Overview
Throughout the history of organizational literature, many scholars have suggested that change initiatives need to originate at the leadership level in order to be successful (Bennis, 1999). However history has shown that the majority of change initiatives fail, especially when mandated by top management (King & Peterson, 2007). This paper will examine why this dichotomy exists, what the role of top management should be in a change program, and how top managers can utilize key leverage points to increase their chances of a successful change implementation.
The Evolution of Organizations and its Impact on Change
The invention of modern management by theorists, such as Frederick Taylor, was founded at a time when many manufacturing organizations existed in the United States. These firms sought semi-skilled employees such as production line workers, who could perform systematized tasks that required little brain power and training (Denning, 2010). The prevalence of manufacturing organizations rendered theories that focused on efficiency where operations and changes within the organizations could be more easily planned and controlled (Shafritz, Ott, & Jang, 2011). These theories have suggested that it is the role of top management to create, identify, and implement the changes that need to occur within an organization (Robbins & Judge, 2010).
In the twentieth century, Taylor’s management approach has been less effective for service-based organizations that require skilled employees (Denning, 2010). The management and change approaches used during the manufacturing boom are less successful in an era where the global environment and workforce is changing (Denning, 2010). Steven Denning (2010), author of The Leader’s Guide to...
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Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T.A. (2010). Essentials of Organizational Behavior (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Shafritz, J.M., Ott, J.S., Jang, Y.S. (2011), Classics of Organization Theory. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Shanker, M. & Sayeed, O. (2012). Role of transformational leaders as change agents: leveraging effects on organizational climate. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 47(3), 470-484.
Simon, S.S. (2011). The essentials of employee engagement in organizations. Journal of Contemporary Research in Management, 6(1), 63-72. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/920826469?accountid=11243
Sirkin, H.L., Keenan, P., Jackson, A., (2005). The hard side of management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. Retrieved from: http://www.changeleadershipgroup.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/HardSideChangeMgmt.pdf
Boston, MA: Pearson Sivarethinamohan, R. R., & Aranganathan, P. P. (2011). Determinants of employee engagement
Shanker, M., & Sayeed, O. B. (2012, January). Role of transformational leaders as change agents: Leveraging effects on organizational climate. The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 47, 470-484. Retrieved from www.srcirhr.com
Taylorism is a system that was designed in the late 19th century, not only to maximise managerial control, but to also expand the levels of efficiency throughout workplaces. With this being said, productivity levels increased and fair wage distribution was the main result. However, with other, more recent theories and systems, such as Maslow and Herzburg’s theories, these helped to focus on the satisfaction and motivation of the workers rather than the concern of managerial control and empowerment. Fredrick W. Taylor ended up developing 4 main principles to help increase the work efficiency and productivity in workplaces; these will be discussed later on. Other theories relating to this include, Fayol, Follett, Management Science Theory as well as Organisational-Environmental Theory. All theories listed have an influence on the way businesses work effectively and put their skills to action. This essay will highlight how Taylorism was designed to maximise managerial control and increase productivity, furthermore, showing how more recent theories were developed to focus on empowering employees and to extend the use of organisational resources.
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.
Employee engagement is the investment of physical, cognitive and emotional energy and their full deployment of themselves into work roles or tasks (Kahn, 1990). Employee engagement is key to ensure employees are inspired and enthusiastic about their work. Wi...
Organizations are preserved by change and constant renewal; otherwise, they will stagnate and die (Marquis & Huston, 2015). Leading change can be one of the most challenging tasks for a leader. Many times attempts at change fail because the person trying to implement the change was ill prepared to deal with resistance and used an unstructured
Change is an inevitable part of life involving individuals and organizations. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a significant organizational change. The analysis will explore the change, the reason behind the change, key players, the timeframe, the outcomes, leadership strategies, mistakes made by key players and suggestions to alleviate the mistakes.
In today’s ever changing world people must adapt to change. If an organization wants to be successful or remain successful they must embrace change. This book helps us identify why people succeed and or fail at large scale change. A lot of companies have a problem with integrating change, The Heart of Change, outlines ways a company can integrate change. The text book Ivanceich’s Organizational Behavior and Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change outlines how change can be a good thing within an organization. The Heart of Change introduces its readers to eight steps the authors feel are important in introducing a large scale organizational change. Today’s organizations have to deal with leadership change, change in the economy,
Judge Jr., W. Q. (2013, February). Focusing on Organizational Change. Retrieved November 8, 2017, from VitalSource: Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/MBS1549164/cfi/160!/4/4@0.00:39.5
According to the world-renowned former leader, Mahatma Gandhi had once described change as, “You must be the change you wish to see the world.” With the power of change, it begins within the leader before designing a goal for the organization that could lead to new beginnings either good or bad. In Chapter 5, Leading and Managing Organizational Change the readers were introduce to the idea of the powerful and alert leaders need to be to learn how to adapt to change within their organizations. While using Kotter’s Change Model, J.P Kotter’s book Leading Change (1996) breaks down the eight steps a leader must undergo when in the hoping to bring change withthin themselves. But also with Kotter’s idea of how change either good or bad can have
In an employment era characterised by people-centric organisations, it is understandable that the concept of employee engagement has gained increased prominence. In theory, employees are motivated when given autonomy, self-confidence through feedback, respect from management, and freedom to take action without reprisal, which increases productivity and service levels (Macy, 2009:12-13). Unfortunately, despite this conceptual ideal, contemporary research and practitioner studies continue to demonstrate that there is a lacuna between the theory of employee engagement and the reality of it in day-to-day businesses. According to a recent report, The State of Employee Engagement, published by Smith and Henderson, only one third of businesses focus
Wagner, T., Kegan, R., Lahey, L., Lemons, R.W., Garnier, J., Helsing, D., Howell, A., Rasmussen, H. T. (2006). Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Shcools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Change is the only constant in life. And therefore it should be understood as part of a continuing work in progress that calls for a much broader canvas that seeks out competing voices, and works with the resulting ambiguities, contradictions and tensions of messy reality (Graetz, F. & Smith, A., 2010). In this submission I try to show that organizational change is majorly based on the environment surrounding it much more than the desire of the members or change agents working in that organization. This view diverts from that of Lippitt, (1958) who suggests that implementing planned organizational changes successfully depends on premeditated interventions intended to modify the functioning of an organization. It also diverts from the traditional approaches to organizational change that generally follow a linear, rational model in which the focus is on controllability under the stewardship of a strong leader or ‘guiding coalition (Collis, 1998). In this discussion therefore, comparison made between the different philosophies of change and I try to show that successful change implantation largely depends on an organizations appreciation of what goes on around it rather than what they have planned as a strategic direction.
Shafritz, J. M., Ott, J. S., & Jang, Y. S. (2011). Classics of organization theory. Boston, MA:
“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).