four most important qualities of effective change leadership according to the change compass (Cook 2004). The four intellects comprise of business intelligence, political intelligence, spiritual as well as emotional intelligence. These intellects hold equal weight and absence of either of the intellects amounts to disequilibrium.

Culture and cultural expectations heavily influence the perceptions of responsible leadership and the enactment of responsible leadership in different organizational contexts (Orridge 2009). Consequently, the concept of responsible leadership needs to address the framework in which responsible leadership happens and the way in which responsible leadership is enacted within various organizations. Culture entails perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours commonly held by a distinctive group of people.

Culture is an inherent part of every organization, department, function or discipline and the interactions of these subcultures lead to the emergence of a cross culture, which may be independent of each other or even counter active. Therefore, the conception of responsible leadership, its enactment and control varies across different kinds of culture at organizational level where leaders are confronted in their daily work with multiple cultures and a dynamic interplay of different cultures (Doh 2005).

For instance, an organization that upholds a culture of vertical commands would embrace a leader who simply issues commands and sits back to oversee the implementation while an organization that upholds involvement of workers in decision making would embrace a leader who promotes team work and actively participates in the change implementation process.

In general terms, leaders are considered responsible when acting in line with the best interests of the company investors and shareholders. In leadership responsibility, the issue of accountability and corporate governance often arises whereby leaders have to justify their behaviour and its consequences for their own conscience. Organizational and corporate leaders are responsible for the resources entrusted to them and their actions towards those people who have entrusted them with the resources.

To facilitate successful change in the organization, the leaders should limit the level of complacency in the organization (Kotter 1996). Leading change requires establishment of high enough sense of urgency in fellow managers as well as the employees. Kotter (1996) illustrates a situation where allowing too much complacency leads to detrimental effects to the company. Adrien, head of a specialty chemicals division of a large corporation decides to introduce change in the organization resulting in the forces of globalization.

In order to promote change in the organization, he launches numerous initiatives to build business and margins in an increasingly competitive market. He utilizes such methods as inducement, threats and in some cases termination to force the employees to act accordingly. Few years down the line, his initiatives sinks, one after the other in a sea of complacency and Adrean gives up his employees for a smaller firm that is already successfully implementing many of his ideas. His failures can be attributed to lack to create sufficient urgency at the beginning of business transformation.

Leaders in some cases over estimate the extent to which they can force big changes on an organization which requires reconstruction of the status quo. Low complacency on the other hand would serve to minimize this short coming. A responsible leader should be an active supporter of the major transformation about to take place in the organization (Kotter 1996). A successful transformation does not only involve the decisions of the senior members in the organization, but also incorporates the proposals of employees and other relevant stakeholders.

The leadership should establish a committee pulled from the pool of members from the members who are committed to improved performance of the company to oversee the implementation of the strategies for change. An individual leader, no matter how charismatic and competent he may be, requires sufficient back up from fellow staff members in order to implement change in the organization. Kotter (1996) observes that no matter how capable the leaders are guiding coalitions without strong line leadership is not likely to achieve the power that is required to overcome what are often massive sources of inertia.

A responsible leader should not underestimate the power of vision in change implementation (Kotter 1996). Vision plays an important role in the in directing change since it directs, aligns and inspires action to a large number of people; lack of a governing vision amounts in confusing, incompatible and time consuming projects that go in the wrong direction and often lead to massive loss. Further, the leader should communicate the vision to all the relevant stakeholders. The contribution of fellow employees is vital in implementation of changes in the organization.

An organization comprises of people who are constantly trying to influence others to achieve certain pre determined objectives through manipulation of various processes, technologies, structures as well as cultures (Anonymous n d). Since the activities carried out in an organization demands constant human interaction, management and coordination of these interactions is essential for effective performance of the organization. Forces that operate to generate change in organizations are numerous and varied (Anonymous n d).

Modern organizations are often characterized by constant leadership changes, growth and expansion, introduction of new products due to consumers’ changing needs, technological advancements, increased competition, and changing political and legislation climate among other changes. The organizations response to the changing economic, social and political environment consequently triggers organizational change. Mills (2008) defines organizational change as the alteration of core aspects of an organization’s operations which constitutes changes in organizational structure, technology, culture, leadership, goal or personnel of the organization.

