Background of change management and leadership

In this paper, there is the discussion on the change management and there is focus on the support to bring about a positive change through effective leadership. However, in the paper there is the discussion that how people can be motivated. In the paper, there is the focus on the change management and discussion on the Gosfield park management team and their leadership styles. The team management situational leadership theories are concerned in the paper and Gosfield park management team skills are noticed that how team is effectively responding to the change management. The directive and autocratic leadership is used by the team under the proficient and progressive atmosphere. In the report, there is also focus on the hersey and Blanchard working environment that how employees are provided with the high support. Under coaching leadership, the Gosfield Park’s management team is developed. There are also some suggestion and discussion for the team through that how managing practices can be noticed by 7 s model of mckinsey.

Define change management and leadership

Change management is the process, tools and techniques that are used by a business to manage its employees and achieve desired and productive prospects for their organization. It is the systematic approach applied by successful organizations for managing their employees and providing them with apt skills, knowledge and support to bring about a positive change. [1]. Leadership is the way of leading that motivates a group of people who look up to a certain leader for achieving their goals and objectives. Good leadership applies such strategies that help employees to meet the requirements of their organization. Leadership traits are more effective then management as it inspires, supervises and communicates with the employees of the organization. [2].Change management and leadership are interrelated as leadership is very important for bringing and coordinating with change in an organization. The change and development can only be engaged in an organization by potential leadership. Good leadership comprises of inspiring their followers to accept different cultural expectations good for an organization. Change management and leadership together can bring great changes to any business. It is an approach that can develop the current state of an individual or organization in to the required condition that is desired for an organization by its effective leadership. It empowers employees so that they can accept the positive change.

Change management is the means of bringing change by a systematic process for transitioning people to work hard and accept the change brought forward in innovative technologies and values as a competitive tactic. Change managers develop messages that have to be communicated to the employees for building stronger coalitions between the different levels of management. [3]

Concepts of leadership and change management

There are several concepts of leadership and change management, however, a democratic style of a leader focus on the delegating authority and encouraging participation. However, in the autocratic style of a leader, there is focus on the centralizing decision and there is also the limitations in the participation by the leader. In the transactional leadership; there is focus on using the social exchanges. However, in the visionary leadership; the leader is realistic credible and focus on the future. For the change management it is analyzed that a leader need to be democratic and visionary so that there could be better development involvement of the group and better steps can be taken for future.

Objectives of change management and leadership

Change management with effective leadership is very important for any organization because it is the beginning for a productive achievement. The objectives behind change are to bring about innovation that is healthy for any business. It may seem a little difficult but urgency is the key, think about the better end product to increase optimism in the workers. Change management leaders focuses on the employee side of change to ensure that changes made in job roles, technologies and organizational structures are efficiently met.

Gosfield Park Management Team & their Leadership Styles

Q1. Hersey and Blanchard situational theory and victors normative leadership theory

According to Situational leadership theories the effective leadership changes according to the change in situation, they adapt to the change management and their styles approach with different circumstances. For a leader to be efficient and effective for his followers has to adapt to changes, accept them and make it easier for his subordinates or followers to know the importance of change. Some employees listen to a leader who is more directive and autocratic in nature. Some employees listen easily to those leaders who trust their employees and let them make decisions and utilize their skills.

Effective leadership buoys up a proficient and progressive atmosphere. It acts as a catalyst that speeds up and boosts all the other occupational facets work in tempo. Leaders influence employees by making them understand the vision and importance of their role in a particular scenario or outcome. They motivate their followers by praising their efforts and understanding their needs. They monitor their employees or followers by outlining their roles in a work process and providing essential riggings required to perform those duties. A good leader always explains the task that he assigns to his employees, provides the resources necessary to carry out that task, directs their work, and is always available to assist his followers.

The role of leadership is of great importance for any organization or group of people because leaders are the people who help in the positive execution of any task through right amount of motivation and planning. Situational leadership deals with objective to meet the leadership actions with respect to the different needs of various circumstances and situation. A situational model of leadership devised by Hersey and Blanchard identifies the competence and willingness of the followers and then adapting to their needs as a leader. The style of leadership of a leader is based on his working environment and current situations. This particular leadership style is used in positively bring change in a social system. People who follow it are change oriented. They are achievers and they help others to achieve. Such leaders have a captivating vision that win the assurance of their followers [4]

Another leadership style is the normative leadership theory brought forward by Victor Vroom and Philip Yetton. He devised a decision making model that shows the effectiveness of improving the process of decision making among the leader and the employees for change management. In 1973 Victor and Philip identified five different styles of leadership. These five styles are further divided into three categories. The first category is the autocratic leadership style, the second category is consultative leadership style and the third category is the group orientated leadership style. Autocratic leadership style consists of two subgroups AI and AII.

