Leading change
1. Introduction
According to some theorists, one of the most
important responsibilities and difficulties for managers and officials, and
includes several things: directing and guidance, encouragement, activate the
efforts of members to adapt and stay in a mysterious and sometimes hostile
place. (yukl, 2013) .
This importance of this has emerged, it has gained special importance,
especially in the last two decades of the last century and was the result of
changes, developments and new concepts that emerged at that time.
For me, that it is
up to many things, but more important is the technology, especially after the
information and technological revolution that took place in the 21st century
until it became sometimes called the century of technology. Here, there is an
urgent need to start changing, from the classical and traditional methods and
start moving to a new stage, which is the insertion of technology and its use
as an important element in all sectors. (R. raja, 2018)
Over time,
technology entered all fides of life, entered the industry and became heavily
dependent on it, then played a major role in the military field and spread in
the medical field, education and communication, and the transfer of events
became easy and fast, especially after the emergence of social media platform. In
addition, new concepts have evolved, such as globalization, which is evolving,
and the concept has become broader than before. Through the development of the
concept of globalization and technological development, the two became
complementary and developed to the other, for example the possibility of
education and obtaining certificate from universities around the world through
technology (Internet and computer).
Hence, there is an
urgent need to start changing, and to use new methods of leadership that are
different from the ancient and traditional methods, and change them and get new
ways that are in line with existing and ongoing developments and inventions,
and at the same time be able to keep up with the development that has occurred
and will happen in the future. On the other hand, an important point will
emerge when you keep abreast of developments and start to change, the problems facing
the process of change. In this assignment will be discussed and clarified the
problems related with the process of change and its solutions, and stages
during the process of change.
2.Change problems and solutions
The leading change
that occurs is a process that cannot occur as easily as expected and cannot be
achieved quickly and directly to achieve the desired objectives of the change
process. If successful, the results will be positive, effective, and revitalize
the work, but the failure that may occur will lead to incompleteness of the
change process and led to negative consequences, such as the loss of confidence
of employees in leading and not to reactivate the work.
The result of changing process either success or
failure, the cause of failure is the exposure of change to resistance to change
by employees, the cause of failure includes communication failure, culture,
skills issues. (Rein coetzee, 2012)
employee’s
resistance to change is the dilemma facing the success of change. Resistance
can be said is a natural reaction by employees who want to maintain their
personal interests in the organization. They will see change as a proposal for
profit or loss (lussier & achua, 2014) , They will seek to thwart the process of change and
not succeed. But in fact, if the change takes place correctly, the profitable
as they described it, or the interest has a positive effect for the whole
organization.
According to John
Kotter, he mentioned in his book leading change, there is 8 errors and solutions
which are the reasons behind the failure of change. These 8 errors are:
Error
#1: Allowing Too Much Complacency.
Error #2: Failing to Create a
Sufficiently Powerful Guiding Coalition.
Error #3: Underestimating the Power
of Vision.
Error #4: Under communicating the
Vision.
Error #5: Permitting Obstacles to
Block the New Vision.
Error #6: Failing to Create
Short-Term Wins.
Error #7: Declaring Victory Too
Soon.
Error #8: Neglecting to Anchor
Changes Firmly in the Corporate Culture.
Satisfaction is a key factor in
the appearance of mistakes and consequently failure in the process of change.
Satisfaction is the result of a lack of urgency to change as a result of a
sense of satisfaction. If the level of satisfaction increases, this will lead
to coldness, inactivity, lack of thinking about future changes, and therefore
no need for change. The urgency and sense of urgency must be increased in order
to motivate employees to change. (wilhelmsen, 2019) .
The urgency of leaders to
change will generate the kind of attention and sense that employees need to
support the change process. The urgency has a positive effect as it will lead
to win the cooperation of employees, get rid of bad things. It will create the
need for need change, and this increases the chance of success.
Error #2: Failing to Create a Sufficiently Powerful Guiding
Coalition.