His definition highlights the level of differences that substantially impacts on people’s perception of the organization as well as impact of these changes on job description and style of work. Organizations in the contemporary settings are continually changing despite opposition from various stakeholders who seek to maintain the status quo (Kuriger 2004). These changes may be planned strategically in order to achieve pre determined set of objectives. In other cases, unplanned changes may occur such as loss of market or sudden loss of key personnel forcing the organization to undergo change.

Various theories have been formulated to explain organization change that continues to take place in the modern society. The Industrial revolution led to the formulation of machine theory which was based on the premise of the human aspect as a machine (Kuriger 2004). Effectiveness of this theory was registered in situations where specialization and standardization was upheld but it ignored the organization’s interface with the environment as well as the semi formal and informal structures within the organization. The machine theories simplified the description of the work organization consequently dehumanizing the role of the worker within the organization (Clegg 1980).

In practice however, the worker play a crucial and perhaps the most important role in the organization structure. The short coming of this theory in its view of organizational dynamics led to the emergence of a view that considered organizations as open systems which are in contact with the environment surrounding them (Kuriger 2004). The open systems theories create a provision for humanness of the organizational workers. An open theory must change in order to maintain a steady state with the dynamic economic, political and social environment. Failure to change in order to conform to the changes taking place in the environment will result to less energy from the environment and entropy will set in (Kuriger 2004).

Organizations change in order to survive in the modern competitive environment. The target of change in the organization is influencing the entire system rather than individual members. However, individual actors are the instruments used in generating organizational change. Responsible leaders should ensure that organizational change promotes the organization’s objectives since the organization, just like in human behaviour will tend to resist change that is not beneficial to it.

The leaders should seek to properly manage the process of change within organizations and should also avoid the assumption that successful change process in one section of the organization can be easily duplicated to other parts of the organization. Numerous organizations have been forced to incur transformational changes in the wake of an information age that is characterized by advanced technology in communication as well as operations. These organizations have changed in dramatic ways through the assistance of the same technological advances. Modernization has rendered the past organizational strategies ineffective due to emergence of an environment that is characterized by new form of competition as well as new technology.

Information technology has promoted efficient communication and eased the process of sharing information. It is therefore important for change leaders to ensure that their organizations are restructured accordingly. Further, in order for the organization to reach higher levels of performance, the leaders must establish a motivational system which supports individual and group performance and also nurtures the employees’ self respect and pride. This will result in development of a committed workforce that can work together towards the objectives of the company.

Managing change is acknowledged as one of the most important and difficult issue facing the contemporary organizations (Buchanan 2007). Scholars have invested a lot of time in formulating theories that attempt to explain management of organizational change. Fredrick Taylor, the originator of scientific management, offered the earliest systematic approach to the process of changing an organization in 1930s (Buchanan 2007). However, theory received a lot of criticisms with some scholars observing that he had addressed only one dimension view of human nature as well as over emphasizing on the role of individuals in organizational change management.

In 1940s, Kurt Lewin created perhaps the most influential approach to management of change through his three step model. In the 1980s, the nature of change transformed and became more rapid and dramatic. In his model, Lewin argued that successful change in organizations should incorporate unfreezing of the status quo, movement towards a new state and refreezing of the new change to make it permanent (Buchanan 2007). This prompted organizations to adopt newer approaches that embrace change sustainability as the eventual outcome of the change process.

The modern view of change did not necessarily conceptualize it as clean, linear and finite. Instead, most people view change as messy, contentious, context dependent and open-ended (Buchanan 2007). It is therefore impossible to conceive of an approach which is suitable for different types of change, different types of contexts as well as different types of organizations. In fact, Kurt Lewin observed that organizational change is held in equilibrium by two opposing sets of forces; the driving force and the restraining force.

The equilibrium condition is presented by the status quo and the driving force which incorporates the change leaders has to encounter great challenges in convincing the restraining force on the importance of change implementation. Disruption of the status quo is in itself problematic to the activities of the organization and the leadership has to face a lot of challenges not only in introducing change but also in ensuring sustainability of change in the long run.

