Leadership Change

Organizations and teams in today's society are seeing unprecedented levels of transformation. Globalization processes also expanded markets and marketing opportunities for greater growth and profits. Nonetheless, companies are facing obstacles, while partners are under pressure to strengthen their teams by adapting leadership models to adapt to changing realities. When working at the Goodwin Company, I saw the situation firsthand when the corporation agreed to replace its top executives in an effort to boost conditions. As a team member in the company, I realized that the suggested changes generated mixed reactions among the employees. The issue highlighted the significance of the ability to manage change particularly concerning leadership. Thus, the following report describes my experience at the firm in reaction to the changes including my perceptions on the communication, initiation, and completion of change. The report further describes how the experience affected my trust in the abilities of leadership to effect change and recommendations of making leadership change initiatives successful in the future.

Given the downward trend the company faced, the owners of the company decide to change the top leadership. The new CEO was bestowed with the new role of orchestrating change including reacting to technological, human resource, economic and regulatory changes in the industry to instituting new processes and policies within the organization. Apparently, it was expected that the employees reacted differently to these changes from the initiation to the completion phases. The CEO seemed experienced and efficient in initiating, communicating, and effecting the new leadership changes. During the start of the leadership change, some people became fearful of the possibility of being locked out. Others looked it from a perspective of loss status or control because they were comfortable with the prevailing status quo.

During the initiation phase, the leadership acknowledged the fear, assumptions, and frustrations of some people. The positive aspect of the organization of identifying the people who resisted the change and those who supported it assisted it to address fears by demonstrating to individuals the benefits of the change in facilitating effectiveness in their work (Marques, 2008). In my opinion, the leadership began on the right footing by talking to the employees about the expected and radical change in an open and honest fashion. I find the approach by the leadership to explain to all employees about the outcomes of the leadership a noble idea. Notably, the management undertook monitoring and evaluation during the initiation to keep track of all processes.

Regarding communicating the change, the organization found it important to ensure regular and effective communication at all individual, operational, and strategic levels. On the communication part, the organization did all it could to develop a communication plan to effect the transformational change (McKay, Kuntz, &Na swall, 2013). In essence, the organization communicated why, who, where, how, and what of the change (Eilam & Shamir, 2005). The business began with the strategic overview detailing the reasons for the management change. The company communicated the vision of the expectations of the transformation, the contribution of individuals and the expectations of them as well as the importance of the leadership change to shareholders such as customers and suppliers (Elving, 2005). By doing this, the business avoided the tendency of people filling the vacuum with inaccurate information and then starts talking to each other on unfounded assumptions. The communication provided the team members with an opportunity to weigh in on the imminent changes. The feedback solicited clarifications, concerns, suggestions, and questions, which the organization factored for consideration. Ideally, the firm used the available mediums to communicate which were a memo and email. The communication was excellent because it entailed the generation and exchange of information between the new leaders and the employees. The leaders called for daily or weekly reports for some change activities some. The leaders encouraged other also acknowledged the efforts of several employee’s efforts in their involvement to facilitate cohesiveness and maintain change efforts.

The organization was effective in implementing the change by ensuring that it was in line with the planned timeline and allocated resources. In fact, the business provided evidence of the process to demonstrate progress and the primary measures and provisional outputs, which had been deliberated upon before implementation. In my view, the leaders effectively projected the deviations from the planned change. In this case, the organization assessed the level of enthusiasm, ambivalence, and fear of the workers and in doing so addressed interdependency matters and tensions, which influence the attainment of change objectives

The experience influenced my trust in the ability of leadership to implement change. Given that many employees are usually resistant to change, it takes the emotional intelligence of leaders to address aspects such as fear and indifference, which influences them. Emotional intelligence is a critical aspect in the leadership’s reactions to change and leaders with a high emotional intelligence are likely to be more effective in leading their teams and performance (Wittig, 2012).Furthermore, emotional intelligence is instrumental in assisting leaders to be adaptable in such situations and demonstrate better-coping strategies for workers with lower levels of emotional intelligence.

Several recommendations are suggested to ensure that management changes in the future become more successful. The organization should explore the risk and value of unexpected outcomes from a change in operations. An evaluation should be undertaken to address, decrease or eliminate any emerging risks. Either way, more resources will be needed to resolve arising adverse outcomes. Rigorous assessment plans will serve as an early warning structure, which will assist to address any immediate fallout. The stakeholders should also be informed about any unexpected challenges or outcomes, which have to be taken. Effective communication can allow the exchange of updated information as to the needed support levels. It is also important when unexpected events happen, individuals are informed and their support secured to address issues and reduce further disruption.

To sum up, the new CEO of the company I worked for had a new responsibility of facilitating changes in the organization of reacting to human resource, economic and other changes and to develop new processes and policies. As would be anticipated, the employees responded differently. Nonetheless, the leadership was effective in the initiation of the change by explaining to all employees about the outcomes of the transformation. The communication strategy applied was also appropriate because it entailed the generation and exchange of information between the new leaders and the employees. Furthermore, the organization was effective in implementing the change by ensuring that it was in line with the planned timeline and allocated resources. The leaders’ emotional intelligence was critical in implementing change by assisting them to be adaptable in the situations. In the future, the organization should explore the risk and value of unexpected outcomes from a change in operations and inform its stakeholders about any unexpected challenges or outcomes.

References

Eilam, G., & Shamir, B. (2005). Organizational change and self-concept threats: A theoretical perspective and a case study. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 41(4), 399-421.

Elving, W. J. (2005). The role of communication in organizational change. Corporate Communications,10(2), 129-138.

Marques, J. (2008). Making the best of the inevitable: Change. Journal of Global Business Issues, 2(2), 33-55.

McKay, K., Kuntz, J. R., & Naswall, K. (2013). The effect of affective commitment, communication and participation on resistance to change: The role of change readiness. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 42(2), 29-40.

Wittig, C. (2012). Employees’ reactions to organizational change. OD Practitioner, 44(2), 23-28.