The processes of change begin with an
idea, may arise from one or two people only, then start working as a team to
help complete the task, and their number will increase over time. Also, the
team must get enough support from the leaders, and on the contrary, the team's
activity will decrease until it fades. The effectiveness of the team will have
a positive impact on the process of change. As the team collaborates
effectively and away from any problems, it will increase their performance
activity and thus achieve the goals correctly the establishment of a group of
members is a difficult task, given the efforts that will be made in achieving
this matter of identifying opponents and supporters, and distinguish between
them.
The purpose of this is to increase the chances of achieving the
objectives of the process, and that the supporters will work hard to support
change, and this is done either by convincing opponents of the importance of
change or to work against their opposition very strongly through the strong
support of the members of the support team significantly, and not to increase
the impact Opposition to passive change process. (p.kotter, 2012)
Error #3: Underestimating the Power of Vision.
Vision has a major role to play in
making change. The more clear and good it is, it will be more effective to
achieve performance and achieve goals. Its role is to
assist, guide and support the necessary actions for change. The
decision-maker has a major role in developing the vision through monitoring the
process and working to avoid long discussions aimed at foiling change and
increasing complexity. This is achieved through the correct vision set by him. (p.kotter, 2012) . The power of vision should avoid the causes
of failure that may appear during the change, and that lack of wisdom and
failure to make the right decision quickly will lead to poor vision, thus entering
a maze and complication leads to failure in the end.
Error #4: Under communicating the Vision.
Change does not success unless employees
are willing to support the change. Whenever employees are enthusiastic and able
to perform their duties and make sacrifices, the success rate of change is
high. Change does not work unless employees are willing to support and make
change work. Whenever employees are enthusiastic and able to perform their
duties and make sacrifices, the success rate of change is high. But if the
enthusiasm of employees is not raised, failure is inevitable and this failure
is the result of the inability to communicate the reasons for the change and
the sacrifices that will occur, and they do not understand the reason, as a
result of not delivering the vision correctly.
Error #5: Permitting Obstacles to Block the New Vision.
Although the vision is correct, the
obstacles that appear during the process of change, which may be represented by
its delivery, will be a source of failure. Perhaps one of the reasons for the
failure is the presence of supervisors who refuse to adapt to the new
circumstances that will come after the change. (p.kotter, 2012)
The solution to
this problem is that the vision is communicated clearly through communication
and whenever the process of communication is good the ability to deliver the
vision correctly, more effective, less time. This will lead to the goal of
process which it is the change. The communication process can be
successful through the strength of the leader to support communication. he must
have a strong language with positive words, motivational terms and signals to
attract attention, which will increase the effectiveness of the communication
process and communicate the vision clearly to achieve the success of change. (yukl, 2013)
Error #6: Failing to Create Short-Term Wins.
The time needed for change will be long,
many complications will emerge, and this may lead to a loss of enthusiasm for
change, and activity begins to decline. The process of
sustaining activation and making effectiveness continuing requires more things
that support performance. This can be accomplished by setting small tasks with
short time to achieve these tasks, which helps to raise the enthusiasm of
employees when completing small tasks and success in that, increase
effectiveness, maintain the continuity of activity for the success of the
change process. (p.kotter, 2012)
Error #7: Declaring Victory Too Soon.
The announcement of the completion of the
task is good and leads to raise the enthusiasm of the staff who carried out the
task and helped to make the task a success. But at the same time, if victory is
declared early before all stages of change are completed, the negative
reflection of this error will lead to catastrophe, the failure of the process
of change. Due to the laxity that will be received by the employees and the
decline of their resolve that existed before committing this error, and
therefore the process of change failed. Accordingly, victory must be declared
at the time of completion of all required stages and the success of the change
process. (p.kotter, 2012)
Error #8: Neglecting to Anchor Changes Firmly in the Corporate
Culture.
Organizational
culture is one of the most important factors affecting the behavior of
individuals in different organizations. Organizational culture can be defined
as a group of organizational cultures, beliefs, traditions and practices that distinguish between members
of a group and others. Values are primarily personal but combined constitute a
culture of organization. The most important elements of the cultural values of
the organization quality, competition, justice, growth, development. Employee
values are sincerity, commitment to law enforcement, respect.