Sustainability refers to the ability of a company to maintain the new working methods, performance enhancements and continuous improvements in the long run. In absence of sustainability, decay is bound to occur (Buchanan 2007). Some scholars have argued that containment and sustainability of change in an organization is reliant on a combination of contextual, organizational, political and temporal factors as well as the substance of the changes under consideration. However, business leadership is the most influential element in the determination of change sustainability in any organization.

Numerous responsible business leaders in modern organizations are rising up to take a stand for sustainable practices in their organizations and the community at large. These leaders utilize their organizational development skills, entrepreneurial spirit and leadership abilities to drive organizations not only towards change but also towards sustainability of change in the long run. Since sustainability should be intrinsic to the company’s vision of change, these leaders should embrace a long term commitments to change implementation in order to promote sustainability of change among fellow employees.

The processes relating to sustainability are dynamic rather than static and organizations striving to achieve sustainability need to reflect this dynamism in change implementation. As observed earlier, the culture of an organization plays a major role in influencing change implementation adaptations and this further translates to sustainability measures.

If organizational leaders promote the perception that change is supposed to be short term, the employees will react accordingly and this may negatively impact on the organization. Responsible leadership therefore plays an important role in creating a culture that promotes change adaptation as well as sustainability of change. A responsible leader should lead his team through change and emphasize to them that change is an organic and ongoing process that is unending in order to establish a culture that upholds sustainability of change in the organization.

Leadership for sustainability further entails standing up for beliefs, challenging norms, and what is right through provision of inspiration and demonstration of the importance of change and sustainability among fellow workers in the organization. Maintaining progress in the process of change implementation is the most important element of organizational change and the key to successful sustainability.

Buchanan (2007) illustrates the importance of consistency in organizational change as the long term objective of change by outlining the challenges encountered by The NHS plan In England. The plan was launched in July 2000 as a ten year programme of radical reform in the health sector which had failed in keeping pace with social changes. This plan is among the largest organizational development programme ever undertaken and therefore provides us with a valuable tool of change analysis.

As the NHS modernization agency staff shared experiences on development and progress achieved across the region, difficulty in change sustainability was quickly emerging. For instance, although the organization was able to reduce queuing hours for patients, the hospitals experienced difficulties in trying to maintain or improve their service level. This was referred to as the improvement evaporation effect. In other cases, while one clinical service had developed an effective way of reducing waiting time, other services provided in the health care institutions did not apply these methods.

The outcome of change process varied across regions but difficulties in sustainability frustrated the leadership efforts across regions as well as the national agency staff. The reason why performance fell back to the initial levels in some organizations may be attributed to irresponsible leadership which failed to promote sustainability measures among the stakeholders. However, other structural, political and functional factors may have played a substantial role in diminishing the efforts of NHS plan towards service improvement.

Organization change is inevitable in the modern economic setting. Numerous forces acting within the environment force organizations to undergo planned or unplanned change. Therefore, it is the duty of organizational leadership to manage the process of change implementation. As we have observed in the study, change implementation is ineffective without implementation of sustainability measures. The leaders should therefore emphasize on sustainability measures in order to promote successful outcomes in the long run. Since the leaders play a vital role in organizational change, organizations should seek to employ leaders who possess qualities of responsible change leaders in order to survive the current competitive age.

Anonymous, not dated. Organizations and Their Changing Environment. [Online] Web.

Buchanan, D. A., 2007. The Sustainability and Spread of Organizational Change: Modernizing Health Car e. New York, Taylor & Francis.

Clegg, S., 1980. Organization, Class and Control. New York, Taylor & Francis publishing.

Cook, S., 2004. Change Management Excellence: Using the Four Intelligences for Successful Organizational Change . London, Kogan Page Publishers.

Doh, P, J., 2005. Handbook on Responsible Leadership and Governance in Global Business . London, Edward Elgar Publishing.

Kotter, J. P., 1996. Leading Change . New York, Harvard Business Press.

