In today’s dynamic nature of competitive landscape, leaders should possess the change management skills to assess, promote, and sustain the change to propel the organization in the progressive direction of economic stability (Banutu & Shandra, 2007; Macphee & Suryaprakash, 2012; Staren & Eckes, 2013). In an era of high stakes accountability, leaders should carefully investigate the models for assessing the readiness of organization for change and the theoretical foundations of change (Baesu, & Bejinaru, 2013; Park & Krishnan, 2003; Peters & Searby, 2012). Human capital and financial capital have to be evaluated before applying the change initiatives.
Factors of Organizational Change
In today’s chaotic ever-changing rapidly changing world, leaders need to promote organizational culture transitioning from traditional ways of working to newer innovative culture (Marks & Mirvis, 2011). Change activities should be integrated into day-to-day operations and be coordinated rather than being occasional and sporadic episodes. If organization is not performing at the expected level in the competitive market, then that could be considered a factor for change initiatives to be implemented. If employees feel stagnant and show that as a concern, then that has to be addressed by providing the needed change in accordance with the resources. Engaging internal and external stakeholders is vital for buy-in for the change initiatives (Banutu & Shandra, 2007). If organization is struggling to stay abreast with the changing times and is unable to provide economic stability to the employees, then mergers and acquisitions can be an options, which comes with a lot of change. Change can be directed coming from top-down from authority, it can be planned, or guided. Organizational culture should embrace fluidity, openness, and learning for the change initiatives to be implemented (Buono & Kerber, 2010). Models of Change Leadership There are plethora of change management models available for leaders to choose from and follow. …show more content…
Some of them are old enough to stand the test of times such as Kotter’s change model, Lewin’s three-stage model, etc. Some new ones emerged and are implemented with great success such as Theory O, which is to implement change at rapid, and dramatic disruptive level of downsizing the organizations. An astute leader chooses one model or mixes two three models for change initiatives according to the consultant’s recommendations and according to the assessments of readiness. Lewin’s three-stage model involve ‘unfreeze-change-freeze’ process (Marks & Mirvis, 2011). Kotter’s change management model prescribe eight steps to follow in the exact order for it to be a successful one. If leaders choose this model, then they have to establish a sense of urgency first, and then assemble a guiding coalition team from enthusiastic group of employees, a compelling vision needs to be created and communicated to the stakeholders along with the implementation strategies, empowering the employees to innovate and providing support to remove obstacles, followed by celebration of short-term wins by recognizing the efforts of employees, consolidating the improvement by making changes to systems and policies, and finally institutionalize the new approaches so that change becomes a part of daily routine by anchoring the changes in the organizational culture (Kotter, 1995). Leadership Skills for Change Implementation Guiding change may be the ultimate test of a leader as it is an incredible difficult task to assess and communicate and sustain the change initiatives (Kotter, 1995). …show more content…
Leaders should possess emotional intelligence (EI) to handle the growing demands of the volatile industries and attracting and retaining the qualified employees (Batool, 2013; Chrusciel 2006). Communication skill is the top most important skill for the leaders to keep the dialogue going in the most sincere and honest manner. With this skill leaders can convey the sense of urgency for the change initiatives to be started, which is the first step in Kotter’s change management model. When leaders possess higher emotional intelligence they are considered to have the ability to monitor their own and others’ feelings and emotions, and use this to deal with daily demands and pressures and construct a prescribed action plan for change implementation (Chrusciel 2006). Leaders are seen as role models and trusted more if they are able to communicate good or bad news with extreme sincerity and transparency (Adamson, Pine, Tom, & Kroupa, 2006). Employees with