2.2 Impact of leadership in implementing change
2.2.1 Leadership role in different stages of change implementation
Hussain et al. (2016) describe leaders as champions of change and suggest that they should formulate change strategies and work with followers to implement change.
However, van Dierendonck and Sousa (2016) insist that, in spite of the challenges encountered during change, if the leadership provide necessary support to subordinates which includes, satisfying and meeting their needs, provide the resources required and develop and train them, employees are likely to be motivated throughout the entire change process.
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Agote, Aramburu and Lines (2016) point out that, it is important for leaders to demonstrate a consistency behaviour during change process in order to gain the trust from employees and furthermore, the leader’s behaviour is an essential source of subordinate’s emotion.
Agote et al. (2016) cite that, in order to successful implement change leaders are recommended to deploy Kotter’s (1995) eight-step model, which is one of the most acknowledged and widely used change management model during organisational change and it is also argued that Kotter’s (1995) change model is the most cited by researchers. The model is discussed as follows;
First step; Establishing a sense of urgency
This stage includes, the leader’s role of creating the awareness that change is necessary, and this is a pivotal stage for the success of change. It is at this stage where leaders get the support, cooperation and involvement of employee’s, failure of which change may not be achieved. In addition, it is therefore imperative to motivate organisational members to participate and realise the urgency for change.
Second stage; Creating a guiding coalition
This stage requires the building of a team of leaders who have the power to lead and drive change. The group should further deal with problems or barriers, communicate change to the whole organisation and develop a clear vision for change. This team of leaders should be made up of individuals that trust each other and that also share the same vision and objectives. The group of leaders who will champion for change should also have high expertise and the ability to lead the change in order for them to earn the trust from organisational members.
Third stage; Developing a vision and a strategy for change
At this stage, a clear vision for the future is created which also provides the direction and motivation to organisational members to embrace change. In addition, the vision should be realistic and inspire organisational personnel to desire a better future that the vision portrays.
Fourth stage; Communicating the change vision
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It is of paramount importance for leadership to get the buy-in to change from the organisational personnel by communicating a compelling vision and getting their support.
The vision is communicated using various methods and it is important that the communication is effective and that it reaches all organisational members and that it is done regularly to ensure everyone in the organisation is very clear about the vision for change.
Fifth stage; Empowering broad-based change
The fifth stage discusses the removal of all the barriers to change. In addition, the stage includes the restructuring of organisational systems such as information systems and changing management style.
Sixth stage; Generating short-term wins
The short-term wins are important for change as they indicate a visible success. These short-term wins represent progress and they motivate, build momentum and enhance the morale of employees.
Seventh stage; Consolidating gains and produce more change
At this stage, a new culture and new behaviour for organisational personnel should be ingrained to ensure that change is accomplished and sustainable. In addition, at this stage, leadership should not quickly declare victory, but instead, they should seek to ensure momentum and get the new practice entrenched in the organisational culture.
Eighth stage; Anchor the change
This stage requires leadership to ensure that the employees have adopted the new way of doing things and that it becomes a normal practice. The new practices should be deeply embedded in the organisational culture and should also be indoctrinated to new personnel joining the organisation.
van Dierendonck and Sousa (2016) add that, the characteristics of effective change leadership comprise of, empowerment of employees, open communication, leader’s empathy, and satisfying employee’s needs. In the same line, Stilwell et al. (2016) cited in Gilley, Gilley and McMillian (2009) reveal in their study the leadership behaviour and skills
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that are important and necessary for the implementation of change and which include, coaching, communication, involvement, motivation, team building and reward. Sarros, Luca, Densten and Santora (2014) proposed a concept called ‘leader motivating language’ and it revolves around the leader’s ability to provide organisational members with the direction of the future. The authors further explain that, providing direction to employees entails a forward-looking approach where leaders clarifying what should be accomplished, give clear direction to employees on how tasks should be executed, mentoring, and outlining what should be achieved in order to get the reward.
Baesu and Bejinaru (2014) reveal a five-stage change process that is considered effective for change implementation and they elaborated on how leadership influences each phase. (a) Commanding style, implies that leaders adopt a result-oriented approach which aims to influence people to learn by doing, (b) logical style; relates to leadership focusing on innovation, handling change process prudently, and constantly learning through information gathering, (c) inspirational style, relates to leadership identifying and creating opportunities through developing trust with subordinates, (d) supportive style, relates to leadership providing support to subordinates and ensuring they are participate in change.
Khan et al. (2016) describe leaders as individuals with power and authority who are able to make decisions and implement them using their influence. Santhidran et al. (2013) note that, leaders play an important role both directly and indirectly by influencing employee’s commitment and readiness to change, that is to say, leadership promotes change readiness which in turn effect commitment to change. According to Packard (2013) leaders are also required to plan and design systems that provide the infrastructure to enable the implementation of change.
Magsaysay and Hechanova (2017) recommend that change implementation requires a different leadership approach from the normal leadership functions. That is to say, since change is not routine, the role of leadership encompasses the management of the entire change process to ensure its success (Magsaysay and Hechanova, 2017). In addition, leadership plays a central role during change implementation and in view of this, Krapfl and Kruja (2015) suggest three essential characteristics that enable leaders to
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communicate effectively which are usually overlooked. Firstly, leaders should provide a holistic picture to employees and adequate information for the scope of work to be accomplished. Secondly, leaders should communicate as clearly as possible providing all the necessary information to subordinates. Finally, leaders are also expected to be good listeners as this helps them understand whether their message is understood by followers.
In an attempt to improve the efficiency of a change process, Baesu and Bejinaru (2014) proposed a change process model which helps to facilitate change. The model is discussed as follows; (a) planning stage, is the phase where the leader provide explanation elaborating and identify opportunities, (b) enabling stage, is a phase which include influencing employees and empowering them, (c) launching stage, entails the execution of change to achieve the set goals, (d) the catalyst stage, consist of motivating and stimulating subordinates by providing them with support, (e) and finally maintaining stage, relates to provision of guidance and administering change to ensure change is sustained.