Kuriger, C., 2004. Organization Change: Case Studies in the Real World. Florida: Universal Publishers.

Mills, H. J., 2008. Understanding Organizational Change. New York, Taylor & Francis Publishing.

Orridge, M., 2009. Change Leadership: Developing a Change Adept Organization. England, Gower Publishing, Ltd.

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Managing Organizational Change Essay

Organizational change is carried out to enhance the functioning of the organization or a section of the organization. Change should not just be done without reason but should be done to improve the organization’s performance. Thus, thorough research is required before embarking on it.

This paper studies the need for change in organizations. It first examines the external and internal environments that affect change. It examines the driving forces of change by focusing on stakeholder analysis, SWOT analysis, and Kotter’s vision on organizational change. It studies the types of change and the major elements of change, resistance to change, and the assessment of change.

Organizational change takes place, especially when an institution changes its general success policy, gets rid of or adds an important practice or department or intends to change its way of operation. It also takes place when an institution advances through various life stages. For development to take place in an organization, it has to go through several changes at various stages in growth (Coghlan, 1994). Managers often strive to achieve success as required by their jobs.

Need for a strategy

Big performing organizations successfully influence their companies more efficiently than competitors and get more than 64% on profit from each worker than next-level performers. Fewer organizations; however view their companies strategically as they should – which is shocking looking at the degree to which institutions potentials and performance steer today’s business importance. Today’s businesses are not well equipped to give the expected business results of tomorrow (Tushman & O’Reilly, 1996).

Various changes are necessary to ensure that strategic objective is totally accomplished. Unfortunately, many organizations change their business strategies into specific and workable plans, but the same extent of rigor is seldom given to the institutional allegations of the strategy (Ford & Ford, 2009).

Efficient organizational strategy allows an organization to grow into a company that can convey its strategy. Organizational strategy shows the importance of change in an organization and gives the strategy of the business plus a workable plan to execute the change.

Causes of Organizational Change

The technology used in organizations is often replaced over time. This implies that an organization requires to be open to innovation in technology. The skills of employees also need to be improved with the improvement in technology. Organizations which are not ready for change are less likely to exist in the coming years (Laurie et al., 2006). Organizations that want to be successful must be ready to embrace change and adapt to new environments.

Organizations undergo transformation times that can lead to stress and reluctance. Organizations must advance in production technologies, make new products demanded in the market, improve the skills of its workers and instigate new systems of administration. Organizations that successfully adjust are always profitable and respected. Managers are supposed to compete with every aspect that has an effect on their organizations (Tushman, Reilly & Charles, 1996).

Factors that affect the environment are clustered into external factors and internal factors. External factors include social/cultural, political/legal, physical/natural technological, competitive, and global market factors. Internal factors include the company’s stability, people, attention to detail, innovation, and risk-taking (Kvernbekk, 2011).

External Analysis

No organization can exist without the influence of other organizations. It has to interact with others over time, including the customers, stakeholders, the government, suppliers, and unions (Coghlan, 1994). Every organization has responsibilities and objectives connected to each other in the business environment.

External factors manipulating change as mentioned above include social-cultural, political, natural, technological, competitive, and international market factors. Changes in these forces can lead to organizational changes like economic control, relations in the management of labor, production process, and the environment of competition (Isaksen, 2007).

Technology changes over time because of globalization. When a slight change is experienced in technology, organizations reduce their efficiency in costs and their competitive positions are weakened. These companies have to comply with the change and accept the new technology. This means that new software should be purchased affecting the running of the organization.

Given that all organizations export their products, they have to encounter competition in the global market. There are various forces that may influence the competitive place of an organization – these are other companies supplying the same outputs, and consumers that are not purchasing the output.

Any alterations in these forces needs appropriate changes in the organization. With a liberalized economy, there are very many international organizations in the market. This implies that organizations should have to restructure themselves to comply with the new situation (Paton, Beranek & Smith, 2008).

Buyers have constant changing demands on the products and services offered in the market. Organizations will therefore need to change their products to meet the requirements of the buyers (Petrescu, 2011).