If there
is a conflict between the two values, it will turn into the failure of the
organization to perform its duties, and thus the failure of the change process. (zeyada, 2018) .
The
process of change that occurs does not occur at certain levels but spread in
all sections of the organization down to the roots of each section, and this
spread in the new behavior and values that came as one of the causes and
factors of change. This is done by showing how new behaviors and values have
helped improve performance. (p.kotter, 2012) .
3.The
eight-stage process
The process of change does not
occur easily and will face a lot of problems and even if the objective control
sees the high cost, that the products are not good or not addressed the
requirements of customers adequately.
According to Kotter, he
reached a set of stages that will lead to the success of the change process. It
consists of eight stages; each stage is associated with fundamental errors that
lead to the failure of the change process.
The following diagram shows
the stages and errors that appear. (p.kotter, 2012)
The urgency of
leaders to change will generate a sense of attention and a sense of support
from the staff of the change process and serve as a wake-up call for change. The
urgency and generation of the necessary sense for employees will lead to
organizational change, and this urgency has a certain significance, namely
change for the better. This urgency has a positive impact, leading to win the
cooperation of management and employee. This feeling is generated through
constant discussions with arguments and the possibility of persuasion for the
purpose of implementing the change and remove any anxiety and tension they
have. This feeling includes many things such as serious leadership of change,
trying to clarify the possibility of getting rid of the current bad things,
working to share decisions for the purpose of continuing and support the
discussion, working to clarify the negative aspects before the change and
positive aspects after the change to create a strong and important incentive
for change.
2-creating the guiding coalition:
In this second
stage of change, the establishment of a group of employees who resemble the
team and give them enough strength to carry out their mission and set a goal
for this team, which may take time but has an important role in the success of
change. Team members must be competent, highly skilled, aiming to guide the
process of change through trust, discussion, exchange of ideas, mutual respect
for people and their ideas. The success of their mission is based on the skill
of communication between them.
The use of the team
will lead to increased cooperation among the members of the organization as
well as to demonstrate the talents and abilities that are a strong incentive
for the members of the team to work smoothly and plan for the success of the
change process, especially if the team is composed of members from different
sections of the organization
Tasks are distributed to the competent staff
selected for the team, the purpose is to help the leader make the change a
success because it will help him not to give attention and focus in every
detail. Team members follow the stages of implementing the strategy of change
with all precision and more details, which is good for the leader and his role
in monitoring change, because it will avoid scrutiny and follow-up details and
many sub-strengths weaken to complete the stages of change. (yukl, 2013) .
The aim of this coalition is to Acceleration,
Guidance, facilitate the process of change as it
embraces initiatives by its members.
3- developing a vision and
strategy:
After the success of the previous two phases,
the development phase begins with a vision and strategy. The intention here is
to give the organization a picture of what the reality of the organization
looks like after the change, What the organization is doing is compared to the
past with the future after the change in order to clarify the benefits of the
change this will affect the effectiveness of the members in completing the
task.
Delivering a vision and strategy clearly reduces
the complexity that may arise during the process of change. Easy and
successful communication will lead to the identification of areas of change and
provide clear and realistic goals that lead to the success phase and move to
the next stage. (tanner, 2019) .
4- communicating
the change vision:
communicating the vision is occurring through
communication, Whenever the process of communication Good and simple the
ability to deliver the vision correctly and more effectively will increased.
that will lead to the achievement of the goals of change. (yukl, 2013) .
The communicating of
the vision will success if several things are adopted:
1-
Be implemented
simply and Repetition.
2-
To have two-way communication,
from bottom to top and vice versa (employees and managers).
3- Be a
communication between leaders and guiding coalition participation.
As for the ways to communicating
the change vision:
1-
Use the means of
communication in the organization to deliver the message such as the use of
e-mail, recurring meetings, written messages.
2-
Continuous
repetition to become a vision of change is part of daily practice.
