Leadership & Change

Change is necessary for the organizations where it is required. Kodak, Nokia, Blackberry were some of the top leading companies a few years ago but where they are gone now? The reason behind this is that they couldn’t adopt change. Companies like iPhone and Samsung had realized the changing circumstances in the technology and being successful to identify the customer’s needs and wants. According to the point of view (Mullins 2010: 753), that change is a simple fact of life, but the important issue which needs to be highlighted is that why people want change? What is the reason for the change? And how people will adopt it? The change is highly dependent on the managers instead of employees, and I agree with the fact that some people could easily adopt change while others should face various issues and challenges to adopting it.

 (Google, 2017)

 

I have read the book about “Transformational Leadership” from PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the first part of this book was talked about Shell’s oil case, which succeeded in predicting the rapid rise in oil prices in the early 1970s due to the embargo imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It was the first oil company to find and evaluate potential alternative energy sources and was the first company to have a plan for a sudden oil crisis. The key to Shell’s success is that it uses a series of extremely sophisticated and accurate scenarios. Shell managers initially avoided the uncertainty in decision-making, but in the end, they had to admit its extreme importance in decision-making. This eventually made Shell stand out from the competition. In other places, there are several cases that are written by Ziyad’s advertising company, and this example is very useful to us, and the book has more benefits for me (PWC, 2017).

 

This book is mainly talking about the five paradoxes of change, it is innovative, one of the principles of paradox is “positive change requires a stable foundation”; the second is “to build individual enterprises concerned”; third is “committed to corporate culture, is not only straightforward but also to Tao for the straight “; four” real authorization requires a strong leadership “; five is” not broken without legislation. ” These five are very good, my favourite is the fourth point, now just to see here. Of course, the first point in the past few days to see, the feeling is also necessary. In the case of stabilization, there is a Procter & Gamble example, and I think it is representative, and the authors point out more representative: “Over the past decade, General Electric was in Jack Welch’s Under the leadership of the company, under the leadership of Michael Eisner, Disney has undergone a positive change. “Regarding change, we can also learn more about the success stories of the two companies (PWC, 2017).

 

 

Resistance to organizational change resistance is not terrible, leading to the failure of the results because there is no effective management of the resistance to change. In the elimination of the resistance to change, do the following is quite effective (Lawrence, 1969):

To create a climate of reform approaching: through a variety of means to tell the staff, reform is imminent, so that they are fully prepared.

 

Explain why changes are needed: let employees know the importance of reform, what impact the reform will have on individuals and organizations, tell them what benefits they can bring to them, and what the way companies do to make up for their losses.

Listen to opinions: Looking for someone around you can provide good advice.

 

Watch the signal of resistance to change: when the signal of resistance to change appears, some things in the change are wrong. It should take time to study carefully the causes of the mood, and then take the appropriate solution.

 

Promote active employee participation: always, management should actively ask employees to participate in the reform. Employees will have a sense of ownership and control of change; they will be more actively engaged in the change to go.

 

Pay attention to training and communication: through training and communication, so that the relevant personnel to fully understand the purpose of reform, content, implementation methods and possible results, as far as possible to eliminate unnecessary misunderstanding.

 

Do not change for change: it is important to think about change as a leader and to make sure that change is due to change. Not because of some insignificant reasons to implement change, but rather self-defeating.

 

To avoid surprising employees: in the process of organizational change, we must carefully arrange the preparatory work to avoid the staff in the process of change inexplicable. For example, before importing a new management system, fully understand what problems already exist, what advice are available to employees, and what help the new system can bring.

 

Focus on changing the attitude of employees: inherent employee’s way of thinking, attitude is one of the sources of resistance. Management should use a variety of ways to update yourself and employees’ attitudes.

 

To avoid continuous change: continuous change will make employees no sense of stability. If the enterprise for two years for the four-stubble leadership, each leader took office to take organizational structure, management system surgery, employees complained. Try to extend the time interval of the two changes.

 

 (Mind Tools Editorial , 2017).

Lewin’s Change Model: Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze

By looking at change as process with distinct stages, you can prepare yourself for what is coming and make a plan to manage the transition – looking before you leap, so to speak. All too often, people go into change blindly, causing much unnecessary turmoil and chaos.

 

To begin any successful change process, you must first start by understanding why the change must take place. As Lewin put it, “Motivation for change must be generated before change can occur. One must be helped to re-examine many cherished assumptions about oneself and one’s relations to others.” This is the unfreezing stage from which change begins (Mind Tools Editorial , 2017).

 

In 2005, its state-owned telecom company Qtel, led by chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, and CEO Dr Nasser Mohammed Marafih, embarked on an ambitious acquisition spree; by 2012, Qtel owned 17 telecoms operators in the Muslim world and had become the world’s fastest growing telecoms operator by revenue. In 2012, however, Qtel began to shift its strategy away from growth through acquisition towards growth through integration. Alignment, clarity of purpose and a ruthless focus on implementation showed the world what Qatar and Qataris can do (CMI, 2015).

 

In my opinion, the managers need to communicate the advantages for adopting the change, the managers need to understand how to facilitate “Change” within the organization and identify, which theory is most appropriate and relevant for the job.

 

References

CMI, 2015. THE 5 GREATEST EXAMPLES OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS HISTORY. [Online]
Available at: http://www.managers.org.uk/insights/news/2015/july/the-5-greatest-examples-of-change-management-in-business-history
[Accessed 18 2 2017].

Google, 2017. Oil company logos. [Online]
Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/68/77/a8/6877a80e4d402f41284c4c793797427a.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.pinterest.com/explore/oil-company-logos/&h=736&w=736&tbnid=7IuprW_EqVWCtM:&vet=1&tbnh=151&tbnw=151&docid=-BKWtjPsGYpFwM&itg=1&usg=__Nqg2f5FBScly8DycbSTdA3VZ8C8=&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwixhuDWpJ3SAhUkJMAKHVHLB_8Q_B0IdTAK#h=736&imgrc=7IuprW_EqVWCtM:&tbnh=151&tbnw=151&vet=1&w=736
[Accessed 18 2 2017].

Lawrence, P. R., 1969. How to Deal With Resistance to Change. [Online]
Available at: https://hbr.org/1969/01/how-to-deal-with-resistance-to-change
[Accessed 18 2 2017].

Mind Tools Editorial , 2017. Lewin’s Change Management Model. [Online]
Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm
[Accessed 18 2 2017].

PWC, 2017. How to create transformational leaders. [Online]
Available at: http://pwc.blogs.com/deals/2016/11/how-transformational-leaders-are-pivotal-in-reducing-a-cost-base-at-pace.html
[Accessed 18 2 2017].