Socio-cultural changes are evident in the daily lives of people in terms of their methods of working, needs and objectives. They affect the behavior of the workers in organizations and are as a result of different educational backgrounds, urbanization, self-governance and globalization. Adjustments are therefore necessary to tone with people.

Legal and political factors majorly describe the activities that can be undertaken by an organization and techniques that will be pursued by it in reaching those interests (Kereber & Buono, 2005). Any changes in these factors may influence the running of the organization.

Internal analysis

Any alteration in the internal factors of an organization may demand change. Such changes are needed due to changes in management personnel and insufficiency in present organizational customs. There is always a change in managerial positions within organizations due to retirement, dismissal, promotion or transfers.

Every leader works in whatever way they know best. When a new leader is appointed, he brings in his own ideas with him (Maurer, 2011). Employee – management relationship often changes due to new management. To add on that, the personnel will change their outlook on operations even though there are no changes thereby forcing the organization to change.

The nature of the personnel changes with time. Employees who are above 50 years are loyal and respect their employers. Employees between 30 and 40 years are only loyal to themselves. Employees below 30 years only respect their careers and are loyal to them. The personnel profile is rapidly changing too (Tushman, Reilly & Charles, 1996).

The new generation of employees is well educated and concentrates on personal value and even query the authority of the management. They have a very complex behavior, thus driving them to achieve organizational success which is difficult for the managers.

The stability of an organization is a major internal factor of change. When an organization has financial problems, the management will have to look at every possible alternative for the business to survive. These alternatives may include reducing operations, doing away with programs, which are not profitable and cutting operating costs.

Cutting costs may even mean reducing the number of employees. Downsizing of employees often brings numerous problems caused by overworking, which may lead to employee strikes (Isaksen, 2007). The management usually faces hard times as they are confused on what measure to take. It is important that they consult different constituents to come up with the best solution that will not greatly affect the running of the organization.

Stakeholder Analysis and Management (Kotter)

Stakeholder analysis is not a very simple task to perform. The leader has to come up with decisions that may affect or be affected by needs of stakeholders. Stakeholders have the capacity to oppose changes made in an organization or influence them (Kotter, 1990). Stakeholders’ interest is not only in the financial benefits of an organization but also on its management.

The importance of analyzing the various interests of stakeholders in an organization is to invent a plan that can get the biggest support. This involves doing away with barriers that could hinder the change from taking place.

Stakeholder analysis entails involving stakeholders at every stage of the organizational change to enhance the efficiency of programs and services.

The process of solicitating interests, priorities, and concerns of stakeholders in the initial stages of monitoring and evaluation, helps in addressing the needs of stakeholders and also assists in behavioral change. Involving stakeholders and putting their opinions to account gives prospects to inquire on assumptions and investigate other explanations and add to innovation and learning. It also enhances the acceptance of change (Kotter, 1990).

Identification of Customers, Suppliers, and Competitors (Porter’s 5-Forces Model)

Rivalries usually develop among organizations competing for the same market. Competitors employ methods of advertising, warranties, and competitions of prices to improve their market share in specific industries. Rivalry may sometimes cause slow growth in industries and price cutting and investments of high-stake. Changes that may be introduced in any organization should be positive to give it a competitive edge.

The strength of suppliers is enhanced when a group of companies run them because there will be no substitute products. The organization has no control over these effects. Organizational changes should always be strategized to modify the power of suppliers (Stonehouse & Snowdon, 2007).

The power of buyers is vital. Buyers are capable of pushing prices down and demanding better quality products and services. Buyers are more powerful when they are in large numbers, the products and services are important aspects of the buyer, switching costs are minimal, and the buyer has complete disclosure on supply, costs, demand, and prices. The bargaining power of buyers varies with time and the competitive strategy of an organization.

The threat of new entrants relies on an industry’s economies of scale, switching costs, product differentiation, government regulations, and requirements of capital for entry (Potter, 1998). New organizations can anticipate barriers like technology, labor forces, and strategic planning in the business.

Driving and restraining forces

Driving forces encourage the process of change to have effect. They easen the process of change as they push people toward the direction of change, and cause a move in equilibrium towards change. Restraining forces oppose driving forces. They prevent change as they make people go against change. They therefore influence a shift in equilibrium, which counters the effort of change (Humphreys, 2005).