3-
The use of means to
simplify and communicating the vision correctly such as the use of positive and
simple words, stay away from complex words, the use of stories and examples
that would draw a thriving idea of the future after the change.
4-
Processing errors
of oopposition that may arise directly and
that are related to leadership behaviour, to ensure that staff change from
opponents to supporters. (tanner, 2019) .
5-
Empowering
broad- based action:
This stage is one
of the most important phases due to its association with the obstacles that
will face the process of change. Of the obstacles
that will emerge are the resistance of employees to change, here you must
identify them, know the reasons for their opposition, their number. And then
work to convince them the benefits of the process of change. Knowing these
things will help increase the success rate. This will lead to an increase in
supporters of change after convincing them of the necessity of change and that
after identifying them and knowing the reasons for the opposition and
persuading them to become supporters, in this way this obstacle was removed. (yukl & lepsinger, 2004) .
The reason for
resistance to change may be the belief that change will result in the loss of
many personal benefits and interests or the fear of change will result in the
loss of their jobs or their inability to cope with the new change.
If the obstacles
are not removed, the risks will increase and remain a real threat as they end
the process of change. Leadership must work to resolve these issues and there
are several ways to remove them such as persuading opponents of the need to
change, communicate properly with them to change their mind, create a brief
team and work to train staff on a continuous basis for the reality of
post-change.
6-
Generating
short-term wins:
In this step small
tasks are distributed, and large tasks are divided among employees, The purpose of this step is to enhance confidence and
increase the success rate. This is because firstly: the success of small tasks
will be easier than to be large, and secondly: will eliminate the existing
doubts that arise from the possibility of failure before the experience. In this case, confidence in the success of the change process has
increased and the confidence of the staff has increased, in addition to
reducing the opponents and benefiting from them along with those who support
the process of change. (yukl C. , 2013) .
Here were the benefits of several: Strengthen
the confidence between the staff and leadership, Strengthen the confidence of
the employee himself, accomplish many tasks, although small, the impact of
negative errors will be few to small tasks, increase the number of supporters
and reduce the number of opponents.
7-
Consolidating
gains and producing more change:
At this stage, trying to
preserve the successes achieved in the previous stages, Where resistance is
encountered if it emerges or any problem may emerge for the purpose of
preventing what can be described as a reverse and the incomplete process of
change. This can be achieved through continuous follow-up in addition to
carrying out incentive and motivational activities to continue by the employees
with continuous positive activity and face the resistance of employees.
As the implementation of the
change phases continues, this may see the kind of negative impact on staff
enthusiasm that will reduce the activity and effectiveness of the process of
change. Here begins the
role of a successful leader, through increasing optimism, working to spread the
good news continuously among employees, support staff and valued efforts, to
give them rewards and incentives. (yukl C. , 2013) .
These will lead to
trying to preserve the successes and achievements of the past and avoid the
risk of loss or backlash that leads to the failure of the process of change.
8-
Anchoring
new approaches in the culture:
The gains made in previous phases require their
preservation and stabilization. This is done by changing the old culture of the
organization and adopting a new culture based on the reform of previous
mistakes.
One of the most important things in changing the culture
of the organization is the full readiness to discuss all the issues and to be
characterized by debate that is of a vital nature.
At this stage, the new approach encompasses many
things in line with the new values and culture of the organization, such as
the upgrading of staff which will be based
on the New values and culture of the organization, rewards and salaries after
change and completion of training and development activities.
This phase may take a long time because of the
elimination of the previous culture of the organization that accompanied them
for a long time.
4. Implications for the
Twenty-First Century
The change that has happened in all aspects of
life is the rapid and cannot predict what the future will produce a result of
the rapid development that gets which is still continuous, as a result of competition and continuing this
would lead to the emergence of significant risks and at the same time emergence
many opportunities.
4.1 A persistent sense of urgency:
What has happened in the last century has led to
the lack of keeping up with the change that is happening to many organizations
because the changes and developments that were happening to not take seriously
and the processes of change properly.
