Leadership:Understanding its Global Impact

Chapter 11:Leading change

Learning objectives

• Understand the nature and speed of change in organisations

• Describe the different types of organisational change

• Recognise the importance of understanding personal change

• Implement planned change models

• Develop a change plan

• Apply adaptive leadership to change efforts

• Identify why people resist change

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Chapter contents• Spotlight: Professor Peter Farrell• Introduction• The nature and speed of change• Types of organisational change• Individual and personal change• The organisational change leader• Models of planned change• Leader in action: Dr Dennis Richards• The adaptive leadership change framework• Resistance to change• Reflection• Summary• Case study: World Vision Australia

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Spotlight: Professor Peter Farrell

• Presents a picture of the way important elements of the organisational culture must be if innovation and change in the organisation are to thrive

• A very good example of a coherent, practical, corporate values statement

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• Change, both personal and organisational, is inevitable

• Enthusiasm for change may be due, in part, to the way the path is planned, communicated and directed by leaders

• Chapter discusses four types of organisational change

Introduction

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• Continued globalisation of markets and supply chains will lead to change intensifying

• Each change in an organisation is unique

• Change programs are subject to very high failure rates

• Leaders must be skilled at leading change

The nature and speed of change

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• Four types of organisational change - Cao & McHugh 2005– change to organisational processes– change in organisational functions– change in organisational culture– change in power distribution in

organisations

Types of organisational change

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• People change, organisations don’t

• People change by being led

• Leadership concerns influence and building strong team relationships

• Transitional Cycle Model - Scott & Jaffe 2004 - represents the change process for individuals and for organisations

Individual and personal change

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The Transition Curve

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• Individuals typically move through four stages; some move quickly some get stuck

• Scott & Jaffe 2004:– denial– resistance– exploration– commitment

The four stages of change

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• Three kinds of leaders in organisations, those who:– watch things happen,– make things happen, and those who– ask ‘What happened?’

• Second group:– Provide a planned change effort –

a change plan– Diagnose the organisation and problems

to be addressed – Focus on action – develop strategies specifying

action steps

The organisational change leader

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• Should:– Adopt a systems perspective– Be a blueprint for success– Enable monitoring and tracking– Acknowledge organisational culture– Provide a framework for implementing

change

Change plans

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• Lewin’s force-field analysis 1951– Change process divided into three phases:

unfreezing, changing, refreezing

• Kotter’s eight-stage model (1996)– Eight stages: Establish a sense of urgency,

create a guiding coalition, develop a vision and strategy, communicate the vision, empower actions, generate short-term wins, consolidate gains and produce more change, and anchor new approaches in the culture

Models of planned change

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• Be crystal clear in what change you think should be implemented, and why

• Do not try to impose change on others• Be patient and persistent• Occasionally review your plan for

change• Relentlessly and repetitively

communicate the need for change• Mentor others

Leader in action: Dr Dennis Richards

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• Lowder 2009 : there is a need to challenge many of the leadership theories that focus on traits, behaviours and situational factors

• Leadership should focus on the needs and demands of stakeholders

The adaptive leadership change framework

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• Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky 2009

• Adaptive leadership - leadership framework - includes all stakeholders

• Leaders confront two types of problems:– technical– adaptive

Model for sustainable leadership

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• To implement complex change

• A cyclical process

• Adaptive leaders are willing to:– entertain diverse and divergent views– admit when they are wrong– experiment and take reasonable risks

• What is new is the speed of change

Seven stages of adaptive leadership

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• Any change in one part of a system will result in associated effects in other parts

• Leaders must look for resistance at the group and organisational levels

• Connor (1995) lists reasons why people may resist change

• Leaders should view resistance to change as a given

Resistance to change

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• Change is continuous rather than occurring in discrete or specific events

• Individuals affected by change move through a transitional curve consisting of four stages

• Leaders need to be able to develop a change plan

• Models can be used to understand and plan change in organisations: Lewin; Kotter

• Adaptive leadership emerged as a response to constantly changing and complex environment

• Individual resistance to change is one of the primary reasons that change programs fail

Summary

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• Comment on why a change program in a not-for-profit organisation like World Vision would be more complex and difficult than a change program in a similar-sized for-profit organisation.

• The role of the change leader is critical to the success of a change program. Review Kotter’s eight-stage change framework outlined in this chapter. Would this framework be helpful for the World Vision change leaders to gain an understanding of the dynamics of the change program they are undertaking? If so, how?

• Apply the seven stages of adaptive leadership outlined in this chapter to the case. Identify which of the seven stages are applicable to this change effort and say why they are.

Case study: World Vision Australia

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