Passive resistance

This is a method of protest that does not involve any violence against laws so as to force a change. It involves acts like strikes, demonstrations, and boycotts. Passive resistance has characteristics like worrying and complaining about the strategy of change management. Passive resistance is a serious case and needs to be reviewed. It is a distraction that can reduce the pace of the whole organization’s rate of learning and acceptance of the strategy of change management.

Aggressive resistance

Aggressive resistance is expressed in hostile behaviors that show aggression. It can be defined as a personality disorder expressed by negative attitudes and resistance in work-related situations. This type of resistance is manifested in procrastination, stubbornness, and deliberate failures in completing tasks that one is assigned (Ford & Ford, 2009).

Embracing change

For the continued existence of organizations, it is necessary to adapt to new environmental and market demands. Employees and organizations that embrace change are more successful, unlike the resistors who eventually accept change. Sometimes change is so difficult that it is sometimes resisted. The process of change needs determination and vision. During the process of change, motivators, and trainings are necessary. The environment should be conducive enough to allow change.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT signifies the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization. SWOT analysis evaluates the internal weaknesses and strengths of a company with threats and opportunities in its external surroundings. It is an important planning tool when evaluating an organization.

It is founded on the notion that managers can use it to choose the perfect strategy to ensure the success of an organization. An organization’s strength is very important as it grants a competitive advantage over other similar companies. It gives an organization a good position in the market. Organizations should ensure that they do not affect their strengths while implementing changes (Tushman, Reilly & Charles, 1996).

A weakness on the other hand, puts an organization at risk. It is a disadvantage of the company, and it makes it viable to competitive forces (Paton, Beranek & Smith, 2008). Weaknesses need to be scrutinized closely as they can cause the downfall of organizations. Weaknesses may include lack of a clear vision, poor image, poor technology and facilities, and low employee motivation.

An organization should ensure that implementation of any change is aimed at reducing the weaknesses in the organization and not enhancing them. Change should always do away with the weaknesses if not reduce them.

Opportunities are conditions that favor the organization and can be employed for constructive reasons. Opportunities are usually presented by the outside environment, and it is up to the company to maximize on them (Kereber & Buono, 2005).

These opportunities may be brought about by a conducive change in the environment or by the government in making the external environment suitable for them. Examples of opportunities may include new improved technologies, vertical integration, and powerful economies. Leaders should ensure that any change implemented will maximize all the organization’s opportunities.

Not all changes have a positive impact in the organization. External changes may also be a threat to the organizations. Leaders should be able to foresee such probable threats and impact changes that will neutralize the threat. New regulations, economic recession, and cheaper technology are examples of threats. Organizational changes should help in the reducing the effects of these threats and not enhance them.

Kotter’s view on change

Sense of urgency.

For change to take place, it is easier if the whole organization needs the change. A sense of urgency on the need for change needs to be created. This assists in enhancing the initial plan of making things happen (Kotter, 1990). It should be a very convincing talk on the current status of the market and what the organization’s competitors are doing that has necessitated change. If employees start discussing the change, it is as good as done.

This talk should include the identification of possible threats to organizations and demonstrate what could take place in the future. The leader should look at the opportunities that can be exploited by the organization should the change be implemented. Initiate a powerful discussion that will convince the employees and get them thinking.

Consultation to support the argument can be sought from stakeholders and customers that are not directly linked to the organization. Kotter stresses that change cannot be effective if three-quarters of the organization are not for the idea. Therefore, the need for change should be stressed to employees for them to understand and buy into the change (Kerber & Buono, 2005).

Formation of a strong Coalition

People need to be convinced that they need the proposed change. This requires powerful leadership and evident support from the top management in the organization. Change should not just be managed but sustained. A coalition is therefore important to persuade the employees who have different sources of power like political significance, status, and skills.

When the coalition is organized, it should move together as a team and continue to develop the urgency and force surrounding the need for change (Humpreys & Langford, 2008). For a coalition to be formed; the leaders need to be identified and emotional support sought from them. Team building also has to be reinforced in the coalition. Weak areas in the team need to be discovered and filled. The team should also have various employees from different sections and levels of the organization.