That must change in the 21st century because of
the complacency that once existed, which led to a low rate of urgency, which
led to a kind of calm. Here the level of urgency that stems from
dissatisfaction must be raised in order to achieve the desired effectiveness.
For change we must rely on the continuous
collection of information about employees, their performance, and the
performance of their groups for the purpose of detecting problems and
opportunities and exploit them properly.
the organizations should use a new culture, a
culture of frank discussions and more than in the past.
4.2 Team work at the top:
The team at the top of the organization is not necessary,
it needs a good executive. At the same time, teamwork is necessary and
important in the changes that occur, but members must not be selfless and
arrogant even if they are highly intelligent, because such people will destroy
teamwork, especially under the speed required in the 21st century and keep pace
with the changes that occur.
4.3 People who can create and communicate vision:
In the 21st century, old methods of leadership
development must not be adopted, ie the skills that were previously developed
must be increased and expanded.
For example, the focus was on planning,
organizing, budgeting, and problem solving. After the developments that have
taken place, there should be an increased focus on new skills such as
communication skills and strategies, because the changes that have occurred
require increasing and developing these skills. This is intended to achieve the
desired goals, and to predict correctly under rapid and continuous
developments.
The impact of the new strategies will
increase the discovery of new things and talents by helping them to develop
themselves, and thus take advantage of these developmental results after what
previously existed to punish anyone who was challenging or the problems that
were emerging, and the result will help to keep pace with the changes that occur.
4.4 Broad-Based empowerment:
Employees need to increase the scope of their awareness and skills,
because rapid changes that occur require speed in the assimilation and
transmission of complete information.
It has also included increasing their risk appetite for the purpose of
increasing competition opportunities, which will generate an incentive for
employees to discover by gathering extensive information to keep up with
ongoing developments.
In the current century, competition continues to be significant in all
areas, and this requires that organizations remain in a state of constant
search for any way to change, even if their risks are sometimes but will lead
to new discoveries.
A mandate is to give responsibility to a person
for a particular task, and since developments occur very quickly, the
creation of mini-tasks for employees increases the success rate in future major
tasks, provided that the success of these small tasks, and through the powers
of the higher levels to the lower levels responsible for the implementation of
small tasks.
These tasks require that you set a certain time
to find out how much the task can be completed within a specified time, which
will show us the success or failure of the task. In addition, the skills must
be available in the people who will do the tasks and here must be continuously
trained continuously to develop their skills.
4.6 No unnecessary
interdependence:
All organizations have unnecessary
interdependence. In the 21st century, many of these interconnections have been
removed, relying on technology to deliver information faster and at a lower
cost. This type of unnecessary interdependence
further complicates the functioning of the organization and leads to delays and
failure of change. Now that these unnecessary interdependencies have been
abandoned, it has become easier, increasing the chances of success.
Reports or invoices could be prepared and sent
by e-mail, in a short time, which led to the elimination of the complexities of
using a lot of paper and effort, which was a complicated and expensive given
the size of the data, the study and review process that required a lot of time,
and these costs are high , In addition to losing time as a result of the
process of collecting and sending information.
In the 21st century, it took several minutes to
send these documents and data, in addition to the low cost and effort compared
to the previous one. This shift led to the elimination of the complexities that
existed and increased the speed and possibility of success of the missions.
A culture of cooperation is very important to do anything, and here the
set of common values and rules must be helpful in changing and removing
barriers. These can include, inter alia, encouraging teamwork, creating guiding
group, sharing responsibilities, trusting, accepting new ideas, innovating and
others.
The process of active listening by the leadership with the staff is
important to discuss tasks and exchange ideas, which will encourage innovation
and creativity often and play an important role in establishing confidence
among the staff.
Once such a culture has emerged, it will create an incentive to raise
performance levels and get good results.
5. Leadership and lifelong
learning
Learning is something that allows success,
excellence in our field, learning from previous mistakes, which will make
completing tasks more easily, less time and higher quality. Continuing to learn
has become an important and common practice for many people despite their age.