Consultative style consists of two subgroups CI and CII. Group Orientated leadership style has GII. In autocratic leadership, in AI the leaders make decision on their own without any input from followers, from the information available to him. In AII the leaders asks for information from the followers but makes decision on his own without asking for the input of followers. In consultative leadership, in the CI phase the leader has the authority to make decision on his own, he meets the employees or followers individually and explains everything to them, and he may ask for their opinion and take information or ideas from them but make decision by himself with or without the input from his followers. In CII consultative leadership style leader make decision on his own but he may or may not include the opinions of his followers.

He meets his followers in the form of a group and tells them about any idea or situation to ask for their opinions or information regarding the particular scenario. The leader then takes his decision alone with or without the input of his followers. Afterwards the leader lets them brainstorm and makes the decision together with his followers on the base of group consensus without trying to implement his decision on the group he asks for their support and basis the final decision on the consensus of the group members in absence of consensus. This style is based on two factors; first factor shows input and participation whereas second factor shows quality of decision and time pressure [5]

Evaluation of Situational Theory and Normative Leadership Theory

Strengths of Coaching Leadership Style in Situational Theory

It provides high support to employees

The leader can achieve his/her goals as well as can meet the socio-emotional needs of his/her employees

This style encourages employee to do well

This style of leadership allows leaders to get valuable input from employees regarding given tasks and responsibilities

This leadership style can be applied to variety of organizations and situations as per the requirements

This leadership style allows leaders to listen to the issues and problems of employees, and rectify them to keep employees motivated for the job [6]

Weaknesses of Coaching Leadership Style in Situational Theory

This leadership style is a time taking one, as leaders have to give enough time for employees to recover from any emotional situation and do their work

The leader with this style must have skills to get most out of it, otherwise if coaching leadership style is implemented incorrectly, then things can  get worst rather getting better

This leadership style may not work well in all given situations, as there can be situations, where it cannot be applied due to various limitations [6]

Strengths of Consultative Leadership in Normative Theory

It enables two way communication between the leader and its subordinates, which helps to decrease any communication gaps

It helps to develop a better and more meaningful relationship between the leader and his subordinates

In this style, the employees feel that they are values by their leaders, and such aspect motivates and encourages them to take positive initiatives

It helps employees to bring in more innovative & creative ideas

The leaders also get feedback anything, which is not in the right direction, which allows them to keep things on right track

If employees’ feedback and ideas are heard and applied, they would become more loyal and committed

Weaknesses of Consultative Leadership in Normative Theory

If a task is needed to complete on urgent basis, then this leadership style won’t help as it takes time to move with this style

Due to its time consuming nature, this leadership style becomes ineffective in various situations

If leader listens to his/her subordinates, but takes decisions on his own, then it can discourage employees to share their ideas next time

This leadership style asks to consult with all employees, which may result in conflicting opinions from everyone, making the decision process difficult that which opinion should be given more value

Q2. Two change theories in order to smooth the change

The Change management theories are main factor of success for any change in organizations if implemented properly. There are different theories for change management with their own benefits and weaknesses for various organizations. It is important for Gosfield Park’s management team to review that how change is going to be implemented with best outcomes and how they can be successful in it. For this purpose, they can look for two change management theories to integrate relevant changes. The first change management theory is 7 S Model of McKinsey. This model was developed in 1980s by the consultant team of McKinsey & Company, and it has been one of the most persistent change management models over the years. This model has seven total steps to follow, and these steps can be critical for Gosfield Park’s management team to manage change with success

It is important to look at these seven steps so that incremental change for Gosfield Park’s management team can be analyzed in this regard that how it can be achieved. Here are the seven steps of this change model:

Strategy: It is a first stage as per this model, which asserts that to bring in change, it is important to first make a considerable plan. This plan should be well thought out with different constant steps

Structure: In this model, the 2nd stage is called structure. It actually means to review in detail that what kind of structure is followed by an organization so that change management process can be managed according to that structure.

Systems: This is third stage of this model, which asks to develop a system for change management, which streamlines day to day activities and procedures elated to change being adopted by the organization.

Shared Values: This stage asks to integrate shared values of organizations in change process, which are held by the organization.

Style: This stage looks to adopt a style, which is needed for an organization or leadership to make the change process successful. Some styles may work in one situation, and may not work in other situations, so it is important to come up with a suitable style.

Staff: The employee or teams working in an organization are one of the most important parts of this change model, and that’s why they are included in this model, because without them, the change cannot be adopted successfully.