Develop a vision for change

Before a vision is developed the organization needs to know its current state and what it intends to achieve from the change. When a vision is clear, employees get to understand the importance of change and why they should embrace it. When employees get the picture of what the change will do for them and for the organization, they will see the reason for change and accept it.

The most important values need to be sought first followed by a statement of the expectations of the change in future. The vision should be executed by creating a strategy that can execute it. The coalition formed should understand the vision and practice it most of the time (Mathews, 2009).

Communicating the vision

Conveying the vision after its formation is very important. The vision needs to be communicated regularly and powerfully to make it more effective. It should also be inclined with everything that happens in the organization. The vision should not just be communicated in meetings but all the time. It should also be employed in the handling of issues in the organization and making of decisions. It should be top of the mind in every employee’s mind and demonstrated by the leaders (Isaksen, 2007).

Do away with obstacles

The above steps done, it is assumed that the employees will concentrate on the changes. Although all this is taking place, the management should ensure that there are no barriers disrupting the process of change. Doing away with obstacles can help in empowering of employees implement the vision and assist the process of change forge ahead.

Types of change

There are three types of change that are interrelated. These are guided, planned, and directed change. Directed change is propelled from top management and depends on authority, conformity, and persuasion. Leaders develop and state the change and try to convince the employees to embrace it, according to the importance of the business, emotional pleas, and logical reasons. Directed change exposes a quick, important approach to initiating change in an institution.

Planned change, which is very common, originates from any point in the organization although it is supported by the top. Leaders of change and initiators look for involvement in and loyalty to change by employing the use of particular actions, categorized through experience and investigations, which moderate the normal opposition and productivity damages linked with directed change (Coghlan, 1994).

Rather than developing and proclaiming a change, planned change gives an approach to the process of change. It tries make people participate in the process of change, recognizing, and supporting major stakeholders to take part in the outline and execution of the change.

Guided change is a completely different type of change. It originates at any level in the organization. It is founded on the loyalty of the employees and their input to the objective of the organization. In the competitive environment of today, this is the best method as it maximizes the skills and creativity of employees, as natural changes surface and develop, reorganizing current models and practices, and analyzing new concepts and perspectives (Paton, Beranek & Smith, 2008).

Guided change is a process of interaction of previous understanding and design, execution, and improvisation, gaining knowledge from the sharing the knowledge with others, bringing about constant re-interpretation and restoration of change as required. This learning contributes to constant enhancement of existing efforts of change and the capacity to produce new changes and resolutions. Each of the above types of changes has their positive and negative effects.

When directed change is not properly utilized, employees are forced to adjust to the reactions of the receivers to whom the change is imparted. These reactions include anger, loss, denial, bargaining, and sadness. Likewise, even as planned change develops a significant potential in the organizations of today when not well used it can lead to major drops in productivity, overcome the employees with its density, and isolate major stakeholders as a consequence of partial participation and good impact in the process.

Planned change has a similar shortcoming when there is no flexibility in the conditions of change. Efforts of planned change many a times restrain the capability of the company to reach its set goals.

To add on that the trouble for commencing and maintaining the change is still put directly on the management, from recognizing the importance of change and developing an image of aspired results to determining which changes are finally feasible (Petrescu, 2011). Guided change if not well employed can play a part in organizational problems, as constant changes and evolutions complicate and frustrate instead of enlightening employees and other major stakeholders.

Driving Forces of change and resistors to change

For change to occur, the driving forces should be more powerful than the preventive forces. A number of employees resist about any type of change. The leaders and managers should be able to handle the opposers of change and pay attention to their fears and remarks. When the opposers realize that their concerns are listened to, they will also give in to other opinions. In some situations, however, resistors of change need to be done away with regardless of their opinions.

Leadership role is very important in the execution of a major change. The leader is required to have a plan that focuses on the launching event, training, and orientation, monitoring, reward, progress report, and institutionalization. The launching event is very important as it gives the leader a chance to state the change with reasons for, and how the employees will gain from it.