This was not a custom in the past but began to
spread and took wide space in recent years due to the continuity of development
and changes. A successful leader strives to know what is going on around him to
keep pace with those developments and progress and reach the required level of
competition for the purpose of increasing production and progress in his work and
the development of his own organization. (p.kotter, 2012) .
This will increase the breadth of knowledge and
abilities, develop skills, discover weaknesses and strengths, develop
communication skills. This increases the
chances of success of the team, which will take the example of its leader,
especially if the leader encourages others to continue learning. Here, two things have been achieved, first
increasing the knowledge of the leader and developing his skills, and the
second increasing the chances of success of the team that follows the leader
and thus increase production, reduce losses, and success tasks.
In the present century, there
are opportunities to learn, without the need for traditional methods and
methods, such as attendance at universities, It has become possible to learn
online due to the development and technology and obtain certificates through
the Internet or through participation in workshops.
Here has been changed the
traditional model of stopping a certain stage of learning and move to a new
stage is the continuity of education over time, which will increase the
acquisition of knowledge, learning and skills development, which will make the
leader successful in his tasks.
5.1 The value of competitive capacity:
Competitiveness is a major challenge in any business or task, because it
will increase performance and achieve goals with minimum cost and shorter time.
There are two important components to increasing performance: competitive
leadership and lifelong learning. The competitiveness has prompted many
employees to develop their skills and raise their level of knowledge, in order
to keep up with the rapid changes that occur and the possibility of dealing
with problems and difficulties that appear more quickly, which led to the
successful achievement of their goals.
5.2 Twenty-first-century
careers:
The constant and rapid evolution that occurs,
and the changes that occur with it, have generated new ways both at the level
of leadership and management or on the job itself.
The development has stopped many professions,
For example, many newspapers and magazines closed down as a result of the
development that has taken place, and the adoption of technology such as the
Internet and satellite channels in the transmission of events instead of
relying on traditional means such as newspapers.
This is the result of poor alignment with the
changes that occur and the lack of proper appreciation of the importance of
change and the importance of the correct application of the stages required for
the success of change.
the
importance of continuing education is clearly visible, managers and leaders
stopped at a certain stage of learning, led to them away from many of the
topics and changes that occur, they suffered from these changes for lack of enough
knowledge, which led to the failure of the paths of change.
On the other hand, many successful leaders,
managers and employees have been able to maintain and develop their
organizations continuously. For example, technology companies such as Apple and
Samsung have continued to develop and learn continuously for their employees
all the time,
And to discover all that is new and follow the
developments that occur, and each company sought to increase the knowledge of
its employees by continuously learning and gaining new knowledge, To follow up the
developments and achieve the desired objectives in the specified periods.
Overlooking the developments that occur and
their complete lack of knowledge, and their failure to keep up the certain result is failure and loss.
The continuous development that occurs in the
twenty-first century is the result of continuous changes and the continuous
increase in knowledge and continuous learning, which led to the disappearance
of many functions and on the other hand the emergence of new types of jobs.
6.
Conclusion
The process of change is very
important and difficult, and this does not mean that difficulty will stand as
an obstacle to change. Change must occur in order to continue the work of
organizations, in order to keep pace with the changes and developments that
occur in life. change is not limited to a area, because the development that
occurs encompasses all areas of life and one interdependence and high speed.
The change is not limited to a
section of the organization but includes all sections from the root to its
mouth, Change must be shared by leaders and staff and work hard in a spirit of
elimination of obstacles that emerge during the process of change.
The process of change is not
done quickly 'It lasts for very long periods, and therefore the leader must
enjoy high morale, patience and wisdom, and work to encourage employees to
continue in the process of change. The process of change is not done randomly,
but rather according to Cotter in a series of stages, which if implemented
properly will avoid the organization's potential failure and pass the errors
that will appear during the process of change.
The rapid development made it
imperative that organizations work on change to keep up with this, otherwise
the organization would suffer a catastrophic failure that could cause its loss
and end.
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