Leadership And Organizational Change Management Research (Essay Sample)

LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
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Leadership and organizational change
Organizations are complex systems that utilize available resources such as people, technology, financial resources, and machines to achieve set goals/objectives by carrying out well-defined tasks or processes that are aimed at ensuring that they are successful. These systems are usually affected by external factors and internal factors (HOLTEN & BRENNER, 2015. Leaders are individuals within the management of an organization who are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the organizations achieve their goals in the most effective means possible. The leadership of an organization can affect the internal environment of an organization by influencing the strategies, systems, procedures, the employees, and the products/services. Basically, leadership usually entails coping with change. Other scholars have defined leadership as the ability to influence an individual or a group of people towards achieving a particular goal. Organizations need leaders who have the ability to influence the internal environment and culture in a manner that will ensure the success of that particular organization.
Leaders employ different approaches towards ensuring that their organizations achieve their goals efficiently to maximize their output. Approaches such as transformation leadership, collective and distributed leadership, systematic leadership are the most commonly employed approaches in organizational leadership. Transformational leaders focus on changing the organizations/people they lead. This approach often reflects the commitment of leaders to ensuring sustainable change to the strategies, processes, technology and products or services of the organization (LAOHAVICHIEN et al., 2013). However, such leaders can be compromised by bias and personal interest in the transformation process of an organization. They usually use knowledge, expertise and their vision or the organization’s to change the culture of an organization such that the changes they make remain even after they leave. This approach represents the most viable form of leadership since the involved followers have the chance to adapt to the change and transform and in the process of change develop themselves and become major contributors to the process.
Transactional leadership style is another common approach that is used by leaders in an organization. The idea behind this approach is that members of an organization agree to obey the leader when they are employed. The benefits of this style are that it clearly gives the roles and responsibilities of every employee (ALEXANDER & HARDY, 2014). The benefit of this leadership style is that it motivates employees to work harder and smarter due to the fact that they are rewarded according to their performance. The main limitation of this approach is that it can lead to a rise in staff turnover beyond the required levels. It also affects knowledge and creativity of the employees.
For a leadership style to yield positive results, there must be a good technique of ensuring that it integrates well with the culture of an organization. This is because a bad approach will have a negative effect on the overall operation and performance of the organization. It has been found that transformational leadership is the best approach that works better for organizations and leaders who wish to improve their performance. However, some leaders choose to combine several leadership styles to improve the chances of success.
For example, Tesco limited is of the opinion that the growth of the organization will greatly be influenced by motivating its employees. As a matter of fact, this is a great application of a good leadership style that is consistent with the current needs of the company. Therefore, the leadership and management team of Tesco chooses to motivate its employees by improving their knowledge, skills and ensuring that they are satisfied with the working conditions and remuneration offered by the company. Tesco’s leaders have been focusing on organizing skill development programs, seminars, workshops and other training programs for its employees. The company also ensures that its employees are rewarded based on their performance. In 2009, Tesco appointed 3000 managers out of which 80% were promoted internally (ALEXANDER & HARDY, 2014). This leadership style motivates workers to work harder with the hope of getting a promotion in the future. The company also creates a long-term employment career for its employees by ensuring that they are continually developed in their areas of expertise.
These leadership decisions have had a huge impact on the performance of the company because the employees strive to deliver the best quality of services to its customers. Different scholars agree that leadership and organization culture work hand in hand (AGOTE et al., 2016). However, there is no common ground on which of the two is dependent on the other. It is a known fact that leadership influences the culture of an organization. Leaders develop strategies that are either aimed at maintaining the existing system of an organization, developing it, or creating a new one with the aim of improving the overall performance of the organization. Leadership styles can also be influenced by the current organization culture of a company. Leaders may come up with strategies that are influenced by the existing culture of an organization.
The current leadership style used by Tesco show...