The leader is also required to state the major challenges that will come with the change and explain the execution program. This event is supposed to be exciting and inspiring. This can be done by issuing of t-shirts, and souvenirs connected to the change program (Lewis, Schmisseur, Stephens & Weir, 2006).

Change needs employees to act in new ways. It is good to give employees the training and skills that they require for the change. A needs assessment is therefore important to know exactly what is missing and what is needed. Acquiring the correct training program is the next step (Laurie et al 2006). At this point, just-in-time training is advisable.

Monitoring and measuring of the change is important. The results of the change need to measured to know just how good or bad the change is. The leader is mandated to monitor the whole practice and keep the employees up to date with the progress. Execution of any big change needs course rectifications and adjustments.

Rewarding and recognizing the efforts made by the management, and the employees is very important (Maurer, 2011). It builds momentum and motivates people to continue working and embrace the change the more.

Progress reports keep people updated with the process of change. This should be done via the organization newsletters, memos, meetings, videos, and e-mails. The leader should hold meetings regularly with the management to state pressing matters.

Institutionalization needs the absorption of change into the strategies, job descriptions, and the organization’s practices. The company infrastructure should be able to sustain the new changes for the change to be permanent. Revising the manuals and procedures to incorporate the change makes it more permanent (Isasken, 2007).

Implementing an organizational change is not an easy task. The leadership role at this point is very crucial, and the leader must understand the functions and responsibilities of the project manager and employees and his own role in implementing the change.

Cost of change

When a change is very costly, the chances of executing it are very slim. Cheap changes are easily implemented that major changes. Change involves training. Education is not cheap, especially for the entire organization as they may need a week’s training or training until change has been fully executed. Labor changes are also very expensive. Conducting of interviews and employment of new staff is also very costly (Tushman, Reilly & Charles, 1996).

Resistance to change

There are numerous ways in which resistance to change can be conquered. Education and communication assists in realizing the need for change. This can be done by presentations, discussions, reports or journals. For this to work there has to be trust between the leaders and the employees. Employees have to trust their leaders in order to listen to them and follow their orders.

Participation and involvement entails the whole organization. When employees take part in the process of change there is a very small chance that they will resist it. Participation makes the employees committed to the change and enhances the reason for change.

Facilitation and support from the leaders is very important when implementing change. This includes being open-minded, letting the employees share their views, and using their ideas (Kereber & Buono, 2005). They should ensure that the work environment is accommodative and pleasant for workers. Training where necessary is recommended.

Negotiation and appreciation requires the leaders to offset resistance by giving incentives to the employees who cooperate. This may include increasing of salaries and giving of bonuses.

Manipulation takes place when the leaders are choosy on the employees who get news, how much news they give, the accuracy of the news, and when to circulate the news to improve the possibility that the change will be triumphant. Cooptation entails a major role in the process of change (Humpreys & Langford, 2008). The advice of leaders is required to get their support. Manipulation and cooptation ways are not costly, and they manipulate probable resistors of change to embrace change. However, these methods can fail if the employees get to know that they are being deceived, thus destroying the reliability of the leaders.

Benchmarking entails setting up measures of performance by use of relative data on major operations of the organization from competitor organizations in the industry. Management can push organizational change by employing insights obtained from benchmarking on the practices of the industry and the perceptions of customers (Michelman, 2007).

Before going into benchmarking, it is important to ascertain the target customers who describe their particular needs. It also helps in widening the potential industries and customers lying within the benchmarking scope of the company. Classify the drivers of business present for each product and service given by the organization. These can be the major drivers of business capable of managing costs of operation. Statistics about the competitor companies should also be accessed.

This can be derived from government sources, publications or the Internet. The organization’s performance should be compared with that of the selected company. The operation should be on internal, financial, and production matters as compared to the benchmark position of the organization.

The benchmark research should be used to initiate change. The benchmark research assists the leaders in implementing organizational change as it gives explanation for change. On the other hand, business intelligence derived through benchmark research can force internal changes and help organizations in responsibility of its destiny (Tushman, Reilly & Charles, 1996).

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