Skills: The last stage of this model talks about skills as well as competencies of employees. It means that organization must develop employees’ competency & skills to embrace change and adopt it as quickly as possible [7]

So, these are seven stages of this model, which can be applied by Gosfield Park’s management team so that they can adopt relevant change.

Another change management theory is the six change approach designed by Kotter and Schlesinger. The purpose behind creating this theory is to prevent or lessen the resistance of employees to bring a change. It is a very useful model that covers many aspects of change. It includes four main factors of resistance that are misunderstanding, self-interest of employees, lack of tolerance towards change and the disagreement of employees with proper reasons. In order to deal with the employee resisting a change, there are six common approaches. The first is proper education and communication, in this approach employees are educated and communicated with to show them the logic behind bringing this change and its benefits. The second is participation and involvement; if employees are properly involved in the efforts of bringing change then they will stop resisting it and start supporting change.

The third is support and facilitation, when management supports employees in accepting the process of change management then they will easily move on through the stage of transition by letting go of their fears. The fourth approach is the negotiation and agreement phase where managers tackle the employee resistance towards change by offering them reimbursements for not resisting the change and see the importance of change for organization. The fifth approach is co-option and manipulation; co-option consists of the gesture of patronizing for bringing someone to the group of change management in order to make them participate and not just contribute substantively. The sixth approach of the six change approach in dealing with the resistance to change is the implicit and explicit coercion; in this approach the managers to force the employees either explicitly or implicitly to accept a change in the management and if they resist the change they will be having consequences of losing the job or their promotion. [8]

Evaluation of Change Models of change management and leadership

Positives of McKinsey 7 S Model of Change of change management and leadership

This model is very beneficial for an organization to get insight about its work structure and methods to integrate change

The practical as well as emotional elements of change are well integrated by this model so that employees can be able to smoothly go through the transition phase

The organizational change can get directional aspects with this model

The other good thing about this model is that it does not leave anything unnoticed, rather it focuses on each and every part of an organization to manage change so that things can be on right track during the change process

Negatives of McKinsey 7 S Model of Change of change management and leadership

The major negative part of this model is that all aspects in this model are interdependent and interrelated, so if one of the aspects fails, the whole process can be ruined and things will be failed overall

As compared to other models, this one is bit complex to understand

The chances of failure are more with this model as compared to chances of getting successful

Positives of Six Change Approach Leadership and change management

It can help to eliminate resistance to change by communication and giving education to the change agents in an organization

Due to involvement and participation, the people will give more input for the change process, helping to get it done

When people are feeling anxiety along with fair to adopt a change, this model can be helpful in mitigating these feelings by providing facilitation & support

It can be a quick as well as effective change model to fight with resistance to change

Negatives of Six Change Approach Leadership

This process of change explained in this model is extremely time consuming

If team members give input, which is inappropriate to integrate in change, then it can waste time & resources

The process of change may take time with used resources, but still it can get failed

It can be an expensive model to adopt as it asks to develop support for everyone, and develop the essence of agreement

So, Gosfield Park’ team can look into these six approaches to manage their change process. If they feel they need a process of change, which helps in developing resistance to change, and takes employees on board, then these six approaches can be instrumental for them to manage the whole change process successfully, even it is a transformational change or transitional change.

Conclusion on change management and leadership

It can be concluded that for the change management, a leader need to evaluate his efficient expertise and technical skills so that team members can be effectively help in order to achieve the goals. It is analyzed that a change a leader needs to be democratic and visionary for the benefits in the future.

Change is very important for any organization and business to anchor and stay for long. Leaders are very important to anchor that change and bring out productive outcomes from process. Change management is that the method, tools and techniques that square measure employed by a business to manage its staff and come through desired and productive prospects for his or her organization. It’s the systematic approach applied by productive organizations for managing their staff and providing them with apt skills, data and support to give birth to a positive modification. Leadership is that the method of leading that motivates a bunch of individuals that to a definite leader for achieving their goals and objectives.

Smart leadership applies such methods that facilitate staff to satisfy the necessities of their organization. Leadership traits square measure more practical then management because it conjures up, supervises and communicates with the workers of the organization. There are two styles of leadership. According to Situational leadership theories the effective leadership changes according to the change in situation, they adapt to the change management and their styles approach with different circumstances. Another leadership style is the normative leadership that devises a decision making model that shows the effectiveness of improving the process of decision making among the leader and the employees for change management. There are different theories for change management with their own benefits and weaknesses for various organizations. The considerable change management theory is the six change approach and the purpose behind creating this theory is to prevent or lessen the resistance of employees to bring a change [9]

References of change management and leadership